SANTA BARBARA, Calif. --- While it couldn't quite get into championship position Biola Track & Field still had a fantatic finish to the 2017 Golden State Athletic Conference Track & Field Championships on Friday.
 
The women's team compiled 236.5 total points to finish second behind the conference champions, Westmont (325). Second place in this year's meet makes five consecutive seasons of top-2 finishes with three championships sprinkled in there.
 
The men's team was strong with 110.5 points. They placed third while Westmont won another championship with 265 points. Third place is the men's best finish since 2014, when they also placed third.
 
There was so much going on up at Westmont on this final day of competition that Biola student-athletes managed to come away with another 16 individual all-conference honors and three more relay all-conference marks.
 
Mixed in with that bunch of All-GSAC hardware was Ambernicole Hollinger winning two more individual titles to increase to three throwing championships for the meet. She won the shot put with a toss of 12.69m and took the victory in the hammer throw by chucking the hammer 46.09m and beating the competition by nearly two full meters.
 
Hollinger, Ashley Otah and Nathaniel Belden were probably the most interesting performances to watch on Friday afternoon. Otah earned herself three all-conference honors with second place finishes in the triple jump (11.34m) and 110m hurdles (:14.78) and a third-place mark in the high jump (1.50m). She was edged by 20 hundredths of a second in the 110m hurdles, nearly taking home a championship of her own.
 
Belden was the Eagles' only multi-event competitor in this meet as he concluded competition in the decathlon today. He earned all-conference honors by finishing second with 5,832 total points. He finished no lower than third in any of the 10 events.
 
Taylor Venegas, an All-American and three-time All-GSAC women's soccer player, added to her Biola Athletics resume with a trio of all-conference finishes on Friday. She was third behind Otah in the triple jump (10.94m) and helped the Eagles to top-3 relay finishes in the 4x100m relay and 4x400m relay.
 
Venegas combined with Carissa Kalpakjian, Christina Clark and Paige LaBare to place second in the 4x100m relay with a time of :50.02. She combined with Kalpakjian, LaBare and McKenna Boen in the 4x400m relay to finish third with a 4:06.83.
 
LaBare was another standout throughout the meet. She earned all-conference honors on those two relays, but she also added a second-place finish in the women's 100m dash (:12.51) and a third-place mark in the 200m (:26.01). The relay performances and bunch of individual all-conferences illustrate the vast improvement in the Biola sprint program over the past few years. The Eagles had four runners in the top-8 of the 100m dash.
 
Just because of the added strength in sprints the Eagles' distance program is still just as good as ever on both sides. The women took five of the top six spots in the 1,500m to gain a ton of points for Biola. Lyndee Dawson finished second (4:44.50), just about a half-second behind the winner, and Hannah Hunsaker also earned All-GSAC by finishing third with a 4:47.73.
 
The women's 800m and 5k were much of the same for BU. Dawson finished third in the 800 to scoop up another all-conference nod, whild Alisa Murray, Hunsaker and Stephanie Chaires all joined her in the top-8. Stephanie Croy earned a much deserved honor with a second-place finish in the 5,000m. She completed the event in 18:35.42 to spearhead another contingent of three Eagles in the top eight spots.
 
Aditya Lal carried the torch on the men's side, earning All-GSAC with a 1:54.01 third-place finish in the 800m.
 
Biola will have a few tune-up meets coming up over the next few weeks before heading to Gulf Shores, Alabama for the 2017 NAIA Track & Field Championships from May 25-27.