LOS ANGELES, Calif. --- Biola Track & Field had the opportunity to compete at a newly re-done Jesse Owens Track at CSU Los Angeles on Saturday in the Golden Eagles' Cal State LA Invitational. The Eagles showed well throughout and even saw another school record fall. 

The event actually began on Friday evening with throws events held at a satellite location. Ambernicole Hollinger headlined that with a third-place finish in the women's hammer throw (41.75m). Anna Maumalanga had another solid outing with a second-place toss of 38.96m in the discus.

The Eagles' throws team took the third through sixth spots in the javelin throw in the team's first competitive outing of the year in this event. Emily Shaw paced the group in that effort, with her third-place mark of 30.99m. Jensyn Lown was not too far behind with her mark of 29.31m being good enough for fourth place.

Nathaniel Belden represented the Eagles in the men's throws effort, putting up a fourth-place finish in the javelin (39.27m).

The shot put was conducted on Saturday and the Biola women dominated the event. Hollinger had the top mark with a new school record of 13.02m. She breaks her own previous mark of 12.90m set at Azusa Pacific last season. Shaw, Maumalanga and Annalisa DeAlba rounded out the top four spots.

The weather throughout the weekend was trying with rain most of Friday and some early rain and cold weather on Saturday.

The Eagles were great in the distance events on Saturday, highlighted by a women's 3,000m where BU took all of the top five spots in the event. Emily Ransom led the pack with a 10:22. Stephanie Croy and Mackenna Mason took second and third with 10:30 and 10:31, respectively.

"The women in the 3K did well battling the wind all by themselves and sweeping the event," said Head Coach Sean Henning.

On the men's side of that same race Biolans took took four of the top five spots in the event. Three current student-athletes (Gabe Plendcio, Ryan St. Pierre and Ryan Thompson) took spots three, four and five while alumnus and current assistant coach Kevin Horchler ran with a club to lead the way.

"The men's 3K was the highlight for me," said Henning. "The guys went out with a very clear purpose in the race and executed well. They worked together and didn't use the weather as an excuse to not be at their best."

Biola had two women place in the top-5 in the 1,500m as Hannah Hunsaker came in third (4:50) and Kaitlyn Natividad claimed the fifth spot with a 4:57. Natividad had a great day, also managing to grab a fifth-place mark in the 800m (2:27), which gave her top-5 finishes in her first collegiate run of both events.

Carissa Kalpakjian has been battling injury, but she got her season started with a strong performance in the women's 200m. She placed ninth in a field of 35 runners with a time of :25.99. It was a time that is just four-hundredths of a second off her collegiate best. 

"It was great to see Carissa start her season so well," said Henning.

Aditya Lal impressed in the men's 800m, coming in second place by a margin of just one-and-a-half seconds. The junior completed the course in 1:57.46.

In a meet filled with talented sprinters and jumpers Hannah Hubbard made a strong impression for BU. The freshman finished second in the long jump with a mark of 5.33m and also placed second in the triple jump at 11.10m.

Corry Williams held it down for the guys with a solid performance in the high jump, placing sixth by clearing a height of 1.87m.

"All in all, it was a start with some positives to take out of it, but also a lot of areas where we can improve as a team," said Henning. "I think the biggest thing is our mentality going into a competition and being prepared to do our best. Hopefully we will get there as we enter into some bigger meets over the next couple of months."