AZUSA, Calif. --- Biola Track & Field began its wild weekend on Thursday sending a small group of runners to the Mt. SAC Relays and Bryan Clay Distance Carnival. The Eagles will continue to compete in Torrance and Azusa the rest of the weekend and will also add the Long Beach State Beach Invitational over the next two days.

It was all distance runners during this first day of competition, with a big run from Stephanie Croy highlighting the show at the Mt. SAC Relays. The senior completed the 3,000m steeplechase in 10:52.15 to finish 18th in a stacked field and set a new career-best (by four seconds).

Crystal Jardines was the other runner competing out in Torrance. She was running the daunting 10,000m run with the goal of getting herself qualified to run at the National Christian College Athletic Association Outdoor Championships next month. She needed to hit an NAIA 'A' standard to meet the threshold to compete and came up just two seconds shy of that with a new career-best run of 37:32.34. She shattered her old best time by 17 seconds, but still needs to shave those last two next time out.

Steeple people were also in action over at the first day of competition in Azusa. Tanner Dutchover held things down for the men, completing the race in 10:01 to finish 93rd. Hannah Hunsaker led the effort for the women with her time of 11:16. The women's race had well over 100 people slated to compete. Mandy Reyes also had a strong showing, coming in less than 10 seconds behind Hunsaker with her 11:25.

After that it became all about the 5k for the rest of the night at Bryan Clay. The Eagles had runners competing in heats starting as late as 10:20 p.m. in an extremely large field made up of predominantly NCAA Division I and Division II institutions.

The Eagles got their best finishes in the 5k from Ryan St. Pierre (14:54) and Jessica Cody (17:52). Both Biolans set new career-best with their finishes. St. Pierre is another student-athlete gunning for NCCAA contention, and his time came up just nine seconds shy of qualifying. Cody's time smashed her previous career-best of 18:11, which was set just two weeks ago at Pomona-Pitzer.

Friday's competition at Mt. SAC will begin at 2:55 p.m. The competition at Bryan Clay kicks off at 7:45 a.m. and the events in Long Beach get going at 10:00 a.m. Links to follow the competition live can be found on the track schedule page.