FULLERTON, Calif. --- Early this morning, the Biola Cross Country teams were up and running their first race of the 2018 season, on their home turf at the Biola Invite, in Fullerton, California. High expectations have been placed upon the Eagles, as both men's and women's teams are ranked No. 1 in the recent PacWest Conference Preseason Coaches' Poll.

The men's team became back-to-back 8k champions of this course with a win, and the women's team finished a strong third-place during the 5k.

On the men's side, Head Coach Sean Henning encouraged racing in packs, and said, " I thought they did a pretty solid job of doing this in the beginning, and they will get better as we continue throughout the season. I was just really happy with how the guys competed and felt like it was a great team effort overall"

On the ladies side, a different strategy was set in place as he encouraged the women's team to, "Go out and run hard and work on building an identity as a team. I think we had some great performances, even though a lot of the ladies felt they could have done better. A lot of them are young and still learning and growing."

Gabe Plendcio individually took second place at 25:29.45, and said, "It was definitely a learning experience for us… but overall I think it was a good day."

Back on the women's side, Mackenna Mason closed out her race in third place, and moments after she shared her thoughts about her experience: "I feel like it was good, I feel like this year I had a different mindset going into it… and I feel like it went well!"

Some other highlights from the race included four other men finishing in the top-10: sixth place, Brady DeHaven - 25:45.11; seventh place, Angel Escobar - 25:58.45; eighth place, Gio Orellana - 26:03.15; ninth place, Jared Donnel - 26:09.52. Freshman Clara Haynes also had a stellar start to her career with the Biola Eagles, and finished in 7th place, running a 18:52.93.

Biola's early season continues in two weeks when it heads up to San Francisco for the San Francisco State Invitational. The event is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 21 at the Golden Gate Park.