SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. --- Biola's Men's Cross Country team continued to assert its dominance on Friday afternoon as the Eagles' top group easily took first place at the San Francisco State XC Invitational.

It was the first time the team's run a competitive 10k this season and there was no letup. Gabe Plendcio won the individual title and the rest of the Eagles' top-6 all placed inside of the top-12 in the field of around 100 runners.

Plendcio won the event by 39 seconds with a time of 32:11.1 to edge the second-place man out of Pacific Union. Aside from the PUC runner, Biola occupied the other spots within the top five with Angel Escobar (32:59.2) placing third, Brady DeHaven fourth (33:02.2) and Jared Donnel fifth (33:20.2). 

"We are happy with how we did today but we are hungry to do even better at regionals," said Escobar. "Our goal to make it to nationals and to win conference again so we will be working extremely hard the next few weeks."

Not too far back from that top group was Ryan St. Pierre and Gio Orellana. The juniors finished back-to-back in 11th and 12th with times of 34:15.9 and 34:21.2, respectively.

The win should help Biola begin to get some more attention in the regional and national polls. The Eagles did not go head-to-head with any ranked teams in this one, but still showed very well.

Biola finished 42 points ahead of second-place San Francisco State and was 65 points ahead of any other PacWest school (Notre Dame de Namur - 3rd).

"Getting that 10k experience was great for a lot of our guys," said Escobar. "For most of us, it was our first time ever doing a 10k before. In a 10k you want to go out a little more conservative and feel good moving into those middle miles."

The win is a fantastic start to the weekend for Biola Cross Country. There's two more races tomorrow, including a very important run for the women's top group out in Illinois at the Lewis Conference Crossover meet. Biola will also have representation at the Vanguard Invitational. The first race takes place at 8 a.m. PT.