SACRAMENTO, Calif. --- Biola Cross Country makes history Saturday as the first Biola Athletics team to ever compete at an NCAA Division II national championship event. Head Coach Sean Henning and his men will run a 10k at 11:15 a.m. up at Arcade Creek Cross Country Course.

There is both live video and live results available for the championship meet. Biola comes into this meet following a sixth-place finish at NCAA Division II West Regionals. The Eagles have been ranked as high as 18th in the national poll this season and currently are tied for 27th in the national poll.

Gabe Plendcio will lead the effort for the Eagles. He's coming off an all-region finish of fourth-place with a season-best 10k time of 30:01.02. He and Angel Escobar both earned all-region honors at the meet two weeks ago.

Colorado School of Mines, last season's runner-up, is ranked No. 1 in the country headed into the meet earning all eight first-place votes. Last year's champion, Grand Valley State, is ranked third. Adams State, which has won eight of the last 11 championships comes into the meet ranked eighth.

Biola's got the following men set to run:
Gabe Plendcio (30:01.02)
Angel Escobar (30:45.1)
Brady DeHaven (30:59.9)
Ryan St. Pierre (31:05.7)
Jared Donnel (31:43.2)
Ryan Thompson (32:14.9)
Gio Orellana (33:03.5) 
Connor Bramel*

Saturday's course is essentially a flat grass oval through the heart of a golf course. Earlier this year at the national preview in the form of the Capital Cross Challenge, the pro shop served as the start-finish line. The elevation ranges from 52 feet above sea level to 72 feet above sea level. The surface sticks to fairways and roughs while avoiding greens and is nearly 100 percent grass. Trees line the course allowing for some shade.

It's forecast to be sunny and around 60 degrees at race time, with 10 percent chance of precipitation throughout the day on Saturday.

The Eagles will look to finish higher than sixth in the west region. Henning thinks the team definitely has the potential to be a top-3 team in the incredibly quick west region. The approach is to go out and leave it all out on the course on Saturday to finish the season strong.

Coming into Saturday Western Washington, Stanislaus State and CSU San Marcos are the three west region schools right in front of Biola that they'll look to surpass with a strong race.

To be NCAA Division II All-American runners must finish in the top-40. Plendcio and other top runners will be gunning for that Saturday morning.

Regardless of result, the team is historic in that it's the first back-to-back PacWest Conference championship winner in Biola history and now the first-ever team to compete for a national title.

Be sure to follow along @BiolaAthletics on social media Saturday morning for live updates.