MONMOUTH, Ore. --- The historic day has just about arrived. This weekend, Biola Cross Country will become the first program in school history to compete at a postseason event sponsored by the NCAA.

The Eagles' men's and women's sides are up in Western Oregon to compete at the 2019 NCAA Division II West Region Cross Country Championships. Western Oregon University will host Saturday's races at the Ash Creek Preserve, giving Biola its first chance ever to qualify for an NCAA Division II national championship event.

The men's team has been ranked in the top-10 in the region all season long and has been ranked nationally as high as 18th. The women's side has fluttered in and out of the regional rankings and been ranked nationally as high as No. 21. The men's team enters this weekend ranked No. 5 in the west region and receiving votes nationally.

The women's race starts the day, with a 6k event slated to begin at 10 a.m. on Saturday. That will be followed by the men's 10k, the second 10k of the season for Biola, at 11:15 a.m.

The course is the same location of the Sundowner Invitational Biola sent its teams to earlier this season. The men's team won that night's 8k, while the women finished a close second to NCAA Division I Portland on the 6k course. It was a perfect preview for the women who will run the same loops Saturday.

Chico State enters as the top team in the region in both the women's and men's polls. The Wildcats are ranked second in the nation on the men's side and fourth on the women's. Other teams ranked in the top-25 include Western Washington (11th women's, 21st men's), Alaska Anchorage (13th women's), Seattle Pacific (14th women's), CSU East Bay (16th women's), CSU San Marcos (16th men's), UC San Diego (19th men's, 23rd women's), Cal Poly Pomona (21st women's) and Stanislaus State (25th women's). Cal Poly Pomona and Biola are both receiving votes in the men's poll.

The top-three teams from each regional will automatically advance to the NCAA Championship field (24 teams total). Ten at-large teams will be selected by the NCAA Division II Men's and Women's Cross Country Committee using the selection criteria. There is no limit to the number of at-large teams that may be selected from any given region. The top-two individuals from each region who are not part of a qualifying team will automatically advance to the championship finals (16 individuals total). Also, all individuals who finish in the top-five at the regional meet and are not part of a qualifying team will automatically advance to the championship finals.

Biola enters this weekend's championships with high hopes coming off a successful PacWest Championship meet. The men's team repeated as champions two weeks ago with a remarkable 21-point performance that saw all seven scorers earn all-conference. Gabe Plendcio also repeated as individual champion of that event to earn PacWest Runner of the Year. The women's team tied for second at the PacWest Championships, seeing Fresno Pacific take home the trophy after finishing fifth in 2018. Mackenna Mason led a group of three Eagles to earn all-conference honors. Mason finished third overall.

Plendcio's best 8k time of the season converts to a 31:04 10k time. That, compared to last year's regional results, would put him third among returning runners behind a pair of juniors from Alaska Anchorage. He ran a 24:36 at the Sundowner 8k, winning the event and going on to win PacWest Runner of the Week honor. That time converts to a 31:09 10k, which still would be top-5 among the returning runners' times from last regional.

Chico State, Simon Fraser and Alaska Anchorage took the top-three spots in 2018 to earn the auto-bid to the 2018 NCAA Division II championship meet. Cal Poly Pomona and Western Washington earned at-large bids to also represent the west region. This season the top of the region looks a bit different with Chico, CSU San Marcos and UC San Diego holding down the top-3 spots and looking to clinch the auto-bid. Western Washington moved up three spots in last week's regional rankings to sit fourth with Biola, of course, in fifth. Chico State is the champion of the CCAA, Western Washington the champion of the GNAC and Biola the champion of the PacWest.

Mason finished fourth at the Sundowner Invitational and was the top NCAA Division II runner in the field with a 22:43. That time would be among the top third of runners in the region, based upon last season's regional results from the race in Billings, Montana.

Alaska Anchorage, Simon Fraser and Chico State took the top-3 spots last season to qualify for NCAA nationals. Seattle Pacific, Western Washington and Point Loma also represented the West Region at the national championships. Chico, WWU and Alaska Anchorage come into Saturday's 6k ranked 1-2-3 in the region and looking likely to compete for a championship bid once again this year. Chico State is the champion of the CCAA, Western Washington the champion of the GNAC and FPU the champions in the PacWest.

This year's regional races will feature live scoring, via this live scoring link.