SACRAMENTO, Calif. --- Biola Cross Country had the chance to compete at one of the highest profile cross country meets in the nation on Saturday. It was a great chance to gain experience against some of the top teams in NCAA Division II and proved to be good training ground for teams with eyes set on competing at the national championships.

The Eagles had runners in both the men's 8k invitational and open and also the women's 6k invitational and open. BU took 27th out of 40 teams in the women's invitational and claimed a 13th out of 35 placement on the men's side.

Gabe Plendcio once again paced the men's side, finishing 18th overall with a consistent time of 24:32.9. He was about half-a-minute faster than the Eagles' second wave of counting finishers. Brady DeHaven was the second man up on Saturday, placing 65th with a time of 25:04.2. He and Ryan St. Pierre kept close together with RSP placing 69th with a 25:07.9.

Rounding out the scoring runs for BU was Ryan Thompson with a 25:25.9 (102nd) and Jared Donnel with a 25:30.9 (109th).

Cal Poly won the men's invitational with Chico State finishing as the highest NCAA Division II school in second place. Biola was the seventh Division II school in the standings and the sixth from the west region.

On the women's invitational BU managed to be the 16th Division II school to place. For the first time this season, the women's side finished lower than another team in the PacWest Conference with Fresno Pacific placing 25th with 647 points and BU in 27th with 664.

Mackenna Mason was once again the top finisher for the Eagles, placing 78th with a 21:55.1. Grace Catena was not too far back as the Eagles' second finisher. She went 22:11.1.

After that there was a little bit of a gap between the next group of BU finishers. Mandy Reyes led that pack with a 22:49.8. Reyes placed 174th and was followed in 178th by Clara Haynes (22:54.1). The last counter was Siena Stacy who came across the line in 22:59.4.

Biola is off now until October 11 when it gets things going again at the San Francisco State Invitational. The Eagles also compete that weekend at the Vanguard Invitational on October 12.