LA MIRADA, Calif. --- Biola Cross Country gets its 2019 season underway this Saturday with the annual Biola Invitational at Ted Craig Regional Park in Fullerton. This year's event looks a little bit different because its a preview meet for the PacWest Championships, which Biola hosts at the end of the regular season. Head Coach Sean Henning has 20 men's teams and 23 women's teams signed up to compete.

THIS WEEK: Biola Invitational at Ted Craig Regional Park. Women's 5k at 8 a.m. Men's 8k at 8:45 a.m. MEET CENTRAL

MULTIMEDIA: Live results will be provided by Finished Results at http://finishedresults.trackscoreboard.com/#/results

PARKING INFORMATION: $5 per vehicle to enter the park on the weekends.

BIOLA INVITATIONAL WOMEN'S PREVIEW: Saturday Sept. 7 at 8 a.m. \\ Live Results \\ Course Map
The women's 5k features 23 teams from NCAA Division I, II, III, NAIA and NJCAA. Twelve NCAA Division II schools make up a majority of the field, led by eight PacWest Conference schools. CSU San Marcos is the highest-ranked NCAA Division II school in the field, coming in at No. 6 in the recent West Region rankings. Also featured in those rankings and in the field on Saturday is Biola (no. 8) and Academy of Art (no. 9). Loyola Marymount is the lone NCAA Division I representative. The Lions finished fourth in the West Coast Conference last season. Point Loma and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps went 1-2 in last year's event and both schools return in 2019. The Eagles were the third-place team a year ago and return four of their top-five finishers from that event. Biola, Point Loma and CMS have all finished inside the top-4 in each year this event has been held at Craig Regional Park (2016-present). This year's group of 23 teams is more than triple last season's team total (7). Mackenna Mason was Biola's top finisher last season, taking third with a time of 18:33.01. The two who placed above her were seniors and will not be in this field. Mason placed second in the event as a freshman in 2017. 

FULL WOMEN'S FIELD: Academy of Art - Azusa Pacific - Benedictine-Mesa - Biola University - Chapman - Claremont-Mudd-Scripps - Compton College - Concordia Irvine - CSU Los Angeles - CSU San Bernardino - CSU San Marcos - Fresno Pacific - Glendale CC (AZ) - Hawaii Hilo - Hawaii Pacific - Loyola Marymount - Marymount California - Point Loma - SOKA University - UC San Diego - Vanguard - Ventura CC - Westcliff

BIOLA INVITATIONAL MEN'S PREVIEW: Saturday Sept. 7 at 8:45 a.m. \\ Live Results \\ Course Map
The women's 8k features 20 teams from NCAA Division I, II, III, NAIA and NJCAA. Just as on the women's side NCAA Division II institutions make up a majority of the field, with nine D2 teams present. This includes six PacWest schools. The Biola men's team is the cream of the crop in the PWC, returning almost everyone from last year's championship squad and opening the year ranked No. 6 in the west region, landing just off the national rankings in the preseason poll. Biola is the highest ranked team in the field, placing just ahead of CSU San Marcos (no. 7) and UC San Diego (no. 10). The Biola men won this meet by a landslide in 2018, but back then the meet had just six teams competing. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (second) and Chapman (fifth) are the highest-finishing teams from a year ago to return to the meet this season. Biola has finished inside of the top-3 in all three previous runnings of this meet at Craig Park, including wins in 2017 and 2018. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Azusa Pacific are the only other teams in this year's field that have a previous top-3 finish. Gabe Plendcio was Biola's top finisher at last year's meet, going 25:29.45 to finish second. Ryan Thompson was the Eagles' no. 1 man two years ago, with he and Plendcio finishing back-to-back in third and fourth. Thompson makes his return to Head Coach Sean Henning's lineup this fall after missing last cross country season. Look for he and Plendcio to lead the charge for BU yet again. 

FULL MEN'S FIELD: Academy of Art - Azusa Pacific - Benedictine-Mesa - Biola University - Chapman - Claremont-Mudd-Scripps - Compton College - Concordia Irvine - CSU Los Angeles - CSU San Marcos - Fresno Pacific - Glendale CC (AZ) - Hawaii Pacific - Loyola Marymount - Marymount California - SOKA University - UC San Diego - Vanguard - Ventura CC - Westcliff

IT'S GO TIME: The 2019 Biola Cross Country season has added significance in that it's the Eagles' first as full members in NCAA Division II. Back on July 12 the Biola campus received a call from the NCAA Division II Membership Committee notifying BU of its successful completion of the membership transition process. The change became official as of September 1 and now Biola is officially eligible for NCAA postseason play, national and regional rankings and official NCAA postseason honors for the first time. Biola will hope to have both teams qualify for the NCAA West Region Championships this fall. The Eagles will compete at preview meets for both NCAA Regionals and NCAA National Championships this season.

POLL POSITION: Both Biola Cross Country programs earned the respect of their peers over the past two seasons as provisional members of NCAA Division II. This is evidenced by the fact that both teams appear in the first USTFCCCA/NCAA Division II regional rankings they've been eligible for. The men's team appears at sixth in the region in the opening poll. The top-5 teams in the west region are all ranked inside of the national top-25, which means Biola is right on the bubble. The women's team was the top PacWest team in the rankings, coming in at No. 8 in the west region.

PACWEST CHAMPIONSHIPS: Biola has the opportunity to host the 2019 PacWest Conference Championships on Saturday, Oct. 26. The Eagles will host the meet at Ted Craig Regional Park, using the same men's course as the Biola Invitational. The women's course will be set up a bit different, since they will run a 6k and the Biola Invitational is a 5k course. Azusa Pacific is co-hosting the event.


NEXT WEEK: No race.