SANTA BARBARA, Calif. --- After almost a full year away the Biola Track & Field team got its first taste of intercollegiate competition on Saturday up at Westmont. The Eagles showed well at the Sunshine Open, hosted by Westmont.

"It was very exciting to compete after almost a year off," said Head Coach Sean Henning. "There is a lot of joy out there just to have the opportunity. The team environment was great and there was a lot of great support across-the-board. We know bigger things are coming this semester and are grateful for each opportunity."

Biola picked up a few event wins, highlighted by its men's 4x400m relay group picking up the top spot in one of the final events of the day. Jahquez Durham, Nathan Vallejo, Trevor Hormel and Mathias Davis combined for a 3:24.88 to win the event by about two seconds. The women's 'A' group of Hannah Champness, Siena Stacy, McKenzie Elliott and Hailey Schadt were not too far back, finishing runner-up in their race with a 4:03.65.

The Eagles owned the 600m run at this meet as Emily Alvarez won by a half-second (1:34.75) on the women's side while setting a new school record and Mathias Davis (1:24.09) picked up the top spot for the guys. 

Rebeka Preston picked up the overall top score in the women's pentathlon. She scored 3,375 total points with wins in the 60m hurdles (:09.19), high jump (1.63m), shot put (9.53m), long jump (4.99m) AND 800m (2:31.31). Preston's pentathlon score was good enough to be an NCAA Division II indoor track & field provisional qualifying time. 

Elsewhere in field events, Justin Conklin managed to clear five heights to win the men's high jump with a 1.94m mark. Mathias Davis cleared a pair to finish fourth. High Jump was good to Biola as Hanna Bevan went runner-up on the women's side with a 1.58m standing. That was .08m more than her one round of jumps from last year's canceled season.

Depth was key for Biola in this weekend event as there were five different events that saw more than one Biola Eagle land inside of the top-5. Perhaps the most notable such case came in the women's 800m where Hannah Champness took third (2:24.42), Elliott took fourth (2:24.42) and Stacy took fifth (2:24.45) with all three ladies finishing within a blink of one another.

The women's 60m hurdles also saw a trio of Eagles in the top-5; this time finishing 2-3-5. Heidi Sowers paced the effort with a personal-best of :09.02 to finish second overall. Newcomer Kiersten Huitt also logged a personal-best to finish third (:09.06). Finally, Sarah Ann Frank crossed the line in fifth to round out the group.

Chase Williams ran 60m also, but his 60m was without the hurdles. The freshman logged a :06.90 to finish third and get himself off to a great start to his collegiate career AND set a new school record in the event.

Carissa Kalpakjian continued to build on her excellent Biola Track & Field career with a runner-up mark in the women's 60m (:07.83). This was also a new school record! Abigail Buckley added a fifth-place spot in that one (:08.08).

Kalpakjian was later involved in a 200m event that saw three Eagles finish 3-4-5. The grad student led the way by finishing third with her :25.92. She was followed by Buckley, who set a personal-best with a :26.10 and Alexis Madrid-Cordero who also hit a personal-best with a :26.26.

In what were some of the more competitive races of the day, Biola had some good success in both the men and women's 3,000m run. Mackenna Mason finished fourth on the women's side with a personal-best 10:21.95 and Brady DeHaven paced the men, placing third (8:37.12)

Nathanael Estrada and Aden Wiebers went back-to-back in the 1,000m for BU. Estrads logged a 2:34.05 and Wiebers a 2:44.92.

Gigi Fierro placed fourth in the women's discus to lead Biola's effort with a toss of 35.24m. Fierro was also the Eagles' representative in the shot put, finishing sixth with a personal-best mark of 11.06m.

Tory Yarter finished a narrow second in the javelin toss, logging a toss of 47.92m to finish less than 3m from his collegiate-best. Yarter, Aaron Willard, Aaron Jackson and Josh Jackson went back-to-back-to-back-to-back in the men's long jump. Willard placed third with a 6.39m with Yarter (6.16m), Jackson (6.09m) and J. Jackson (5.96m) to follow.

Hannah Hubbard was up to her old trick in the women's long jump. The long-time leader of the BU jumps program logged a 5.06m leap to finish fourth overall and get off to a sound start to the year.

It was great to see a pretty full contingent back out there competing in the Biola singlets. The next scheduled meet as of now is the "Battle For LA" meet hosted March 13  at Azusa Pacific. Keep an eye at athletics.biola.edu for any meet additions or changes.