CLAREMONT, Calif. — Benjamin White kept his fantastic season rolling on Saturday morning with a second victory. The grad transfer went 24:43.1 to finish first among the field of 162 at the Pomona-Pitzer Cross Country Invitational.

"Ben had a goal of winning this race, and we knew he would have some challenges with a couple of the Claremont and Cal Poly Pomona guys," said Head Coach Sean Henning. "He did a great job of staying patient when he was in third place and making a big move with less than two miles to go."

Along with his individual success, the women's team earned great success of its own with the team title in the women's 6k. The Eagles had five runners inside of the top-10 overall to finish with just 26 points, which was 15 points ahead of the second-place squad of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.

"The girls did a phenomenal job, at least at the top of our lineup, of racing as a pack for a good chunk of the race," said Henning. "They are very fit and I'm excited to watch them continue to grow as a team and learn how to race together across the 6000 m distance."


Lynette Ruiz was once again the top finisher for the women's team as she recorded a 21:41.3 to place second just behind CMS's Natalie Bitetti who had a lightning-fast 21:28.0.

"The women also came ready to complete today. The goal was to win and compete tactically well," said Henning. "For the most part I thought we did that. Claremont is the No. 5 team in Division III and we were able to beat them handily which is very encouraging."

A gap of 20 seconds exactly separated Ruiz from Biola's No. 4 finisher, Maggie Williams. Biola took second place, fourth, fifth and sixth place in a dominant showing up top. Ellie Stetina was the Eagles' final top-10 finisher as the freshman went 22:15.4.

The men's team finished third out of 14 teams. The Eagles combined for 62 points to place 12 points behind the two teams which tied for the title, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Cal Poly Pomona.

Jerry Baltzer (25:09) and Ryan Todd (25:15) were the two other Biola runners to place inside of the top-10 on the men's side. They finished fifth and seventh, respectively.

"The course is pretty narrow and windy and very technical," said Henning. "It was hard for the guys to get connected at the start and we were running fairly individually unfortunately, but we regrouped a bit and some of the guys were able to find each other. Ryan Todd had a breakout race today. We knew we had it in him, we were just waiting for him to break out."

There were no other PacWest Conference schools in today's meets. However, having a regional foe in Cal Poly Pomona provided an early measuring stick for Biola. On the women's side the Eagles beat CPP by over 100 points, while the men were just 12 points back from the Broncos, who're ranked No. 20 in NCAA Division II.

"The goal was to compete well with Cal poly Pomona and see if we can get close to them, and we definitely accomplish that today," said Henning. "We held out one guy who is normally in our top seven, so it will be helpful to have him back with us in a couple of weeks."

Up next for Biola is the John Elders Invitational at CSU Fullerton on Oct. 21.