FRESNO, Calif. --- Biola's own Jerry Baltzer was crowned PacWest Individual Champion on Saturday. Baltzer was victorious at the 2023 Men's Cross Country PacWest Championships, leading the Eagles to a second place team finish.

For the fourth time in the last five conference championships, Biola claimed the top individual spot on the leaderboard. 

"Jerry had a phenomenal day and I couldn't be more happy for him," commented head coach Sean Henning. "The guy has overcome a lot of adversity with injuries, and he's never stopped working hard for his team. This was well earned."

Baltzer accomplished the impressive feat on Saturday, logging a time of 24:22.2. The mark was good enough for his personal-best time, knocking off seven seconds from his previous best. 

The junior was excellent in the later stages of the race, climbing the ranks in each split. Baltzer finally made his move in the final split, overtaking the top two spots to clinch the win. 

As a team, the Eagles claimed second place with 75 points. BU only trailed Azusa Pacific, who ran away with the title at just 25 points. Fresno Pacific took third on Saturday, trailing BU with 93 points. 

The five BU scorers finished amongst the top 25, while seven Eagles grabbed placements in the top 30. The all-around performance from the squad extended the team's streak of top-three finishes at the conference championships to six-straight.

Following Baltzer, Melt Von Molendorff was BU's next best finisher. He came through with a time of 25:07.7, taking 14th place. Aidan Arredondo and Charlie Bailey went back-to-back in 21st and 22nd place. Arrendondo moved ahead in each split and logged a time of 25:24.4 and Bailey did well to hold off APU's Eric Perez, who finished .2 seconds behind Bailey.

The Eagles kept flooding in with Ryan Todd and Ben Sonneland claiming 24 and 25th at 25:32.7 and 25:33.0. 

"In God's sovereignty, this is exactly where He had for us on the day," added Henning. "While we might have wanted more as a team, we trust in the Lord and His plan for this season. I'm proud of these young men and the character they are developing through this sport! We will be ready to worship the Lord in a big way in two weeks at West Regionals."

Biola's next challenge will be the NCAA DII West Regionals, which is set for Saturday, November 4 in Monmouth, Oregon.