FULLERTON, Calif.---The Biola country teams had an exciting start to 2023, opening the year with the Biola Invitational at Craig Regional Park. 

Even more exciting than hosting their annual invitational again, after taking a year off, was that both squads were successful and achieved their goals for the day. 

The women raced first and placed first of eight teams with a team score of 28 and the men came in second (behind The Master's) with a team score of 54.

The women's team was 10 points ahead of the second place team (The Master's, 38) and the men were 20 points better than the third place team (Westmont, 74). Both programs beat their PacWest opponents in attendance.

"We wanted to run very controlled from the start and close well the last mile," mentioned head coach Sean Henning. "We were a little short-handed for the ladies race, but I thought they did really well and it was cool that they got to win while executing their controlled race plan."

Bethany Mapes led the women in the 5k with a third place finish and a time of 17:56.1. It was an exciting ending as Mapes was battling The Master's Ellen Palmgren who ended up finishing a tenth of a second ahead of Mapes in second place. 

Mapes reflected, "It was great running with the team in a pack for the first two miles and it felt really good to push it the last mile."

"It was also fun to race with someone at the last stretch," continued Mapes. "I'm really competitive and I felt her coming behind me, but she just got me at the very end."

BU dominated the top 10 with six athletes finishing in that first group. Behind Mapes was Britta Holmberg in fourth (18:08), Lynette Ruiz in fifth (18:09.5), Hailey Wurzbach in seventh (18:46), Lolo Landrith in ninth (18:47.8) and Karis Brown rounding out tenth (18:47.9).

Four freshmen made their college debut. Alyssa Stumbo, Emily Jensen, Ella Voris, and Miranda Zakhar ran their first race in an Eagle uniform. 

Jerry Baltzer was the men's first finisher, coming in ninth with a time of 25:39.4. Baltzer was followed closely by his teammates: Aidan Tomasini (25:40.8), Charlie Bailey (25:41.8), and Ryan Todd (25.42.1) who came in 10th, 11th and 12th respectively. 

Baltzer reflected, "We were trying to stay as a group for the first three miles and compete hard with the other teams and pass people in the last two. Our goal was to run as a unit and I think we did a good job of that today." 

"The guys did a good job of running controlled from the start," added Henning. "We're missing one or two guys, so we were a bit short-handed on the men's side as well but the guys did a good job of staying controlled and together for the first three miles and then pushing it the last two."

Additionally, Ben Sonneland made his collegiate debut as a true freshman.

Biola's next meet is The Master's Invitational on Saturday, Sep. 23 in Santa Clarita, California.