RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Biola Cross Country went ahead and represented the NCAA Division II West Region in style with a phenomenal performance on Saturday morning at the UC Riverside Invitational.

Head Coach Sean Henning's Eagles finished top-6 in both races, well ahead of any other NCAA Division II teams. The women placed fifth out of 25 teams, outpacing 12 NCAA Division I programs and finishing 10 spots and 159 points higher than the next NCAA Division II side. The men placed sixth of 26 programs. They also shone bright for D2, finishing out in front of eight NCAA Division I sides and over 100 points in front of the next-best D2 team.

It was a statement day for the Eagles. Biola entered this week with its men's team fifth in the region and 24th in the nation and the women's side third in the region and 16th in the nation. The men's team finished ahead of two regional foes that had been ranked in front of them (Cal Poly Pomona and Azusa Pacific).

The men finished with a team score of 222. They benefitted from all scoring runners finishing inside of the top-65 places. Melt Von Molendorff led the way with a 23:51.9. This was his season-best and now career-best 8k time in competition. That was good enough for 18th on the overall leaderboard. Rouxan Le Roux was next across the line for BU with a 24-flat, which is also a personal-best during his time with the Eagles.

Jacob Shirota, Aidan Tomasini and Charlie Bailey all ran well as a pack to finish in the 60s and bring home the strong team effort for BU.

"Big day for the guys today," shared head coach Sean Henning. "We were shorthanded as we had to hold out two guys last minute, but the guys racing stepped it up. We ran 43 seconds faster per runner than we did two years ago, a massive improvement. Melt finished in the top 20 and broke 24 minutes for the first time. Rouxan ran 24 on the nose and executed his race plan really well. It was great to see Jacob, Aidan, and Charlie round out our scoring and be within a few seconds of each other. This team is deep and the great thing about it is that someone can step up if another person has a bad day."

On the women's side, the stalwarts of this championship-winning squad were once again out front. Bethany Mapes was the team's top finisher, running the 6k in 20:13.8 to finish 8th in the overall leaderboard. That time is a 37-second drop from her previous best 6k in a Biola singlet.

Lynette Ruiz was right there with Mapes as usual. The 4th-year Eagle dropped a few spots in the final split but was still impressive as she came across the line 23rd. Her 20:30.9 is nearly one full minute quicker than her previous career-best of 21:12.5.

Similar to the men's race, the key to success came from the 3-4-5 runners for Biola all coming in close together and quick. Newcomer Aislin Taylor made an impact with a 21:09.1. She placed 61st overall and finished ahead of all but one of the runners from her previous school, APU.

Jaina Kang (21:18) and Hailey Wurzbach (21:19) came across fourth and fifth for BU to lock in that top-5 team finish. 

"The girls did fantastic," exclaimed Henning. "We ran a team time average of 20:55 which is 25 seconds faster a runner than we did two years ago on this course, the last time we were here. We also had two girls run exceptionally upfront, Bethany Mapes and Lynette Ruiz. Bethany had a breakout day, finishing eighth in the race. Lynette, had one of her best performances in a while, it's great to see her in a good spot again. I was also really impressed with  Jaina Kang who moved up well to be our fourth runner on the day."

Henning continued, "We need to keep building out our depth in that group, but I was happy that we were still able to put five scoring runners together to equal a really great score and team time and be the top non-D1 team at the meet."

Overall, it was an incredibly impressive effort for BU in its first real primetime race of the 2024 season. Due to this being a local meet, the team also had the chance to enter some runners in the open men's and women's races later in the day to rep the BU more widely.

"Unfortunately, we only had four ladies in this race so we couldn't score as a team team," stated Henning. "The girls definitely got out assertively, which was one of our goals for the day. I thought Emily Jensen did a really good job staying consistent throughout the race. Ella Voris also moved up really well from the start all the way to the finish."

"I was happy with how this group attacked the course," reflected Henning. "While some of them might have been a little too aggressive, I appreciate their desire to put themselves out there. Josh and Edgar probably had the best days out of the group, finishing within one second of each other at around 25:30. This was a much better showing than two years ago in the same open race, So this shows off our depth as a team really well. Excited to watch these young guys continue to learn and grow over the years."

Henning closed, "All in all, I was very happy with the day. We have been busy over the last few weeks. Now we have three weeks until a big meet in Illinois, and The guys and gals outside of our top 10 will run two weeks at The Master's Invitational. We are heading in the right direction! All glory to God, whatever we do is solely because of the ability and opportunity given to us by our Creator. Blessed to work with such an amazing group of young men and women."

Up next for coach Henning's squad will be a trip to Santa Clarita for the Master's Invitational on October 5.