ROMEOVILLE, Illinois---Biola Cross Country hit the road for its major midseason meet at Lewis College in Illinois and turned in a performance that did not disappoint. The women's team was the big standout on the day, turning in a phenomenal race to finish third overall in a stacked field of 36. The men used a top-10 individual finish from Melt von Molendorff to earn an 17th-place effort.

The third-place finish for the women is the Eagles' best-ever at the Lewis Crossover, topping last year's eighth-place mark and a seventh-place effort two years ago. All five Biola scorers finished inside of the top-52 in a field of nearly 350 runners. They were one of just two teams with five inside the top 50 or so. 

"The women did a great job today," stated head coach Sean Henning. "We knew we had been underrated for most of the year, which wasn't an issue for us as we know what we are capable of doing. The girls went in unranked in the country and beat every ranked team except for Chico State and Lewis on their home course."

Biola was led by Bethany Mapes, who turned in a sixth-place individual finish with a 6k time of 21:30.03. This was her second-straight top-10 individual finish at the Lewis Crossover, where she crossed the line 10th last year.

Henning continued, "Bethany did a great job of getting us a low stick on the scoreboard. She raced with poise and patience, and I was proud of the effort."

The Eagles (180 points) finished behind the winning team, No. 15 Chico State (100 points) and the hosting team, No. 6 Lewis (140 points). 

The scoring five for BU was Mapes followed by a pair of paired runners finishing nearly back-to-back. Maddie Ebright (22:16.51) and Jaina Kang (22:20.57) were 35th and 38th. Then, Elizabeth Kurtz (22:30.62) and Hailey Wurzbach (22:30.66) crossed the line in 52nd and 53rd. 

"Maddie and Jaina were close together and moved up well, and Elizabeth and Hailey also were right next to each other at the end and rounded out our scorers in the low 50's," said Henning. "I thought Claire, Sara, and Karis also did a solid job rounding out the back end of our squad. We had six freshmen and one sophomore race today, so lots of youth, and there is lots of room to grow. We have been focusing on building aerobic strength so far this year, we will slowly start to touch some faster paces here in the coming weeks as we prepare for conference and regionals."

Kang improved upon her 2024 finish by about 30 places and ran a time 20 seconds faster. Ebright, who ran this meet for Grand Valley State last year, ran a very similar race to 2024 when she placed 30th. For Biola's Wurzbach, it was a 50-place improvement and about 30 seconds better. 

The women's scoring five was separated by just one minute, and when you extend out to seven the gap only goes up to one minute, 36 seconds. The third-place finish allowed Biola to place in front of seven schools currently ranked top-30 in NCAA Division II. The standouts that placed behind BU include No. 10 Walsh and No. 11 Fort Lewis. 

Additionally, the Eagles finished 66 points ahead of Western Washington, who finished sixth in this race and also ranked just behind BU in the latest regional poll. 

For the men, von Molendorff placed 8th overall with a 24:17.09. He's finished inside of the top-12 in all competitive meets so far this season. Grant Miller was the next-best finisher for BU and the only other Eagle inside the top-100. The first-year man Miller placed 55th overall with a 24:55.45. That makes back-to-back efforts in the 24-minute range for Miller.

"Melt had a solid day, even though he thinks he should have been better," shared Henning. "I thought he did well moving up and he should be proud of the effort. Grant also ran solid for us and still has lots of room to grow in figuring out how to start and then settle into a race. After that, it was tough for us. We needed to have our scorers all in the top 90-100 runners, and unfortunately got stuck back in the race and just didn't move up well. We also had a normal scoring member struggle with some physical setbacks that took him out of our scoring group. We will need to adjust our race strategy moving forward and assert ourselves more. This team also has a lot of youth, so lots of room to grow."

Marcin Stanglewicz (25:30.92), Joshua Klausmeier (25:49.22) and Jeremiah Echeverria (25:52.68) rounded out the scoring five for the men. This was good enough for 17th for BU, which was the same finish as 2024.

The gap from the top finisher to the fifth finisher was one minute, 35 seconds and from one to seven was two minutes, 21 seconds, both of which were a bit too wide in this competitive of a field.

Biola takes the next two weeks to reach their peak in training as up next for BU is the PacWest Championships in Waipahu, Hawaii on Saturday October 25. 

The women are looking for a fourth-straight conference title and the men are looking to get back on top after a second-place mark last year. Both teams have the chance to make it eight consecutive top-3 finishes.

"I'm proud of the team for making the big trip out here, we'll make some adjustments and look to be better the next time out at the PacWest Championships," concluded Henning.