LA MIRADA---The Biola cross country teams are all set to race in the 2025 PacWest Championships. The Eagles will compete for the conference titles at the Hawai'i Country Club tomorrow Saturday, Oct. 25. The women have a start time of 11 a.m. PT (8 a.m. HT) and the men will begin at 11:45 a.m. PT (8:45 a.m. HT).

"On the women's side, we feel like we are in a good spot as a team and training has been going well," stated head coach Sean Henning. "This is a good conference, and there are several competitive squads, so we don't take the competition lightly at all. The goal is the same as it is every week: execute a great race plan and run at our best. We have a number of girls who will do well, I'm excited for all of them."

Biola's women have won the last three PacWest Conference Championships. The Eagles' have six returners from their 2024 squad - four of which ran at the 2024 PacWest Championships. 

Biola is led by senior Bethany Mapes who finished third at the PacWest Championships last year and is a three-time All-PacWest runner. Karis Brown is also a three-time All-PacWest selection and placed 14th last year at the conference championships. Jaina Kang had an eighth place finish last year at the PacWest Championships and was the PacWest's Freshman of the Year. Additionally, Hailey Wurzbach finished 11th at the 2024 conference championships.

"The men have been on an interesting journey this season," shared Henning. "We are trying to establish a new culture as we have so many new faces in this group of 10 racing this weekend."

Henning continued, "We haven't been able to figure out our rhythm when it comes to racing yet, but I don't think we are very far off. The last couple of weeks have been good training weeks for us and I think we are trending in the right direction. We go in with the same mindset as the girls: Execute a good race and run at our best. There will be some solid teams to compete with, and we are excited for the challenge."

BU's men's last PacWest Championship victory was in 2022. The Eagles return 11 but only two have competed at a PacWest Conference Championship. 

Biola is led by Melt von Molendorff, who placed third at the 2024 PacWest Championships. Jeremiah Echevarria also returns after finishing 27th last year.