By: Aaron Rollins, Assistant Sports Information Director
RIVERSIDE, Calif. --- The Biola cross country teams continued their 2026 season on Saturday at the UCR XC Invite, highlighted by a third-place finish from the women's team.
The women finished third in a field of 30 teams, totaling 161 points and finishing behind only UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton.
Jaina Kang led the Eagles across the 6K course, placing seventh overall with a time of 20:35.1.
Hailey Wurzbach was the next Eagle across the line, finishing 21st in 20:45.2, while
Claire Lesiw followed closely behind in 24th at 20:47.2.
Makayla Galvan and
Alyssa Lopez rounded out Biola's scoring five. Galvan finished 54th with a time of 21:13.6, while Lopez crossed in 21:21.7 to place 65th. The Eagles' top five finished within 47 seconds of one another.
"Unfortunately we had a tough start and had to hold one runner out due to illness, but the team handled it really well and didn't let it affect their performance," stated Head Coach
Sean Henning. "We got out very aggressive, too aggressive, and were leading the race at 2K. We finished 3rd, which is still really good, we just need to find the balance of assertive and crazy. It was a great lesson for them, and they will grow tremendously from it moving forward. Jaina and Hailey did a great job leading the charge for us, and Claire moved up really well too. The girls ran 10 seconds per runner faster than last year which bodes well for our team."
Biola also put together a strong showing in the Women's Open 5K, finishing fourth as a team.
Eliora Schmidt led the way with an 18th-place finish in 18:22.9.
Sara Johnson and
Miranda Zakhar crossed nearly side-by-side, finishing 34th and 35th with times of 18:35.5 and 18:35.9, respectively.
Serenity Fausto followed in 40th at 18:40.2.
"The women did a great job putting together a complete team effort and finished 4th as a squad," continued Henning. "I was happy to see them assert themselves in the race and push to run fast. This is the deepest Open race squad we've ever had.
Eliora Schmidt led the charge and went hard from the gun, it was fun to watch her run faster than she ever did in a high school cross country meet.
Miranda Zakhar also had a massive PB."
On the men's side,
Zach Elam once again paced the Eagles in the Invite 8K. The senior crossed the line in 24:07.5 to place 21st overall.
Biola finished 14th in the 25-team Invite field with 366 points.
The men finished 13th out of 20 teams in the Open race with 352 points.
"Both the Men's Invite and Men's Open races were really rough for our men," finished Henning. "We didn't really compete well and this was evident as we drifted back throughout the races. I have more questions than answers right now. We'll work through it as a group and figure out how to move forward."
Biola will travel to Romeoville, Illinois for the Lewis Crossover on October 10th.
