Nationals Rundown
Cross country finishes their season at the NAIA Cross Country meet.
Junior Brooke Arvidson, freshman Stephanie Croy, and sophomore Lyndee Dawson run alongside other schools at the San Diego State Cross Country Invitational. | Courtesy of Allan and Jessi Kung [file photo]
December 2, 2014
The women’s cross country team and senior Kevin Horchler finished their seasons at the NAIA cross country tournament in Lawrence, Kansas.
Senior Kevin Horchler was the sole representative for the men’s team. He qualified for nationals after winning the Golden State Athletic Conference Championship for individual runners.
Horchler finished 186 out of 320 runners in his race, clocking in at 27:06.50. He came in four minutes behind Benard Keter of Wayland Baptist University, who finished first in the race. Horchler still has one year of eligibility at Biola and looks to return to the race next year.
The women’s team experienced a series of ups and downs this season. The team took home three straight wins at the beginning of the season but could not secure any more first place finishes as a team for the rest of the season. The women aimed to win the GSAC championship for the third year in a row but came up short with a third place finish.
“Given the circumstances, we did well and did our best,” senior Carrie Soholt said. “Maybe we didn’t accomplish quite what we wanted at the beginning of the season but I think we didn’t ever give up and we kept going for it.”
The women finished twenty-first out of 38 teams, with junior Kellian Hunt crossed the finish line first for Biola with a time of 19:05. Solholt came in 20 seconds after Hunt to finish 103rd and junior Anika Gasner claimed the third top finisher for Biola with a time of 19:35.60.
“I wanted to run with my teammate Carrie because it’s her senior year and she’s always inspired me. My focus and goal was to stay with her as much as I can,” said Gasner
The women went into the meet wanting to finish out the season with one final strong race.
“Going into nationals, our goal was just to be ‘full of run’ and go out there and have fun and lay it all out there,” Soholt said. “This season didn’t go quite as we expected and so going into nationals we were like ‘we have nothing to lose, lets just lay it out there and see what happens.’”
Biola had a total of three individual first place finishes for both teams throughout the season. The cross country team also had six athletes awarded NAIA Scholar-Athlete honors.
The Eagles now begin training for the indoor track and field season beginning in the spring semester.
