Women's Cross Country

Biola Now Needs a Bus, Eagle Women Punch Ticket to Sacramento

Both Biola teams place third, earn NCAA National Championships berths for Nov. 23 race.

BILLINGS, Mont.--The Biola women's cross country team took a page from their male counterparts, placing third at the 2024 NCAA West Region Championships today at Amend Park.

Earlier, the Eagle men also finished third, qualifying for the NCAA National Championships right up the I-5 in Sacramento. That means, instead of just a van to cart the men's team, head coach Sean Henning now needs a bus to haul both of his qualifying squads to the state capital. 

Biola placed third (141 points) behind champion Chico State (104) and runner-up Western Washington (115). The top three teams automatically go to nationals.

The PacWest was also represented in the top 10 by Point Loma and Concordia, who virtually tied for seventh with 229 points. Fresno Pacific was 12th (308), Azusa Pacific 13th (314), Westmont 22nd (624), Chaminade 26th (799) and Hawaii Pacific 28th (861). Hawaii Hilo and Academy of Art also competed but didn't have a team score.

Just two weeks ago, APU's Jessica Kampman Walczak was the PacWest individual champ, and today she was the conference's top runner to cross the finish line. Kampman Walczak finished third (20:31), behind the University of Alaska's Rosie Fordham (19:52) and Kendall Kramer (20:06). In 2023, Kramer was the west region champ and Fordham was sixth. 

Biola's trophy run was fueled by Bethany Mapes and Lynette Ruiz. Mapes was seventh (20:50) and Ruiz was eighth (21:06). Jaina Kang (23rd, 21:41) was a top 25 honoree, with Hailey Wurzbach (38th, 22:09) and Karis Brown (65th, 22:34) accounting for the 141 Eagle points. 

Other top 30 PacWest runners included Fresno Pacific's Julissa Avila (14th, 21:28), Concordia's Taylor Whitfield (17th, 21:35), Point Loma's Maddie Reeves (19th, 21:37) and Zaila Smith (21st, 21:47) and Golden Eagle Porshe Eismann (26th, 21:50).

NCAA at-large berths will be announced on Nov. 11. The top three men's and women's regional finishers receive an automatic bid to nationals, with a complicated formula determining the remaining 10 at-large berths from across the eight NCAA Division II regions.