On paper, the Biola Eagles are the clear favorite to win the 2025 Pacific West Conference Championships on Saturday at the Hawai`i Country Club. 

Of course, never has a race been run on paper. But when the gun goes off at 8 am Hawai`i time on Saturday (11 am Pacific), it's the Eagles that the other 11 PacWest teams wil be chasing. 

Biola has won the last three titles, including in 2024 when they ran away from the field with 29 points (Concordia was second with 76). They have almost that entire championship roster back, which puts them in the lead role to make it four conference championships in a row. If they are able to hold the trophy on Oahu, they will join Seattle Pacific (1996-99) and California Baptist (2014-17) as the only other schools to win four straight. 

Senior Bethany Mapes leads head coach Sean Henning's group. Mapes finished third at the PacWest Championships last year and is a three-time All-PacWesrt runner. So is fellow senior Karis Brown (14th last year), giving both of them a chance to only know team championships in their four years at Biola. 2024 PacWest Freshman of the Year Jaina Kang (8th last year) is also back, along with Hailey Wurzbach, who was 11th in 2024.

Mapes has only gotten better in 2025. She finished sixth at the Lewis Invitational a few weeks, clocking 21:30 on a 6 kilometer course loaded with the nation's top runners. She will be one of the favorites to win the individual title. As a team, Biola finished third at Lewis and won their own Biola Invitational.

Concordia, who has been the PacWest runner-up the last two years, hopes to make a run at the Eagles. They won the San Francisco State Invitational this month. They are led by Portland State transfer Ania Kapustka, who won the SF State race (21:44) and was third at CS San Bernardino's event. Point Loma, picked second in the preseason coaches poll is also a contender, paced by Maddie Reeves who was fourth in last year's championships. This year, she won the CS San Marcos 6K with a school-record time of 20:48. 

Azusa Pacific, Fresno Pacific and Vanguard were the next three teams in the preseason poll. APU graduated the 2024 race winner Jessica Kampman Walczak and their best finish this year was at SF State, where they finished fifth. Fresno Pacific returns Julissa Avila, who finished 10th last year at the PacWest Championships in Irvine. Vanguard has featured two different PacWest Runners of the Week this year in Ella Murray and Lauren Pahl, both freshmen who finished third in different races. 

Rounding out the field is Westmont, Dominican, Hawaii Pacific, Hawaii Hilo, Chaminade and Jessup, who will be competing for placing which plays a role in the Hogue Comissioner's Cup. 

One thing is known for sure--the course will be difficult and unlike anything the mainland schools have run on this year. The hills and diversity of the course are one thing, and the Hawai`i humidity will be another factor to contend with.

For info on the course and much more, go to the PacWest Cross Country Championships page here, There you will find drone footage of the course, the 6K and 8K race maps, a link to t-shirt and sweatshirt merchandise, links to Live Results and PacWest cross country record books.