2019 Biola Invitational Results

FULLERTON, Calif. – On Saturday morning out at Craig Regional Park, Academy of Art men's and women's cross country each opened with upper tier finishes in not only their first races of the year, but also an early look at the same course that will be the site of the 2019 Pacific West Conference Championships. The women, who had two runners in the top 10, started the day with a sixth-place result and the men followed with a sixth-place team finish as well.

Leading the women's 5k for ART U was redshirt sophomore Audrey Rosencrans and junior Natalia Novak who both finished among the top 10 in a field of 213 runners. Rosencrans took ninth (18:34.0) after moving three spots up from her first split and Novak ascended 10 spots to cross the line roughly a second behind her teammate in 10th (18:35.5). Graduate student Hasna Kaarour came in at 19th overall (18:46.5) while redshirt sophomore Alyssa Winter was 81st (19:49.5) and sophomore Jasmine Becker rounded out the qualifiers in 105th (20:21.0).

One point ahead of Vanguard, Academy of Art (186) claimed sxth overall, ahead of NCAA Division I Loyola Marymount as well as PacWest teams Point Loma and Azusa Pacific. Cal State San Marcos won the meet by more than 20 points with host Biola taking fourth and Concordia (Calif.) following in fifth.

After starting out the men's 8k with all five runners in a seven-runner pack, the Urban Knights had graduate student Charlie Messai and redshirt senior Rabah Houali break off with the front group before Houali ultimately ended as the top finisher. He came through at 22nd overall, sporting a time of 26:01.1 and Messai was not far behind in 30th (26:14.5) out of the 188-competitor field. Sophomores Hudson Lockette (26:53.7) and Markus Anderson Deakin (26:54.0) remained together with respective finishes of 53rd and 54th while redshirt senior Joshua Browne (27:40.6) closed out the quintet at 93rd overall.

Academy of Art took sixth as a team (192), leading PacWest opponents Concordia (Calif.) and Fresno Pacific by 50 points. Surpassing their preseason regional ranking by topping runner-up Biola, Cal State San Marcos made it a sweep of first place results on the day.

In a bit of a change of pace, ART U will next partake in a twilight meet on Sept. 14. The Knights travel to Ceres, Calif. for Stanislaus State's Kim Duyst Invitational set to begin with the women's 6k race at 8:30 p.m.