Biola, winners of the 2022 Pacific West Conference Women's Cross Country Championship, is the unanimous choice of all 11 conference coaches to do it again.

If they do so, they will be the first PacWest WXC team to win back-to-back titles since 2017 when California Baptist did so. Since then, a different team was won the championship each year---Point Loma in 2018, Fresno Pacific in 2019, and Academy of Art in 2021.

Concordia claimed the No. 2 spot in the coaches poll with 102 points, one digit ahead of Azusa Pacific (101). Fresno Pacific (82), Academy of Art (76) and Point Loma (68) round out the upper half of the preseason poll.

It will be a very young Biola team, again, that attempts to win the crown on October 21 in Fresno. Last year, the Eagles had three underclasswomen in the top 10 and nine total runners in the top 20. Six of those are back on the roster in 2023. Head coach Sean Henning had an astounding four freshmen finish in the top 20 last year.

2022 PacWest champion Lynette Ruiz leads the group. Ruiz won the title in San Leandro with a sprint to the finish line, just edging Azusa Pacific's Eline Pinter at the tape. Ruiz was named the PacWest Runner of the Year. But she is not alone among a list of talented young runners.

Bethany Mapes, the PacWest Freshman of the Year, finished eighth at the conference meet and then went on to also finish eighth at the NCAA West Region meet in Montana. She was also the Eagles' top runner in their first-ever trip to the NCAA National Championships. Fellow 2022 freshmen Ellie Stetina (10th), Lauren Landvith (11th) return, along with then-sophomore Britta Holmberg who was 14th. The fourth freshman in the top 20 was Maggie Williams (20th), who also returns.

The Eagles are young and loaded, but will be pushed by Concordia. The Golden Eagles list the opposite way, led by senior Porshe Eismann (third at San Leandro) and grad student Jori Paradis (seventh). Eismann and Paradis finished 16th and 24th respectively at the west region championships, helping to lead CUI to a 12th place standing.

Azusa Pacific lost three First Team All-PacWest runners from a year ago, but have enough returning depth to earn the third rung in the preseason poll. Justine Stecko was a First Team All-PacWest and All-West Region selection in 2021 and returns for her grad year. APU will also be bolstered by Biola transfer Haleigh Guerrero, who finished 16th at the 2022 PacWest Championships.

Fresno Pacific has the benefit of running on their home course in the 2023 PacWest Championships at Woodward Park. The Sunbirds are led by Yorkabel Gebrehiwot, who crossed the line ninth in 2022 and Julissa Avila, who as a freshman earned All-PacWest honors by finishing 17th.

Academy of Art is the fifth choice of the coaches, led by Michaela Andrews who finished 23rd last year as a freshman. For Point Loma, Aubrie Nex (15th) leads a youthful Sea Lion team that has six sophomores and eight freshmen on its roster. The PacWest's newest member Westmont finished second at the Golden State Athletic Conference Championships in 2022, paced by GSAC Freshman of the Year Annie West, who returns for the Warriors.

HPU (8th), Chaminade (9th), Hawai'i Hilo (10th) and Dominican (11th) round out the poll.

Those three Hawai'i schools will open 2023 at the Big Wave Invitational on Saturday on Oahu's North Shore. Academy of Art and Dominican will open a day earlier (tomorrow) at the University of San Francisco's Golden Gate Park race.

Biola and Westmont get underway on Sept. 8 in Fullerton and Concordia opens at CS San Bernardino. Azusa Pacific doesn't get on a course until Sept. 16 at UC Riverside, joined by Point Loma, Concordia and Fresno Pacific. The PacWest Championships are October 21 in Fresno, the West Regional Championships are November 4 at Western Oregon and the NCAA National Championships at Nov. 18 in Joplin, Missouri.