Sophia Ebiner, a Mt. SAC long distance runner is the current placeholder for the number 1 spot in both the women’s 5k and 10k for California community colleges but, how she got there is part of Mt. SAC track history.

Her father, Matthew Ebiner was part of Mt. SAC track legacy with winning multiple awards, being part of the coaching staff and competing in two olympic trials. His journey however started way before his time at Mt. SAC.

Ebiner Family History, Mt. SAC history and the Olympic trials

Matthew Ebiner grew up in West Covina with seven older brothers and seven older sisters. His first exposure to running was his older brother setting up races between the Ebiner siblings at the West Covina High School track. Being right in the middle of fifteen siblings, 7 younger and 7 older, by the time Matthew Ebiner got to Bishop Amat High School where his older brothers competed in long distance running, he had quite the shoes to fill.

After his time at Amat, he went onto Mt. SAC where he would go on to win Best Track Athlete in 1981 and the Mt. Baldy Run-to-the-Top award first place twelve times. His course record from 1987 stood for 35 years until broken in 2022 by Joseph Gray.

After his time at Mt. SAC he would go onto UCLA where he would graduate in 1983. 1988 would be his first time competing in the Olympic trials. His first time being there however, did not go how he expected.

“I had a very humbling race, even worse than humbling, probably humiliating,” Matthew Ebiner said. “I finished way at the rear. There were about one hundred runners and I finished about 77th. My time was not good, even walked part of it. I was hurting so bad.”

His second time however in 1992 he felt much more confident and wanted to redeem himself. He ended up placing 19th out of 100 runners. Although he didn’t make the top 3 to go to Barcelona to compete in the Olympics, he knew he ran a much more intelligent race.

“I felt really great about that race, [it] was one of my best marathons ever,” Matthew Ebiner said.

Sophia and her running journey

Sophia Ebiner got her start in running as early as four years old. From watching her dad compete in local marathons, the 2013 Boston marathon and competing in her own fun runs, she was hooked.

“My first experience really running myself was probably the fun runs at these road races my dad would run at, I would do the mile,” Sophia Ebiner said.

During her time at Bishop Amat High School, she had a different coach every season, one of them being her father for her junior year. She explained how she had the best performance when being coached by him. However, her senior year showed her what true perseverance was.

“I was really struggling my senior year [of high school] and my freshmen year of college with iron,” Sophia Ebiner said. “It’s a big issue in female running and a previous injury this track season. It’s hard, it’s a setback but being able to come back from that just makes all the success and all the PR’s so much better.”

According to the National Library of Medicine, up to 35% of female athletes (and up to 52% of adolescent female athletes) will experience iron deficiency. For Sophia Ebiner, she is more likely as a female long distance runner to be impacted by iron deficiency.

During her 2025 season at Mt. SAC, she got her personal best of 18:19:3 during the 5,000 run at the 2025 3C2A championship. During Mt. SAC’s 66th Mt. SAC Relays event, she beat her personal best a second time on April 17 with a time of 17:13:19.

Sophia and her dad Matthew still run together to this day. While Matthew used to set the pace with Sophia in her stroller, today it’s flipped. Matthew follows Sophia on his bike, while Sophia continues the Ebiner legacy, and furthers her own running journey, with her dad’s support.

A correction was made to this story on June 10, at 11:45 a.m. to accurately reflect Matthew Ebiner’s sibling order.