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SAN DIEGO, California " Nick Heath turned in the best performance by a Pepperdine men's cross country runner in the last nine seasons at the West Coast Conference Championships, highlighting the Waves' efforts on Friday morning.

Heath (Scotts Valley, Calif./Scotts Valley HS), a sophomore, took 18th place with a time of 25:08.3 in the men's 8K at Tecolote Shores Park. That was 21 spots better than his freshman-year finish, and he became the first Wave to place in the top 20 since 2007.

"Nick was challenging the top runners in the conference today, and there are still great things ahead for him," Pepperdine Coach Robert Radnoti said. "I'm looking forward to what he does in the 10K at the NCAA West Regional in two weeks."

Running at the WCC Championships for the final time, senior Ben Fox (Colorado Springs, Colo./Cheyenne Mountain HS) was second for the Waves and posted his best-ever finish at the event, 42nd place in 26:17.1.

Heath and Fox were both named to the WCC's All-Academic first team on Thursday.

The men's squad finished in eighth place overall and its other scorers were redshirt junior Nick Blanchard (Portland, Conn./Portland HS), freshman Treet Allison (Canyon, Texas/Canyon HS) and senior Torin Wile (Beverly Hills, Mich./Brother Rice HS).

On the women's side, senior Lindsay Sheaffer (Portland, Ore./Jesuit HS) led the women once again and came in 40th place in 23:02.7. The Waves, who finished 10th as a team, had these four as their other scorers: sophomore Elise Froebe (Lake Forest Park, Wash./Shorecrest HS) and freshmen Bri Wilson (Murrieta, Calif./Linfield Christian School), Lupita Perez (Fillmore, Calif./Fillmore HS) and Cori Persinger (Lee's Summit, Mo./Lee's Summit West HS).

"There were perfect running conditions today, and it was a good learning experience for everyone," Radnoti said. "For our younger runners, they will continue to grow and mature and be more competitive."

Pepperdine will next compete at the NCAA West Regional in Sacramento on November 11.