Results

RIVERSIDE, California " Nick Heath of the Pepperdine men's cross country team took first place at UC Riverside's Highlander Invitational on Saturday morning.

Heath ran 17:49.7 in the 6K at UCR's Agricultural Operations Course, winning the race by seven seconds. It's his fourth career victory with the Waves.

Kevin Maeda also finished in the top 20, while on the women's side, Abbey Meck was the Waves' top runner for the fourth time in four races this season. Her time of 18:14.4 enters her at #10 on the Waves' all-time 5K list.

MEN'S 6K LEADERS

• Junior Nick Heath (Scotts Valley, Calif./Scotts Valley HS) 17:49.7, 1st place
• Senior Kevin Maeda (Highland, Calif./Citrus Valley HS) 18:23.1, 18th place
• Freshman Kyle Johnson (Rochester Hills, Mich./Rochester HS) 18:51.9, 46th place
• Sophomore Jalen Frantal (Westerville, Ohio/Westerville Central HS) 18:54.8, 49th place
• Freshman Preston Gromer (Casper, Wyo./Kelly Walsh HS) 19:03.7, 57th place

WOMEN'S 5K LEADERS

• Freshman Abbey Meck (Santa Cruz, Calif./San Lorenzo Valley HS) 18:14.4, 25th place
• Freshman Lindsay Sanger (Sinking Spring, Pa./Wilson HS) 18:59.1, 68th place
• Freshman Amanda Stahl (Clinton, Mass./Advanced Math & Science Academy) 19:08.6, 76th place
• Freshman Caroline Archer (Brentwood, Tenn./Brentwood Academy) 19:26.3, 82nd place
• Freshman Cassidy Aberson (Vacaville, Calif./Vacaville HS) 19:43.6, 89th place

QUOTABLES

Head coach Robert Radnoti said: "It was a good morning, especially for Nick Heath. He ran a really, really nice race. He started out a little conservatively but after about a mile he moved into the lead group. Toward the end of the race, about 600 meters to go, he was second or third, and he broke them and cruised in for a victory. Kyle and Jaren ran well together. Our great surprise was our number five, Preston Gromer, he's been improving every day and ran a very good race today. We have a lot of youngsters getting better and better.

"Abbey led our women again and we had all of our freshmen up there. Our pleasant surprise on the women's side was our number four, Caroline Archer, who has been injured. We had all freshmen in the top five so we will continue to get better.

"Next we'll be picking our top nine to run at WCC's 13 days from now. Everyone's excited about the next two weeks of training leading up to the meet."

Nick Heath said: "I thought the race went really well. I went out as best I could, I got boxed in a little bit at the start, worked my way up to the first mile and caught up with the front runners. I ran side by side with Kevin for a bit and that helped. The rest of the pack broke away except for me and another guy, but about 400-600 feet I kicked and broke away from him and won the race, and was really stoked about it."

UP NEXT

The WCC Championships will be held Friday, October 27, at the Metropolitan Golf Links in Oakland, California. San Francisco is the host.