Results

OAKLAND, California " Nick Heath became the first Pepperdine men's cross country runner to collect All-West Coast Conference honors since 2007 as his 15th-place finish at Friday's WCC Championships earned him honorable mention status.

Heath has improved from 39th to 18th to 15th in his three career WCC meets. In today's 8K at the Metropolitan Golf Links, he ran 24:16.97, just about 10 seconds off his school record time. The top 10 runners earn All-WCC first team status and the next five are honorable mention.

On the women's side, freshman Abbey Meck led the women once again. She's been the Waves' top runner at all five meets this season and she took 42nd place today.

In the team standings, the men came in eighth and the women were 10th. BYU and San Francisco won the men's and women's races, respectively.

MEN'S 8K LEADERS

• Junior Nick Heath (Scotts Valley, Calif./Scotts Valley HS) 15th place, 24:16.97
• Senior Kevin Maeda (Highland, Calif./Citrus Valley HS) 33rd place, 25:00.10
• Sophomore Jalen Frantal (Westerville, Ohio/Westerville Central HS) 58th place, 26:08.84
• Freshman Preston Gromer (Casper, Wyo./Kelly Walsh HS) 59th place, 26:11.11
• Freshman Justin Touhey (Stony Point, N.Y./Don Bosco Preparatory HS) 61st place, 26:22.12

WOMEN'S 6K LEADERS

• Freshman Abbey Meck (Santa Cruz, Calif./San Lorenzo Valley HS) 42nd place, 22:19.2
• Freshman Lindsay Sanger (Sinking Spring, Pa./Wilson HS) 57th place, 22:56.4
• Freshman Caroline Archer (Brentwood, Tenn./Brentwood Academy) 23:22.8
• Freshman Emma Battin (Saint Charles, Ill./Saint Charles East HS) 23:54.4
• Sophomore Izabela Garcia-Arce (Bonita, Calif./Bonita Vista HS) 78th place, 24:19.5

QUOTABLES

Head coach Robert Radnoti said: "I'm really proud of our team's efforts today. It was a warm day, which is atypical of Northern California meets we've been at, but it was still a nice day on a good, flat course. As usual Abbey Meck led the team and ran well but Lindsay Sanger and Izabela Garcia-Arce also stepped up had PRs by quite a bit. Our women are young and this was a good experience for them. They'll keep getting better.

"For the men, Nick Heath ran outstanding. There were two of the top teams in the country there in BYU and Portland and Nick finished on the podium, which is great. He ran a really nice race, the way he normally runs. Kevin Maeda also ran strong and then we were really happy with the rest of our group, they ran as a pack like we asked them to do. As we keep getting better, we're not far away from beating a few more WCC teams."

UP NEXT

The NCAA West Regional will be hosted by Washington and held at the Jefferson Park Golf Course in Seattle on November 10.