SACRAMENTO, California – Led by freshman Jackson Felkins, the Pepperdine men's cross country team finished 15th at the NCAA West Regional on Friday at Haggin Oaks Golf Course, the best result in program history.
 
The Waves were 18th last year and their previous best finish was 17th in 1996. They entered the race ranked 15th in the West Region.
 
Felkins ran the second-fastest 10K in program history (30:43.2) to finish 57th. He was one of five Waves that recorded times putting them in the Waves' all-time top 10, with Kyle Johnson at #3, Karl Winter at #6, Preston Gromer at #8 and Justin Touhey at #10.
 
The women took 34th place, their best result since 2014. Abbey Meck led the Waves for the 12th time in her 12th career race. Lindsay Sanger had a personal record that moved her up to 20th on the Waves' all-time 6K list.
 
MEN'S 10K LEADERS

• Freshman Jackson Felkins (Southlake, Texas/Carroll Senior HS) 57th place, 30:43.2
• Sophomore Kyle Johnson (Rochester Hills, Mich./Rochester HS) 70th place, 30:55.7
• Senior Nick Heath (Scotts Valley, Calif./Scotts Valley HS) 72nd place, 30:56.8
• Freshman Karl Winter (Stockton, Calif./Saint Mary's HS) 112th place, 31:50.4
• Sophomore Preston Gromer (Casper, Wyo./Kelly Walsh HS) 120th place, 32:01.7

WOMEN'S 6K LEADERS 

• Sophomore Abbey Meck (Santa Cruz, Calif./San Lorenzo Valley HS) 125th place, 21:57.8
• Sophomore Lindsay Sanger (Sinking Spring, Pa./Wilson HS) 200th place, 22:53.0
• Junior Cori Persinger (Lee's Summit, Mo./Lee's Summit West HS) 233rd place, 23:59.1
• Freshman Riley Wright (Chandler, Ariz./Corona Del Sol HS) 238th place, 24:07.2
• Freshman Shelby White (San Antonio, Texas/Winston Churchill HS) 242nd place, 24:23.1

 QUOTABLE
 
Pepperdine Coach Robert Radnoti said: "We talked quite a bit last night about everything happening in our community and we wanted to dedicate this race to Alaina Housley and everyone in our community and run really well. Everything that's happening is heavy on our hearts, and Pepperdine students are such a caring, loving community. We tried to focus on the race today and for the most part we did a good job. Abbey and Lindsay ran a nice race. It was a good experience for our young women's team. We've got some work to do to get more competitive, and we will.
 
"In the men's race, it was an incredible showing by Jackson Felkins. He went out strong, stayed with the lead group for a portion of the race and was our #1 runner for the first time. He missed some time early in the season but he has really come on strong. Kyle and Nick ran well too. We finished 15th, the best we've ever done, and that's good. Now we're coming up on the big names in our sport, and the West Region is by far the best region, so it's excited where we're headed. I'm proud of the team and coaches and everyone."