SAN DIEGO, Calif. – LMU women's cross country finished sixth at the West Coast Conference Championships on Friday at Mission Bay, edging rival Pepperdine by a single point, 169-170, in a nine-team field. The Lions also finished ahead of Pacific (219) and San Diego (232) over the 6K distance.

"I could not be more proud of the team today," said head coach Chloe Curtis. "We knew coming in that it would be a very close team race on a tough course, and we rose to the occasion. This was our best race of the season so far, and to put everything together when it matters most is really special."

Senior Rylee Guinn paced the Lions in 17th place with a time of 22:21.2, and junior Ava Boyd was right behind her in 19th at 22:26.1. Both missed all-conference honors, which went to the top 15 finishers, by under 21 seconds. Guinn's placing came on a strong kick down the final stretch, where she passed Portland's Jane Roloff, who finished half a second back (22:21.7).

Behind Guinn and Boyd, the rest of the Lions pushed each other all day, trading places and moving up through the field, and in a race decided by one point, every pass counted.

Senior Tessa Kline was the Lions' third scorer in 43rd (23:16.1), followed by senior Emma Ronan in 55th (23:41.5) and freshman Jeevut Sajjan in 58th (23:58.7). Sajjan passed four runners in the final 1k and finished 17 seconds ahead of Pepperdine's fifth runner to help LMU secure the sixth-place finish.

Sophomore Collette Heil (64th, 24:17.9) and senior Ruby Tiburcio (65th, 24:19.0) finished sixth and seventh for the Lions, giving LMU seven runners within 1:57.8 of each other. Freshman Payton Wagner (68th, 24:27.0), senior Alex Zanon (75th, 24:51.2) and senior Kasia Holland (84th, 25:48.5) also gave everything they had for the Lions on the day.

"I am especially proud of our seniors, who left it out on the course for one last conference championship," Curtis said. "This group has played such an important role in shaping our team culture and has made huge strides throughout their time at LMU. They have given so much to this program so it was awesome to see them put it all together today."

San Francisco won the team title with 28 points, followed by Portland (57) and Santa Clara (84). Portland freshman Latham West won the individual title in 20:31.2.

Next up, LMU will look to keep momentum going and wrap their season up on high note as they travel to Sacramento for the NCAA West Regionals on Friday, November 13th, at 10am.