Seattle, Wash.—The California cross country teams headed north for the NCAA West Regional Championships on Friday at Jefferson Golf Course. The women finished in fifth place, while the men took home ninth. The women tied the program's fourth-best NCAA West Regional place while defeating no. 16 Washington.
 
Bethan Knights finished in 10^th place with a time of 19:43.38. She has finished in the top-10 of every race so far this season. For the second meet in a row, Brie Oakley was the top freshman female finisher as she crossed the line in 11^th with a time of 19:45.18, outracing All-Mountain West First Team runner Emily Venters from Boise State and Alexandra Beitia from Loyola Marymount University.
 
From the beginning of the meet, the women had a grip on the fierce West Regional competition. Knights and Pac-12 Freshman of the Year Oakley ran side-by-side for the entire 6,000m, helping lead the pack throughout the entire race. Both moved into the top six at the 3,000m mark, where Knights was running in fifth and Oakley in sixth.
 
Marissa Williams placed 36^th overall (20:35.31), while Annie Boos (53^rd, 20:52.99) and Jordyn Colter (73^rd, 21:07.77) completed the scoring for the Bears.  Cal placed four spots above last years' ninth place finish, tying their fourth-best NCAA West Regional Finish in program history.  The Bears top finish came in 1988, when they placed at the Regional Championship. Head Coach Shayla Houlihan was impressed by the women's finish, saying that "the women ran like veterans. They never got too up or too down emotionally this entire build up. The best is definitely yet to come this season." 

For the men, seniors Trent Brendel and Garrett Corcoran led the way throughout the 10,000m, placing 13^th (29:50.10)  and 15^th (29:51.41) respectively. Corcoran bested his finish from last year by 19 spots, running 30 seconds faster than his 2016 mark (30:22).  Houlihan was proud of the seniors, noting that "Trent and Garrett ran together the entire way and knew what they needed to do going into the final 1,000 meters of the race in order to qualify as individuals"
 
Freshman Paul Zeiss placed 54^th overall, followed by Takeshi Okada (91^st, 31:20.89) and Andrew Burkhardt (31:22.94) to round out the scoring runners.  John Hogan (125^th, 32:13.11) and Steven Khan (166^th, 32:57.06) also ran for the Bears, but did not count towards California's final score.

Houlihan was thrilled about the historic finish for both Bears teams, saying that "this will be the first time in program history that we will have representation from both genders (at the NCAA National Championships). I feel very optimistic about what everyone can do now that they have the opportunity to run against the best in the Nation."

Knights (10th), Oakley (11th), Brendel (13th) and Corcoran (15th) were acknowledged as USTFCCCA All-Region honorees with today's finishes in the West Region Championships, an honor given to runners who placed in the top-35 of their respective regional competition. 
 
The top two teams from each of the nine regions received automatic bids to the NCAA Championship. The remaining 13 at-large bids will be announced by the NCAA on Saturday. The bids will be based on the performance of each team's performance in the NCAA Regional as well as the team's resume. The Cal women's team will wait for word on their bid after posting a top-five finisher in a difficult region and a no. 26 overall ranking in the USTFCCCA Coach's poll.

Stay up-to-date with the Bears' national championship hopes on Twitter (@CalTFXC) as results are announced tomorrow.