Despite an invitational best performance by senior Manuel Ramirez, the CSUN men’s cross-country team fell to the Pepperdine Waves, while the women’s team finished fourth at the Pepperdine Invitational in Malibu on Sept. 23.

Ramirez finished the 8k run in a time of 27:21 but the Waves managed to beat the Matadors 25 points to 30 points. Junior Sam Hudson, sophomore Timothy Hatters and freshman Nick Rowan finished in the next three top spots for Pepperdine with times of 27:40, 28:11 and 28:14.

Diego Fernandez finished with the second top spot for Northridge and fifth overall with a time of 28:20.

CSUN senior Jacinto Garcia (29:04) and juniors Michael Stotland (29:12) and Jonathan Tan (30:10) finished in the seventh, eighth and ninth spots. Senior Matt Parnick finished 15th with a time of 35:50.

In the women’s 6k, senior Julie Ann Hancock finished with Northridge’s top performance with a time of 23:21. Overall, Hancock finished third behind Cal State Los Angeles’ Carla Alburez (22:35) and Pepperdine’s Kayla Maher. Maher and another Pepperdine runner, Beth Bedingfield, were disqualified after running off the course.

With the disqualification, Hancock took the second place spot.

Matador juniors Cherie McPherson (24:21) and Diana Rosete (24:34) finished in 14th and 16th place overall in the tournament.

CSLA took first place in the team performance competition with 44 points. CSUN finished last with 79 points. Pepperdine finished with 53 points, followed by USC with 57 points.

CSLA finished with four runners in the top ten spots with USC right behind with three of their own. Hancock recorded CSUN’s only top 10 spot.

Next on hand, CSUN will compete in the UC Riverside Invitational on Sept. 30.