SAN DIEGO — The Santa Clara University men's cross country team placed four runners among the top-25 Friday en route to earning a fourth-place team finish at the 2026 West Coast Conference Championship at Tecolote Shores North in San Diego's Mission Bay Park.
 
Kaden Helder and Jacob McManus gave Santa Clara two finishers in the top-15, with both earning all-WCC second team honors in the process. Helder placed 13th with a time of 25 minutes, 13.1 seconds, across the 8-kilometer course, and McManus placed 15th in 25:22.9. Helder worked his way up throughout the race, sitting in 27th place after three kilometers, then passing five runners over the next 2 km before passing four more over the final 3 km.
 
McCoy Brooks placed 22nd in 25:34.2, and Liam Papavasiliou finished 24th in 25:39.3, to complete the Broncos' top-25-finishing quartet. True freshman Kingston Shillito ran a time of 25:50.0 to complete the Broncos' scoring top-five, placing 32nd.
 
Jack Tolbert was 35th in 25:58.2 and sophomore Zafer Courcelle was right behind him in 36th place with a time of 26:01.6 to round out Santa Clara's top-seven. Will Carroll (38th, 26:03.5), Jackson Levasseur (48th, 26:35.9) and Paul Beaven (55th, 27:04.0) also competed for the Broncos on Friday.
 
Santa Clara scored 102 points to finish fourth as a team. Portland (32 points) won the team title, with San Francisco (65) and Saint Mary's (85) following behind in the standings. The Broncos' 102 points were their fewest points since scoring 66 to finish third three years ago in 2023. The fourth-place showing was SCU's best since 2024 when it also finished fourth, and returned them to the top-four after a one-year departure last season (sixth). Santa Clara has now finished among the top-four at the WCC Championship in seven of the past eight years. It has grabbed a top-five team finish in nine of the last 10 seasons.
 
The Broncos will next compete at the NCAA Division I Cross Country West Regional on Nov. 13, in Sacramento. Fans can find all live coverage links on SantaClaraBroncos.com.