TUCSON, ARIZ. --- The California cross country teams completed the 2016 Pac-12 Championships with a pair of sixth place finishes Friday morning.

The team marks are improvements on the Golden Bears' team finishes in 2015, where both men's and women's programs ended the meet in seventh place.

"Today was a step in the right direction for both teams as each squad did better than last year," head coach Shayla Houlihan said after her first Pac-12 meet as coach of the Bears programs. 

Junior Bethan Knights had the best performance of any of the Cal runners in attendance, coming in seventh place in the women's 6K  with a time of 20:34.3. "Bethan ran a very smart race and found a way to finish in the top 10 amongst a stacked field of top caliber individuals," Houlihan said. Sophomore Marissa Williams and senior Xochitl Navarrete rounded out Cal's top three women's finishers with times of 21:31.5 (32nd) and 21:36.1 (35th) respectively.

On the men's side, senior Trent Brendel was able to break into the top 20 overall with a 17th place run of 24:53.4. Sophomore Robert Brandt nearly missed the the same distinction with his 21st place mark of 24:58.3 while junior Garrett Corcoran made it into the top 30 with his time of 25:05.7 (29th overall).

"Trent and Garrett worked together the whole way. Their patience early on made for some great finishes for them individually. We learned a lot out there in the record heat and are looking forward to coming home and prepping for the first round of NCAA's at Sacramento State."