UC Santa Barbara senior Bethany Nickless and UC Irvine junior Laura Olvera were named co-Big West Athletes of the Week for women's cross country today. Cal Poly junior Troy Swier was honored on the men's side.

Nickless finished seventh in the Roy Griak Invitational with a time of 21:35 leading UC Santa Barbara to a fourth place finish at the meet. The time was a new personal record for Nickless.

Olvera finished third out of 241 runners at the Stanford Invitational. Her time was 20:42 and helped the Anteaters place third at the meet in the 28-team field.

Swier placed 13th with a time of 23:51 at the Bill Dellinger Invitational. The meet included eight nationally ranked teams.

After a busy weekend of action, the Big West cross country schedule has a lighter slate on tap for the upcoming weekend.

Five clubs see action during the weekend, four of which compete in meets in the state of California.

Long Beach State and UC Irvine head south to La Jolla for the Triton Classic hosted by UC San Diego. The 6k women's race will begin at 8:30 a.m., with the 10k men's race scheduled for a 9:30 a.m. start. Both races will begin and conclude inside the Triton Track & Field Stadium on the UCSD campus.

UC Davis and Pacific head to the Bay Area to compete in the San Francisco State Invitational. The men's event is an 8K, while the women's competition will be a 6K affair.

The lone squad traveling out of state won't be going too far as Cal State Northridge heads to Tempe, Ariz., for the 22nd annual Arizona State Invitational. The women will run a 5K, while the men will compete in an 8K. Both of the Sun Devils' squads are nationally ranked, promising to be a tough challenge for the field in both races.