PORTLAND, Ore.—Lewis & Clark College cross country senior Malia Heien and juniors Quinn Higgins and Sam Garcia were all named to the Northwest Conference All-Conference Second Team, the league office announced Wednesday afternoon. 
 
The trio of runners all finished in the top-10 at Saturday's Northwest Conference Championship Meet. This year, the runners who finished sixth through 10^th at the NWC Championship Meet garnered Second Team honors. 
 
Heien claimed her fourth-straight All-Conference honors for cross country and the 12^th All-Conference accolade of her career. The senior led Lewis & Clark and placed 10^th overall with a time of 23:12.64. Despite dealing with a nagging injury and poor footing throughout the race, Heien finished in the top-10 for the third-straight year and the top-12 for a fourth-consecutive season. Heien joins L&C Hall of Famer Tamma Carleton ('09) and assistant coach Riley Buese ('25) as the only Lewis & Clark women's runners to earn four All-Conference honors in cross country this century. 
 
Higgins earned his first career All-Conference honors on Saturday. The junior placed eighth overall with a time of 26:03.3. A year after finishing three spots off the All-Conference Team (17^th place), Higgins has proven to be the Pioneers top runner and one of the top runners in the NWC all season. He has now placed inside the top-10 in four of the six races he's competed in and finished in the top-eight of all four races. He will be looking to earn his first career All-Region honors on Saturday, November 15. Last season, he finished one spot off the All-Region Team with a 36^th-place finish. 
 
Garcia joins Higgins as a first-time All-Conference honoree. After missing time due to injuries in his first two seasons, the junior has enjoyed the best cross country season of his collegiate career. He placed ninth overall at the NWC Championship Meet with a time of 26:06.96. It marked the second time Garcia has finished in the top-10 of a cross country race in his collegiate career (seventh at the 2024 Ash Creek Collegiate Invite). He has broken his PR over 8K twice this season and improved his career-best time by nearly 70 seconds. Garcia ran the 10^th-fastest, 8K time in program history (24:44.10) on October 18 at the George Oja Linfield Invitational.