Senior Isaiah Thompson (San Pasqual Tribe) led UC Irvine with a third-place finish at the Pepperdine Invitational

MALIBU, Calif. — UC Irvine went 2-0 in dual-meet scoring at the season-opening Pepperdine Invitational in Malibu Thursday.

The ‘Eaters defeated the host Waves 21-39 and Long Beach State 20-43.

Senior Isaiah Thompson (San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians) led UCI with a third-place individual finish of 16:03.17 over 5,000 meters at Alumni Park.

Branden Randall followed in fourth at 16:05.37, Izzak Mireles was fifth in 16:07.13 and Hector Garcia sixth in 16:10.53.

Samuel Ayala placed eighth in 16:13.96, David Aguilar was ninth (16:14.43), Nolan Del Valle 11^th (16:19.20), Ashton Garcia 14^th (16:39.66), Alex Hascall 17^th (16:59.57) and Andrew Graciano was 18^th in 17:01.53.

Pepperdine’s Nick Heath won the race with a time of 15:44.04.

UCI is back in action Sept. 17 at the UC Riverside Invitational.