Waves Roll up to Stanford for Saturday Invite

MALIBU, Calif. Â Pepperdine’s men’s and women’s cross country teams head north this Saturday for the Stanford University Invitational. The 35th edition of this race takes place at the campus golf course and features several of the country’s top programs, including Arkansas, Cal Poly and California.  

The men’s 8K starts at 10:50 a.m. and the women’s 6K commences at 11:30 a.m.

With close to 70 collegiate teams scheduled to compete, the Stanford Invitational represents Pepperdine’s most challenging and crowded field to date. Last week’s Hawai’i Invitational featured only eight teams and the UC Irvine/Asics Invite showcased about a dozen schools.

While it will be interesting to see how Pepperdine stacks up against the nation’s best, head coach Robert Radnoti is more concerned with how his teams tackle the course.

“Some of our California freshmen may see it differently because this is a big meet for the high school students, but I see it as an opportunity to prepare for the NCAA West Regional Â it’s the same course,” he said. “This weekend we’re pointing more towards our postseason than we are the competition.”

So in addition to running at Stanford, Radnoti will have the Waves jog at Crystal Springs Friday night prior to their arrival in Palo Alto. Crystal Springs is home to the West Coast Conference’s championship course and Pepperdine has already run their once this preseason.

Each collegiate race at the Stanford Invitational is limited to approximately 280 athletes or a maximum of 10 runners per team per gender, a rule allowing Radnoti to make a few changes to his travel squads.

Freshmen Emily Branch (Advance, N.C./Forsyth Country Day), Lauren Burnham (Albuquerque, N.M./Eldorado HS)) and Hannah DeWalt (Gig Harbor, Wash./Gig Harbor HS) will all join the women’s team, while Jordan Wozniak (Irvine, Calif./Woodbridge HS), Alberto Solis (Big Bear, Calif./Big Bear HS) and David Williams (Manhattan Beach, Calif./Mira Costa HS) round out the men’s roster.

Grad student Cole Feldman (Carroll, Iowa/Kuemper HS/Drake University), who was Pepperdine’s top finisher on the men’s side last week at Hawai’i, is being given this weekend off to concentrate on his studies for law school. Feldman finished the 5K race in 13th place with a time of 16:03.57.

Results from the Stanford Invitational will be posted here immediately following each race.

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