MALIBU, Calif. – Pepperdine’s track and field teams will face its toughest competition of the season Saturday at USC’s Trojan Invitational. The all-day meet begins at 9 a.m. and will feature Texas A&M, Washington State, Long Beach State, Cal State Northridge, Fresno State and SMU in addition to the host school.
"The meet at USC is going to be a good one as the competition level gets better and better each week," head coach
Robert Radnoti said. "We expecting Lauren Lodge to run a very fast 1,500. She qualified for the fastest heat and there are several NCAA qualifiers in the same race who will take it out hard. "
Lizzy Coe is also in the fast heat of the 3,000 and I expect she will set a personal record. The women's sprint teams will see USC, Texas A&M, and other great spring schools. We are thinking that several more school records will fall tomorrow. On the men's side, we have trained through this weekend for the distance runners. The 800 men,
James Leckie,
Eric Magana, and
Jordan Wozniak all figure to race well and hopefully qualify for the California-Nevada Championships next weekend."
The Waves have fared well through the first month of the season, collecting 10 victories over four meets in addition to setting eight different school records.
Freshman Lauren Lodge (Hopkinton, Mass./Hopkinton HS) has experienced most of the program’s success as she’s claimed three individual wins and has taken down varsity records in the 1,500 (4:40.83) and 3,000-meter runs (10:05.44).
This year’s women’s team also has taken down four relay records and Aneka Myles (Victorville, Calif./Silverado HS) eclipsed her own varsity record in the shot put with a throw of 35 feet, 1.75 inches.
On the men’s side, sophomore Conrad Wozniak (Irvine, Calif./Woodbridge HS) set a new standard in the 3K earlier this season with a mark of 8:41.02.
Cooler weather is expected in the Los Angeles-area this weekend as the high temperature is projected to reach 63 degrees. The moderate climate should be of comfort to the Waves student-athletes as they continue their pursuit of taking over the entire Pepperdine record book.
