Waves Revisit Westwood For Johnson/Joyner Kersee Invite
4/10/2009 12:00:00 AM | Track
MALIBU, Calif. - Pepperdine's men's and women's track and field teams return to UCLA's Drake Stadium for the second time in three weeks for this weekend's annual Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner Kersee Invitational. The Waves' roster includes 18 student-athletes, all of whom will be competing either Friday afternoon or evening.
Three Pepperdine runners set new varsity records in the 400, 1500 and 10000-meter runs the last time they visited Westwood.
Pepperdine's women's sprinters hit the track first at 2:50 p.m. Sophomores Amanda Ajdari (Valencia, Calif./Hart HS) and Brittany Clark (Laguna Beach, Calif./Laguna Beach HS) are entered in the 100 and 200-meter dash opens, while classmate Bridgette Walker (Oak Harbor, Wash./Oak Harbor HS) will find action in both the 200 and 400.
Walker has continually lowered her school record in the 400 with each passing week and enters Friday's competition with a seed time of 58.03. Ajdari holds both varsity marks in the 100 (12.47) and 200 (25.56) although Clark is a challenger to take over both.
A majority of the Waves will be engaged in Friday night's distance carnival and will be well represented in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and 1,500-meter runs with four to six competitors entered in each.
Freshman Lauren Lodge (Hopkinton, Mass./Hopkinton HS) holds the women's record in both these events with times of 10:54.93 and 4:39.68, but will not be there to defend them since she's training for next week's Mt. SAC Relays.
The men's varsity steeplechase and 1,500-meter records are still held by current assistant coach Chris Ogle, who set them last season.
Elsewhere on the track tonight, Pepperdine is set to run Aneasha Lawrence (Sun Valley, Calif./Village Christian HS) and Jordan Wozniak (Irvine, Calif./Woodbridge HS) in the 800 as well as four runners in the 5K.
Event Schedule: A heptathlon and decathlon competition will be held Thursday and Friday, with events beginning at 9:45 am on Thursday and 9:00 am on Friday. The open and invitational sections of the hammer throw will be held on Thursday beginning at 2:00 pm. Friday's open section of the meet begins at 10:00 am on the field and noon on the track. A distance carnival will begin Friday evening at 6:00 pm. Saturday's invitational portion of the meet begins at 11:15 am in the field and 12:15 pm on the track.
Competing Teams: Azusa Pacific, Cal Poly SLO, Cal State Bakersfield, Cal State LA, Cal State Northridge, Cal State San Marcos, California, Mississippi Valley, Pepperdine, Point Loma, Rice, Seattle Pacific, Southern Illinois, Stanford, Texas A&M, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, USC, Utah State, Utah Valley State, Washington State.
Admission: Thursday and Friday's portion of the meet will be free to the public. Saturday's admission prices are as follows: Adults are $7.00. Non UCLA students and youths (age 3-16) are $5.00. UCLA students are in free with a BruinCard.
Live Stats: Live stats for the meet will be available by clicking here.
Information from UCLA's athletics web site was used in this report.
