Waves Ready To Roll At Washington's Sundodger Invitational
9/16/2010 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Sept. 16, 2010
MALIBU, Calif.- The Pepperdine men's and women's cross country teams head to West Seattle and Lincoln Park this Saturday morning for the 18th-annual University of Washington Sundodger Invitational.
In what should be one of the top cross country meets in the NCAA this year, the Waves will compete against squads from Nevada, Portland State, Seattle Pacific, Gonzaga, Idaho, Seattle, Puget Sound, Pacific Lutheran, Simon Fraser, and Washington along picturesque park trails that hang over Puget Sound.
A series of eight races are planned, beginning at 9 a.m. with the women's 6,000-meter open race that features a number of small colleges. The men's open race follows at 9:40 a.m.
Pepperdine's women's team takes to the course at 10:25 a.m. for the 6K invite, and the Wave men follow right behind with the men's 8K at 11 a.m.
Last weekend at the UC Irvine/Asics Invitational, the Pepperdine women posted its best overall finish there with a fifth-place showing thanks to impressive individual performances by junior Lauren Lodge (Hopkinton, Mass./Hopkinton HS) and senior Chelsea Wishard (Lawai, Hawai'i/Kauai HS).
Wishard had been the Waves' top finisher at every race she entered since her sophomore year of 2008, but finished seven seconds behind Lodge in their 5K run with a fifth-place time of 17:33.1. Lodge crossed the finish line third in 17:26.9, which was a 50-second improvement over her 2009 Irvine mark.
In the men's 8K race, Pepperdine finished 12th of 19 teams with an average team finish of 27:09. Senior and team captain Seth Allison (Canyon, Texas/Canyon HS) led his squad to the finish line for the second straight week with a 44th-place time of 26:22.4 - a 40-second improvement from 2009.
Sophomore Sean King (Potomac, Md./Winston Churchill HS) - who finished second to Allison on the Waves - produced one of the team's biggest improvements, going from a 2009 time of 28:47.9 to 26:36.9 last Saturday; a difference of 2:11.
SUNDODGER INVITATIONAL
Saturday, September 18 • Lincoln Park • West Seattle
9:00 a.m. • Women's 6,000-meter Open
9:40 a.m. • Men's 8,000-meter Open
10:25 a.m. • Women's 6,000-meter Invitational
11:00 a.m. • Men's 8,000-meter Invitational
12:00 p.m. • Women's 5,000-meter High School Varsity
12:30 p.m. • Men's 5,000-meter High School Varsity
1:00 p.m. • Women's 5,000-meter High School Junior Varsity
1:30 p.m. • Men's 5,000-meter High School Junior Varsity
Information from gohuskies.com was used in this report.
Players Mentioned
