Sept. 9, 2010
Online Entry Form | Meet Information | WCC Cross Country Notes
MALIBU, Calif. - Pepperdine's men's and women's cross country teams head to UC Irvine Saturday morning for their first road competition of the 2010 season. Last year's Asics/UC Irvine Invitational featured 59 collegiate and club teams comprised of 587 competitors.
The four competitions, which will take place on campus at the Anteater Recreation Center Field, begin at 8 a.m. with the first of two women's 5Ks. The men's 8Ks start at approximately 9 a.m. Results will be posted at flashresults.com/flashwest.
Pepperdine's women's squad placed 10th in the 13-team field at last year's invitational, but should move up in the standings if the Waves duplicate last Wednesday's results at Alumni Park where they beat both San Diego (15-49) and Cal State Bakersfield (24-33) without the aid of top runners senior Chelsea Wishard (Lawai, Hawai'i/Kauai HS) and junior Lauren Lodge (Hopkinton, Mass./Hopkinton HS).
Assorted conflicts kept both Wishard and Lodge from competing in the midweek sunset race, but in their place stepped forth juniors Aneasha Lawrence (Sun Valley, Calif./Village Christian), Emily Branch (Advance, N.C./Forsyth Country Day School) and Hannah DeWalt (Gig Harbor, Wash./Gig Harbor HS).
Lawrence was Pepperdine's top finisher in the 5K and second overall to Bakersfield's Arianna Celis with a time of 19:09. Branch and DeWalt separated from the pack with about 3/4 of a mile remaining to finish third and fourth with respective times of 19:32.37 and 19:45.23.
On the men's side, senior Seth Allison (Canyon, Texas/Canyon HS) led a Pepperdine sweep of the top five spots in a 15-41 win against San Diego and was followed to the finish line by sophomores Sean King (Potomac, Md./Winston Churchill HS) and Wesley Blundell (Brush Prairie, Wash./Prairie HS) and Irvine natives Jonathan Rahaeuser (Irvine, Calif./Calvary Chapel HS Jordan Wozniak (Irvine, Calif./Woodbridge HS). Allison's winning 5K time was clocked at 16:16.
Blundell was Pepperdine's No. 2 runner at the 2009 Irvine meet (26:40.60) as the Pepperdine men finished seventh in the 21-team field, but the two teammates (Kenny Smith and Conrad Wozniak) who finished in front of and behind him are likely to miss their second race of the year due to nagging injuries.
Allison, meanwhile, was the Waves' fourth-fastest competitor at Irvine in 2009 with an 8K mark of 27:01.00, but afterward posted three-straight 8K times in the 25-minute range at Riverside, Bakersfield and Santa Clara. He would later finish second to Smith at both postseason meets.
Following this Saturday's meet, Pepperdine will next travel north to Seattle and the University of Washington for the Sundodger Invitational on Sept. 18.
