Pepperdine University
Aztec Invitational
Men's Cross Country Wins Aztec Invitational
9/18/2015 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
SAN DIEGO, Calif. " After putting four runners in the top six, the Pepperdine men's cross country team captured the team title at the Aztec Invitational on Friday morning.
Freshman Nick Heath (Scotts Valley, Calif./Scotts Valley HS) came in third place in 26:44.18 in the men's 8K at the Mission Bay Tecolote Shores North Park, and he was quickly followed to the finish line by junior Ben Fox (Colorado Springs, Colo./Cheyenne Mountain HS), sophomore Kevin Maeda (Highland, Calif./Citrus Valley HS) and sophomore Nick Blanchard (Portland, Conn./Portland HS).
Junior Gordie Thomas (Fallbrook, Calif./Great Oak HS) was the fifth Wave to score and he came in 13th place.
The Waves won the seven-team competition handily, scoring just 25 points. West Coast Conference foe San Diego was second with 62 points. After two races this season Pepperdine has yet to be beaten head-to-head, as the Waves defeated Cal State Northridge back on September 1 in Alumni Park.
"The men ran really, really well," Pepperdine Coach Robert Radnoti said. "Two meets and we're undefeated and that's pretty exciting. Our top four ran a good portion of the race together and that's a very strong group of four right now. We're still working on getting past a couple of nagging injuries for some of our other men. It's exciting to see our continued growth and how the training has paid off."
Pepperdine's women came in sixth place out of 13 teams. Senior Katie Engel (Honeoye Falls, N.Y./Honeoye Falls-Lima HS) led the Waves again with a third-place finish with a time of 18:25.26 in the 5K. It's the 11th time in the last 15 races that Engel has been Pepperdine's top runner.
"Katie has really been killing her workouts and she has been racing very well," Radnoti said. "There was some pretty good competition in the women's race and for Katie to finish third was a really good indicator of where she is headed."
Also scoring for the Waves were senior Mariah Gondeiro (Raynesford, Mont./Belt HS/Rocky Mountain College), junior Lindsay Sheaffer (Portland, Ore./Jesuit HS), freshman Elise Froebe (Lake Forest Park, Wash./Shorecrest HS) and senior Rachel Rant (Boise, Idaho/Boise HS).
Pepperdine's third race of the season is the Sacramento Jamboree on October 3.
