Pepperdine University
WCC Championships
Cross Country Ready for WCC Championships
10/25/2018 9:32:00 AM | Cross Country
MALIBU, California – The Pepperdine men's and women's cross country teams will aim for postseason success this weekend when the Waves run at the West Coast Conference Championships hosted by BYU. The men's squad is ranked #14 in the West Region.
MEET DETAILS
The race will be held at the East Bay Golf Course in Provo, Utah. The women's 6K is at 10 a.m. MT (9 a.m. PT), followed by the men's 8K at 11 a.m. MT (10 a.m. PT). There will be live coverage on TheW.tv.
MEN'S TEAM
The fastest men's team in program history hopes to make a big jump into the top half of the WCC standings from last year's eighth-place finish. The last time the men's team accomplished that was 2002.
Senior Nick Heath (Scotts Valley, Calif./Scotts Valley HS) is the school-record holder in both the 8K (24:03.9) and 10K (30:22.7), plus he's had four first-place finishes in his career. Last year, Heath became the first Wave to receive all-conference status since 2007, as he placed 15th last year to earn All-WCC honorable mention honors. He was named to the 2018 preseason All-WCC team. Plus, he's twice earned CoSIDA Academic All-District first team honors for his work in the classroom.
The last time out, nine Waves had PRs at the Bronco Invitational that moved them up on the Waves' all-time top 20 in the 8K. Heath broke his own school record, while sophomore Kyle Johnson (Rochester Hills, Mich./Rochester HS) and freshman Karl Winter (Stockton, Calif./Saint Mary's HS) moved up to #2 and #3, respectively, on the Waves' all-time list. Sophomore Justin Touhey (Stony Point, N.Y./Don Bosco Preparatory HS) is now #6, sophomore Preston Gromer (Casper, Wyo./Kelly Walsh HS) is #7, freshman Jackson Felkins (Southlake, Texas/Carroll Senior HS) is #9, junior Jalen Frantal (Westerville, Ohio/Westerville Central HS) is #10 (tied), sophomore Tim Wells (Burbank, Calif./John Burroughs HS) is #13 and junior Adam Fahey (Clearwater, Fla./Palm Harbor University HS) is #15.
The Waves finished no worse than fourth at any of their regular-season meets and they are coming off a third-place showing (second among Division I schools) at the Bronco Invitational.
Pepperdine achieved its first-ever West Region ranking on October 1 when the Waves were listed at #13. They moved to #14 on October 15.
WOMEN'S TEAM
Sophomore Abbey Meck (Santa Cruz, Calif./San Lorenzo Valley HS) has been the Waves' top finisher at all 10 meets she's run in her career. She moved up to #5 on Pepperdine's all-time 6K list with a 21:36.8 her last time out at the Bronco Invitational.
The team's #2-5 runners at the Bronco Invitational were sophomore Caroline Archer (Brentwood, Tenn./Brentwood Academy), freshman Shelby White (San Antonio, Texas/Winston Churchill HS), sophomore Cori Persinger (Lee's Summit, Mo./Lee's Summit West HS) and sophomore Lindsay Sanger (Sinking Spring, Pa./Wilson HS). Archer (#11) and White (#13) entered the Waves' all-time top 20 in the 6K.
QUOTABLE
Head coach Robert Radnoti says: "The team is so excited to go to Provo. It will be the first time many of them have raced at high altitude. I think our men will have their best placing in a long time, at least since I've been here. We're really fortunate that everyone seems to be healthy. Nick Heath, he's a senior and this is going to be his last WCC Championships so I think he's going to be really strong. Everyone is excited to compete against the rest of the WCC."
UP NEXT
The NCAA West Regional will be hosted by Sacramento State on Friday, November 9.
Players Mentioned
