Cross Country Season Starts Saturday

MALIBU, California – The Pepperdine men's and women's cross country teams begin the 2018 season on Saturday at Cal State Fullerton's Mark Covert Classic.

MEET DETAILS

The race will be held at Carbon Canyon Regional Park in Brea, Calif. The men's 8K will start at 8:40 a.m., followed by the women's 5K at 9:15 a.m.

ROSTER NOTES

The 14-man men's team is an experienced group, with 11 returners from last year, including eight of the nine competitors from last year's West Coast Conference Championships. It's still a fairly young team, however, with only one senior and three juniors to go with seven sophomores and three freshmen.

Eleven of the 20 women on the roster have run for the Waves before, including eight of the nine that raced at last season's WCC Championships. There's not a single senior on the squad, and the breakdown is five juniors, seven sophomores and eight freshmen.

MEN'S TEAM

Senior Nick Heath (Scotts Valley, Calif./Scotts Valley HS) heads into his final year as one of the program's all-time greats. He became the first Wave to earn all-conference status since 2007, as he placed 15th last year to earn All-WCC honorable mention honors. The school-record holder in both the 8K and 10K, he's come in first place four times in his three seasons. Plus, he's twice earned CoSIDA Academic All-District first team honors for his work in the classroom.

Though the Waves lost last season's #2 runner, Kevin Maeda, to graduation, junior Jalen Frantal (Westerville, Ohio/Westerville Central HS) and sophomores such as Alex Egan (Escondido, Calif./San Pasqual HS), Preston Gromer (Casper, Wyo./Kelly Walsh HS), Kyle Johnson (Rochester Hills, Mich./Rochester HS) and Justin Touhey (Stony Point, N.Y./Don Bosco Preparatory HS) are back and expected to take a leap forward in their development. There are also high hopes for freshman Karl Winter (Stockton, Calif./Saint Mary's HS).

WOMEN'S TEAM

Sophomore Abbey Meck (Santa Cruz, Calif./San Lorenzo Valley HS) was the Waves' top finisher at all six meets last year and is expected to lead the Waves again. She put her name in the record book at #9 on Pepperdine's all-time 6K list and #10 on the 5K list.

Some of the other key returners back include junior Cori Persinger (Lee's Summit, Mo./Lee's Summit West HS) and sophomores Caroline Archer (Brentwood, Tenn./Brentwood Academy) and Lindsay Sanger (Sinking Spring, Pa./Wilson HS). Freshmen Key Pearson (Bainbridge Island, Wash./Vistamar School), Kaytlynn Welsch (Alvin, Texas/Alvin HS) and Shelby White (San Antonio, Texas/Winston Churchill HS) are expected to be among the leading newcomers.

QUOTABLE

Head coach Robert Radnoti says: "We've had a wonderful preseason camp and this will be our first real test. This is the Big West preview meet for their championship. Our men's team is going to be very strong, our women's team is young and getting better, we've got an incredible coaching staff, so the 2018 season is going to be amazing."

SCHEDULE

There are three additional meets before conference and regional events: Washington State's Cougar Classic (Sept. 14), Sacramento State's Capital Cross Challenge (Sept. 29) and Santa Clara's Bronco Invitational (Oct. 13). BYU will host the WCC Championships on Oct. 27. Sacramento State will host the NCAA West Regional on Nov. 9.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Caroline Archer

Alex Egan

Jalen Frantal

Preston Gromer

Nick Heath

Kyle Johnson

Kevin Maeda

Abbey Meck

Key Pearson

Cori Persinger

Lindsay Sanger

Justin Touhey

Kaytlynn Welsch

Shelby White

Karl Winter

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