BREA, California – Led by senior Nick Heath's sixth-place finish, the Pepperdine men's cross country team got the 2018 season off to a good start with a fourth-place team result at Cal State Fullerton's Mark Covert Classic on Saturday morning.
 
The men's team took fourth out of 12 Division I teams in the event held at Carbon Canyon Regional Park. The Waves had four runners in the top 25.
 
Three Waves posted PRs that rank among the program's top 20 times in the 8K (Justin Touhey in seventh, Jalen Frantal in 15th and Preston Gromer in 16th), while in his collegiate debut, freshman Karl Winter posted a time that ranks him ninth all-time.
 
For the seventh time in seven career races, sophomore Abbey Meck led the Waves on the women's side with her 16th-place result. Her PR of 18:09.7 moved her from 10th to seventh on the Waves' all-time 5K list.
 
MEN'S 8K LEADERS
 

• Senior Nick Heath (Scotts Valley, Calif./Scotts Valley HS), 6th place, 24:54.3
• Sophomore Justin Touhey (Stony Point, N.Y./Don Bosco Preparatory HS), 19th place, 25:18.5 (PR)
• Freshman Karl Winter (Stockton, Calif./Saint Mary's HS), 21st place, 25:24.9
• Sophomore Kyle Johnson (Rochester Hills, Mich./Rochester HS), 24th place, 25:27.0
• Junior Jalen Frantal (Westerville, Ohio/Westerville Central HS), 30th place, 25:38.8 (PR)

 
WOMEN's 5K LEADERS
 

• Sophomore Abbey Meck (Santa Cruz, Calif./San Lorenzo Valley HS), 16th place, 18:09.7 (PR)
• Sophomore Lindsay Sanger (Sinking Spring, Pa./Wilson HS), 95th place, 19:53.8 (PR)
• Freshman Shelby White (San Antonio, Texas/Winston Churchill HS), 105th place, 20:07.0
• Junior Cori Persinger (Lee's Summit, Mo./Lee's Summit West HS), 112th place, 20:16.0
• Sophomore Caroline Archer (Brentwood, Tenn./Brentwood Academy), 120th place, 20:27.3

 
QUOTABLE
 
Pepperdine Coach Robert Radnoti says: "It was really exciting. At the beginning part of the men's race we were 1-2-3 and I was thinking this was really cool, but some of the other teams that are a little bit stronger than us came up in the end. But we finished fourth overall out of a really excellent field, by far the best we've ever done here. Nick ran great again, breaking 25 minutes on this very tough course. I'm really excited for our men's team. On the women's side, Abbey Meck led us as usual. She ran very strong, then we've got a bunch of young women behind her that we need to move up closer to Abbey. It was a great day of racing and a great way to start 2018."
 
Nick Heath says: "I'm really proud of our team. I know a lot of our guys put in a lot of hard work year-round, and it was really good to see them so close behind me and really working together. I think our team has good things ahead of us."
 
UP NEXT
 
Pepperdine's second meet of the season is Washington State's Cougar Classic on Friday, September 14.