SACRAMENTO, California – The Pepperdine men's cross country team had another milestone performance on Saturday, finishing first among all Division I teams at the Capital Cross Challenge.
The Waves finished second overall behind Division II Chico State but posted head-to-head wins against the likes of West Coast Conference rivals Loyola Marymount, Saint Mary's and Santa Clara, among others in the 26-team field. Of the teams in this week's West Region rankings, Pepperdine defeated #9 California and #11 Santa Clara.
Kyle Johnson led the men's team for the second time in his career, posting a 12th-place finish in 24:40.6, just one second off his PR. Four Waves made a move up the men's all-time 8K list:
Karl Winter to fifth,
Justin Touhey to seventh,
Preston Gromer to 11th and
Jackson Felkins to 14th.
For the ninth time in nine career races,
Abbey Meck led the Waves on the women's side.
The Waves will be back to Haggin Oaks Golf Course later this season for the NCAA West Regional Championship.
MEN'S 8K LEADERS
- Sophomore Kyle Johnson (Rochester Hills, Mich./Rochester HS) 12th place, 24:40.6
- Freshman Karl Winter (Stockton, Calif./Saint Mary's HS) 15th place, 24:44.0 (PR)
- Senior Nick Heath (Scotts Valley, Calif./Scotts Valley HS) 27th place, 25:05.5
- Sophomore Justin Touhey (Stony Point, N.Y./Don Bosco Preparatory HS) 39th place, 25:14.7 (PR)
- Sophomore Preston Gromer (Casper, Wyo./Kelly Walsh HS) 45th place, 25:22.2 (PR)
WOMEN'S 6K LEADERS
- Sophomore Abbey Meck (Santa Cruz, Calif./San Lorenzo Valley HS) 36th place, 22:10.1
- Sophomore Caroline Archer (Brentwood, Tenn./Brentwood Academy) 97th place, 23:09.6 (PR)
- Sophomore Lindsay Sanger (Sinking Spring, Pa./Wilson HS) 122nd place, 23:32.5
- Freshman Riley Wright (Chandler, Ariz./Corona Del Sol HS) 128th place, 23:37.0 (PR)
- Freshman Shelby White (San Antonio, Texas/Winston Churchill HS) 146th place, 23:51.5
QUOTABLE
Pepperdine Coach
Robert Radnoti said: "I'm really excited about our men's team. We're halfway through the season we're where we pictured ourselves. We're beating some of the teams we haven't beaten in the past, including some of our WCC opponents. To win the Division I championship was really exciting. Interesting, Nick wasn't our top runner today. Kyle ran really strong and another huge surprise was Karl, who might have been the top freshman in the whole meet. Things are looking really good for the men.
"Abbey ran about 45 seconds faster than she did last year here. It's really nice to see the continued progress of all of our women, we just need to keep working on closing the gap between them and Abbey. I want to give a shout-out to our coaches, they have all been providing outstanding leadership and it's terrific to have a full staff that can give proper and great training."
UP NEXT
Pepperdine's final regular-season meet before the WCC Championships is in two weeks at Santa Clara's Bronco Invitational (Saturday, October 13).
