Abbey Meck, a junior on the Pepperdine women's cross country and track teams, tells us about the start of the 2019-20 season with a new head coach and what she's most excited about:
 
Q: What have you been doing this summer to prepare for the upcoming season?
 
A: We've been training a lot with our recommended mileage plan from our coaches here at Pepperdine.
 
Q: What other fun things have you done this summer?
 
A: I had an internship at a hospital in here in Los Angeles. It was really cool because I was able to learn a lot from working in an emergency room.
 
Q: How does it feel to be back training at Pepperdine?
 
A: It's super nice. I've been running by myself a lot this summer and I forgot how nice it is to train with other people.
 
Q: How has it been so far with your new head coach?
 
A: Coach (Sylvia) Mosqueda was our assistant coach last year and we all really like her, so it was a smooth transition for her to become our head coach and we were excited about it. She has a lot of faith in us and a lot of goals for us that she knows we can accomplish. Having someone who believes in you even more than you do just pushes you further.
 
Q: How do you feel going into the first meet in a few weeks?

A: I'm excited! We have a lot of strong girls who have been working really hard this summer. I also think that starting off with a 5k instead of a 6k will be a nice lead-in for the season.
 
Q: What do you think your role will be this season?
 
A: I think this season our main goal is to create a better team dynamic. We all really need to run not only for ourselves but for each other, which I think will help us compete better, place better, and have an overall better environment. We're really going to do a lot of team bonding this year to make that happen.
 
Q: What are you hoping to achieve in the coming season?
 
A:  I haven't made a lot of goals for myself yet, but I think we just need to keep moving up in our rankings. Our returners and our new freshmen are coming in looking really strong, which will help us move up. We want to place higher at WCC and regionals.
 
Q: What are you most excited about for this season?
 
A: I'm excited to work with the girls more and with our two new coaches. Coach Mosqueda and Coach Maggie (Shearer) both bring a lot of energy and are really inspiring to the whole team. I also want to bring the girls' team much closer.