MALIBU, Calif. — Junior distance runner Karl Winter's school record-breaking 5,000-meter run highlighted Pepperdine's return to the track at Westmont's Sunshine Collegiate Invitational on Saturday, Feb. 13.

"We had a great first meet," Pepperdine head track coach Sylvia Mosqueda said. "Everyone had to take away the positives after competing for the first time in 11 months… We're all just super grateful to be on the start line today."

Staring down a 344-day streak since the last time Pepperdine raced in any capacity, plenty of Waves were eager to get back on the track and compete. But despite that long pause, Winter (Stockton, Calif./Saint Mary's HS) didn't miss a beat from last season. Winter — who broke the program's 1,500-meter record in Pepperdine's last track meet on March 7, 2020 — went into the Sunshine Invitational with the 5,000-meter record in his sights.

And, in his first collegiate 5K, Winter broke the program record by 1.33 seconds.

"I am grateful and excited for things to come for both myself and for the program," Winter said. "The program has come a long way. Plenty of guys have paved the way for me in the 5K event: Both Kevin Maeda and Nick Heath have run fast times in the 5K, so they're good runners to have learned from and to have come after. I'm the next guy in what hopefully will be a long line of people who will be able to break the record in this event."

Despite rough winds and no crowd energy to feed off of — the Waves, as Mosqueda said, had to be cheerleaders today too — Winter started off the race in the front pack and went through the first mile in a 4:32.

"It was ambitious, but I knew it would be that way," Winter said. "I wanted to hold on to him for as long as I could because I didn't want to be running solo."

Winter chipped away at the lead without falling off pace of the school record, and with 600 meters to go, Mosqueda said Winter mounted a bit of a comeback. Needing a 67-second final lap to break the school record, Winter put the hammer down and ran the last lap in a 66 in order to break the record.

"He always has a good kick," Mosqueda said. "Karl has really mastered knowing how to put the pedal down with a quarter-mile to go, and he did that today."

Over on the sprinting side, Brown transfer Kennedy Kerr (West Hempstead, N.Y./Long Island Lutheran) provided the highlight of the day with her second-place finish in the 200-meter dash.

"She looked great," Mosqueda said. "She's the real deal. If we put a lot of work in with her, she's going to break a lot of records for Pepperdine. That's going to be exciting."

Her 25.75 not only is less than two seconds off the school record, but also ranks fifth on the program's all-time leaderboard for the event.

For now, Winter and the rest of the team will have to wait for more shots to rise up the program leaderboards. As a result of pushing the fall sports season to the spring, some of the Waves will briefly pivot to cross country for the WCC Cross Country Championships, held in Las Vegas, Nev. on Feb. 24.

"It's bizarre having to prepare for two different kinds of events at one time," Mosqueda said. "But I've got 10 days to mold them to have a good race at WCCs, and I'm excited for that."

NOTABLES:

• Pepperdine runners littered the top 10 of the men's 5K. Junior Kyle McCabe (Westminster, Colo./Holy Family HS) placed in third with a 15:00.08 — seven seconds off of the program's top-five leaderboard. Teammates Preston Gromer (Casper, Wyo./Kelly Walsh HS) finished close behind in fifth with a 15:37.51, and freshman Jonathan Flint (Flower Mound, Texas/Flower Mound HS) was sixth with a 16:02.91.

• Senior Justin Touhey (Stony Point, N.Y./Don Bosco Preparatory HS) split up a pack of Loyola Marymount runners in the men's 3K. He finished in eighth with an 8:49.30.

• Key Pearson (Bainbridge Island, Wash./Vistamar School), a mainstay on Pepperdine's women's cross country team, made her track debut with a 19:34.58 in the 5,000-meters. Her teammate, freshman Skylar Davis (Savannah, Ga./Savannah Arts Academy), finished close behind with a 19:38.51.

• Freshman William Watkins (Mill Valley, Calif./Marin Catholic HS) ran a 23.23 in the 200 and a 53.08 in the 400.

NEXT UP: The next full track meet on the schedule is the Central California Invitational, held at Fresno Pacific University on March 6 at 8 a.m.

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