Pepperdine University
Joe Piane Notre Dame Invite
Cross Country Season Ramps up with Two Races This Weekend
10/1/2024 11:58:00 AM | Cross Country
MALIBU, Calif. — With the postseason one month away, the Pepperdine cross country season ramps up this weekend with two of the biggest regular-season races of the year: the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational and The Master's XC Invitational.
On Friday, Pepperdine will send fourteen runners to the 68th annual Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational, which features eight nationally ranked teams and 38 teams ranked in the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association regional polls. Simply put, the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational is one of the most prestigious and competitive regular-season collegiate races. Rounding out the weekend, a separate squad will stay local to race at The Master's XC Invitational on Saturday morning.
All pertinent links will be found on the cross-country team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.
ÂFRIDAY: JOE PIANE NOTRE DAME INVITATIONAL
Women's 5-kilometer race: 10:30 a.m. PT/1:30 p.m. ET
Men's 8-kilometer race: 11:15 a.m. PT/2:15 p.m. ET
Boasting a field of 50 men's teams and 60 women's teams, the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational will be the biggest race the Waves toe the line at until the postseason. A grand total of eight nationally ranked teams and 38 regionally ranked teams will converge at the Notre Dame Cross Country course for what should be one of the most competitive regular-season races.Â
Opportunities like this don't happen very often for a team like Pepperdine, which last traveled east of the Mississippi River for a major race in 2021. Want to be taken seriously? Run well at Notre Dame.
Both Pepperdine teams will be in the "gold" races, which feature at least 20 teams. On paper, Vanderbilt (#12, South Region) and Dayton (#15 in the Great Lakes) will be the teams to chase on the men's side, while Wisconsin-La Crosse — the top Division III team — will be a darkhorse contender. For the women, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (#12 South Central), Western Michigan (#15, Great Lakes) and Akron, which won last year's gold race, could be the teams to beat.
On the women's side, sophomore Lizzy Crawford has led the Waves for the last seven races and already has two top-10 finishes this season. But the women's team will need veterans Eden Mittelsdorf and Caroline Graham to finish as close to Crawford as possible to help the team's score. Last time out, Mittelsdorf ran her all-time best 6K at the Pacific Invitational; her time of 22:28.7 was five seconds behind Crawford, which is what the Waves will need to cut down their pack time this weekend too.
Like the women's team, the Pepperdine men's team is also led by a sophomore. Gordy Nilsen has been the Waves' top finisher for the last two races, and his time of 25:18.8 at the Pacific Invitational was good for 20th on the program's all-time list. Unlike the women's team, the men's team is frontloaded with talent and currently needs a consistent fifth runner. Patrick Thomas, Dominic Silhol and Elijah Gentry give the Waves a solid front four, yet the fifth spot is where the Waves need a little help. Either Kaleb McElfish, Rowan Nilsen or Elias Spence will need to answer the call as the team's final scoring runner.
Aside from Pepperdine, Washington State is the only other West Coast Conference team heading to South Bend. However, the Cougars will be in the blue races, making Pepperdine the lone West Region team in both gold races.
ÂSATURDAY: THE MASTER'S XC INVITATIONAL
Men's 8-kilometer race: 8 a.m. PT
Women's 6-kilometer race: 8:45 a.m. PT
While some of the Waves head east, a separate squad will compete at The Master's XC on Saturday morning. Over 25 collegiate men's and women's teams will toe the line at Central Park in Santa Clarita, Calif. for the men's 8K and women's 6K races.
The women's team will stack up against several WCC schools: LMU, Pacific, and, for the first time all season, Santa Clara. Pepperdine last saw LMU and Pacific at the Pacific Invitational, where the women's team placed ahead of both teams en route to a fourth-place finish.Â
Freshman Grace Simpson and sophomore Jessica Guardino highlight the 10-woman squad competing in Santa Clarita, while Colin Knowles and Henry Hicks highlight the five-person men's team. Senior Brooke Bakken is the only Wave with experience at The Master's Invitational; she ran a 21:11.4 in the open 5K as a freshman in 2021.
After this weekend, the Waves will have one more regular-season race: The UCR Highlander Invitational, held on Oct. 19.
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Players Mentioned
