Pepperdine University
Highlander Invitational
Pepperdine Wraps up Regular Season at the Highlander Invitational
10/17/2024 2:52:00 PM | Cross Country
MALIBU, Calif. — The Pepperdine cross country team will wrap up its regular season with a trip to Riverside for the Highlander Invitational on Saturday.
The men's 8-kilometer race begins at 8 a.m. with the women's 6-kilometer race to follow at 8:40 a.m. Saturday's race will not be livestreamed, but live result links can be found on the cross country team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com. Tickets to the race can be purchased here.
The Highlander Invitational is familiar territory for the Waves. With its flat, fast course and competitive fields, UC Riverside's Ag Ops Course has been a staple of Pepperdine's cross country schedule for over a decade. Favorable racing conditions and familiarity with the course make this weekend a prime opportunity for a tune-up race before the West Coast Conference Cross Country Championships in two weeks.
Last season, the Waves ran plenty of season-best times at the UC Riverside Invitational as the men's team placed 13th and the women's team finished 14th. Individually, Lizzy Crawford led the Waves with a 6K time of 21:07.2 — good for 25th overall — a year ago, while Patrick Thomas is the top returner on the men's team from last year with his 8K time of 25:06.3. Seven of the program's top times have occurred on this course. More might occur on Saturday.
This year, San Diego is the only WCC competition at the Highlander Invitational. Other Division I teams in the field include a solid six teams from the Big West, highlighted by the UC Riverside men (12th in the USTFCCCA West Regional Rankings) and the UC Irvine women (#11 in the USTFCCCA West Regional Rankings).Â
During the Waves' last weekend of action, the team sent its main squad to the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational, while a separate squad competed at The Master's XC Invitational. For the third straight race this season, sophomores Gordy Nilsen and the aforementioned Crawford were the top finishers for Pepperdine.
The team ran four new top-20 times at Notre Dame. Running the 12th fastest 8K time in program history, Nilsen's 24:40.1 led the men's squad and was good for 20th place, plus true freshman Elijah Gentry provided another bright spot for the Waves by running the 19th fastest time in Pepperdine history with a 25:08.9. Over in the women's 5K, Crawford ran the fifth-fastest 5K time in Pepperdine history with an 18:00.4, which was, interestingly enough, her first collegiate 5K on grass. Eden Mittelsdorf broke into the program's top-20 5K leaderboard with her time of 18:36.0, good for 19th all-time.
At The Master's, Grace Simpson led Pepperdine with a personal-best 6K time of 23:50.70. For the men, freshman Colin Knowles clocked a 27:33.30 8-kilometer time to lead the Waves.Â
From here, the postseason begins with the WCC Championships, hosted at Burke Golf Course in Lodi, Calif. All pertinent information can be found on the cross country team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.
Players Mentioned
