LODI, Calif. — Running on a cold, sunny day in Lodi, Calif., the Pepperdine cross country teams competed at the West Coast Conference Cross Country Championships on Saturday.
The men's team placed seventh out of eight teams with a team score of 176 points, while the women's team placed 10th out of 11 teams with a team score of 267 points. Both teams finished tantalizingly close to the squads ahead of them: The Pepperdine men were three points shy of sixth-place San Francisco, while just five points separated Pepperdine from the LMU women.
Seven of the eight men improved their 8-kilometer times from their first race at the Burke Golf Course back in September. Patrick Thomas and Gordy Nilsen stuck together from the get-go. Running together for the duration of the race, the Waves duo made a move on the last lap of the 8K course and finished three-tenths of a second apart. Thomas placed 30th and was the first Wave across the line in 24:48.5, while Gordy Nilsen was 31st with his time of 24:48.8.
Elsewhere in the men's race, sophomore Dominic Silhol shaved 19 seconds off his time at the Pacific Invitational, clocking a 25:27.4 8K time that placed 45th. Freshman Elijah Gentry finished in fourth for Pepperdine and 53rd overall, while Rowan Nilsen lopped off 1 minute and 50 seconds from his Pacific Invitational time with his time of 26:11.2 to place fifth for the Waves.
For the 10th consecutive race, Lizzy Crawford was Pepperdine's top finisher. Improving by nearly a minute from her last 6-kilometer race at Burke Golf Course, the sophomore established herself in the chase pack in the first third of the race, then finished in 34th place with her time of 21:32.8.
Eden Mittelsdorf was once again the Waves' second runner, placing 57th with her time of 22:32.1, while fellow upperclasswoman Caroline Graham was third for Pepperdine, placing 75th. Pepperdine's fourth runner, Ashley Eagan, moved up seven spots in the last two kilometers and was more than 30 seconds faster than the first time she ran the course. She placed 79th in 23:30.4. Freshman Grace Simpson rounded out the scoring runners for Pepperdine by placing 83rd.
All told, six of Pepperdine's 10 women were faster on Saturday than they were at the Pacific Invitational. Chief among them was Jessica Guardino, who cut two minutes off her time from September at WCCs. She was Pepperdine's sixth runner and placed 87th.
The 2024 WCC Championships were a Pacific Northwest victory lap. The Portland men and the Gonzaga women won the team titles, avenging their runner-up finishes from 2023. Both individual races were relatively uncontested wins. Gonzaga senior Rosina Machu defended her title with her victory in 19:45.3, while Washington State first-year Evans Kurui won the men's race in 22:52.0. In their first WCC Championships, the Cougars took third in both races while fellow conference newcomer Oregon State placed fourth on the women's side.
Pepperdine has one last guaranteed race at the NCAA West Regionals, held in Colfax, Wash. on Nov. 15. All 11 WCC institutions will compete in that race.
