MALIBU, Calif. — The Pepperdine men's track team will begin its season at Westmont College's Sunshine Open, held in Santa Barbara, Calif. on Saturday, Feb. 9. 

Pepperdine's first event, the distance medley relay, is scheduled to begin at 11:30 a.m., then the meet will end with the 4x800-meter relay at 4:30 p.m. A live stream and a live results link can be found on the track team's schedule page at pepperdinewaves.com.

Nine schools including the Waves will be in attendance. Of those nine, Pepperdine and UCSB are the only Division I schools, as the field will mostly consist of local Division II, Division III and NAIA schools.

This weekend marks the collegiate track debuts for freshmen Henry Hicks (800- and 1,000-meter dashes), Kaleb McElfish (distance medley relay), Gordy Nilsen (1,000-meter dash, 4x800-meter relay) and Dominic Silhol (3,000-meter run), plus the Pepperdine debut for UCSB transfer Brendan Fong. Fong, in particular, is seeded well in the 200-meter and 400-meter dashes on Saturday.

In the mid-distances, the 600-meter dash is the event of choice for the Waves, who will see Thomas Lewer, Spencer Mueller and Daniel Whitaker toe the line in the event. In the true distance events, senior Johnathan Flint will lead a trio of Waves in the 3,000-meter run. 

Pepperdine will run two relays at the meet: a distance medley relay of Mueller, Ryan Fabian, Nilsen and Lewer; then a 4x800-meter relay with Nathaniel Lerch, Nate Lannen, McElfish and Patrick Thomas.

From here, the Waves will have nearly a month off before the Beach Opener on March 2.