Pepperdine University
Pacific Invite
Pepperdine Competes at the Pacific Invitational This Friday
9/16/2024 3:45:00 PM | Cross Country
MALIBU, Calif. — After nearly three weeks of training since the team's last race, the Pepperdine cross country program will head north up I-5 to Stockton, Calif. for the Pacific Invite on Friday.
Competing at the Micke Grove Golf Course, the men's 8-kilometer race will begin at 5:30 p.m., with the women's 6K to follow at 6:15. If available, a live result link can be found on the cross country team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.
Friday's race will be a West Coast Conference preview, of sorts. Aside from Pepperdine and the hosting Pacific Tigers, LMU, San Francisco and Saint Mary's are the other conference foes scheduled to attend. Later this fall, all 11 WCC schools return to Micke Grove Golf Course for the WCC Championships, scheduled for Nov. 2.
With the season ramping up in October at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational, Friday's race not only offers a tune-up opportunity for the Waves, but also a chance to see where the team stacks up against some of its conference competitors.
Pepperdine has raced just once so far this season. At the season-opening Waves Invitational on Aug. 30, the men's team placed third and the women's team placed fourth in the Waves' only home race of the 2024 season. The women finished ahead of fourth-place LMU, while the men's team has yet to toe the line against WCC competition this year.
As one of three top-20 finishers for Pepperdine, sophomore Lizzy Crawford led the women's team for the sixth-straight race, covering the 4-kilometer course in 13:27.4. Her time was nearly a 30-second improvement over her last 4K at the Alumni Park course last year. Senior Eden Mittelsdorf was Pepperdine's second finisher (and 13th overall) in her first cross country race since 2022, plus sophomore Hannah Miller used a strong finish to place 20th. True freshmen Grace Simpson and Riley Burgess rounded out the scoring runners for Pepperdine, making four of the team's five scoring runners underclassmen.
Meanwhile, the men's team used a pack-running approach to achieve a 1-minute and 11-second pack time Sophomore Gordy Nilsen led the team with his 6K time of 18:45.4, good for 19th place, then, freshman Elijah Gentry and sophomore Rowan Nilsen finished in 21st and 22nd place, respectively. Patrick Thomas and Dominic Silhol rounded out the scoring runners for the Waves, helping put all five Pepperdine runners in the top 25.
After this week, the Waves head east to the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational, which is shaping up to be the biggest race of the regular season for both teams. The race is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 4.
Players Mentioned
