MALIBU, Calif. — The Pepperdine track team wraps up March with a short trip to the Vince O'Boyle Track Classic, held at UC Irvine this Saturday.
The meet begins with the women's 4x100-meter relay at noon and will wrap up with the men's 4x400-meter relay at 4:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased through UC Irvine's athletics website or via this link. The meet will not be livestreamed, but a live result link can be found on the track team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.
Track season is ramping up. With indoor track season in the rear-view mirror and the nation's top competitors finding their footing outdoors, this weekend will be one of the more competitive meets the Waves have seen so far.
But Pepperdine is ready. The Waves have set school records in every outdoor track meet this season. So far, head coach Lauren Floris' squad has broken 15 school records this year, making this one of the most successful seasons in program history.
Although this weekend will not have distance events longer than 1,500 meters, the Waves will be running at close to full strength.
The women's 1,500-meter run features indoor mile school record holder Hannah Bruner, indoor 800-meter school record holder Caroline Graham and star sophomore Lizzy Crawford for the Waves, who come in with three of the fastest times on the heat sheet. Bruner is coming off a personal-best time of 4:35.99 last Saturday, while Crawford will try her hand at a shorter race after lowering her school record in the 5K last Friday.
However, Graham is also entered in the fastest heat of the 800-meter dash, where she could go for the school record. Her personal-best time of 2:13.91 ranks third all-time at Pepperdine and is the fifth-fastest time on the heat sheet.
The men's 1,500 will be equally competitive between Gordy Nilsen, Elijah Gentry and Kaleb McElfish, all of whom are in the fast heat.
In the shorter distances, the Waves will look to PR in the second-fastest heats in nearly every event. Senior Kaley Peterson ran a collegiate-best 100-meter dash time of 12 seconds flat, and she is looking to become the third Wave to go sub-12 in that event this weekend. She is also entered in the 200-meter dash with her personal-best time of 24.86 seconds, which ranks third all-time at Pepperdine.
Hurdlers Maddy Ortman and school record holder Brittany Rivas are in the fastest heat of the 400-meter hurdles, which are scheduled for 3:05 p.m. Rivas broke the school record in her collegiate debut with her time of 1:03.74, while Ortman is coming off her collegiate personal best time of 1:05.17, which ranks third all-time at Pepperdine.
The women's 4x400-meter relay team of Ortman, Rivas, Isabella Reyes and Lexi Thomas will try to break the outdoor school record once again this weekend. Going up against seven teams who have gone well below four minutes in the relay, Pepperdine might have a shot at breaking the program record of 3:51.82, which has stood since 2017.
From here, the Waves head south to UC San Diego's Triton Invitational on April 4-5, which will be the last chance for the team to improve before one of the biggest meets in the nation: the Bryan Clay Invitational. All schedule updates can be found on the track team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.
