MALIBU, Calif. — Competing at one of the largest collegiate track meets in the nation, the Pepperdine track team heads to Azusa Pacific University for the Bryan Clay Invitational, which will take place from Wednesday to Friday.
The meet will be livestreamed, albeit behind a paywall, on FloTrack. Live stream and live results links, along with other meet information, can be found on the track team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.
This week is the best opportunity for the Waves to punch their tickets to the NCAA West Regional meet. Every year, thousands of athletes converge in Los Angeles this week for competitive meets in good weather at sea level, making this week the most important regular-season week of college track and field. The Waves will compete against the nation's best athletes across all divisions, and with fast standards required to compete at Bryan Clay, Pepperdine will only send its best athletes to Azusa Pacific.
On Wednesday, Pepperdine's lone event will be Elijah Gentry's heat of the 3,000-meter steeplechase, which is scheduled for 4:45 p.m. PT. Gentry ranks second in program history with his collegiate-best time of 9:13.16, which is also 74th in the West Region. But this will be his first competitive steeplechase heat of the season; Chris Ogle's school record of 9:10.33 will be challenged.
Thursday will be a busy day for Pepperdine. The open heats of the 5,000-meter run will take place at 7 a.m., then Pepperdine will have athletes competing in the 800 meters and the 5K later in the afternoon.
Lizzy Crawford and Eden Mittelsdorf are Pepperdine's lone women in the 5K. Crawford's school record time of 16:38.36 ranks 73rd in the West Region, while Mittelsdorf ranks eighth in program history with her personal best time of 17:51.78.
As for the men, Gordy Nilsen, Patrick Thomas and Dominic Silhol are entered in the 5K. All three men are in Pepperdine's top-10 rankings in the event: Nilsen ran his lifetime best mark of 14:30.38 earlier this year, which is the fifth-fastest time in program history. Thomas isn't far behind with his lifetime PR of 14:33.56 (seventh all-time), while Silhol ranks 10th with his freshman-year PR of 14:49.58. Bryan Clay will give all three men their first competitive 5K races of the year.
Pepperdine has nine athletes signed up for the 800 meters. Indoor school record holder Caroline Graham leads five Waves in the event with her personal-best time of 2:13.91, which is third all-time and less than three seconds off Olivia Miller's school record of 2:12.11. On the men's side, Ryan Fabian leads the quartet of Pepperdine runners in the 800-meter dash. His time of 1:51.63 ranks third in program history.
Friday is the only day with Pepperdine sprinters and distance runners in action. Open heats of the 1,500-meter run begin the day at 8:30 a.m., then Kaley Peterson's heat of the 100-meter dash is Pepperdine's first sprinting event at 12:05 p.m.
Later that afternoon, school-record-holder Brittany Rivas and Maddy Ortman compete in the 400-meter hurdles at 2:35 p.m. Peterson will run the 200-meter dash at 3:35 p.m. before the Waves' 4x400-meter relay team of Rivas, Ortman, Isabella Reyes and Lexi Thomas are scheduled to compete at 4:30 p.m.
Friday night will also feature dozens of heats of the 1,500-meter run to conclude the meet. Indoor mile record holder Hannah Bruner will compete alongside Crawford, Graham and Ashley Eagan in the 1,500-meter run, while Gentry, Nilsen and Kaleb McElfish are Pepperdine's representatives in the men's 1,500. Heat assignments for the 1,500-meter run will be released later in the week.
UP NEXT: The Waves have one more meet with the full squad: The Oxy Invitational on May 3. All schedule updates can be found on the track and field team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.
EVENT SCHEDULE
WEDNESDAY
4:45 p.m. — Men's 3,000-meter steeplechase
THURSDAY
7:00 a.m. — Men's open B 5,000 meters
8:05 a.m. — Women's open B 5,000 meters
9:25 a.m. — Men's open C 5,000 meters
10:30 a.m. — Women's open C 5,000 meters
2:00 p.m. — Women's open 800 meters
3:00 p.m. — Men's open 800 meters
6:35 p.m. — Women's open A 5K Heat 1
6:50 p.m. — Men's open A 5K Heat 1
7:06 p.m. — Women's open A 5K Heat 2
7:24 p.m. — Men's open A 5K Heat 2
7:40 p.m. — Women's open A 5K Heat 3
8:00 p.m. — Men's open A 5K Heat 3
8:16 p.m. — Women's open A 5K Heat 4
8:36 p.m. — Men's open A 5K Heat 4
9-11:00 p.m. — Men's and Women's Invite 5K
FRIDAY
8:30 a.m. — Men's open C 1,500 meters
9:00 a.m. — Women's open C 1,500 meters
12:05 p.m. — Women's 100 meters
2:35 p.m. — Women's 400-meter hurdles
3:35 p.m. — Women's 200 meters
4:30 p.m. — Women's 4x400-meter relay
5:00 p.m. onward — Men's and women's 1,500-meter run
