MALIBU, Calif. — Entering the most important month of the regular season, the Pepperdine track team heads south to UC San Diego to compete in the 32nd annual Triton Invitational this Friday and Saturday.
Friday's action starts at 2:50 p.m. with the women's 200-meter dash, then Saturday's slate begins with the women's 4x100-meter relay at 11 a.m. Tickets to the meet are required for both days and can be purchased at this link. While the meet will not be live-streamed, a live result link can be found on the Pepperdine track team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.
Coming off a strong month of March, Pepperdine's track team has broken 15 school records under fourth-year head coach Lauren Floris. The Waves are coming off a productive weekend at UC Irvine's Vince O'Boyle Track and Field Classic, which saw the team run seven new top-10 times.
Although last weekend was the first outdoor meet in which the Waves didn't break a school record, the team hopes to get back to its record-setting ways this weekend. Friday promises several fast, distance races in the evening slate, which could see some school records fall in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and the 5,000-meter run.
The Waves have four runners in the fast heat of the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase, which could be the fastest race in program history. Freshman Elijah Gentry ranks second in program history and 36th in the West Region with his time of 9:13.19, which is just five seconds off the school record. He'll be joined by Gordy Nilsen, Patrick Thomas and Kaleb McElfish, two of whom will be making their debuts in one of track and field's most challenging events.
Star sophomore Lizzy Crawford will compete alongside UC San Diego's strong distance runners in the 5K, where the Tritons will go for the facility record of 16:24.31. Crawford has run the two fastest 5K times in program history this year, and her school-record time of 16:38.36 ranks 29th in the West Region. She and mid-distance specialist Hannah Bruner will run alongside their head coach in the fast heat of the 5K, which is scheduled for 4:50 p.m.
Saturday will have a full slate of track events, starting with the women's 4x100-meter relay at 11 a.m. For the first time all season, the 800-meter dash will be run early in the meet schedule, and junior Caroline Graham will go for the school record while running in the fastest heat of the meet. On the men's side, Ryan Fabian is in the second-fastest heat of the event, where he will look to improve on his personal best of 1:51.63, which is the third-fastest in program history.
Other school records that could go down include both women's hurdle events. Led by 400-meter hurdles school-record-holder freshman Brittany Rivas, the hurdles squad has shown great improvements this season. She is entered in both the 100-meter high hurdles and the 400-meter hurdles, alongside teammates Maddy Ortman and Lauren Rocco.
Elsewhere in the shorter-distance events, senior sprinter Kaley Peterson is coming off a collegiate-personal-best time of 12 seconds flat in the 100-meter dash, which ranks third all-time at Pepperdine. She is entered in just her specialty event this weekend, and she could become the third Wave to break the 12-second barrier while running on fresh legs. Kennedy Kerr's school record of 11.86 seconds might be in danger on Saturday.
Later in the meet, Pepperdine's 4x400-meter relay team of Rivas, Isabella Reyes, Ortman and Lexi Thomas will look to improve on their season-best time of 3:58.79, which ranks fifth in program history. The quartet broke the indoor 4x400-meter relay record earlier this spring and has gradually found its footing outdoors. They will be in heat two of the event.
From here, the Waves have one week off before competing in one of the biggest meets in the nation: the Bryan Clay Invitational, held from April 16-18 at Azusa Pacific University. All schedule updates can be found on the track team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.
