By Hailey Amato
Staff Writer
The Pepperdine men’s and women’s cross country teams have had a busy stretch, hosting a dual meet against University of San Diego on Oct. 5 and competing in the Bronco Invitational in Belmont last Oct 19.
The Waves faced San Diego in head-to-head competition in their only home meet of the season at the Stotsenberg Track. The Toreros outran the tired, injured Waves, beating them soundly on Pepperdine’s home course.
On the men’s side Pepperdine fell to San Diego 21-35.
“You would think running on our own course would help,” Head Coach Dick Kampmann said. “It didn’t at all.”
They were led by no. 1. runner freshmen Chad Trammell, who clocked a time of 21:50 on the four mile course.
“I got second which was expected,” Trammell said. “Their No. 1 runner is really good. I guess I did my job.”
He trailed only San Diego’s race leader Antonio Lopez, who finished second in standings at last year’s West Coast Conference.
“Lopez is a good runner,” Kampmann said. “But they’re a good team too. They beat us like a drum.”
San Diego had runners in four of the top five spots.
Behind Trammell were teammates junior Louis Rich in sixth at 22:22, freshmen Drew Repp in seventh at 22:23, senior Dave Cameron in ninth at 23:40 and senior Captain John Valdez in 11th at 23:04.
Pepperdine’s No. 1 runner on the women’s team, junior Christine Carter, was unable to finish the race due to illness. The weather conditions were hot for both the men’s and women’s races.
“We were not competitive,” Kampmann said. “Completely outclassed. It has to do with the training cycle we’re on. They are training and developing and don’t get a chance to rest before meets. They will be rested when conference comes.”
The Waves were defeated by San Diego 17-43 in the five kilometer competition.
Junior Jennifer Crossland was Pepperdine’s top runner in. She finished fourth in a field of 14 in 19:31. She was followed closely by junior Jill Quye in seventh at 20:36.
The Waves only had five runners finish the competition, which is the minimum team to score team points. All other women were out because of injury or illness.
Pepperdine headed north to meet many conference rivals at the Crystal Springs Course on Oct. 19 and the race outcome was more positive than two weeks earlier.
The men finished sixth in a eight team field with 148 points. The men still have things to work on, Kampmann said.
“It was a mediocre performance by the men,” “They are running tired. They haven’t moved off the plateau yet. They’ll be moving upwards soon.”
Trammel was again the Waves top runner, finishing 19th in 27:15. His time tied teammate Rich’s time from last year, as the sixth fastest ever for Pepperdine. Rich came across the line in 24th with a time of 27:30, Cameron finished in 31st place, junior Kevin Nerison in 34th and junior Nevada Tuggle in 40th.
“We didn’t finish as well as we should have,” Trammell said. “We drove nine hours on the bus and we were all pretty tired. It was nice to see the course though, because conference will be there in two weeks.”
Carter returned to action for the Waves in the Bronco Invitational, and helped the women finish sixth of 11 teams on the five kilometer course.
“We did really really well,” Carter said. “Five people set personal records and we had four people under twenty minutes. The course was tough so it was impressive that everyone improved their scores so much.”
The race was won by Nevada with 36 points. Pepperdine had 168 and defeated four conference opponents. Out of the West Coast Conference teams participating, only host team, Santa Clara came out on top of Pepperdine.
Carter ran a personal best time of 19:22 to place 25th. She cut 10 seconds off her former best time.
“I was really happy,” she said. “I ran thirty seconds faster than last year, but I was surprised to set a personal record.”
This made Carter the fifth-fastest runner of all time for Pepperdine on the course.
Two seconds back was teammate Crossland. Freshmen Lauren Tyree, back from injury earlier in the season, came in 29th. Shanon Watson was 40th and Lauren Gray was 48th to round off the Waves top five.
Pack running played a large role in the Waves successful finish. They finished with a team time of 98:38, the No. 1 team time ever.
“We hadn’t really come in as a team up until that point,” Carter said. “Crossland was right behind me, and the other girls were right behind her. Our top five was pretty close together which is something we’ve struggled on most of the season. If we want to win at conference, we have to run as a team.”
When the Waves travel again to the Belmont Course for the West Coast Conference in two weeks, they hope to be ready for the tough competition and a tough course.
“The course is really hilly,” Carter said. “Just up and down, up and down. The whole last mile is a gradual uphill. It is a real cross country course, full of nature trails and wilderness. It’s pretty treacherous and overwhelming. It’s a challenging course, but I think we need a challenging course to really step it up.”
Pepperdine will compete in their last invitational before the West Coast Conference on Oct. 25. The Orange County Titan Invitational will be hosted by Cal State Fullerton and held at the Carbon Canyon Regional Park in Brea.
“We use races to learn,” Kampmann said. “ After six meets we’ve learned a lot of lessons. It’s time to start going out and racing to win.”
October 24, 2002