By Rosy Banks
Assistant Living Editor
With only three races until its conference meet, Pepperdine’s cross country team continues to show improvement and is set on making this season’s results shine in the record books.
At the Cal Poly Invitational in San Luis Obispo last weekend, the Pepperdine women finished 7th out of eight invited teams with Lauren Tyree leading the girls with a time of 19.15 in the 5K and Tarrah Crowley coming close behind in 19.17.
The men’s team finished 7th as well with senior Louis Rich running 28.45 for the 8k, and Neal Washburn clocking in at 29.29.
Recovering from an injury, Edward Leon ran a 30.16 to score points for the team.
“The course was hard with a lot of hills,” Tyree said. “Although it was a good preparation course for conference.”
Just two weeks ago men and women teams both beat University of California San Diego in a dual home meet, which has not been accomplished in more than a decade. Collectively, Pepperdine’s team has not been this fast since 1988, and times continue to fall.
“We’re doing phenomenal. The guys were mentally and physically prepared today,” Roman Chavez, the men’s coach said at the dual meet against San Diego. “Everything clicked at the same time.”
Top men’s runner sophomore Chad Trammell is also looking forward to the Conference meet and sets sights high for a top three finish at West Coast Conference.
“This race felt good,” Trammell said. “I’m really happy with the team’s performance. We should have a successful year.”
With Conference just around the bend, the teams are training to simply maintain their fitness level and store energy for the upcoming big race.
Surpassing expectations, the Pepperdine’s women’s team has nine girls all running under 20 minutes for the 5K.
The men’s team has seen dropping times as well. Trammell is the fastest runner in more than 10 years and a number of injured runners have recovered to make the team a stronger force.
“The team is as ready as we are going to be for Conference, as far as fitness level goes.” Tyree said.
With growth seen in every race Pepperdine runners and fans count on the upcoming WCC meet to be a critical race in Pepperdine’s cross country history.
“We’re powered by pulse and getting stronger as the races go on,” Rich said.
October 23, 2003