On Saturday Sept. 12 the men’s and women’s cross-country teams participated in the Asics/UC Irvine Collegiate and Open Cross Country Invitational at the Anteater Recreation Center.
On the men’s side this race was open to any runner interested in participating in the event not only Divison 1 runners.
Sophomore Kenny Smith was the first runner from the men’s side to cross the finish line in the 8K leg of the race coming in 28th place in a field of 214 runners with a career-best time of 26:00.30. This time is more than a minute faster than his performance last season at the same event when he finished in 44th place. His previous career best was recorded during the 2008 season at the Stanford Invitational.
Smith had the motivation to break his record after his strong performance during the Sept. 1 Malibu Oceanside Open race. During the race Smith alternated first and second place with captain and junior Conrad Wozniak and ended up finishing in second only one second behind Wozniak.
Freshman Wesley Blundell was the second Wave to cross the finish line coming in with a time of 26:40.60 placing him 57th overall. Wozniak didn’t quite live up to his usual first place finish for the Waves placing third among Pepperdine runners with a time of 26:52.20.
Junior Seth Allison finished fourth for Pepperdine while senior Garrett Reim concluded the race for the men’s team with his fifth place finish. The team finished seventh out of 14 teams with a total of 230 points.
In the women’s 5K run junior Chelsea Wishard finished first for the Waves with a time of 17:53.70 and an eighth place overall finish. This time is almost 30 seconds faster than the time she recorded in the 2008 season at the same event.
Sophomore Lauren Lodge finished second a place behind her usual standing with a time of 18:16.80 to give her a 17th place finish. Sophomore Aneasha Lawrence was the third woman to cross the line for the Pepperdine women’s team and freshman Megan Doeding came in shortly after as the fourth place runner. The women’s team finished 10th out of 13 teams. Both the men’s and women’s team will travel to UC Riverside for the UC Riverside Invitational on Sept. 19 at 7:30 a.m.
