Pepperdine Track is breaking school record after school record in both the indoor and outdoor seasons.
The team, consisting of mostly lower level students, has broken 16 school records this year — 12 from the women’s team and 4 from the men’s team, according to Pepperdine Athletics. The team said they are using each other as motivation to break more records.
“Being able to see the person you care for and train with every day achieve something so big for themselves and for us [the team] is really motivating,” said Daniel Whitaker, sophomore middle-distance runner.
The Starting Line
As the gun went off starting the women’s indoor season, the record-breaking trend began, multiple track athletes said.
The women’s indoor season kicked off with senior Caroline Graham breaking the school record in the 800-meter dash and sophomore Lizzy Crawford breaking the record in the 3,000-meter run at the University of Washington Preview on Jan. 17, according to Pepperdine Athletics.
This meet was just the start of what would become a school record-breaking season.
“Indoor kicked us off to a really good spot, because we were all — the guys team, at least — was really intent on watching how the girls performed,” Whitaker said.
Crawford continued shattering records at the following meets — breaking the indoor 5,000-meter run school record Feb. 7, with a time of 17:25.81, according to Pepperdine Athletics. She broke her own record two weeks later with a time of 17:14.16. These records would set her up to break an outdoor school record a month later.
“Over indoor season recently, I knew I had a chance of breaking 17 [minutes], but I unfortunately didn’t get to do it indoors, and that left me wanting to get more and to see me achieve breaking that 17-minute barrier as I cross the finish line,” Crawford said.
Passing the Baton
As the women’s indoor season concluded, the team broke five records at the 2025 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Indoor Track and Field Championships, according to Pepperdine Athletics.
Sophomore Hannah Bruner started off the last day of the championship meet, breaking the record in the indoor mile with a time of 5:07.22.
“I had some good workouts leading up to that [the record], and I felt pretty confident, and my coach felt pretty confident that I could get it,” Bruner said.
The indoor season finished strong, and the winning mentality passed onto the outdoor men’s and women’s teams.
Sophomore distance runner Gordy Nilsen shattered a five-year-old record in the 3,000-meter run with a time of 8:20.53 at the Westmont College Sunshine Open on Feb. 8, Nilsen said.
The 3,000-meter run is typically an indoor event, a season the men’s team does not participate in, Nilsen said. This event was held at an outdoor meet, giving Nilsen the chance to chase the record. With this in mind, he said he seized the opportunity.
“I really knew it was one shot, and I knew that I just wanted to capitalize on that opportunity,” Nilsen said. “And I did, and I was very happy about it.”
The Kick
The motivation behind breaking records this season is each other, Nilsen, Crawford, Whitaker and Bruner said.
“I feel like people are almost training even harder in their event, because they’re like, ‘I want to get it close to school record.'” Nilsen said. “And even if they don’t reach the school record, they’re still getting a crazy, solid PR,” Nilsen said.
Other than pushing each other to break more records, the team is bonding more, multiple track athletes said.
“Our team bonding as a whole has just been off the charts compared to prior years,” Whitaker said. “I think as a team, we’re a lot closer than we used to be.”
Crawford said sheltering together during the Palisades Fire helped the women’s team strengthen its bond.
“We grew closer than we’d ever been before, and we’re now like a family,” Crawford said.
The team has also shifted their training model this season, practicing two to three times a day most days of the week, Whitaker said. In previous seasons, the team practiced once a day and lifted weights twice a week.
“We’re getting a really good job of taking care of ourselves throughout the day rather than just waking up at five in the morning, getting it done and then going on with the rest of our day,” Whitaker said. “It allows us to stay consistently focused on it without it being over taxing in one go.”
The Finish Line
Looking ahead, the team said they are hoping to continue breaking records for the rest of the season.
Aside from school records, personal records (PRs) are also looking to be broken.
“Even though we do have these records that are going down, we have just every single runner on our team that’s throwing down some kind of personal best at one race or another, in one distance or another, like everybody’s improving across the board,” Whitaker said.
The team will compete at the Bob Larsen Distance Carnival at UCLA on March 21. The team is looking to compete even faster and break personal records at that meet.
“It’s always a really fast race, so a lot of PRs are coming out of that,” Nilsen said.
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Contact Gabrielle Salgado via email: gabrielle.salgado@pepperdine.edu
