Two down, five to go.
Pepperdine Cross Country completed their second race of the season Sept. 20, at the Micke Grove Golf Course. Following up from their only home meet of the season Aug. 30, both sides saw similar finishes.
The men’s team picked up the third place finish with 62 team points, trailing one point behind University of California, Davis‘ 61. Saint Mary’s College of California picked up first place with 23 points, but Pepperdine beat the likes of University of California, Merced (100), University of San Francisco (149), Clovis Community College (157) and Dominican University of California (193).
St. Mary’s highlighted the tournament with their second win of the day, this time for the women’s side with 38 points, UC David followed with 40 and San Francisco rounded out the top three with 97. Women’s Cross Country saw a fourth place finish with 106 points, but had to score better than two extra teams on their path to fourth, beating Loyola Marymount University (110), University of the Pacific (174), Clovis CC (193), UC Merced (214) and Dominican (205).
The Micke Grove Golf Course is the future site for the 2024 West Conference Championships, and the Waves had the opportunity to get a taste of what it entails early on in the season. Last year, the race was held on home soil, Alumni Park, where the men’s and women’s team finished sixth and seventh, respectively.
This race also saw a jump in distance on both sides. The women’s side ran a 6K while the men’s side ran an 8K, but this rise in distance didn’t change the individual success showcased previously at the Waves Invitational.
For the second straight race, sophomore cross country runners Gordy Nilsen and Lizzy Crawford secured top finishes for the Waves. Nilsen came in at eighth during the men’s race with a final time of 25:18.8 and Crawford was the tenth runner on the women’s end with a final time of 22:23.7.
Going back to last season, this marks the seventh straight race where Crawford has finished on top. This is also her third top 10 finish in her young Waves career, according to Pepperdine Athletics.
The men’s team saw four top 20 finishes, Nilsen at eighth, freshman cross country runner Patrick Thomas at 10th, sophomore cross country runner Dominic Silhol at 15th and freshman cross country runner Elijah Gentry at 20th. They all finished between 25 and 26 minutes, with Nilsen coming in at 25:18.8 and Gentry coming in at 25:52.2.
Only two members of the women’s team secured top 20 finishes, however, they had more competition to face. Crawford crossed the line in tenth place while Eden Mittelsdorf, senior cross country runner and WCC’s NCAA Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) representative, crossed exactly five seconds later at 16th with a time of 22:28.7.
At the Waves Invitational, Head Coach Lauren Floris mentioned communication and having a strong mental approach as the keys to success for the season, especially as the team travels for the remainder of the year. She also stressed the importance of preparation before every race, and with the teams showing similar success at this invite, it looks like the team is trying to not lose sight of those keys.
Pepperdine Cross Country will try attempt to use those same keys at two separate races Oct. 5.
A group of Waves will travel east to Indiana for the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational and another group of Waves will stick on the west coast for The Master’s Invitational.
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Contact Justin Rodriguez via email: justin.rodriguez@pepperdine.edu
