By Rosy Banks
Assistant Living Editor
Pepperdine’s women’s cross country team earned an impressive third place at the West Coast Conference Championships Saturday in Belmont, Calif., with freshman Tarrah Crowley leading in 18:59 for 14th place in the 5k.
The Pepperdine’s men’s cross country team finished in fifth place in the eight-team race, which was lower than expected but still above University of San Francisco, University of California San Diego and St. Mary’s. Sophomore Chad Trammel paced the men, finishing in 12th place at 26:52.
“Every team in Conference this year has improved tremendously, and we have worked awfully hard to keep up with them,” Head Coach Dick Kampmann said. “The girls were sensational and ran collectively the fastest in Pepperdine history by 2 minutes and 6 seconds. The men did not run as well as in the past, and we have beat some of the teams that finished ahead.”
The women finished behind Portland and Santa Clara, using running in a pack as a strategy to beat opponents. Lauren Tyree edged behind Crowley in a close 19:04.
“We definitely were kicking butt the first mile and ran it together,” Crowley said. “As the race went on we got a little more spread out, but Lauren Tyree and I stayed pretty close and senior Christine Carter was not far behind.”
The men’s team is disappointed with its Conference finish but plan to take revenge at Regionals.
“We’re going to finish it out and go as hard as we can. We’ll see how many guys we can beat,” said senior Kevin Nerison. “Now that the freshmen know how the course is run, they’re set up for next year to be a lot better.”
The Crystal Springs course in Belmont was the toughest course this season, filled with steep hills and quick turns. The men’s race consisted of two rough 2.5 mile loops.
This season Kampmann conditioned his teams to become fast hill runners, which he says paid off, but next year he will have a new focus.
“We ran those hills like we owned them,” Kampmann said. “ But the electricity, the tension, the adrenaline got carried away and as a distance runner you have to be focused — you can be fired up but have to have control of it. Next we will focus on running intelligently and under control instead of emotionally. When start doing more of that, you’re going to see some blistering times.”
Both teams have the NCAA West Coast Regional Championships held in Portland, Oregon next weekend.
“I hope we all do our best, because then it will be awesome. We have one meet left so we better make it a good one.” Crowley said.
November 06, 2003