Pepperdine junior Lizzy Crawford races for the Waves in the Santa Barbara Gaucho Relays on March 7. In her junior year, Crawford has broken five school records and become the first woman in program history to qualify for NCAA Regionals, according to Pepperdine Athletics. Photo courtesy of Lizzy Crawford
Most runners chase the clock. Pepperdine junior Lizzy Crawford chased history – and left her mark on it.
Lizzy ran through a record-breaking season and capped off her historic year with an NCAA Regional berth. No woman in Pepperdine Track program history has reached this point before, and Lizzy is only the second Wave ever to qualify.
“Seeing Lizzy do this is totally her personality,” Lizzy’s father Greg Crawford said. “To be a good runner requires consistency, structure, routine — that is Lizzy to a tee.”
Running Roots
Lizzy said she didn’t always intend to become a runner — in fact, it wasn’t part of her future plans at all. Growing up, Crawford dedicated her time to soccer, but when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down her freshman high school season, she turned to cross country to help stay in shape.
“I always knew I had that endurance in soccer, I could kind of play any position, and then I really saw my strength as a runner,” Lizzy Crawford said. “I had such a successful cross country season in high school when I first actually started running that I decided I was no longer a soccer player, I was going to be a full-time runner.”
Greg Crawford said Lizzy’s gift in running was evident prior to high school. As a former runner himself, he remembers taking his daughter out for a race when she was in middle school.
“Seven or eight years ago, we get about a mile into this thing — I’m dying, barely breathing and she looks at me like, ‘Do you mind if I just go?’” Greg Crawford said. “She ends up beating me by over a half a mile in what was left of the race. So I knew at that point, running may be her thing.”
Since coming to Pepperdine, Lizzy has now had the chance to pour her focus into running and her faith. For the junior, the two have intertwined and she now sees her sport as a calling from God.
“Sports have always been a big part of my life, but I think God specifically called me to be a runner because that takes a whole nother kind of grit,” Lizzy Crawford said. “I saw the work I put into running pretty much always paid off in my results. My natural gifts as a hard worker really did me well in running. I felt like I had so much more control that was within my power to just perform with running, so it made the decision so much easier.”
Lizzy Crawford pauses for a brief moment while racing for the Pepperdine Waves at the Reno Nevada MPSF Indoor Conference Championships on March 1. The junior said her faith is one of the most important parts of her life, especially on the track. Photo courtesy of Lizzy Crawford
Now that Lizzy has raced through the record books, she said her time playing other sports helped her make history as a runner in her collegiate career.
“That was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made,” Lizzy Crawford said. “I’m just so grateful that all of my sports experiences brought me to where I am today with running.”
Growing Into the Sport
Since running wasn’t Lizzy’s original focus, she said there were a few obstacles she had to learn to overcome in recent years of training. Through injuries and rough runs, Crawford found that everything came back to her mental approach to the sport.
“I’m used to using it [running] as an outlet, it is the most fulfilling kind of release,” Lizzy Crawford said. “I use it as time to mentally process and sort through changes in life. We’re blessed with so much opportunity to reflect every day on a run.”
One constant point of reflection for Lizzy is the dynamic path of resilience running has taken her on — a path she said other runners are extremely familiar with.
“It’s taught me that not giving up on myself is all I can ever ask for at the end of the day,” Lizzy Crawford said. “Running has taught me to be patient with myself as well, and just trust the process. It’s taught me so many lessons — I could go on forever about it.”
When she faces these struggles, Lizzy said she finds the most reward in leaning on those around her. Through every stage of life, the community surrounding her has been the most impactful to her athletic success.
“I’ve seen that [community] in my sport, and I feel like I wouldn’t be where I am, doing what I’m doing or even want to keep pursuing running if it wasn’t for the community that I have and the people I’ve been able to meet on and off my team,” Lizzy Crawford said.
The Injury Hurdle
After Lizzy’s freshman season at Pepperdine, she said she was diagnosed with double plantar fasciitis. Her condition was so extreme that she could barely walk at the end of her first year.
“There was no question it took a mental toll,” Lizzy’s mother Candace Crawford said of the early injury. “Recovery was physically painful, but it was about giving her the support and encouragement in any way she needed.”
Not only did Lizzy make a full recovery, she came back better than ever. In her three years at Pepperdine, she has put her name on five separate records in program history with the fastest times in the indoor 3k, indoor 5k, outdoor 5k, outdoor 10k and 4×800 relay, according to Pepperdine Athletics.
“When I say she has no quit and she will do everything and anything to meet those goals, she really did,” Candace Crawford said. “To get her here, it takes a lot of hard work, dedication and sacrifice — and she does it; she shows up every time to meet those goals.”
Even with this success, Lizzy has only been able to reach these feats because of the strength she gained during recovery. Specifically, Crawford said she has gained a wiser and more mature approach to her physical health, helping her respond in a way that will allow her to finish a season out strong.
“It’s really cool having the hindsight perspective to see what those injuries taught me,” Lizzy Crawford said. “I realized the way to stay healthy in the sport is just to try and stay as strong as you possibly can and to listen to your body instead of pushing through — I’ve seen so much success with that ever since.”
An important lesson Lizzy learned through her injury cycles is the importance of balance. This specific focus on both her mental and physical health is one of the reasons she said she has reached this historic point in her collegiate career.
“It’s learning to not be lazy in your approach and that more mileage doesn’t mean faster times,” Lizzy Crawford said. “I’ve really learned that quality is so much better than quantity for me. When you’re mentally doing well and healthy on your runs, it’s a cyclical thing, and the joy is showing in my performances.”
For her teammates, Lizzy’s fighting spirit is a testament to her strength as a runner. Sophomore teammate Grace Simpson said watching Crawford battle through mental and physical struggles while always coming back stronger is inspiring to her as an underclassman — but that isn’t the only quality she cherishes in her teammate.
“Lizzy exemplifies leadership, hard work, a ton of dedication and perseverance,” Simpson said. “What I value most about Lizzy is her personality off the track because her times are impressive, but her faithful character is what I find to be far more valuable. She’s characterized by her faith in an unchanged way and she loves everyone so, so deeply.”
Steps Toward History
The personal work Lizzy puts into her sport isn’t the only reason the junior has seen so much success. She said a lot of credit can be given to the supportive community she has around her: family, friends and especially teammates.
“A big pocket of happiness for me has been finding a home in Malibu,” Lizzy Crawford said. “A big piece of joy I’ve been trying to focus on this season is realizing I can show up and perform regardless of the physical or environmental circumstances I’ve been dealing with — my teammates really help with that, they’re my biggest support systems.”
Lizzy Crawford (second from left) poses with a group of Pepperdine Track teammates at the Waves Expo in Malibu, Calif., on April 26. Crawford said her teammates have been a crucial part of the supportive community rallying around her. Photo courtesy of Lizzy Crawford
Lizzy said she doesn’t only rely on those physically around her for encouragement — she also turns to God as a beacon of support. This paired with her community and the hard work she’s put into training have been the major stepping stones she’s used to reach NCAA Regionals.
“I do work really hard as an athlete, but there’s something deeper that pushes me to do it,” Lizzy Crawford said. “I’ve really been trying to lean on trusting the process, trusting my training and trusting God throughout the season. It’s been such a joy to see it come to fruition and that’s been bringing me so much happiness as well.”
Instead of dwelling on a poor performance, Lizzy is able to bounce back believing that God will provide her with the necessary strength to perform to the best of her ability. Simpson said she sees this in every race Crawford finishes, and it is a testament to her selflessness as an athlete.
“She’s just been fortunate enough that God chose to use her as a vessel through her sport,” Simpson said. “At the end of the day, everything that she’s able to achieve through her sport is because she’s doing it to glorify God, not herself.”
For these reasons, Simpson said Lizzy has become more than just a teammate. Through her freshman year, Simpson viewed Crawford as a mentor and now, they’ve been able to deeply connect as friends.
These roots are what elevates their relationship, Simpson said. After watching Lizzy make history this season, the junior’s success only further fuels the rest of the program.
“She’s just a very dynamic and flexible racer,” Simpson said of Crawford. “Honestly, it’s not shocking anymore, the amount of times she breaks records, because it is pretty much every time she steps onto the track — that helps us to keep faith in the program and keep everyone trusting our training as well because we see it paying off for her.”
Reaching Regionals
Lizzy has made history racing through the record books, but her biggest milestone has been becoming the first woman in program history to reach the Division I NCAA West Preliminary races, she said. This qualification also made her just the second Wave in program history to qualify for a national regional.
“She’s tough, I know the sky’s the limit, but to actually see her achieve her dream is just the best thing you can hope for as parents,” Greg Crawford said.
But Lizzy didn’t reach Regionals in the most conventional way. While the junior had always been a long-distance runner, she said she had never ran a 10k before — and that’s the race time that qualified her for Regionals.
“I’ve had maybe three races in my life where I crossed the finish line with actual, genuine shock,” Lizzy Crawford said. “And this was one of those.”
At the Stanford Invitational on April 3, she shattered the program’s 10k record by over 3 minutes with a time of 33:44.39, according to Pepperdine Athletics. This run made her the No. 40 seed in the west.
“I honestly went in at first kind of anxious and then I reframed my energy into empowerment,” Lizzy Crawford said. “They played ‘Mr. Brightside’ on the starting line and I was like, ‘Okay, this is going to be a good one.’ As soon as I heard that, it was just like ‘let’s lock in,’ and from then, it was just like clockwork.”
From breaking school records to rewriting history, Lizzy said this success isn’t solely hers — it’s shared with her entire program and those that will come through it in the future. Pepperdine Track hasn’t always been a widely recognized program, but Lizzy wants to change this perception of her team.
“A big reaction I have is just being proud of the visibility I brought to my program,” Lizzy Crawford said. “In everything I do, my approach isn’t to serve myself but to serve those around me and serve those that come after me.”
As Lizzy prepared for her Regional race, she said she continued putting her head down, training hard and living in the moment.
“I’m just going to go out, be grateful, be in the moment and not let the pressure dampen me, but push me, motivate me,” Lizzy Crawford said. “I’m just excited to go represent Pepperdine at such a big stage. I’m just going to go out there and lay it all down.”
En route to Regionals, Lizzy had a huge fan base cheering her on from furry family dogs to her grandmother who made a four hour drive to watch her run. Especially since her first 10k race ended exceptionally well, Crawford had an optimistic view heading in to her Regional race.
“After my first one was surprising in so many ways, there are high standards going into this next one,” Lizzy Crawford said. “I’m going to approach it with joy and confidence, knowing that anything’s possible.”
Lizzy Crawford’s furry fanbase cheers her on for every race, mother Candace Crawford said. (From left to right) Rose, Stella and Claire are all Crawford family dogs that are huge pillars in Lizzy’s support system. Photos courtesy of Candace Crawford
The Regional race took place May 28 in Fayetteville, Ark., where Lizzy wrapped up her junior season with a 41st place finish. Even though the junior isn’t moving on to the next stage this year, she has already cemented her name in Pepperdine history.
“She never ceases to amaze us and exceed any of our wildest expectations,” Greg Crawford said. “She’s tough, and we’re so proud of her. We’re just excited to see what she does in the future.”
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