JANE LEE
Sports editor
The Pepperdine cross country teams ventured to Carbon Canyon Park on Saturday and Sunday to participate at the Cal State Fullerton “Season Opener,” where freshman Lauren Martinez made an impressive debut as she finished 25th to lead the women’s side to an 11th-place finish. Senior Chris Gaudreau led the men’s side, finishing 77th en route to a 13th-place team finish.
Although the women placed 11th out of 19 teams and the men finished 13th of 14, senior Beth Bedingfield said the meet was a good experience, especially for the first-time runners and new Head Coach Robert Radnoti.
“I think everything went all right,” she said. “We had a lot of girls uneligable to run and there were more participants this year, so it made it a little more tough than usual.
“But I think our coach was proud of us, especially since it was also a a new experience for him, and it was his first college meet as a head coach.”
Martinez completed the five-kilometer women’s course in a time of 19:20 while Gaudreau covered the eight-kilometer men’s course in a time of 28:06.
Concordia University won both the men’s and women’s team competition.
Pepperdine returns to action Saturday when it travels to San Diego for the San Diego Invitational.
“We’re going up Friday, so we’ll be well-rested and we’ll have a full squad, so I think we’ll perform very well,” Bedingfield said.
09-07-2006
