Women runners place second of 20 teams, men finish 12th of 15 teams at UC Riverside cross country meet Saturday.
DAVID NAKAGAMI
Staff Writer
After a strong showing on their home course a week before, Pepperdine’s men’s and women’s cross country teams went on the road to UC Riverside looking to continue their string of success.
The women picked up where they had off, edging out Cal State San Marcos by two points to take second place out of a field of 20 teams. Senior Kyla Maher paced the Waves, finishing the women’s 5K course in a time of 18:29.10, good for 18th place.
Sophomore Brieanna Carroll followed close behind, coming in 20th with a time of 18:31.40. Caitlin White (32, 19:00.60), Tarrah Crowley (43, 19:13.20), and Jessica Heckman (44, 19:15.60) rounded out the scoring seeds for the women, who combined for a team tally of 115. The host Highlanders of UC Riverside placed 1-3-4-5-6 to total a preposterously-low score of 19, running away with the win.
The 8K Agricultural Operations course gave the Pepperdine men some trouble.
The Waves were again led by junior Sam Hudson. Completing the event in 26:38.30, Hudson took 61st out of a total of 151 participants.
Several seconds behind Hudson, senior Chris Gaudreau became the 70th runner to cross the finish line, stopping the timer at 26:52.20.
Mike Smith (27:10.00) and Nick Rowan (27:11.10) came in one behind the other, taking 81st and 82nd place. The scorecard was finalized when Matt Jenks punched in at 101st place with a time of 27:54.30. With a score of 320, the Waves men came in 12th place out of the 15 teams involved.
Rowan said, overall, the team fared well Saturday.
“The race was a good confidence builder,” he said. “We’re not yet racing to our potential. This meet was another race that helps us in preparing for the conference championships.”
The women’s team seems to be running with confidence, earning second place in each of its past three races.
Although the men’s team did not place as well as they had hoped, the story cannot be told by numbers alone. In reality, all of the men improved their times from the week before at the newly designed, more challenging Alumni Park course.
Rowan himself shaved more than a minute from the previous week.
“Personally, I was really tired. But I ran a minute faster at Riverside, so it was really reassuring,” said Rowan, a junior transfer from Penn State.
With steady improvement week-to-week from both teams, Pepperdine looks to be in excellent condition when the highly anticipated West Coast Conference Championships roll around at the end of the month.
The Waves’ next tune-up will take place Saturday at La Jolla, Calif. Pepperdine will be one of 21 teams on the women’s side and 17 on the men’s side that will compete in the UC San Diego Triton Cross Country Classic. The meet is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. on the Triton Par Course.
10-05-2006
