TAYLOR BIRD
Sports Assistant
Freshman Chelsea Wishard led the Pepperdine women’s cross country team to an 8th place finish Saturday at the Asics/UC Irvine Invitational. Meanwhile, the men’s team, led by freshman Conrad Wozniak, placed 10th out of 20 schools in an 8-kilometer that was tainted by controversy.
The women ran in the second of two 5K races at the Anteater Recreation Center Fields in Irvine and totaled 263 points.
Wishard said that the course was “kind of confusing” and had her lost at one point, but she was able to finish 41st overall with a time of 19:28. She also commented that the weather conditions Saturday could not have been any better for a race.
“It was a really nice day, and it was really clear and sunny,” Wishard said.
Hitting the tape second was freshman Lilly Spratt in 19:38 (44th), followed closely by freshman Anna Honig in 19:51 (49th).
The Waves’ other lady runners were Kelli Binder, who clocked in at 20:50 for an 84th-place finish, Jessica Cervantes in 20:51 (85th), Jessica Heckman in 21:33 (101st), Ashley Burt in 22:02 (109th), Molly Coe in 22:03 (110th), Lauren Carfioli in 22:48 (114th), Abby Uhrinak in 23:30 (117th), and Liz Lyons who came in 120th at a time of 24:02.
Host UC Irvine took first place with 41 points while Loyola Marymount came in second with 72 points and Cal Poly took the third place spot with 84.
The men’s team finished 10th out of 20 teams with 257 points, only 6 points behind 9th place Fresno. Cal Poly took home the gold and had six runners in the top 20.
The race started off smoothly enough but was marred by a controversial ruling near the midpoint when an official told the runners that they had missed a loop. The runners were later told to run another loop to make up for the missed one.
“We thought we only had one loop left in the race, so we were pretty much just trying to finish strong for that last 300 meters,” freshman David Williams said. “It ended up being an extra half mile.”
The result was that several runners finished early because they were following behind those who had already run the additional loop. Wozniak, who had the top time for the Waves, was in 20th place at the four-mile mark, but ended up placing 31st with a time of 25:58 due to the ruling.
Right behind Wonziak was senior Chris Ogle who took the 36th spot with a time of 25:59. Third through the chute for Pepperdine was Seth Allison, hitting the tape at 26:23 for 51st place.
The other men, who participated in the 8K run, were Williams in 26:50 (73rd), Eric Magana in 27:16 (96), Tom Verdone in 27:27 (111th), Garrett Reim in 27:35 (115th), Isaiah White in 27:54 (128th), and Josh Stutzman who came in 175th with a time of 30:43.
Both men’s and women’s cross country teams travel north to Portland on Friday for the Pier Park Preview. The Waves will then head back to Malibu to host the Pepperdine Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 22.
09-13-2007
