Oct. 27, 2004

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The Pepperdine men's and women's cross country travel to the Bay Area this weekend to compete in the eight-team West Coast Conference (WCC) Championships which will be contested at the Crystal Springs Course in Belmont, California.

The eight-kilometer men's race gets underway at 9 a.m. on Saturday and them women's five-kilometer women's run is slated to start at 9:45 a.m.

Both the men's and women's teams are coming off fifth-place showings at the Titan Cross Country Invitational at the Cal State Fullerton Campus Course last Friday.

Freshman Lauren Morales led the women's team with 16th place finish as she completed the course in a time of 18:37.3. Sophomore Tarrah Crowley also ran a strong race as she clocked a time of 19:05.4 to place 25th.

UCLA captured the event as the Bruins totaled 52 points. UC Irvine (75) was second and was followed by UC Santa Barbara (77), Cal State San Marcos (91) and Pepperdine (126).

In the men's eight-kilometer race, senior Louis Rich led Pepperdine, finishing 17th in a time of 25:56.7. Freshman Brian Washburn turned in a time of 26:23.4 to place 27th.

Cal Coast TC won the men's race with 25 points. UC Santa Barbara (60) was second followed by Cal State San Marcos (70), UC Irvine (125) and Pepperdine (146).

Heading into this week's WCC Championships both the Portland men's and women's teams are the favorites. The Pilots were picked to finish first in the coaches preseason polls and are the defending champions.

The Portland men have won 25 conseceutive WCC Championships while the Pilot women have captured the event in each of the last two years and 11 out of the last 13.

The Pepperdine women placed third at last year's WCC Championshipsand 16th-year head coach Dick Kampmann entered the season confident that the Waves can turn in another upper-division finish this year.

Last season, the Pepperdine men placed fifth and this year the Waves have hampered by injuries and a small roster.

Junior Chad Trammell, who led the Waves a year ago, suffered a season-ending leg injury early in the season while training and was only able to compete in the season-opening Cal State Fullerton Invitational.

THE PROGRAM: Cross country is a non-scholarship sport at Pepperdine. The women's team finished third at the 2003 West Coast Conference (WCC) Championships while the men finished fifth. Portland won the men's conference crown for the 24th consecutive year. On the women's side, Portland claimed the league championship for the 14th time in school history.

Dick Kampmann: Dick Kampmann is in the midst of his 16th season as the head coach of the Pepperdine men's and women's cross country teams. Kampmann was tabbed the West Coast Conference (WCC) women's "Coach of the Year" in 1999 after leading the team to a second place finish at the league meet. Kampmann coached cross country and track for 26 years (1959-85) at nearby University High in West Los Angeles, directing his Warrior teams to 11 Los Angeles City team championships. While coaching junior varsity and varsity boys and girls in cross country and track and field at University High, Kampmann led his teams to an astonishing total of 86 conference championships. Additionally, Kampmann coached 49 All-Los Angeles City individual champions and 292 individual conference winners. After retiring from the Los Angeles Unified School District in 1985, Kampmann began teaching physical education courses at Pepperdine in 1988. Kampmann started serving as the head men's and women's cross country coach at Pepperdine during the 1989 season. A certified instructor by The Athletic Congress, Kampmann earned his Level I certificate in 1985 and his Level II certificate in 1987 at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.

SPORTS INFORMATION HOTLINE: For updated information concerning Pepperdine athletics, including results and a schedule of upcoming events, please contact the Pepperdine Sports Information Hotline at 310-506-7373. The hotline will be updated on a regular basis thouhout the course of the 2004-05 school year.

ON THE WEB: For updated information concerning Pepperdine athletics on the Internet, including results and a schedule of upcoming events, please bookmark the following address: http://www.PepperdineSports.com.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: For additional information on the men's and women's cross country program, or to arrange interviews with players and the coaching staff, please contact Al Barba at the Pepperdine Sports Information Office by calling 310-506-4455.