Highlighting Grand Canyon Men's Athletics in 2015

Grand Canyon's athletic teams celebrated significant highlights during the 2015 calendar year, both on and off the field of play. As we take 2016 head on, use this time to sneak a peak back at some of top moments across the Lopes men's sports spectrum last year, from dramatic victories, to coaching hires, and academic achievements.

Baseball:
GCU Smashes WAC, Wins Regular-Season Title

With a 6-3 win over Sacramento State in the final game of the regular season, the Lopes clinched the program's first-ever WAC regular-season tite. Grand Canyon finished the season with a 32-22 record and a 19-7 record in WAC play, one-half game ahead of Seattle U. Freshman Garrison Schwartz was named WAC Freshman of the Year while Chad De La Guerra, Ben Mauseth and Paul Panaccione all landed WAC first-team honors.

Basketball:
Lopes Grab Key Road Win at Stalwart San Diego State

The headlines in the paper and across the web told the story: Grand Canyon Delivers Stunning Loss to SDSU. Making a trip to Viejas Arena, where San Diego State had a .925 winning percentage at home over its last 106 games, the Lopes pulled the huge upset, knocking off the Aztecs 52-45. Keonta Vernon recroded his second consecutive double-double, scoring 16 points and pulling down 11 rebounds. In the end, it was the defense that brought home the win as the Lopes held the Aztecs to only 31.5 percent shooting from the field for the game, including 15.8 percent from beyond the arc. The win sparked a road trip that saw Grand Canyon then take home a tournament victory at the Global Sports Classic in Las Vegas, Nev.

Cross Country:
Proctor Emerges as Lopes' No. 1 Runner

Afer a freshman campaign that featured five top-5 finshes among the team, redshirt sophomore Samuel Proctor emerged from the pack as a bonafide No. 1 runner for the Lopes in 2015. The South Royalton, Vt. native was twice named WAC Runner of the Week this fall and finished seventh place overall at the WAC Cross Country Chamipnships at Utah Valley. Proctor covered the 8,000 meter course in 24:45.7 and garnered First-Team All-WAC honors for his performance.

Golf:
Rossi, Kline Pace Lopes' Fairway Transition

For Mariano Rossi and Alex Kline, it was a tremendous spring season despite the fact that GCU, because of its transitional Division I status, was not eligible to compete for the conference team championsip and a coveted spot in an NCAA Regional.They both earned Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Player-of-the-Week honors during the regular season, and each culminated the year with a top-10 finish at the WAC Championships in May. Kline continued his dominance into the fall season as a returning senior, when he won the Pine to Palm Championship, an amateur event in his home state of Minnesota. It was his first tourney individual title.

Soccer:
Lopes Grab Headlines as Hyndman Named Head Coach

Nothing gives a program instance legitimacy more than bringing an elite head coach. On Jan. 13, 2015 Grand Canyon announced the hiring of Schellas Hyndman as its men's soccer coach. Hyndman is the sixth all-time winningest coach in Division I men's soccer history. Hyndman brought 31 years of collegiate experience -- 24 years at SMU and 7 at Eastern Illinois -- as well as serving as head coach for FC Dallas of Major League Soccer from 2008-13, taking Dallas to the MLS Cup Final in 2010, when he was named MLS Coach of the Year.

Swimming and Diving:
Schaffer's Crew Cracks Top-25

Being a top-25 program is a big deal. For a school transitioning from Division II to Division I, your long-term goals are to have teams able to compete soon at the top-25 level. Men's swimming and diving has shown that it can be a short-term goal as well. In November, Steve Schaffer's squad cracked the top 25 of the College Swimming Coaches Association of America/TYR Poll. This fall, the Lopes have been recognized with the WAC Swimmer or Diver of the Week five times, with Iegor Lytvenok and Michael Bidak each being recognized twice and Youseff Elkamash most recently receiving the honors.

Tennis:
Schueller Brings Home Milestone Win

Fresh off of First-Team All-WAC honors last spring, Felix Schueller has continued moving up the ranks. At the ITA Southwest Regionals in October, Schueller brought home a milestone victory for the Lopes, taking down sixth-seeded Frederik Gelbrich of San Diego State 6-7 (7-5), 7-5, 6-4 in the Round of 32. Gelbrich was the No. 77 ranked singles player in the NCAA, making Schueller's victory the first top-100 individual win for the men since transitioning to Division I.

Track and Field:
Marks, Flannigan lead GCU to WAC Second-Place Finish Outdoors

The Grand Canyon men took home second place at the WAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships in large part to the performances of LeSean Marks and Marcus Flannigan. Marks was voted the WAC Outstanding Track Performer after his sweep of the 110-meter and 400-meter hurdles, while teammate Marcus Flannigan took home gold in the long jump, the 200 meters, the 4x100 relay and finished third in the 100 meters. Flannigan's impressive 30.5 points earned him the WAC High Point Award.

Volleyball:
GCU Picks Up Three Victories Over Top-15 Programs

Despite finishing with a sub-.500 record for the year, the Lopes earned a reputation as upset kings, toppling three top-15 programs during the 2015 season. GCU grabbed its first win against a nationally ranked squad on Feb. 28 when, down 11-10 in the fifth set, it scored five of the final six points to wrap up a 3-2 upset of No. 11 Ohio State.It was the program's first win over a ranked team at home. The Lopes added another home win and their first-ever sweep of a ranked team at home when they blanked No. 15 IPFW on April 17. That win sandwiched several matches, including an upset of No. 12 Ball State on the road in five sets with GCU taking the final two sets of the match.

Wrestling:
Lopes Earn High Praise for Incoming Recruiting Class

Highly respected for its wrestling program at the Division II level, Grand Canyon is starting to earn respect among its DI peers as evidenced by its inclusion in FloWrestling's ranking of the top recruiting classes for 2015. The largest amateur wrestling website in the world, FloWrestling released its 2015 Division I recruiting rankings in October and included coach Jon Sioredas' Grand Canyon class with honorable-mention status. Overall,FloWrestling ranked 20 recruiting classes in Division I. GCU, which is in its third year of a four-year NCAA Division I transition, was one of seven programs in the honorable mention category, placing it in the top 27 classes in the country.

Grand Canyon University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Chad De La Guerra

Ben Mauseth

Paul Panaccione

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