Marshall breaks record at Friday Night Duels

Friday, January 13

Flagstaff, Ariz.

Grand Canyon

NAU Friday Night Duals

1/14/2017 11:17:00 AM | Track and Field

2017 Friday Night Duels 1.13 GCU Indoor Records WAC Indoor Top Performances

By: Jake Hernandez

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – The Grand Canyon men's and women's track & field teams competed at Northern Arizona's Friday Night Duels in the first indoor meet of the season on Friday night. Pole vaulter Scott Marshall broke his own GCU indoor record with a vault of 5.30 meters to place him first in the conference.

In GCU's first indoor meet of the season, just days after spring semester began, the Lopes kicked off their journey to repeat for men's and women's WAC indoor titles. Marshall, a redshirt junior, jumped out to a historic start, vaulting for a new GCU indoor record of 5.30 meters. Along with the record, the native from Tempe, Ariz. beat out Arizona State's Garrett Starkey (5.05m) and Matthew Eckles (4.90m), and Arizona's Dion Shattuck (4.75m) to win the event.

"Overall, I am very pleased with the performances in our first meet of the year," head coach Tom Flood commented. "It was a quick turnaround for us to have the first meet at the end of the first week back to school. We have also been hit with the flu bug, but despite that we have a new school record by Scott and several other conference leading performances. Including Scott's incredible performance, I was also impressed with Marcus Flannigan, Sasha-Gaye Marston, Kelsi Klotter and our men's 400-meter performances."

The men kicked off 2017 indoor season with several conference-leading finishes:

Anthony Phelps led the way with a conference leading 400m (47.62), followed by teammates Isaac Allanarem (47.94) and Philip Terry (48.37). Phelps' time falls just .22 seconds short of USA's indoor qualifying standard in 400m and ranks second in Grand Canyon program history. Also running first leg on the 4x400-meter relay, Phelps helped lead Grand Canyon to a conference leading time of 3:18.46. The team consisting of Phelps, Terry, Allanarem and Flannigan placed third just behind Arizona and Arizona State on Friday.

Leading the way in multiple events for the men's team, Flannigan competed in 4x400m, long jump (7.35m), 60m (6.82). The senior's mark in the long jump leads all WAC indoor track athletes by nearly .44 meters, ahead of Utah Valley's Rusty Jones (6.91m). At the Friday Night Duels, Flannigan's long jump also placed him first ahead of Arizona State's Joey Bryant (6.84m) and Liam Henshaw (6.79m).

On the track, GCU transfer Dionee Marrero placed third in the 200m (22.04) and trials only Utah Valley's Jordan Carder for best time in the WAC this season. Jose Retana Caballos (4:33.57) and Sam Proctor (4:33.64) rank second and third, respectively, in the conference. In a rare 600-meter event, Brandon Gonzalez placed second in the meet with a time of 1:20.62. The time ranks the senior from Phoenix, Ariz. second all-time in GCU indoor record books.

In hurdles, William Winfield (8.30), Tevin Mayfield (8.42) and Adam Turner (8.44) all placed in the top three, respectively, in Friday's meet. Winfield's time ranks him atop of the conference just ahead of UMKC's Christopher Bryan (8.39).

The women also had a couple conference-leading finishes on Friday, led by Marston as her marks in shot put (13.22m) and weight throw (16.21m) ranked her second in the conference. In the 3000m, Klotter ran a WAC-best 10:47.04 (10:24.14 converted time) to place first on Friday night. Freshmen Paige Hildebrandt placed third in the meet for the mile run with a time of 5:21.00 (5:09.34 converted), ranking her second in the conference just behind UMKC's Sarah Fogarty.

"This was our first test in our long journey to repeat as WAC indoor champions," Flood added. "We will get back to work next week to get better and make the trek back up the hill to NAU on Saturday for another indoor meet."

Next up, the Lopes will make the quick turnaround as they will head back to Northern Arizona to compete in the Lumberjack Team Challenge on Saturday, Jan. 21. Grand Canyon will compete against seven schools, including host NAU, WAC-rival Cal State Bakersfield, San Diego State, Southern Utah, UC Irvine and Nevada Las Vegas.