Three-peat complete

Photo by: Loren Orr

2/24/2018 11:20:00 PM | Track and Field

Men, women complete three-peat of WAC Indoor Championships

By: Fletcher Like

NAMPA, Idaho – Winning a conference championship is difficult. Repeating as conference champions is even more difficult. Three-peating as conference champions, impressive. Today, the WAC heard of the three-peat as both the men and women's teams won titles even before the final two events had started.

"Today was a good day to be a member of the GCU track and field family," head coach Tom Flood said. "It's truly a team championship by an incredible group of very talented student-athletes and coaches."

Entering the meet, the coaches of the conference didn't all believe that GCU would win, but the 13 individual titles and five new school records over the three-day meet proved to be enough for the Lopes as they cruised to a third indoor title.

"I am really proud of this team," Flood said. "They fought, showed character and did things that they needed to, but don't always like doing, to ensure another championship."

Chris Linnin Jr. finished second in the high jump as the Lopes finished second, third and sixth place in the event.

In the women's shot put, Latoya Gilding took the energy out of the rest of the field with her personality and reactions, using her final three throws of 13.85 meters, 13.91 meters and 14.32 meters to close the door, lock the door, and then barricade the door to win her first WAC title.

In the women's triple jump, fifth senior Kayla Finnegan (Wilson) took home the win with a mark of 12.18 meters on her third attempt.

The highlight of the day came from Scott Marshall, who broke the school record in the pole vault. After making 5.10 meters on his first attempt, Marshall was the only remaining competitor in the field. Following his clearance of 5.30 meters, Marshall had the luxury of selecting whatever height he wanted next. The senior raised the bar to 5.51 meters, which he cleared on his second attempt, drawing cheers from his teammates and GCU fans. Marshall let out a yell and then rushed over and hugged his coach, Todd Lehman. His jump ranks him ninth overall in the country and will most likely allow for him to be GCU's first qualifier for the NCAA Division I Indoor Championships.

"Today I was particularly impressed with Scott Marshall's outstanding pole vault performance, Isaac Allanarem's 400 meter, Ryan Girk's double, Briana Myers' school record in the 60 meter hurdles and Kayla's triple jump," Flood said.

In the final field event of the day, Josh Hamberlin and Marvin Magg sneaked out three points in a loaded men's shot put final.

The running events started with more GCU medals as Daniel Flores ran 4.18:41 in the mile, finishing third overall. That was the first of three events on the day as Flores would later finish fifth in the 800 and fifth in the 3,000 with a personal record.

Paige Hildebrandt followed suit with a medal, finishing second in the women's mile with in 5.02:13, and a new school record.

William Winfield IV won his second consecutive WAC title in the 60-meter hurdles in 7.98 seconds. Teammates Anthony Phelps, Tevin Mayfield, and Anthony Stennis finished fifth, sixth and seventh to score nine additional points for the Lopes.

Myers was not to be beat, returning to the top of the podium, running 8.44 in the women's 60 hurdles, breaking the school record by one-thousandth of a second. Girk completed his own double-win, taking the top spot in the 60 and 200, with times of 6.84 and 21.44, respectively.

School records were the name of the weekend as Allanarem took down his previous school record of 47.45 in the 400, improving 0.44 on the record with his time of 47.01.

In the women's 400, freshman Alexa Hokanson and sophomore Symone Wright-Flowers would place fifth and eighth, respectively. Mariah Montoya finished sixth in the women's 3,000, while Paige Hildebrandt would finish ninth in her second event of the day.

With the team title already secured, the men's 4x400 meter relay team of Stennis, Kalen Meza, Alex Thomas, and Guillermo Matesanz threw down a 3:18.36, edging out UMKC's relay team by a quarter of a second. The women's relay team finished fourth overall with a time of 3:52.97 to bring home the three-peat.

"I would like to thank our administration, academic counselors, strength staff and our wonderful trainers for all of their support and hard work," Flood added. "We will definitely enjoy and celebrate the hard earned championships today and on our way back home, but we will be back on the track Monday trying to get better for outdoor season.

The Lopes open their outdoor season March 16 at the Willie Williams Inviational in Tucson, Ariz.