Completed Event: Women's Track and Field at WAC Indoor Championships Day 2 on February 26, 2016 , , 1st/8
W Track
at WAC Indoor Championships Day 2
1st/8
Grand Canyon University Athletics
Women's Track and Field
Flood, Tom
Tom Flood
- Title:
- Head Coach
- Email:
- tom.flood@gcu.edu
- Phone:
- 602-639-7958
- Alma Mater:
- Arizona State (1983)
- Year at GCU:
- 15th season
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| WAC Coach of the Year | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Men's Indoor 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023, 2025 Women's Indoor 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2024 Men's Outdoor 2016, 2018, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 Women's Outdoor 2016, 2018, 2019, 2021 |
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In 2010, Flood took on the challenge of starting a track and field program at Grand Canyon and, under his guidance, both programs have had a tremendous amount of success, highlighted by a 2012 NCAA Division II Men's Indoor Track and Field National Championship and 24 WAC team titles. In 12Â years of D-I championship opportunities, the Lopes have had over 200 individual conference champions.
Among the consistent championship success, some of the more impressive stretches of team dominance include a streak of seven consecutive men's indoor championships (2016-23), four straight women's indoor championships (2016-19), four straight men's outdoor championships (2021-24) and three straight women's outdoor championships (2018-21).
In the 2024 indoor season, Flood coached the women's team to a WAC Championship. Under Flood's coaching, Neysia Howard won the high point award with gold medals in the 60m dash, 200m dash, and long jump. The graduate student also helped clinch the WAC title with a silver medal in the 4x400 relay. On the men's side, Daviciea McCartney won the high point award after winning the 60m hurdles, 400m dash, and 4x400 relay won.Â
In 2023 outdoor season, Flood coached the men's team to a third straight outdoor WAC Championship in Nacogdoches, Texas where he won his 23rd coach of the year award. In addition, Oscar Rodriguez took the conference award for the Outstanding Field Performer. The Lopes also had the largest group of athletes in program history at NCAA West Regionals with a total of 17. For the first time in program history, Flood coached a Lopes hurdler (Keira Christie-Galloway) to the NCAA Championships. The Lopes men won the indoor WAC Championship in Spokane, Wash. where they have continued their streak of seven straight victories. Jorden Okyere won outstanding field performer while Tom Flood won head coach of the year..Â
In 2022, the Lopes men won the WAC outdoor title for the second straight year. Coach Flood claimed another WAC coach of the year while Jorden Okyere won both the High Point Award and Outstanding Field Performer. GCU swept the WAC Championships for indoor. This was the sixth consecutive title for the men and the fifth in the past six years for the women. Coach Flood was named coach of the year and Atena Rayson won freshman of the year.Â
In 2021, GCU continued their success of sweeping the WAC Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Texas. After not competing in an outdoor conference championship in the 2020 season due to COVID-19, Flood coached the Lopes to two victories and 14 individual titles. Flood also had 10 athletes qualify for the NCAA West Preliminary round, the most GCU has had qualify in one season. Madelyn Lundberg and Ethan Harris went onto the NCAA Championships, as well as Harris going to the Olympic trials in high jump.Â
In 2020, the Lopes men won the WAC Indoor title joining a prestigious group of WAC programs as only the third men's team to five-peat in Indoor. UTEP accomplished a nine-year streak from 1974-82, and BYU completed a 10-year streak from 1990-99. Flood was named Men's Indoor Coach of the Year. In 2019, The Lopes joined BYU as the only other WAC school to win men's and women's WAC Indoor titles in the same four year stretch.
Under Flood’s direction, 147 student-athletes have been crowned champions in WAC Indoor and Outdoor Championships since GCU transitioned to Division I in 2014, including eight-time WAC Champion, Marcus Flannigan, and WAC Outdoor Championship meet record holder in the discus and 2016 Rio Olympian, Tarasue Barnett.
In 2018, Flood led the Lopes to the second sweep of the WAC Indoor and Outdoor Championships. The men took a 16 point team lead into the final day before coasting to a 92-point spread between themselves and the second-place team. The women used a 50-point spread after the final event to secure the team title. Tarasue Barnett broke the WAC Championship meet record in the discus with throw of 60.74-meters.
In the two years of post-season eligibility, 20Â GCU athletes have qualified for the NCAA West Preliminary Round, including back-to-back appearances from pole vaulter Alyson Schwartz, javelin thrower Jesse Newman and long jumper Adrian King. In 2019, the Lopes qualified nine athletes for the NCAA qualifying meet, with eight competing.
Under Flood's direction, and in the first year of post-season eligibility, 14 GCU athletes qualified for the NCAA West Preliminary Round. Of the 14 athletes that qualified for the Preliminary Round, three athletes, Scott Marshall, Marcus Flannigan and Jesse Newman, qualified for the NCAA National Championships held in Eugene, Ore. Jesse Newman finished as GCU's best individual finisher at the national level, finishing ninth overall in the javelin and earned All-American second team honors.Â
In 2016, for the first time in the men’s and women’s programs, Flood guided the Lopes to a conference sweep of WAC Indoor and Outdoor Championships. During outdoors, GCU’s men team finished 37 points ahead of runner-up Utah Valley while the women finished nearly 30 points ahead of the Wolverines. During indoors, the men’s team finished with a 49-point lead over runner-up Utah Valley. After leading the Lopes to a men’s and women’s WAC Indoor and Outdoor title sweep, Flood was named the WAC Men’s and Women’s Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field Coach of the Year. The six-time WAC Coach of the Year led 35 student-athletes to individual WAC titles, including WAC Heptathlon champion, Pierre-Louis Ricou, and three-time 2016 WAC Champion, Barnett. Â
The season concluded with Barnett qualifying for Discus throw in the 2016 Rio Olympics. The sophomore from Kingston, Jamaica, finished 16th in the world at the games with best mark among all NCAA competitors.
In 2015, Flood led the men’s and women’s team to second place finishes at the WAC Outdoor Championships that included 12 student-athletes crowned WAC Champions. During the WAC Indoor Championships, the men’s team once again placed runner-up, just 20 points out of first. With 11 student-athletes crowned WAC Champions, Flood earned Women’s Indoor Coach of the Year.
In 2014, during the program’s first transition year to the Division I level, Flood guided the Lopes to stellar performances at both the 2014 WAC Indoor and Outdoor Championships. For his efforts, Flood was named the WAC Women’s Indoor Track and Field Coach of the Year. The Grand Canyon men placed second at the indoor championships, falling to Idaho by just one point. During the WAC Outdoor Championships, the women’s team turned in a second-place finish, while the GCU men finished third.
The track and field programs run at the Division II level for Flood and company was highlighted by 87 All-American performances, including three individuals being crowned DII National Champions, and DII Indoor National title for the men’s team.
In 2013, Flood continued to build one of the top Division II track and field programs in the country. In just the program’s third year, Flood led the GCU women to a third-place finish at the Division II Indoor Championships, while the men’s took fourth at the Division II Outdoor Championships. In addition to their success at the national level, the Lopes swept the PacWest Outdoor Conference Championships.
Flood was named the 2013 West Region Men’s and Women’s Coach of the Year by USTFCCCA.
In just its second year of existence, Flood guided the men’s indoor track and field program to a Division II Indoor Track and Field National Championship where the Lopes came home with individual National Championship titles in the long jump and 60-meter dash. The women’s team finished sixth at the DII Indoor Championships and followed that performance with a fifth-place finish at the DII Outdoor Championships.
Flood’s student-athletes collected 35 All-American nods in 2012 as he was named United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Men’s Indoor Track and Field National Coach of the Year. Additionally, Flood was named the USTFCCCA Men’s and Women’s West Region Coach of the Year for the outdoor season, while also garnering the honor for the men’s indoor season.
As assistant track and field coach at Colorado State, he helped bring unprecedented success to the program, including the Men’s Indoor Conference Championship in 2002. In four seasons, 11 Conference Championships and 32 All-Conference performances, including two-time All-American John Woods and 2002 USATF 400-meter hurdles runner-up Megan Addy. In 2000, CSU men’s 4x100 meter relay (consisting of four former walk-on athletes) ran the eighth fastest time in the country that year (39.56).
The success of these athletes should come as no surprise when considering Flood’s past as both a competitor and coach. He was a long and triple jumper at Arizona State from 1979-82. Before coaching at CSU, he with the F.A.S.T. program from 1987-1995. At F.A.S.T. he trained many professional, collegiate and elite high school track and field athletes. Also, during this time he built a highly successful sprints and hurdles program at Sunnyslope High School in Phoenix, Arizona.
Flood is a former football and track standout from Washington High School in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1977, during his sophomore season, the Rams won the State Track and Field Championship. In the fall of 1977, Flood teamed with future NFL quarterback Mike Pagel to reach the State Football Final, losing to Tempe McClintock. In 1978 the No. 1-ranked Rams lost their only game in the State Semifinals. He was elected to the 1979 Arizona vs. Utah All-Star football team that also featured former UCLA football coach and current Pac-12 analyst Rick Neuheisel and former NFL player Pete Mandley. Flood’s nephew Brad Western was an outstanding baseball player for Grand Canyon from 2003-2007.
Together with his wife Lin Sue (former NBC news anchor), they have seven children: Peng, Zach, Taylor, Madison, Cheney, Seamus, Wen.
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