Men, women sit in first place entering final day of WAC Championships

Friday, February 26

Nampa, Idaho

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Grand Canyon

WAC Indoor Championships Day 2

Men, women sit in first place entering final day of WAC Championships

2/27/2016 8:31:00 AM | Track and Field

Day 2 Track Results Day 2 Field Results

By: Charles Hampton

The Grand Canyon men's and women's indoor track and field teams put themselves in great position entering the final day of competition, as each sit atop the WAC Indoor Championships standings after Day 2 of the meet in Nampa, Idaho on Friday.

"It was definitely a great day to be a member of the GCU track and field program," head coach Tom Flood said. "We had so many outstanding performances today across the board and have put ourselves in a wonderful position to bring home a couple of WAC Indoor Conference Championships tomorrow."

The morning kicked off with the conclusion of the men's heptathlon and Pierre-Louis Ricou got the Lopes off to a great start, winning the first four events of the seven-event contest en route to taking home the win with 4,627 points. Teammates Timmy Johnson and Keith Williams finished second and sixth overall to give the men 21 points right out of the gate.

The Lopes got a huge boost both at the top and from their depth in the long jump, where defending WAC champion Marcus Flannigan set a new school record in winning the event with a mark of 25-04.50. Flannigan's jump also qualified him for the USA Indoor National meet. The Lopes followed Flannigan's lead and piled on the points as Ricou, Jude Olear, Ayodele Adeyemi and Scott Marshall finished second, fourth, fifth and eighth in the event.

That wasn't the only amount of jumping success from Grand Canyon as the high jumpers got the scoring started when Andrew Okonkwo led the Lopes with a jump of 6-08.00 to place third overall in the event. Ricou, Josh Ralston and Ahmir Lamar would string together fourth and fifth place finishes to put the Lopes at the top of the leaderboard right away.

It wasn't just the points on the scoreboard that were key for the men today, but also how they set up in the preliminary rounds for some of the finals on Saturday.

"We are also set up very well for tomorrow by qualifying five guys in the 60m hurdles, four in both the 60 and 200, as well as three in the 400," Flood added. "We have two guys in the mile and I think Brandon Gonzalez has a shot at winning the 800. We also expect to have big performances in the pole vault and triple jump."

As much success as the men had on Friday, the Grand Canyon women may have been even more impressive with a dominant 51-point lead over Utah Valley entering Saturday.

"On the women's side, we had a huge day," Flood said. "To be leading the competition by 51 points at this stage, speaks volumes for their performances."

In the women's long jump, Kevina Godfrey defended her conference title from a year ago with a season-best jump of 19-2.75 on her very first attempt of the competition. Sarah Root was able to finish in third place, despite three fouls and Andrea Olstead and Aaliyah Cook finished in fifth and eighth place to give the Lopes considerable points.

Nothing would compare to the points Grand Canyon earned in the pole vault. Led by Jennifer Rolph's second consecutive indoor crown, the Lopes swept the top 5 spots with Lindsey Wright, Makenna Powell, Jennafer Ingram and Rachelle Green combining to score 33 points.

Grand Canyon received an additional 14 points in the women's weight throw where Nyomi Mosley led the Lopes with a third place finish and a throw of 16.91. Tarasue Barnett and Sasha-Gaye Marston finished in fourth and sixth place as well.

The surprise of the evening had to come from the women's distance medley relay. Entering the championships, the Lopes had the sixth best time in the conference from the Lumberjack Team Challenge in their season opener. The team of Anna Henry, Paeden Jackson, and Bailie Jones kept the Lopes in good position and anchor Emily Wilkinson was able to move GCU into the lead for good and bring home the win with a 1.8 second victory over New Mexico State.

Much like the men, the women sit in great position for the finals today after advancing numerous athletes through the preliminary rounds with five girls qualified for the final in the 60, four in the 200 and two in the 400, 800 and mile.

"Our mission is not complete and will go win the day tomorrow and leave it all out on the track," Flood concluded. "It will be a lot of fun to watch and I can't wait to see all their hard work pay off."

Lopes fans can follow along with live results by clicking here.

TEAM SCORES – Through Day 2
WOMEN		MEN
Grand Canyon	91	Grand Canyon	77
Utah Valley	40	Utah Valley	67
Missouri-Kansas City	38	Seattle U	32
Seattle U	27	UT Rio Grande Valley	26.50
NM State	19	Missouri-Kansas City	25.50
UT Rio Grande Valley	7
CSU Bakersfield	6