Lopes sweep team titles at WAC Outdoor Championships

Saturday, May 14

Lawrence, Kan.

All Day

Grand Canyon

WAC Outdoor Championships Day 4

Photo by: Matthew S. Hicks

5/14/2016 11:03:00 PM | Track and Field

Photo Gallery Day 3 Final Results

By: Charles Hampton

LAWRENCE, Kan. – The Grand Canyon men's and women's track and field teams swept the 2016 WAC Outdoor Championships on Saturday at Rock Chalk Park in Lawrence, Kan.

It is the second championship for both the men's and women's teams this year, as the Lopes also took home the WAC Indoor titles in February. The title was the first outdoor conference championship for either squad since transitioning to Division I three years ago.

The women's team scored a total of 202.16 points, nearly 30 points ahead of runner-up Utah Valley. The men finished with 232 points, 37 points ahead of the second-place Wolverines. Head coach Tom Flood was named the WAC Coach of the Year on both the men's and women's side after he swept the honors at the indoor championships as well.

"I am extremely thrilled at sweeping both the men's and women's outdoor WAC track & field team titles," Flood said. "Both championships were total team efforts and myself and my coaching staff couldn't be more proud of all their outstanding performances.

The Lopes had nine conference champion performances, including two event wins from junior Tarasue Barnett in the women's discus and shot put. Barnett would earn Outstanding Field Performer honors with her performance.

On the men's side, Marcus Flannigan defending his conference title in the men's long jump with a leap of 7.45m. The junior from Chandler, Ariz. earned the men's High Point Award of the meet after accumulating 28.50 points over the championships. In addition to his long jump win, Flanningan also placed third in the 100, second in the 200, was the third leg of the 4x100 team which finished second and was the anchor leg on the winning 4x400 team to conclude the meet.

The big surprise on the final day had to come from junior Brandon Gonzalez, who had the sixth best time in the prelim round of the 800 with a time of 1:58.29. The Phoenix native came back and won the finals with a career-best time of 1:51.81, nearly three seconds faster than his previous personal best.

Both the men's and women's teams got huge lifts in the pole vault where Scott Marshall and Jennifer Rolph each took home individual titles. The big boost came from the depth of the squads as the men took home six of the eight scoring spots, including the top three, for a total of 32 team points. The women had a huge team contribution from their vaulters as well as they received 24 team points with four Lopes placing in the top six in the event.

The depth of events was not limited to the pole vaulters though. The men received 22 team points in the long jump, 19 points in the 110 hurdles and 18 points in the 100. The women picked up big team points with 22 points in the discus, 18 points in the shot put and 16 points in the 100.

While the team title did not come down to the final event, the Lopes were able to put an exclamation mark on the four days of competition with a one-second victory over Utah Valley in the men's 4x400 to close out the meet.

"While both teams are still very young, we do lose some tremendous senior leaders that will be dearly missed," Flood said. "We thank them for their incredible leadership and outstanding performances and we will look towards our returning student-athletes and new recruits to carry on our success."