Lopes set for Willie Williams Classic

PHOENIX - The Grand Canyon men's and women's track & field teams will hit the track running at the Willie Williams Classic, hosted by the University of Arizona in Tucson, Ariz. from Friday, March 17 – Saturday, March 18. The Lopes will not have to travel far as they kick off the outdoor season at the event for the fifth-consecutive year.

"Coming off another successful indoor season by repeating the conference championships, we will look to continue building on that success during the outdoor campaign," GCU head coach Tom Flood commented.

Fresh off back-to-back titles at the Western Athletic Conference Indoor Championships, in both men's and women's, the Lopes will look to continue their championship momentum into outdoor season. The women's team took their conference with a whopping 80.5-point victory as the men's team nearly claimed a 40-point victory by defeating runner-up UMKC by 39.5 points. The GCU track & field program garnered 13 individual titles, led by Tarasue Barnett with two (shot put and weight throw).

"The transition between indoor and outdoor seasons can be a little difficult for some events," Flood added. "Unfortunately, it doesn't help that this weekend's meet is at the beginning of Grand Canyon's spring break, but I trust our student-athletes will remain focused on the task at hand and continue to put in the work to defend our WAC Outdoor titles."

The Lopes are no stranger to WAC Outdoor Championships as both the men's and women's teams swept the titles in 2016. Just a year ago, the women's team defeated the field by nearly 30 points and the men's team scored 37 points ahead of runner-up Utah Valley. 2016's team totaled nine conference champions.

"We have made our job for back-to-back WAC Outdoor titles a little harder by redshirting several talented senior student-athletes this outdoor season." Flood noted. "However, we will not concede anything at the conference meet and I think we will be right in the hunt again this year. By red-shirting the few seniors, we will give them the opportunity to qualify for the NCAA Championships once we become eligible next school year. We feel it is the right thing to do for these individuals and our track & field program."

With several student-athletes redshirting the upcoming outdoor season, the GCU track & field program hopes to give their student-athletes the best chance to succeed on and off the track. In Grand Canyon's final year of transition to Division I, the redshirted seniors will have a shot to compete in the NCAA Championships starting in the 2018 indoor season.

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Players Mentioned

Tarasue Barnett

Grand Canyon University Athletics