Indoor season begins at NAU

Friday, January 12

Flagstaff, Ariz.

3 p.m.

Grand Canyon

Friday Night Challenge

Photo by: Loren Orr

1/12/2018 8:30:00 AM | Track and Field

Lopes out of the starting blocks in 2018 at Friday Night Challenge

By: Fletcher Like

PHOENIX – The most decorated track and field team in the WAC, the Grand Canyon track and field team, heads to Flagstaff Friday night to compete in the Friday Night Challenge at Northern Arizona University. GCU will compete against all three Division-I schools in Arizona as well as Cal State Fullerton and Cal State San Marcos.

Coming off the second consecutive WAC Indoor Track & Field Championships sweep by GCU, the Lopes will begin 2018 looking to defend their indoor crowns yet again. On the path to winning both indoor crowns, the Lopes broke nine school records throughout the indoor season before winning 13 individual WAC titles.

With Christmas break coming to a close just days ago, the Lopes will need to clean off the rust from the holidays as the season nears. "As always with our first indoor meet, we will try and shake off a little holiday rust and begin our run to defend our WAC team titles again this year," head coach Tom Flood said.

Health is always a factor in defending titles, and Flood knows that in order to win again his team will need to stay healthy. "If both teams stay healthy and hungry, we will have an excellent chance for both teams to be standing on the top of the podium again this year" Flood added. "We definitely won't sneak up on anyone this year and so we will have to earn every point we can at the WAC Indoor Championships in February."

"Right out of the blocks we will see where we stand against several perineal NCAA Division I powerhouse track and field programs in Arizona State, Arizona and NAU," Flood commented. NAU was the unanimous selection to win the Big Sky for both men's and women's teams and Arizona State and Arizona have been powerhouse programs in the PAC-12 for years.

With a bulk of last year's title winning roster no longer at GCU due to graduation, the Lopes will lean on some new faces while looking to see who breaks out to prove themselves this season. 'We've welcomed a lot of new faces to the program this year and are finally ready to see how they perform with a GCU uniform on," Flood said of his newcomers.

Some of those newcomers include transfers from Mount Olive, Guillermo Alcala Rendon, and Adrian King from Mesa Community College, who will look to compliment the already strong men's hurdling crew and sprint crew led by Ryan Girk and William Winfield IV.

On the women's side, the Lopes will be anchored by Jamaican international thrower and 2016 Rio Olympian, Tarasue Barnett and Trista Smith in the pole vault – both women were WAC Champions in their respective events in 2017. Freshman Dora Filipovic will be a new face to watch as she joins senior, Tope Williams in the sprints, vying for more WAC titles.

"We all are very excited for this season to begin as we've had outstanding practices this fall," Flood concluded.

The Lopes will get things rolling at 3 p.m. when the field events begin and will begin the track events at 5 p.m. For the full meet schedule, click here.