Women race to 3rd at WAC

Saturday, November 2

Kansas City, Mo.

8 a.m.

Grand Canyon

WAC Championships

11/2/2019 12:00:00 PM | Cross Country

Men's Results Women's Results

Lopes log program's top WAC finish

By: Josh Hauser

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Grand Canyon women's cross country team raced to its best finish at the WAC Championships, finishing in third place on Saturday. The men finished in fifth place, improving one spot from last year's finish.

"The women ran really strong," Lopes head coach Sara Slattery said. "We knew we were capable of it. We've been capable in the past but haven't done it on the day. So today, I was proud of them putting it together. Overall, I'm really proud of the girls. They've come to every race ready to put it out there and they did that today. That's the strongest group of women we've had."

The previous top WAC finish for the women's program was fifth, accomplished in 2014, 2015 and 2017. The Lopes' lowest score was previously 105 in 2015, topped by this year's mark of 88.

Junior Elizabeth Balsan and senior Erika Wallace paced GCU with top-10 finishes. Balsan finished eighth with a mark of 21 minutes, 46.72 seconds. Wallace was not far behind, finishing in ninth place less than six seconds later.

Senior Paige Hildebrandt (14th), junior McKayla Cordova (28th) and sophomore Ana Alvarez-Tostado (29th) rounded out the Lopes' point-scorers.

"California Baptist and Utah Valley have really strong distance programs," Slattery said. "This is the closest finish we've ever had with them. Our top three ran really well but our four and five had their best races of the season too."

The young talent on the men's side was showcased as four of the Lopes' top five finishers were underclassmen led by a pair of freshmen.

"It's a bigger jump to the college distance from high school," Slattery said. "It takes a couple of years to get their feet under them. Part of it is just being young. Each year, we'll get stronger as they develop and improve in the longer distance. Next year, we'll return almost everyone."

For the first time this season, freshman Rylan Stubbs finished first among GCU runners with a mark of 26:09.09, which was good for 23rd place. Redshirt freshman Jacob Lewis was next at 29th with a time of 26:17.82.

"The men's race was OK," Slattery said. "We had some people not put it together. Jacob had an off day and didn't look himself. Rylan ran really well, especially for missing two or three weeks throughout the season. We ran well together in a pack. They were just too far back."

Senior Matthew Anciaux (35th) and sophomores Bryce Schmisseur (37th) and Christian Fagerlin (43rd) rounded out GCU's results.

The men finished one spot better than last year's finish at the WAC Championships.

In two weeks, GCU will send a select group of runners to the NCAA West Regionals in Colfax, Wash.