Faster course times show growth

Saturday, September 28

Sacramento, Calif.

11 a.m.

Grand Canyon

Capital Cross Challenge

Photo by: Michael Rincon

9/28/2019 11:34:00 AM | Cross Country

Men's Results Women's Results

Women finish 6th at large meet; men take 10th

By: Josh Hauser

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — In a field that included 35 or more teams on both the men's and women's side, the Grand Canyon cross country teams each landed top-10 team finishes at the Capital Cross Challenge on Saturday.

The GCU men's and women's teams made big strides to improve on last year's results from the same course. The men averaged 25 minutes and 3 seconds in the 8,000-meter run to be well ahead of last year's 25:27 average. In the 6,000-meter run, the women improved their average time from 21:57 last year to 21:32 on Saturday.

"It was a step in the right direction," Lopes head coach Sara Slattery said. "I am happy where we're at in our first big invitational of the season. We beat a conference team in New Mexico State so that was good. We're going to continue to build."

Senior Paige Hildebrandt finished 11th in a field of 322 runners to pace GCU with a mark of 20:58.8. The Peoria, Arizona, native shaved over 30 seconds off her 2018 Capital Cross Challenge time and posted her career-best mark for a 6,000-meter race, beating out last year's mark of 21:02.7 from the Bronco Invitational.

With seniors Elizabeth Balsan (20th, 21:13.8) and Erika Wallace (29th, 21:22.2) not far behind, the Lopes had three women finish in the top 10% of the large field.

As a team, the women finished sixth among 40 teams and three spots in front of the meet's only WAC foe, New Mexico State.

On the men's side, a young Lopes team has several freshmen who were making the jump from the 5,000-meter races that are typical of high school meets to their first collegiate 8,000-meter race.

Redshirt freshman Jacob Lewis led the Lopes for the third time in as many meets by finishing 14th with a time of 24:27.6. Sophomore Blake Bennett (50th, 24:56.5) and freshman Rylan Stubbs (59th, 25:00.8) rounded out the top three GCU finishers among 280 participants.

"Jacob was really good, and he still could've done more," Slattery said. "That was really good. Rylan made a big jump as a true freshman and just missed going under 25 (minutes). We had a few guys off today, but our overall depth was able to help pick up the team."

The men's team finished 10th out of 35 teams and was two spots ahead of fellow WAC competitor New Mexico State.

The deep field was a result of the nation's top Division II teams taking part to preview the course, which is the site of this year's D-II NCAA Championships.

With GCU's limited participation at the Mesa Classic next weekend, most of the team will get three weeks of training to prepare for the Bronco Invitational in Santa Clara, California, on Oct. 19.