School records fall in Albuquerque

Friday, January 24

Albuquerque, N.M.

4 p.m.

Grand Canyon

MLK Jr. Collegiate Invitational

1/26/2020 10:03:00 AM | Track and Field

Hokanson, Okyere break GCU indoor marks

By: Makenna Pellerin

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Grand Canyon junior sprinter Alexa Hokanson and sophomore thrower Jorden Okyere broke program records as the Lopes track and field team competed this weekend at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Collegiate Invitational.

Hokanson set the GCU 600-meter record time with a run of 1 minute, 34.53 seconds, beating Paeden Jackson's 2016 mark of 1:35.35.

Okyere set his second school record of the season. This time, he broke the GCU record for shot put with a throw landing at 15.97 meters, erasing Brandon Pineda's 2013 record of 15.85 meters.

"We picked right back off where we finished last night, with another school record from Jorden Okyere, but this time for shot put," Lopes head coach Tom Flood said.

"Also, very pleased with Guillermo Alcala-Rendon's 200-meter time ranking first in WAC, Erika Wallace's 3,000-meter, Aleksandris Eglitis in the pole vault and Kennedy Quarles has a nice 400-meter/200-meter double."

Rendon, a senior sprinter, ran an altitude-adjusted time of 21.78 seconds in the 200-meter race, placing him 0.3 seconds in front of the previous WAC leader. Also, sophomore Trey Johnson set the top WAC time for 60-meter hurdles with a mark of 7.87 seconds (altitude-adjusted 7.89 seconds).

Junior pole vaulter Alyson Schwartz jumped over teammate Madelyn Lundberg's WAC-leading time to reset the jump to beat at 4.05 meters. Lundberg's previous leading jump was 3.91 meters.

"We will be a little tired after our first two-day meet, but we will get to work again on Monday and continue to get better," Flood said.

The Lopes will split its roster between NAU and Houston for next week's competitions. The group traveling to Houston will get to see its brand-new stadium.