5 GCU records fall in San Diego

Thursday, March 25

San Diego, Calif.

Grand Canyon

Aztec Invitational

3/27/2021 3:34:00 PM | Track and Field

Men's team places 2nd at Aztec Invitational

By: Sam Kuzminski

SAN DIEGO – The Grand Canyon track and field teams competed at the 42nd Aztec Invitational, where the Lopes men took second place Saturday and five GCU records were broken during the three-day meet.

"I'm very pleased with today's performances at the Aztec Invitational at SDSU," GCU head coach Tom Flood said. "After a couple of cold and rainy days, today was a beautiful day in San Diego that was made much better by the Lopes setting five school records."

On the first day of competition Thursday, GCU senior Niki Xydona began her first heptathlon since winning the 2019 WAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships. She won the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 14.48. Xydona also won the javelin with a throw of 41.20 meters. Because of her other top performances, Xydona won the heptathlon and broke the school record Friday with a score of 5,073 points.

The first two distance events featured GCU record-breaking performances. Senior Paige Hildebrandt set a Lopes record in the 1,500-meter race on Saturday with a time of 4 minutes, 24.48 seconds. She beat her personal school record by over eight seconds. Following Hildebrandt, junior Jacob Lewis also set a school record in the 1,500 with a time of 3:49.85, replacing alumni Daniel Flores' record from 2018.

"Paige Hildebrandt got today started by crushing her own school record in the 1,500 meters, and in the next race, Jacob Lewis set a school record in the men's 1,500-meter race," Flood said. "He doubled back a couple hours later with another great effort in the 800 meters with a time of 1:52.84."

GCU senior Elizabeth Balsan also set a program record in the 5,000 with a time of 16:53.94, which beat her school record from 2019. Following close behind was senior Erika Wallace in 17:10.43.

Toward the end of Day 3, junior Jorden Okyere continued his record-breaking streak from the Willie Williams Classic with a new Lopes discus record of 51.59 meters.

"Jorden had a great weekend," Flood said. "He also recorded the No. 2 distances in GCU history in the hammer on Friday night (59.99 meters) and in the shot put Saturday (16.42 meters)."

Sophomore Jan Kral had another remarkable performance in the 200, finishing sixth for the Lopes with a time of 21.38.

"I also thought Jan Kral had another nice double this weekend with top-10 GCU performances in both the 100 meters (10.53) and 200 meters," Flood said.

Lopes senior Madelyn Lundberg won the pole vault for the second meet in a row with a vault of 4.12 meters. Senior Alyson Schwartz recieved third place with her highest vault of the season of 4.02 meters.

"Maddie Lundberg was just two centimeters off the school record in the pole vault," said Flood.

Redshirt sophomore Aidan Diggs competed in his first decathlon as a Lope and won the competition with 6,716 points. Diggs won the 100 (11.05 seconds), long jump (7.20 meters), 400 (50.75 seconds), 110 hurdles (14.96 seconds) and pole vault (4.40 meters) in the decathlon events.

"There were a lot of other great performances and personal bests this weekend," Flood said. "We're excited to get back home and to have another home meet again next weekend and to get even better."

The Lopes are scheduled to compete at their third home meet of the year at the GCU Antelope Invitational on April 3.