School records crumble on Senior Day

Saturday, April 24

Phoenix, Ariz.

1:00 PM

Grand Canyon

Canyon Invitational

4/24/2021 9:21:00 PM | Track and Field

Lopes set 9 new program marks at season's final home meet

By: Sam Kuzminski

The Grand Canyon track and field teams competed in their last home meet of the season at the Canyon Invitational, where 32 GCU seniors were recognized and nine school records fell on Saturday.

"It was a great day to be a member of the GCU track and field family," Lopes head coach Tom Flood said. "It was an incredible meet with the Lopes breaking nine school records, and it was also great to honor and recognize our senior student-athletes, along with so many of our former athletes helping us out and cheering us on."

GCU senior Ethan Harris gave his best effort in the high jump with a 2.15-meter jump to beat his personal school record. Harris previously set his first school record at the first home meet of the season.

Another Lopes senior, Madelyn Lundberg, pulled out all the stops in her last home meet with a 4.15-meter pole vault that set a GCU record. Teammate senior Megan Fry also set a personal best with a 4.05-meter vault and placed fourth.

"I feel so blessed to have my family able to come watch me today," Lundberg said. "I definitely got emotional walking back onto the track today, and I am so thankful for my second family out on the track."

A school record was also broken by senior Alexa Hokanson in the 800-meter race. She finished in fifth place with a time of 2 minutes, 6.84 seconds. Hokanson continues to rank first in the WAC for the 800.

"We had so many fine performances that it is difficult to know where to start," Flood said.

In the 3,000-meter steeplechase, GCU senior Paige Hildebrandt broke her school record with a new time of 10:33.19. On the men's side, junior Landon Rast also set a school record in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 9:18.39.

Junior Jacob Lewis and senior Elizabeth Balsan set their second GCU records of the year. In the 800-meter race, Lewis established a new mark of 1:49.79. In the 5,000-meter race, Balsan broke the mark at 16:44.47.

Lopes junior Jorden Okyere crushed his school record in the discus with a 53.19-meter throw and placed second. He also set a school record in the shot put with a 17.06-meter throw, which placed third.

Freshman Braedon Palmer wrote his name in the GCU record book for the first time with a freshman-best time of 3:51.13 in the 1,500-meter race. Another freshman school record was set by Cannon Angotti in the 5,000 with a time of 14:51.01.

"We are continuing to position ourselves to make a lot of noise and to be in the hunt for a couple of WAC team titles in a couple weeks," Flood said.

The Lopes thrived in women's javelin with sophomore Alyssa Walls throwing 41.46 meters and senior Kathrine Enbody setting a personal best of 40.62 meters.

"We will take a small contingent of athletes to either stay sharp for conference or to try and better position themselves in the conference standings next weekend at University of Arizona before making decisions on our conference teams," Flood said.

The Lopes will compete at the Desert Classic in Tucson, Arizona, next Saturday.