Harris' high jump ranks 9th in world

Saturday, May 1

Tucson, Ariz.

Grand Canyon

Desert Heat Classic

5/1/2021 11:54:00 PM | Track and Field

Lopes compete in last regular-season meet at Arizona

By: Sam Kuzminski

TUCSON – Grand Canyon senior Ethan Harris shattered his GCU high jump record Saturday by clearning 2.26 meters, a leap that ranks first in the NCAA West Region, third in the country and ninth in the world.

Harris' effort highlighted the Lopes track and field team's final regular-season competition at the Desert Heat Classic in Tucson, Arizona.

"Any and all conversations about tonight's University of Arizona meet performances will have to begin and end with Ethan Harris' unbelievable high jump performance," GCU head coach Tom Flood said. "The scary part is, I think he can jump even higher."

The Lopes men's 1,600-meter relay also ran a WAC-best time of 3 minutes, 10.88 seconds. The relay included senior Damion Marshall, juniors Ivan Zaharchenko and Bryson Benjamin, and sophomore Jan Kral.

"We did have several other outstanding performances, including our men's 4x400 meter relay, Karsten Santaella in the discus and Liz Balsan n the women's 1,500 meter," said Flood.

GCU senior Elizabeth Balsan placed second in the 1,500-meter race with a time of 4:34.80 that moved her WAC ranking up to seventh.

Another key Lopes performance moving into the conference meet was sophomore Karsten Santaella's discus throw of 49.26 meters, which placed him in the WAC's top eight. GCU junior Jorden Okyere threw 51.42 meters on his first attempt to land eighth place. Okyere already ranks second in the WAC from his performance at the Canyon Invitational.

"I also thought that Damion Marshall had a good meet with excellent performances in the 100, 200, and 4x4 relay," Flood said.

Marshall ran the 100-meter dash in 10.78 seconds and the 200-meter dash in 21.46 seconds. The UCLA transfer will be an important asset for the Lopes at their conference meet.

"We have positioned ourselves to be right in the hunt for a couple of WAC team titles in a couple of weeks," Flood said.

The Lopes will compete in Edinburg, Texas, on May 13-15 at the WAC Outdoor Championships. The women's team looks to defend its title, while the men strive to take a title of their own.

"Now comes the always tough choices of what 32 athletes do we take to score the most points possible," Flood said. "I've already been losing sleep over these difficult decisions."