Title pursuit resumes at WAC Championships

Thursday, May 13

Edinburg, Texas

ALL DAY

Grand Canyon

WAC Championships

5/12/2021 9:05:00 AM | Track and Field

GCU women enter meet in Edinburg as 2-time defending champions

By: Sam Kuzminski

The Grand Canyon track and field teams will compete for WAC Outdoor Championships titles this week in Edinburg, Texas, where the teams' freshmen and sophomores will be experiencing the outdoor conference meet for the first time after last season's cancellation because of COVID-19.

The GCU women enter the Thursday-Saturday meet as the two-time defending champions while the Lopes men will be seeking their third outdoor title since 2016.

"In what seems like an eternity since our track and field student-athletes have had the chance to compete in a conference championship and at times what has been a long and frustrating year, I am very excited and confident in our teams' ability to have a very successful WAC Outdoor Championships meet again this year," GCU head coach Tom Flood said.

At the previous 2019 WAC Outdoor Championships, the Lopes women's team won its second consecutive outdoor title while the men took second place.

This season, GCU senior Ethan Harris has led the men's team with his Olympic-qualifying high jump performance of 2.26 meters at the Desert Heat Classic. Harris continues to set the bar high for himself and his team going into the conference meet.

Lopes junior Jacob Lewis leads the WAC this season in the 800-meter race with a time of 1 minute, 49:79 seconds. He also is ranked third in the 1,500 meters with a time of 3:49.85. Lewis is expected to be a leader who could help bring his team to victory.

The men's 1,600-meter relay also leads the WAC with a time of 3:10.88, which was set at the Desert Heat Classic. The relay is made up of senior Damion Marshall, sophomore Jan Kral, senior Ivan Zaharchenko and junior Bryson Benjamin.

"Our men's team is again very well balanced and we will look to a great group of upperclassmen for leadership and for some very talented newcomers to make a lot of noise," Flood said.

On the women's side, GCU senior Alexa Hokanson has been a consistent top performer in the 800-meter race. She leads the WAC with a time of 2:06.84.

Also, Lopes senior Paige Hildebrant is ranked atop the WAC in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 10:33.19, and is second in the 1,500 meters with a time of 4:24.48.

The women's pole vault team is a strong event for GCU, as the Lopes hold the top three rankings in the WAC with seniors Madelyn Lundberg and Megan Fry and junior Alyson Schwartz.

"Our women's team is again very young this year and we will be missing some very talented athletes due to injuries on the track and issues off the track, but everyone is ready to leave it all out on the track and field and fight until the last event," Flood said.

The competition will begin on Thursday with the heptathlon and decathlon events, as well as hammer, javelin, men's pole vault and the 10,000-meter race.

"Both teams know that no one is going to hand them anything and that they are going to have to fight for every point they get," Flood said. "We will have to battle in every single event to the best of our abilities and let the games committee keep track of the team scores."

The meet can be watched through WDN on Thursday night with Friday and Saturday's competition shown live on ESPN+.