Lopes bound for WAC Championships

Friday, February 18

Albuquerque, N.M.

9 a.m.

Grand Canyon

WAC Indoor Championships

2/17/2022 8:00:00 PM | Track and Field

GCU men picked 1st; women selected 2nd in polling

The Grand Canyon track and field team makes its return to the WAC Indoor Track and Field Championships on Friday and Saturday in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The Lopes men began a streak of five straight WAC indoor championships in 2016. GCU's last indoor title came in 2020 before the WAC Indoor Championships were not held last year due to the pandemic. The Lopes look for their sixth consecutive men's title, while the women aim to win back a trophy they last held in 2019.

"I am very excited and confident in both of our teams' ability to have very successful WAC Indoor Championships meets again this year," GCU head coach Tom Flood said.

In pre-championships polling, GCU was picked to win the conference on the men's side and slotted second on the women's side. The roles were flipped for Stephen F. Austin, which was picked first on the women's side and second on the men's side.

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— The Western Athletic Conference (@WACsports) February 16, 2022

"Our men's team is very well balanced with good depth in most event areas," Flood said. "We have good mixture of senior leadership and some very talented newcomers."

GCU is looking for strong results out of sprinters Max Carmona, Kyle De Moica, Mariano Hernandez, David Kolar and Jan Kral. Carmona broke GCU's 800-meter record two weeks ago and holds the conference's best time this season. De Moica and Kolar recorded two of the WAC's three best times in the 200-meter run this season.

Multi-event competitor Aidan Diggs holds the conference's second-best time in the 60-meter hurdles and third in heptathlon.

Decorated Lopes jumper Ethan Harris enters with the WAC's top mark in high jump.

Distance runners had an impressive meet in Spokane, Washington, two weekends ago. GCU will look to Jacob Lewis, Braedon Palmer and Landon Rast for more of the same, as a trio that enters with the conference's first-, third- and fourth-best marks in the mile run.

Finally, men's throwers Jorden Okyere and Israel Oloyede look to score more points for the Lopes. Okyere has the WAC's top shot put mark and second-best weight throw mark, behind only his teammate in Oloyede, who has the conference's top weight throw mark by over 5.5 meters.

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

On the women's side, sprinters Anaya Bailey, Alexa Hokanson, Atena Rayson and Kennedy Quarles lead GCU. Hokanson has the conference's second-best time in the 800-meter run, and Rayson leads the WAC in the 60 and is second in the 200.

Kelly Moodry owns a pair of the conference's top times in the 400 and 800.

Taryn Burkett and Nebtom N'Da hold some of the conference's best marks in jumps. Burkett enters with the WAC's top triple-jump mark.

Pole vaulter Alyson Schwartz, jumper Amanda Thrue and throwers Samaria McDonald and Onome Ogbeni enter with top times for GCU.

Despite a long history of WAC success for GCU, the Lopes know they have a challenging meet ahead.

"Both teams know that no one is going to just 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."

Events will begin at 9 a.m. on Friday and are expected to conclude by 6:15 p.m. on Saturday. For the schedule and/or live results, click here.