Final meet before WAC yields 7 GCU records

Friday, February 4

Pullman, Wash.

Grand Canyon

WSU Invitational

2/6/2022 12:25:00 AM | Track and Field

Lopes rewrite record book in WAC Indoor Championships tune-up

SPOKANE, Wash. — In its final meet before the WAC Indoor Track and Field Championships in two weeks, the Grand Canyon track and field program recorded seven new program records in an impressive two days at the Washington State Invitational.

The Lopes also turned in nice results at the Ron Mann Classic in Flagstaff, Arizona, where a small portion of the team competed simultaneously.

"We had a couple of fantastic days at both of our track and field meets this weekend with seven total school records," GCU head coach Tom Flood said.

Lopes junior Max Carmona began the weekend by running a time of 1 minute, 51.78 seconds in the 800-meter run to check in with the WAC's top time and break a GCU record.

Late Friday night, Lopes junior Joseph Skoog broke a school record in the 3,000 with a time of 8:20.68.

When the meet shifted to Saturday, five more school records fell.

Senior Jodie Judd checked in with GCU's best mile time, a mark of 4:54.03. The Essex, England, native also logged the best mile time at The Podium, the meet's venue.

In a flurry of Saturday action, the program's record in the mile was broken and re-broken in a span of mere minutes. Sophomore Braedon Palmer wrestled away the school record by shaving off over three seconds from a 2020 run by Jacob Lewis. Palmer's time of 4:07.85 stood in the record books for only a few minutes before Lewis reclaimed his place by running a WAC-best 4:03.42.

GCU junior Kelly Moodry continued to improve upon her own school record by shaving .43 seconds off her mark in the 800 for a facility record of 2:07.37.

Finally, freshman Taryn Burkett took down a Lopes record that had stood for nine years, replacing Amber Yingling's triple-jump mark of 12.62 meters from the 2013 NCAA Division II Championships with a new measurement of 12.65 meters.

"The school-record performances speak for themselves and will most likely be in jeopardy again in a couple of weeks in Albuquerque," Flood said. "But it was also nice to see (senior) Alyson Schwartz over 4 meters again this season in the pole vault (4.10m)."

It wasn't just the record breakers that impressed Flood with the WAC Championships looming.

"I also thought that (senior) Kyle De Moica had a nice double in the 60 and 200 meters," Flood said. "(Senior) Mariano Hernandez looked good in the 400 meters. (Senior) Alexa Hokanson continues to impress in the 800 meters, and we started off the weekend by a great performance by (junior) Aidan Diggs in the heptathlon."

As the meet wound down to conclusion, a relay team checked in with a WAC best.

"It was a nice exclamation point on this outstanding weekend to finish the meet with two conference-leading performances in the 4x400-meter relays," Flood said.

The Lopes will take next weekend off from competition before making their third visit to Albuquerque, New Mexico, in two weeks.

"We will let the dust settle from all the other teams' performances," Flood said. "But I think we have positioned ourselves very well to make a lot of noise in two weeks at our WAC Indoor Championships."

The conference meet will take place Feb. 18-19 at the Albuquerque Convention Center and will be streamed on ESPN+.