Ring of more titles drives GCU outdoor season

Saturday, April 2

Phoenix, Ariz.

1 p.m.

Grand Canyon

GCU Invitational

4/1/2022 11:51:00 AM | Track and Field

Lopes pursue WAC repeat sweep with deeper team of regional candidates

By: Paul Coro

The Grand Canyon track and field teams for the outdoor season are as deep as the army of conference championship trophies occupying head coach Tom Flood's office.

Coming off a sweep of the WAC men's and women's indoor season championships, the Lopes remain bold in pursuit of conference gold even in an expanded conference.

As they enter the GCU Invitational that starts at 1 p.m. on Saturday, the Lopes are in position to defend last year's sweep of the WAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships while also projecting to send a program record number of participants to regionals for the NCAA West Preliminary in late May.

Tom Flood

"It's a culture thing," Flood said with the pair of WAC Indoor Track and Field Championships trophies earned two weeks ago placed behind his office chair. "Sorry, we're greedy. It's a different season and it's a different competition. I spell fun 'w-i-n.' You have more fun when you win. It's them taking care of their individual events, leaving it all on the track, cheering on your teammates and let them add up the score.

"The new conference makes things a lot tougher. Those additional four teams are really good at what they do and are really well coached."

Everything GCU did the past two weeks at Arizona, Texas and Arizona State was the beginning of gearing up for the WAC meet, which will be May 12-14 on a purple Husky Track in Seattle. There, the GCU women will be vying for a fourth consecutive outdoor championship while the Lopes men are also trying to repeat for their fourth outdoor title in the past six tries.

Flood believes the Lopes could approach 20 qualifiers for the NCAA West Preliminary in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Even with elite thrower Israel Oloyede redshirting the outdoor season after an All-America second-team indoor season, GCU already has matched last season's qualifying total of nine with six meets ahead.

"What's scary is the guys might be an even better outdoor team even with redshirting Izzy and the injury," Flood said. "Abilene Christian looks awfully good for the women, but we'll be in the hunt. We'll determine that factor. We'll be in a position to double some people (in events) that we didn't indoor."

Some of the Lopes' national impact is coming from teammates in the same event. Fifth-year senior Alexa Hokanson (pictured at left) and junior Kelly Moody (pictured at right) ran apart in the 800-meter race at the Texas Relays with personal-best times that rank in the top 10 nationally. Moodry ran it in 2 minutes, 5.64 seconds for the nation's sixth-fastest time of the season with Hokanson in seventh at 2:05.66 in her wire-to-wire heat win on March 23 in Austin, Texas.

"Those two have had each other to pace off, but that was the first time they weren't in the same heat," Flood said. "Alexa had to do what she's done all season – run from the front and go get it. She broke Kelly's record by a hundredth of a season for two minutes and five seconds. Kelly broke it back by two hundredths of a second."

GCU junior Marten Gasparini, a native of Italy, ranks 15th nationally this season for the javelin with his throw of 69.04 meters (226 feet, 6 inches) on March 23 at the Texas Relays. In the week prior, he threw 68.43 to win the event at Arizona's Willie Williams Classic.

"That's the real deal," Flood said. "It'll be fun to see where he ends up."

Despite a hit with losing junior sprinter Jan Kral to an Achilles tear, several other Lopes are positioned to be in the top 48 for regional qualification:

Sophomore Gabriel Binion, an Australian who went to crosstown Mesa Mountain View High School, has a long jump of 7.41 meters and a triple jump of 15.18 meters.
Senior Chris Bryan, a Kansas City transfer, scratched out of an official triple jump in his first GCU competition but would have established regional position.
Freshman Taryn Burkett, who is from Fort Collins, Colorado, posted a triple jump of 12.5 meters.
Senior Samaria McDonald, the WAC's defending hammer throw champion, could reach regionals after posting a hammer throw of 58.88 meters.
Senior pole vaulter Alyson Schwartz has cleared 4 meters and is capable of more after winning WAC championships in each of her previous four seasons.

"That girl always finds a way to win at conference championship," Flood said of Schwartz as GCU faces increased WAC challenges from newcomers Abilene Christian and Stephen F. Austin. "The strength and toughness of conference motivate them. The upcoming meets should position us really well to do what we do and make the tough decisions on taking the top 32 men and top 32 women to score the most points possible at WAC."