Completed Event: Cross Country at George Kyte Classic on August 30, 2025 , , M: 3rd out of 13 | W: 6th out of 10
XC
at George Kyte Classic
M: 3rd out of 13 | W: 6th out of 10
Grand Canyon University Athletics
Saturday, September 17
Riverside, Calif.
7 a.m.
Grand Canyon
at
UC Riverside Invitational
Women race to top-10 finish in Riverside
9/17/2022 6:25:00 PM | Cross Country
Many Lopes set personal bests as women's team finishes 9th of 31 teams
RIVERSIDE, Calif. – The Grand Canyon women's cross country team finished ninth as a team and had three top-50 individual finishers in the large field of the UC Riverside Invitational on Saturday morning.
Thirty-one schools and over 260 runners completed the 6,000-meter women's race. The Lopes finished second among four WAC schools in the field.
"Absolutely incredible performance by the women," GCU first-year head coach Paul Limpf said. "We had personal bests from nearly everyone today. We had a tough week of training, but everyone has responded well and it clearly showed today.
"We have been working on keeping our pack closer together after Flagstaff and it helped us finish well as a team. I told them after to be proud of the performance, but also to rethink our goals as we are well on our way to achieving what we want, both individually and as a team."
GCU finished in ninth behind Arizona, Cal Poly, Southern Utah, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, Long Beach State and UC Davis but ahead of WAC foes California Baptist — last year's WAC Championships runner-up — and Utah Tech.
Pacing the GCU women was junior Katie Hooten, who finished 25th with a mark of 20 minutes, 55.4 seconds. She was joined in the top 50 by sophomore Abby Scherer (36th, 21:06.8) and redshirt freshman Halle Jenkins (49th, 21:23.3).
Also facing a large field of competitors, the GCUÂ men's team took 19th out of 30 schools. The Lopes started the race fast, checking in at 10th place through the first 2,000 meters of the 8,000-meter run. But GCU fell five spots by the 4,000-meter mark and three more spots at the 5,500-meter distance.
Sophomore Joseph Skoog paced the GCU runners, finishing 30th with a time of 24:20.5. Graduate Blake Bennett was right on his heels, just two spots back at 24:23.0. Despite the Lopes pair of top-35 finishers, the next runner did not cross the finish line until 123rd place.
"It was a bit of a tough day for our men in the team standings," Limpf said. "That being said, we had four guys match or surpass their personal bests and the rest were running their first 8K. We will regroup and use this past week and race as a learning experience moving forward. In two weeks, we will go again and that will give the guys some more time to adjust to the heavy training that we are putting in right now."
The Lopes are off next weekend before returning to competition on Sept. 30 for the Dave Murray Invitational in Tucson, Arizona.
Â
Thirty-one schools and over 260 runners completed the 6,000-meter women's race. The Lopes finished second among four WAC schools in the field.
"Absolutely incredible performance by the women," GCU first-year head coach Paul Limpf said. "We had personal bests from nearly everyone today. We had a tough week of training, but everyone has responded well and it clearly showed today.
"We have been working on keeping our pack closer together after Flagstaff and it helped us finish well as a team. I told them after to be proud of the performance, but also to rethink our goals as we are well on our way to achieving what we want, both individually and as a team."
GCU finished in ninth behind Arizona, Cal Poly, Southern Utah, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, Long Beach State and UC Davis but ahead of WAC foes California Baptist — last year's WAC Championships runner-up — and Utah Tech.
Pacing the GCU women was junior Katie Hooten, who finished 25th with a mark of 20 minutes, 55.4 seconds. She was joined in the top 50 by sophomore Abby Scherer (36th, 21:06.8) and redshirt freshman Halle Jenkins (49th, 21:23.3).
Also facing a large field of competitors, the GCUÂ men's team took 19th out of 30 schools. The Lopes started the race fast, checking in at 10th place through the first 2,000 meters of the 8,000-meter run. But GCU fell five spots by the 4,000-meter mark and three more spots at the 5,500-meter distance.
Sophomore Joseph Skoog paced the GCU runners, finishing 30th with a time of 24:20.5. Graduate Blake Bennett was right on his heels, just two spots back at 24:23.0. Despite the Lopes pair of top-35 finishers, the next runner did not cross the finish line until 123rd place.
"It was a bit of a tough day for our men in the team standings," Limpf said. "That being said, we had four guys match or surpass their personal bests and the rest were running their first 8K. We will regroup and use this past week and race as a learning experience moving forward. In two weeks, we will go again and that will give the guys some more time to adjust to the heavy training that we are putting in right now."
The Lopes are off next weekend before returning to competition on Sept. 30 for the Dave Murray Invitational in Tucson, Arizona.
Â
Players Mentioned
DIS
/ Cross Country
DIS
/ Cross Country
DIS
/ Cross Country
DIS
/ Cross Country
DIS
/ Cross CountryGCU #beachvolleyball advances!
Thursday, April 23
#grwm: GCU Softball's Sydney McCray #softball
Thursday, April 23
Senior Reflections
Wednesday, April 15
Baptized at GCU
Tuesday, April 14