Lopes do not miss a beat

Friday, January 27

Albuquerque, N.M.

Grand Canyon

UNM Team Open

1/28/2023 6:45:00 PM | Track and Field, Women's Track and Field

Men's 4X400 shatters school record; De Moica breaks 200 mark

By: Nathan Peters

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Grand Canyon track and field team kept the momentum and took it to a new level in Day 2 of the UNM Team Open on Saturday.

"We finished the second day even better than our quick start yesterday," Lopes head coach said Tom Flood said.

The GCU sprinters continued the team trend of setting new school records, which included last week's men's 1,600-meter relay time was 3 minutes, 10.58 seconds.

"Our men's 4x400 meter relay team of Kyle De Moica, Calvin Wilson, Bryson Benjamin and Umajesty Williams, obliterated their former school record in the event with a time of 3:07.89," Flood said. "That time is currently the 13th-fastest time in the country and is now just 1.2 seconds from the fastest time in WAC history."

The conference record is 3:06.69, set by TCU in 2000.

"Newcomer Erin Brown had another fantastic day and won the 400-meter race with a WAC-leading time of 47.38," Flood said of the junior from Dallas.

Brown is one of the transfers who recently joined the Lopes, helping to bolster the defending WAC champions' depth.

"It was also nice to see another newcomer, Derrick Nwagwu, make his GCU season debut in the triple jump and finish with the second-best mark in the WAC (14.88 meters)," Flood said of the junior who transferred from Chaldron State.

In the women's events, "Taryn Burkett had a good season opener in the triple jump with a 12.15-meter jump that moves her into the fourth-best mark in the WAC," Flood said.

After a good performance last week at Northern Arizona, the Lopes' pole vaulters competed for the first time this season in New Mexico.

"Grant Hagaman and Eric Cabais-Fernandez both cleared 4.97 meters in the pole vault, which is good for the second-best mark in the WAC," Flood said.

Next weekend, the Lopes will have their second split squad weekend of the season with half of the team returning to New Mexico while the other half will be back at Northern Arizona.

Full results from Friday and Saturday can be found here.

Day 1 recap

The GCU track and field team is off to a hot start this weekend on the road.

"We had a great first evening at the UNM Team Open," Flood said.

"Kyle De Moica again broke his school record, this time with the first sub-21 second time in school history," Flood said. "Umajesty Williams (21.13) and Erin Brown (21.38) also had huge personal bests in the same event."

De Moica previously broke the 200-meter school record last week with a time of 21.05 seconds. Friday's time, the new school record, was 20.97.

Brown transferred from Sam Houston at the semester break while Williams has been with the Lopes since the fall after transferring from Arizona. Prior to today, Williams had not competed in the 200-meter indoor event in three years.

"Max Carmona won the 600-meter race and both Jarron Stevens and Alex Rafferty ran personal bests," Flood said.

Carmona, a senior, ran a time of 1:19.7. Stevens, a freshman, ran 1:29.50 and Rafferty, a sophomore, finished with a time of 1:20.85.

On the women's side, Flood said, "Kelly Moodry ran 1:33.96 in the women's 600 and is rounding into great shape after having labrum surgery this summer."

Moodry is a senior from Wyoming who started her college career at Boise State before joining the Lopes.

In the pole vault competitions, the Lopes looked very strong.

"It was nice to see Jaida Olson move into the top three in the WAC rankings in the pole vault," Flood said.

Olson completed the day with a mark of 3.67 meters.

The Lopes are looking good through the first day of the meet and will hope to keep that up when the action continues Saturday.

"Can't wait to see our performances tomorrow," Flood said.

Results can be found here.