Lopes show dynamic team effort at Don Kirby Invitational

Friday, February 10

Albuquerque, N.M.

Grand Canyon

UNM Don Kirby Elite Invitational

Lopes show dynamic team effort at Don Kirby Invitational

2/11/2023 7:50:00 PM | Track and Field

Skoog, Christie-Galloway, and 4x400 squad set school records

By: Nathan Peters

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Grand Canyon track and field team showed its dynamic team strength at New Mexico this weekend.

"It was a great day at the 'Oval Office' for the GCU Track and Field team," Lopes head coach Tom Flood said.

The Lopes continue to break school records on a weekly basis.

"They say that records are made to be broken, and every weekend it seems that Keira Christie-Galloway is a broken record stuck on breaking her school record in the 60 meter hurdles every race," Flood said.

This weekend Christie-Galloway ran 8.17 seconds which is the 18th fastest time in the country.

"Our 800 meter guys put on a show today," Flood said. "They were lead by true freshman, Jarron Stevens, who ran an altitude adjusted time of 1:51.35 which broke the GCU freshman record and is also the fastest time in the WAC this year."

Max Carmona, Robby Foster and Alex Rafferty also ran sub 1:52 races and were closely followed by Brian Martinez in 1:52.44. Including Stevens, they all now rank first, third, fifth, sixth and ninth in the WAC.

In jumps, Derrick Nwagwu posted the third best mark in the WAC and in school history. Nwagwu had a distance of 15.24-meters.

Katie Petsch also posted the third best time in the WAC and in school history in the 60 m sprint. Petsch had a time of 7.42 seconds.

"Our distance gang also ran well today in the mile with Joseph Skoog, Blake Bennett, Cannon Angotti, Kaitlyn Kaye, Stefana Purkovic and Abby Scherer all recording Top 10 times in GCU history," Flood said.

"We finished the meet with an exclamation point with our men's 4x400 meter relay," Flood said. "Again they broke their school record with a WAC leading time of 3:06.81 which is now just .12 seconds off the all-time WAC record in the event!"

The squad is made up of Kyle De Moica, Calvin Wilson, Bryson Benjamin and Umajesty Williams.

"We have positioned ourselves very well to make a lot of noise in a couple of weeks in Spokane for the WAC indoor championship," Flood said. "The majority of the team will take this next weekend off to stay sharp and rest up before the championships; while a small group will head back to NAU on Friday for one last competition."

Full results from the UNM Don Kirby Elite Invitational can be found here.

Day 1
"We had a very good first day at UNM's Don Kirby meet," GCU head coach Tom Flood said.

Lopes pole vaulters Grant Hagaman and Eric Cabais-Fernandez each vaulted over 5 meters, tying the two of them for second in the WAC this season.

"Brooke Weimer has a fantastic day in the long jump," Flood said. "Her 6.1-meter performance ranks second in school history and takes over the top spot in the WAC."

The GCU distance runners had impressive performances as well.

"Both Joseph Skoog and Halle Jenkins had fantastic runs in the 3,000 meters," Flood said.

Skoog's altitude-adjusted time of 8 minutes, 10.60 seconds is a new school record; while Jenkins' altitude-adjusted time of 9:57.18 is the fifth-best time in school history.

Once again, Kyle De Moica dipped under 21 seconds with a time of 20.99 in the 200. Erin Brown clocked a time of 21.23, which is the third-best of all-time at GCU.

Ben Stratman broke his GCU freshman record with a time of 48.38.

"We will look to finish strong again today with some additional outstanding performances," Flood said.

The Lopes are back in action Saturday to close out the meet.