Teams finish Day 1 in position to pursue WAC Indoors titles

SPOKANE, Wash. – Grand Canyon finished the first day of the WAC Indoor Track and Field Championships with its men's team in second place among five tightly packed teams at The Podium, and the women's team expecting a second-day surge from sixth place.

GCU men trail lead by 1.5 points

The GCU men finished Friday's events with 34.5 points, barely trailing leader Utah Valley (36) and just ahead of Stephen F. Austin (31), Abilene Christian (30) and Seattle U (28).

"It's a typical track and field meet or a rerun of the Clint Eastwood classic: 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly,' " Lopes head coach Tom Flood said. "We started the day with some tough news that the defending conference champion in the heptathlon,
Aidan Diggs, couldn't continue in the event after leading the first event (60-meter dash). Our men had a good day and have positioned ourselves to win our seventh straight championship."

In his first shot put competition of the season, GCU senior Jorden Okyere won the event and 10 team points with a GCU record throw of 60 feet, 6 inches, which was 2 feet longer than the runner-up's top throw.

Senior Blake Bennett also broke a GCU record in the 5,000-meter final, running a time of 14 minutes, 24.48 seconds to finish fifth for four points.

Sophomores Grant Hagaman and Eric Cabais-Fernandez finished second and third in the pole vault, each clearing 16 feet, 3 1/4 inches to earn 13.5 points combined.

With Diggs out, junior Patrick Nelson took sixth in the heptathlon with 2,152 points and the distance medley relay set a program record in taking fourth place for five points.

In preliminaries, seniors Kyle DeMoica and Umajesty Williams posted the top two 200-meter run times and senior Calvin Wilson also was fastest in the 400, where GCU took four of the top seven times.

"We have positioned ourselves to make a lot of noise in Saturday's finals with qualifying five guys in the 400 meters, three guys in the 800, the top two qualifiers in the 200 and two guys in the 60," Flood said.

Weimer leads women's Day 1

The GCU women left work to do to get their sixth WAC Indoor Track and Field Championships title in the past seven years.

The Lopes received a first-day boost from junior Brooke Weimer, who took second place in the long jump with a leap of 19 feet, 3 1/2 inches, just 2 inches shy of first place. That finish earned GCU eight points.

"Our women's team kind of stumbled out of the blocks this morning but will look to pick up the pace Saturday," Flood said. "As always, we will continue to battle until the last event."

GCU also scored Friday with junior Onome Ogbeni and Samaria McDonald finishing in seventh and eight places, respectively, for three points, junior Madison Gawthorp taking seven in the pole vault for two points, the distance medley relay finishing sixth for three points and junior Camdyn Bruner and sophomore Amanda Thrue taking sixth and seventh places, respectively, in the pentathlon for five points combined.

GCU posted the top preliminary time in the 60-meter hurdles (junior Keira Christie-Galloway), the 800 (junior Joanna Archer) and the mile (junior Stefana Purkovic). The Lopes accounted for three of the top 800 preliminary runs.

"I was thrilled to see Stefana Purkovic have a nice double and qualify with a leading time in the mile and also qualify on the 800," Flood said.

The final day of the WAC Indoor Track and Field Championships takes place Saturday, when action resumes at 8 a.m. (Phoenix time) with a full day of events leading up to the awards ceremony that is scheduled for 5:15 p.m. (Phoenix time). Saturday's finals will stream here on ESPN+.

Grand Canyon University Athletics