Upcoming Event: Track and Field at Silver State Invitational & Combined Event on December 4, 2025
Track & Field
at Silver State Invitational & Combined Event
Grand Canyon University Athletics
Friday, February 3
Flagstaff, Ariz.
Grand Canyon
at
NAU Ron Mann Classic
Lopes deliver season-best meet
2/3/2023 10:30:00 PM | Track and Field
Grubbs, Christie-Galloway break GCU records; Williams, Okyere lead WAC
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Grand Canyon track and field team enjoyed the best weekend of the indoor season thus far.
"We started our second day as well as we finished our first at the UNM Collegiate Challenge," Lopes head coach Tom Flood said of the Friday-Saturday meet. "It was a very nice two days for Patrick Nelson in the men's heptathlon. Patrick has had a great fall training, and it showed the last couple of days."
Nelson, a junior, posted a personal-best score of 5,289 points, which moves him to third in the WAC and GCU history.
To no surprise, Lopes senior Keira Christie-Galloway again broke her school record in the 60-meter hurdles with a WAC-leading time of 8.24 seconds.
"I was also very impressed with Therese Olshanski's great double this week," Flood said of the graduate student.
In the mile, Olshanski ran an altitude-adjusted time of 4 minutes, 53.03 seconds, which is the second-fastest time in GCU history but also the third best in the WAC this season. She doubled back later in the 800-meter event with a time of 2:15.57, landing the fifth-best mark in the conference.
"It was also nice to see one of our team leaders, Bryson Benjamin, run a personal best in the 400 meters," Flood said.
Benjamin had a time of 48.24, which moves the senior into the fourth-best time in the WAC. At this point in the season, six GCU student-athletes rank in the WAC's top eight for the 400.
"This was by far the best indoor track and field meet so far this year," Flood said. "We will travel back to Phoenix but will return to New Mexico next week for the Don Kirby Classic and look to get even better and position ourselves again for runs at WAC titles two weeks later."
Full results from the UNM Collegiate Classic can be found here.
"With the majority of our UNM group flying in the morning of the meet, we literally hit the ground running and jumping," Lopes head coach Tom Flood said.
"We started the day with Summer Grubbs breaking a long-standing school record,. The pentathlon record has been untouched since 2012. Grubbs broke it with a score of 3,791 points. She is a junior transfer who is redshirting this indoor season."
Competing for the first time in a collegiate multi-event, GCU sophomore Amanda Thrue posted the second best score in the WAC with 3,496.
"Newcomer Joanna Archer, running in an off event, ran the third-fastest time in the WAC's women's 400 meters with a time of 56.68," Flood said of the junior from Guyana.
Archer transferred from Texas Tech at the semester mark of this year.
On the men's side, "it was really nice to see (junior) Jacob Hruska clear 2.07 meters in the high jump, which is the fourth-best mark in the WAC," Flood said. "In the men's 400 meters, (graduate) Umajesty Williams ran the fastest time in the WAC and the second-fastest time in school history with a time of 46.85. Also in that event, Ben Stratman broke our freshman record and ran 48.50, which is the No. 8 time in the WAC."
Wiliams, who has been battling a slight hamstring strain, was a part of the 1,600-meter relay team last weekend that broke the school record and is now putting the rest of the conference on notice as a threat in the individual events.
"We will look for even more outstanding performances tomorrow," Flood said of Saturday at the New Mexico Collegiate Classic.
Taking a look at the Lopes participating in the Ron Mann Classic at Northern Arizona, "We also had some tremendous performances at NAU with our throwers leading the way," Flood said.
"Jorden Okyere, who is having an outstanding consistent season in the weight throw, extended his WAC top performance in the event with a heave of 20.25 meters," Flood said. "(Junior) Oscar Rodriguez also had a personal best in the event with a throw of 17.30 meters, which moves him into the No. 6 position in the WAC rankings."
Okyere is a graduate student who has been with the Lopes, while this is Rodriguez's first season with the team after transferring from Tarleton.
For the women's throwers, junior Onome Ogbeni had a shot put throw of 15.29 meters.
"I was especially proud to see Onome's personal best in the shot put, which is currently the third-best throw in the WAC and just 13 centimeters off our school record," Flood said.
Both Lopes squads will pick up the action Saturday morning.
Live results from UNM can be found here.
Live results from NAU can be found here.
"We started our second day as well as we finished our first at the UNM Collegiate Challenge," Lopes head coach Tom Flood said of the Friday-Saturday meet. "It was a very nice two days for Patrick Nelson in the men's heptathlon. Patrick has had a great fall training, and it showed the last couple of days."
Nelson, a junior, posted a personal-best score of 5,289 points, which moves him to third in the WAC and GCU history.
To no surprise, Lopes senior Keira Christie-Galloway again broke her school record in the 60-meter hurdles with a WAC-leading time of 8.24 seconds.
"I was also very impressed with Therese Olshanski's great double this week," Flood said of the graduate student.
In the mile, Olshanski ran an altitude-adjusted time of 4 minutes, 53.03 seconds, which is the second-fastest time in GCU history but also the third best in the WAC this season. She doubled back later in the 800-meter event with a time of 2:15.57, landing the fifth-best mark in the conference.
"It was also nice to see one of our team leaders, Bryson Benjamin, run a personal best in the 400 meters," Flood said.
Benjamin had a time of 48.24, which moves the senior into the fourth-best time in the WAC. At this point in the season, six GCU student-athletes rank in the WAC's top eight for the 400.
"This was by far the best indoor track and field meet so far this year," Flood said. "We will travel back to Phoenix but will return to New Mexico next week for the Don Kirby Classic and look to get even better and position ourselves again for runs at WAC titles two weeks later."
Full results from the UNM Collegiate Classic can be found here.
Day 1 recap
The Grand Canyon track and field team is off to a promising start after Day 1 of split-weekend meets Friday in New Mexico and Flagstaff, Arizona."With the majority of our UNM group flying in the morning of the meet, we literally hit the ground running and jumping," Lopes head coach Tom Flood said.
"We started the day with Summer Grubbs breaking a long-standing school record,. The pentathlon record has been untouched since 2012. Grubbs broke it with a score of 3,791 points. She is a junior transfer who is redshirting this indoor season."
Competing for the first time in a collegiate multi-event, GCU sophomore Amanda Thrue posted the second best score in the WAC with 3,496.
"Newcomer Joanna Archer, running in an off event, ran the third-fastest time in the WAC's women's 400 meters with a time of 56.68," Flood said of the junior from Guyana.
Archer transferred from Texas Tech at the semester mark of this year.
On the men's side, "it was really nice to see (junior) Jacob Hruska clear 2.07 meters in the high jump, which is the fourth-best mark in the WAC," Flood said. "In the men's 400 meters, (graduate) Umajesty Williams ran the fastest time in the WAC and the second-fastest time in school history with a time of 46.85. Also in that event, Ben Stratman broke our freshman record and ran 48.50, which is the No. 8 time in the WAC."
Wiliams, who has been battling a slight hamstring strain, was a part of the 1,600-meter relay team last weekend that broke the school record and is now putting the rest of the conference on notice as a threat in the individual events.
"We will look for even more outstanding performances tomorrow," Flood said of Saturday at the New Mexico Collegiate Classic.
Taking a look at the Lopes participating in the Ron Mann Classic at Northern Arizona, "We also had some tremendous performances at NAU with our throwers leading the way," Flood said.
"Jorden Okyere, who is having an outstanding consistent season in the weight throw, extended his WAC top performance in the event with a heave of 20.25 meters," Flood said. "(Junior) Oscar Rodriguez also had a personal best in the event with a throw of 17.30 meters, which moves him into the No. 6 position in the WAC rankings."
Okyere is a graduate student who has been with the Lopes, while this is Rodriguez's first season with the team after transferring from Tarleton.
For the women's throwers, junior Onome Ogbeni had a shot put throw of 15.29 meters.
"I was especially proud to see Onome's personal best in the shot put, which is currently the third-best throw in the WAC and just 13 centimeters off our school record," Flood said.
Both Lopes squads will pick up the action Saturday morning.
Live results from UNM can be found here.
Live results from NAU can be found here.
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