Season begins strong with rust-buster up north

Friday, January 12

Flagstaff, Ariz.

Grand Canyon

NAU Axe ‘Em Open

McCartney does the Michael Jordan shrug celebration

Photo by: Nathan Peters

1/12/2024 11:57:00 PM | Track and Field

GCU's McCartney soars through 1st meet since 2022

By: Nathan Peters

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. - The Grand Canyon track and field team concluded the first full-force meet of the year Friday at the NAU Axe 'Em Invitational.

"Overall, I am very pleased with our performances today," Lopes head coach Tom Flood said. "We definitely busted some rust off in our first meet of the year."

With a lot of new faces, there was the question was not whether the talent was there or not but rather who would shine in the first meet of the new year.

"I thought Daviciea McCartney had a great opening meet," Flood said of the senior. "It was really nice to see him compete in a Lopes uniform after having to sit out all last year."

McCartney, a transfer from Sam Houston, started off his evening with a WAC-leading time of 7.92 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles and followed that with a runner-up finish in the 600 to teammate Germain Lemaitre, who ran the second fastest time in school history.

The Lopes had three athletes in the men's 60-meter final with senior Erin Brown (6.76) and sophomores Jacob Holguin (6.79) and Calvin Absten (6.80). Each time marks a personal best with all three recording the WAC's top marks.

GCU senior Joanna Archer had a nice wire-to-wire race, winning the 600 with an impressive time of 1 minute, 32.62 seconds, the third fastest in school history.

In the field events, the Lopes made their mark.

"It was also a good start for both our men's and women's weight throwers, as several of them all had top-10 GCU performances," Flood said.

Lopes senior Alyssa Walls took second in the competition with a throw of 17.56 meters.

In pole vault, graduate transfer Jack Hodge and junior Eric Cabais-Fernandez both surpassed the 5-meter mark to place second and fourth, respectively.

"We will get back to work again on Monday and look to get even better next week with split squads in both Albuquerque and back in Flagstaff," Flood said.

Full results from the meet can be found here.