Hall, Corral pace Lopes at WAC Championships

Friday, November 1

Orem, Utah / Lakeside Sports Park

W - 9 a.m. | M - 9:45 a.m.

Grand Canyon

WAC Championships

Photo by: Rachel Sollazzo

11/1/2024 3:13:00 PM | Cross Country

Men's Results Women's Results

GCU men, women finish in 8th on Friday

By: Josh Hauser

OREM, Utah — Grand Canyon's cross country teams competed in the WAC Championships at Lakeside Sports Complex on Friday morning.

The Lopes were led by redshirt junior Hana Hall on the women's side and graduate Emmanuel Corral on the men's side.

Both the women's and men's teams finished in eighth place.

"Today was definitely not the results we wanted but we'll bounce back better as a team because of this result," first-year Lopes head coach Shayla Houlihan said. "The women were down our consistent top performer in Shoshanah Stukas but each of them stepped up big time in her absence."

The morning started with the 6k women's race and Hall checked in at 29th place and 27th among point scorers with a mark of 22 minutes, 1.03 seconds. Freshman Eva Johnson crossed second for the Lopes, finishing No. 37 with a time of 22:21.51.

"Hana had a killer race," Houlihan said. "I'm impressed with how she handled the pressure cooker of the conference environment. Eva stepped up big time in this environment as well. She has humble beginnings and she has proven that she belongs at this level."

Rounding out GCU's top five on the women's side was graduate Niki Hemmerlin (42nd, 22:36.43), freshman Selah Akers (43rd, 22:36.88) and freshman Taylor Hansen (54th, 23:13.01).

At the conclusion of the women's race, the men's 8k race was held. Corral was the first of a trio of Lopes to cross consecutively, finishing 38th (25:15.80) before junior Greyson Akers (25:20.96) and sophomore Ethan Smith (25:21.84) immediately followed.

The Lopes' men's top five was rounded out by junior Mac Eliason (46th, 25:37.09) and sophomore Tristen Coyle (53rd, 25:56.06).

"The men simply had a bad day," Houlihan said. "Conference meet is not an ideal time to have a bad day but we know we cannot define our season on this one result. They've made monster progress this year. As a coach I will look back and see what things I can do to better prepare them next time out."

Host Utah Valley won the women's race and California Baptist won the men's title.

GCU will send select runners to the NCAA West Regionals, held in Colfax, Washington, on Nov. 15.

"The men will be headed to Regionals in two weeks to take a crack at the west region competition," Houlihan said. "Moving to the 10k will absolutely favor the way we train and we're looking forward to another opportunity to show the fitness we've built."