Lopes break, tie WAC records at Don Kirby

Friday, February 14

Albuquerque, N.M. / Albuquerque Convention Center

10:30 a.m.

Grand Canyon

Don Kirby Elite Invitational

Photo by: Jason Schillinger

2/15/2025 10:31:00 PM | Track and Field

Results

GCU records set 4 times in 3 events; WAC records get broken, tied

By: Josh Hauser

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Grand Canyon broke school records four times across three events and broke a 25-year old WAC record this weekend during the Don Kirby Elite Invitational at Albuquerque Convention Center.

"It was a great weekend to be a part of the GCU track and field family," Lopes head coach Tom Flood said.

The highlight of the meet was GCU's men's 4x400 relay team breaking a WAC all-time record that had been standing for 25 years. The team of senior Cam Wilmington, graduate Daviciea McCartney, senior Joshua Gittens and junior Ben Stratman posted a time of 3 minutes, 5.53 seconds, setting school and conference records. The previous top WAC mark of 3:06.69 was set by TCU in 2000.

"We finished the meet with an amazing performance from our men's 4x400 meter relay team," Flood said. "This fine quartet ran a blazing 3:05.53, which not only broke the GCU school record, it also broke the all-time WAC record set by TCU 25 years ago and is the 13th-fastest time in the nation."

On Friday night, GCU graduate sprinter Erin Brown and senior sprinter Justin Raines each took a turn breaking GCU's 200-meter school record. Entering the day, Brown held the record at 20.76 seconds, a mark he set last year. He clocked a time of 20.68 seconds to improve his record. Raines became GCU's new record holder when he recorded a 20.59 in the next heat.

"On Friday night, the fireworks were provided by our men's 200-meter group, led by Justin Raines and Erin Brown," Flood said. "Both of them broke our 200-meter school record in back-to-back heats, with Justin's 20.59 being the No. 7 time in the nation and Erin's 20.68 tied for eighth in the NCAA."

Raines' 20.59 time also matched the WAC's all-time record.

On the field side, GCU senior Grant Hagaman headlined Friday night by posting the WAC's second-best pole vault mark of the season, clearing 5.22 meters.

Shifting to Saturday, the excitement continued.

"This morning, we started off with a bang thanks to our men's 60-meter hurdle group," Flood said. "Again today, we were led by (sophomore) Prosper Ekporere with a school record and WAC-leading time of 7.68. It was also great to have both Daviciea McCartney and Cam Wilmington run 7.90 in the preliminaries or finals."

Flood summarized some of Saturday's bright spots from various event groups.

"We had a couple of fine sub-4:10 altitude-adjusted performances from (sophomore) Michael Archie (4:07.77) and (freshman) Rayan Belkheir (4:08.55) in the men's mile," Flood said. "We also had two sub-6.70 performances from (junior) Jacob Holguin (6.68) and (junior) Miguel Rosario (6.69) in the men's 60-meter dash. It was also really nice to see newcomer Alona Haymore (a freshman) post a sub-2:10 altitude-adjusted time (2:09.47) in the women's 800 meter and is now second ranked in the WAC."

With the indoor season nearing its conclusion, GCU has one regular-season meet remaining on its schedule before the WAC Indoor Championships in Spokane, Washington, beginning on Feb. 28.

"This coming Friday, we will have a small group of athletes go compete up at NAU to help finalize our conference roster list," Flood said. "I do think we have already positioned ourselves really well to make a lot of noise in two weeks back in Spokane."