Lopes claim 4 titles at 1st Mountain West Indoors

Thursday, February 26

Reno, Nev.

Grand Canyon

Mountain West Conference Indoor Championships

3/2/2026 1:09:00 PM | Track and Field

Raines, Lowder, Thevenin lead gold-medal surge in Reno, topping GCU's podium finishes

By: Tyler Killgore

RENO, Nev. – Grand Canyon delivered a strong weekend at its first Mountain West Indoor Championships, highlighted by four gold-medal performances, two school records and a dominant showing in the sprints this weekend.

GCU junior Eva Lowder, who holds the program record in pole vault, secured the first individual title by clearing a height of 14 feet, 3/4 inch. She was just short on her last attempt for a chance to qualify for NCAA Indoor Championships.

Lopes sophomore Nina Thevenin sprinted to a conference title in the 60-meter dash, clocking in at 7.32 seconds to win the event. She then went on to rewrite the program record book in the 200, finishing second in 23.31 to break a 15-year-old program record.

On the men's side, GCU graduate Justin Raines was electric. Raines was the only competitor to win multiple individual titles in the meet. He finished first in the 60-meter dash in 6.62 seconds before returning to capture the 200 title in 20.79.

In addition to Thevenin's, Raine's and Lowder's titles, GCU was able to secure eight other podium finishes throughout the event. That resulted in a third-place finish for the GCU men and a seventh-place finish for the women.

On the women's side, there were strong showings in the 400 and 60.

GCU senior Taliyah Booker finished fourth in the 400 while sophomore Cassie Small finished seventh in the 60. The women's side also had an impressive fourth-place showing in the 1,600 relay.

In the field events, Tatum Moku took second to Lowder in pole vault. The Lopes juniors, who transferred together from Washington State, have set new standards for the program in pole vault.

On the men's side, junior Antoni Smith and junior Praise Jibunor led the way for the Lopes in field events. Smith finished fourth in the high jump while Jibunor also finished fourth in the long jump.

The Lopes showed their strengths Saturday, when they gained most of their points in sprints events.

Graduate Manny Joseph and junior Francisco Marques had incredible times in the 60-meter hurdles. Joseph finished with a silver medal in the event, finishing in 7.82 to be one-hundredths of a second behind first place. Marques finished top four in 7.95.

With Raines taking first in the 60, senior Miguel Rosario had a strong showing for third with a time of 6.65.

The last two individual podium finishers were senior Germain Lemaitre in the 800 and senior Conner Kittleson in the 200. Lemaitre finished third in 1:53.83 while Kittleson ran 20.94 to also place third.

In the last event of the day at Reno-Tahoe Convention Center, the Lopes men's 4x400 relay team secured third place and was just two-hundredths of a second away from second place.