The Great Unknown… is now known.
After spending the past few months nearly 80 student-athletes for the first-ever
Grand Canyon University Club Track & Field team,
Lopes' Head Coach Todd Lehman beamed as his charges showed out on the track at Paradise Valley Community College in north Phoenix Saturday, highlighted by Lopes' sophomore
Siena Burns, who garnered not one, but a pair of 1
st-place finishes in the one-mile and 1000-meter races. The Lopes also earned 1
st-place finishes from freshmen
Victoria Brown (Women's Triple Jump),
Andrew Reardon (Men's 60-meter Hurdles) and
Cobie Woods (Men's Triple Jump). The four winners had plenty of company as a dozen other Lopes found spots in the top 3 among the 30 events at the PVCC Holiday Classic. In addition, two different Lopes' relay teams finished in the top 3 in the Men's 4x400 meter relay event.
"I couldn't have been prouder of our team for the way they performed," said Lehman. "There was so much joy and gratitude for the opportunity to continue their love for this great sport. It is very early and in the grand scheme of things, this was a bit of an accelerated practice to show us where we're at. It was refreshing to see that some are way ahead of training at this point, so that was a positive."
Burns didn't have long to catch her breath after besting the field by nearly five minutes in the mile, since the 1000-meter race was about 90 minutes later, but the native of Wrightwood, California, showed few ill effects as she crossed the tape in front as well with a finishing time of 3:12.87.
"I wasn't surprised (at her performance) - due to seeing how eager she is in practice and how she will sometimes ask to do extra reps," said Lopes' Assistant Coach Kellie Stroupe. "I could tell she has range. The only surprise was that she was able to do it in multiple events for the first meet. She is a competitor, and you can see it when she starts her kick down the back stretch."
Reardon was the other winner among the races, hitting the tape just two-tenths of a second ahead of his nearest pursuer.
In the field events, the main competition for Woods in the Men's Triple Jump was a teammate as fellow Lopes' freshman
Jaden Smith placed 2
nd, coming within .32 meters of Cobie's winning distance of 13.72 meters. Brown's margin of error in the Women's Triple Jump was even tighter as her winning stretch of 10.27 meters was just .07 better than the 2
nd-place jumper. Lopes' sophomore
Elle Howard rounded out the trio with a 3
rd-place distance of 9.61. Smith was also the only other Lope (besides Burns) to medal in multiple events, taking 3
rd place in the Men's Long Jump.
The full list of Lopes' top-3 finishers is below:
