ALBUQUERQUE, NM – Southern Utah dethrones the GCU men’s dynasty as they take home their first WAC Indoor Track & Field Men’s Championship, while Grand Canyon takes back the title on the women’s side winning their sixth championship in the last eight years.
 
Southern Utah not only won their first men’s title, they won it in dominant fashion winning the championship with 171 points while GCU and UT Arlington tied for second place with 99.5 points. Stephen F. Austin tallied 83 points for fourth place and Utah Valley accumulated 65 points for the final top-five spot.
 
Although they came up short on the men’s side, the Grand Canyon women’s team earns the hardware with 131 points. The Lopes were able to hold off UT Arlington who totaled 118 points and Utah Valley who came up with 101 points. The rest of the top five consists of UTRGV with 83 points and Southern Utah with 57 points.
 
Grand Canyon collected some more hardware with Neysia Howard and Daviciea McCartney each being awarded with the High Point Award, an award that goes out to the athlete that totals the most individual points. Howard accumulated 32 individual points by winning the 60-meter dash, 200-meter dash, and the long jump, with the two extra points coming from GCU’s second place finish in the 4x400m relay. McCartney combined 22.5 points from winning the 60-meter hurdles, 400-meter dash, and the 4x400m relay.
 
Southern Utah’s Isaiah Labra rewrote the history books today and broke the 45-year-old WAC Indoor Championship Men’s Mile record with a time of 4:00.25. Labra broke UTEP’s Suleman Nyambiu’s mile record (4:02.36) set in 1979 by two whole seconds. The T-Bird’s as a whole competed well in the mile run, picking up third, fourth, and sixth place finishes as well.
 
Howard also made history in the meet and set a new WAC Women’s 200-meter Dash All-Time record clocking in at 23.46, beating the 1998 200-meter dash time of 23.57 belonging to UNLV’s Hydiane Harper.
 
Utah Valley’s Neal Berkey closed the gap from yesterday and won the men’s heptathlon with 5370 points, 20 points ahead of runner-up Casey Tow from GCU. Berkey took the lead in the heptathlon points standings after winning the pole vault with a mark of 4.80m (15-9.00).
 
Ajia Hughes from Southern Utah prevailed in the women’s high jump conquering the 1.80m (5-10.75) mark on her final attempt, outdueling UT Arlington’s Kaliah Jones and Abilene Christian’s Ja’Dasia Sims who both jumped 1.77m (5-9.75).
 
Hunter Murphy secured the men’s high jump gold for Stephen F. Austin after jumping the 2.11m (6-11.00) mark. The Thunderbirds’ Joren McKeever and UVU’s Aiden Garnett both hit the 2.05m (6-8.75) mark, tying for second place.
 
The Grand Canyon women built on their points lead in the women’s shot put, tallying 19 points led by Onome Ogbeniwinning the event with a mark of 14.65m (48-0.75). UTA’s Hayden Wilson won the shot put on the men’s side with a mark of 17.28m (56-8.50). Lumberjack teammates Sultan Bakare and Emmanuel Ekuma took the second and third steps of the men’s shot put podium.
 
Abilene Christian’s Ella Anttila captured the gold in the women’s triple jump with a mark of 13.07m (42-10.75), covering over half of a meter more than runner-up Jazmine Scott from GCU who recorded 12.52m (41-1.00).
 
Gabriele Tosti of Tarleton State came out on top on the men’s side of the triple jump. His jump of 16.03m (52-7.25) just beats Southern Utah’s Astley Davis whose best jump was recorded at 16.02m (52-6.75).
 
The state of Utah looked to be in prime position to take home the gold in the women’s mile run as seven of the eight finalists came from either Southern Utah, Utah Valley, or Utah Tech. However, UT Arlington’s Winnie Kipsang won the women’s mile with a time of 4:54.17. Kipsang also took the gold in the women’s 800-meter run, clocking in at 2:09.45.
 
WAC 2024 Indoor Track & Field Athlete of the Week alums Daviciea McCartney and UTRGV’s Symoria Adkins finished top of the podium in their respective 60-meter hurdles. McCartney ran a 7.79 time while Adkins checked in at 8.31. McCartney also clocked in the fastest 400-meter dash (46.59) on the men’s side.
 
Shiean Walters from ACU held off the hard-charging Vaquero’s Aisha Gay and Zoe Adams to win the women’s 400-meter dash at 54.14.
 
Gabe Remy represented Utah Valley well in the men’s 60-meter dash and brought them ten points to the team total by winning the sprint with a time of 6.69. Seattle U’s Miguel Rosario (6.71) and UTRGV’s Gael Romo (6.78) rounded out the top-three.
 
Roles reversed today as Neysia Howard spoiled the UTA party in the women’s 60-meter dash, taking the top spot with a 7.37 time over the Mavericks who finished second through fourth.
 
SFA’s Nathan Kapel won the men’s 800-meter run (1:50.72) in a photo finish over UTA’s Daniel Armstrong, who crossed the line 0.23 seconds after Kapel.
 
Dylan Gibson of Southern Utah went to the top of the charts in the men’s 200-meter dash with a time of 21.08, just edging out the Mavericks’ Khalid Mendez and teammate Jaedyn Carpenter.
 
The Thunderbirds put up a clean sweep on the men’s 3000-meter run podium with the top-three consisting of Travis Feeny, Isaiah Labra, and Santiago Gaitan. Feeny took home the gold checking in at 8:15.65.
 
The Utah Valley women’s team continues to play to their strength as they dominated the women’s 3000-meter run, taking up three of the top four spots. Morgan Nokes and Ari Trimble go one-two once again with Caila Odekirk finishing in the fourth spot.
 
The championship came to an exciting conclusion with the men’s 4x400 relay ending in a photo finish between GCU’s McCartney and SUU’s Carpenter with McCartney coming out on top by 0.03 seconds. The Grand Canyon men’s team of Ben Stratman, Conner Kittleson, James Smith II, and Daviciea McCartney ran a new WAC Indoor Championship record in the 4x400 relay, timing in at 3:08.96 beating their record set from last year (3:09.52).
 
The Wildcats ended their meet on a high note by winning the women’s 4x400 relay with a time of 3:42.76, besting the Lopes who finished at 3:43.52. Shiean Walters, Savannah McCaleb, Jess Reyes, Ja’Dasia Sims, Courtney Latham, and Gracyn Reed were all part of the ACU gold.
 
2024 WAC INDOOR TRACK & FIELD CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM SCORES
 
2024 WAC MEN’S ITF CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM SCORES
 
Rank    Team                           Points
1.         Southern Utah             171
2.         Grand Canyon             99.5
            UT Arlington                99.5
4.         Stephen F. Austin        83
5.         Utah Valley                  65
6.         Tarleton State              52
7.         Abilene Christian         48
8.         UTRGV                        29
9.         Seattle U                     13
 
2024 WAC WOMEN’S ITF CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM SCORES
 
Rank    Team                           Points
1.         Grand Canyon             131
2.         UT Arlington                118
3.         Utah Valley                  101
4.         UTRGV                         83
5.         Southern Utah              57
6.         Abilene Christian          52
7.         Stephen F. Austin         45
            Tarleton State               45
9.         Utah Tech                     17
10.       Seattle U                      13