PHX Reporter

Grand Canyon University's outdoor track and field season commenced with the Willie Williams Classic in Tucson, Arizona, marking the first major meet of the season. The event took place over two days, Friday and Saturday.

"It was nice to finally have the whole team together and officially start our outdoor season," said GCU head coach Tom Flood.

A highlight of the meet was senior Lucy George's performance in the javelin throw. She set a new school record with a distance of 46.05 meters, surpassing Sophia Saldutto's previous record of 45.15 meters set in 2024.

"We started off right away with a bang on Friday with Lucy's school record in the javelin," commented Flood.

Graduate student Daviciea McCartney and junior Miguel Rosario III participated in multiple events during the meet.

"I thought that Daviciea McCartney (400-meter hurdles and 110 hurdles) and Miguel Rosario (200 and 100) had very nice doubles in their outdoor openers," said Flood.

McCartney won the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 50.69 seconds and completed the 110-meter hurdles in 14.03 seconds. Rosario recorded the fastest time among collegiate competitors at the meet for both his events: he ran the 200 meters in 20.85 seconds and clocked a time of 10.39 seconds for the 100 meters.

Other athletes also showed promising performances as they debuted outdoors this season.

"I also thought that Taliyah Booker (400), Germain Lemaître (800), and Michaela Lewis (800) posted some very nice early-season performances in their outdoor debuts," added Flood. "Jazmine Scott had a nice jump in the triple jump, and our men's 4x100 relay (Jacob Holguin, Rosario, JoJo Harding, Conner Kittleson) opened up the season with a nice sub-40 second performance."

Booker completed her race with a time of 53.79 seconds for the 400 meters; Lemaître won his event by finishing at an impressive mark of 1:49.79 for the men's 800 run—close to his own school record from last year—and Lewis finished her race at an equally commendable pace within this category running it within two minutes eleven point five zero sec., while Scott achieved second place by measuring twelve point four two mtrs.. The men’s relay team completed theirs under forty sec..

"We will take small but elite group athletes upcoming week prestigious Texas Relays," stated Coach TomFlood eagerly anticipating future improvements next wknd competition held Austin starting Wed.. ###