Phantom boys take first at Joe City meet<br>

Ryan Eck and Justin Kremer led the team, taking home four gold medals each. Eck jumped 20 feet, 7 inches in the long jump. beating the old school record of 20 feet, 3.5 inches set in 1986 by David Karraker. His other golds were in the high jump, the 4 X 100-meter relay and the 300 hurdles, which he competed in for the first time this year.

Kremer ran away from the field and took home golds in the 100-meter, 200-meter, 400-meter and the 4 X 100-meter relay.

Jeff Towers made the finals for the first time in both the 100-meter and 200-meter, placing third in the 200. Towers also participated along with team mate Chris Streit in the gold-winning 4 X 100-meter relay.

Senior Jacob Wahler showed what persistence can achieve by obtaining a personal best in the 400-meter, running it under one minute.

Eddie Tobin continues to improve in the 1600-meter and 3200-meter, moving closer and closer to his personal bests, and senior Brian Skeet ran the 1600-meter in 5:20, taking him closer to his personal best as well.

The very young Grand Canyon Phantom girls gave the team a boost by achieving nine of the 12 team goals for the day. Freshman Fabienne Gueissaz achieved all of her goals by running 15.7 in the 100-meter and 33.1 in the 200-meter, and jumping 10 feet, 7 inches in the long jump.

Teammate Lindsay Haswood jumped 11 feet, 5.5 inches in the long jump, setting a new personal record. Freshman Sandy Pittenger achieved both of her goals in the 800-meter and 1600-meter, showing once again her potential for great things to come in distance running.

Sophomore Leslie Martinez made finals for the first time in the 200-meter and placed fifth with a time of 29.9 seconds. Jackie Wren achieved two goals in the 100-meter and 300-meter hurdles, with times of 14.5 and 1:02 respectively.

Melissa Skeet ran solid races in the 800-meter and 1600-meter, coming within seconds of her personal bests. Melissa also competed in the girls 800-meter medley race where she ran with teammates Haswood, Martinez and Wren, beating their team goal of 2:25 by 5 seconds.

The strong showing for Grand Canyon gives the team a nice boost as they head into the home stretch of the season. Chino Valley is this Friday, and then they travel to the state competition in Mesa on Saturday, May 8.

“It is really great to see the team come together like this,” said McGinnis. “They are all very supportive of one another and are able to celebrate individual as well as team achievements together.”