STEPHENVILLE, Texas -- Azusa Pacific's men's track & field team won its eighth national championship in the past nine years, winning the NAIA Outdoor Championship Saturday evening at Tartleton State University.  The Cougar women were fifth.

The Cougars returned to the top of the NAIA men's track & field heap in convincing fashion, scorng 87 points to 42 for runner-up Lubbock Christian (Texas) and Central State (Ohio).  APU had won seven straight titles only to finish second in last year's meet, losing to Oklahoma Baptist, 57-53.

Sophomore sprinter Davidson Ezinwa picked up individual victories in the 100- and 200-meter dashes to win the Outstanding Male Performer award.  He becomes the third straight Cougar to win the award, following Ade Olukoju (1990) and Patrick Nwankwo (1989).

Junior Benjamin Koech joined Ezinwa as a two-event winner, taking titles in the long jump and triple jump.  Senior Ryan McCann won the hammer throw and took second in the discuss.  Junior Jason Wyatt won the shot put, while sophomore Osmond Ezinwa finished in the 100.  Sophomore Eric Whitcomb was second in the pole vault.  Pat Mair garnered seventh in the hammer throw, and Paul Dennis placed eighth in the 400 meters.

"The best thing about this championship is the kind of kids we have, said Azusa Pacific Head Coach Terry Franson, who was voted by his peers the NAIA's Coach of the Year for an unprecedented tenth straight time.  "They have great attitudes, winning attitudes, and they use their God-given ability to honor the Lord."

In placing second in the pole vault, Whitcomb become the first Cougar ever to clear 17 feet, and broke Tim Lomheim's former school standard of 16' 8".  Koech leaped 53' 1" on his final try to tie the school record in the triple jump that he had set earlier in the season at the Mt. SAC Relays.

A relatively young team, 69 of the Cougars' 87 points were scored by athletes who should return next year.  Only McCann is a senior.  "We have a  youthful team, added Franson, "so the future is bright."

By finishing fifth the Cougar women had their second-best showing ever at the NAIA outdoors.  They were fourth in 1988.

Latrese Johnson led the Cougar women, breaking her own NAIA record in the high jump with an impressive leap of 6' 2 1/4".  Johnson originally set the standard at 6' 0 1/2" in 1989 and matched again last year.  She missed three attempts at 6' 5" (her personal best is 6' 4").

Sophomore Debbie Malachowski won the women's javelin competition on her sixth and final throw with an effort of 152' 9" besting her previous personal best by more than six feet.  She also finished third in the discus with a throw of 151' 6".

Senior hurdler Kim Petway twice lowered her school record in the 400-meter hurdles, clocking a 1:01.30 to finish fourth in the finals, but it was her 1:00.69 to win her semifinal heat that was her most impressive effort of the meet.

Though she had tried in six previous meets, it wasn't until her seventh effort that distance runner Jenee Ellis could claim to be an All-American.  The junior put on an impressive kick to nip Pacific Lutheran's Kelly Edgerton for sixth place in the women's 3,000 meters.

The seven-member team of Central State (Ohio) won the women's crown, knocking off ten-time defending champ Prairie View A&M.  Central State racked up 115 points.  The Cougars finished with 34.