AZUSA, Calif. –  Azusa Pacific relied on splash in the field and depth on the track to sweep the men's and women's titles of the sixth annual Pacific West Conference Track & Field Championship at Franson Field Saturday afternoon.  It's the fourth straight year the Cougars have swept both crowns, though these titles might have come with more fret than the prior ones.

The Cougars won nine of 16 field events, including five-of-eight in the men's competition, tossed in a victory in the men's decathlon, and then leaned into third-, fourth-, and fifth-place finishes in the races to keep all challengers at bay.

"There's a little pressure in a four-peat because you don't want the streak to end," said Azusa Pacific head coach Jack Hoyt.  "It was a tough one, and for the men I was a little surprised because Academy of Art came after us with a great team, with the best sprint corps in all of Division II.  We relied on a lot of guys getting into the finals to displace other teams' points.  I believed that if our great athletes on the women's side did what they were capable of doing, the championship would be ours.  And they did."

In all, Azusa Pacific collected just three victories on the track, and none was bigger than junior Josh Cantong's rally to take the men's 800 meters with a 1:53.68.  His victory, which saw him lose the lead with 150 meters to go only to overcome Biola's Luke Sutherland in the final 50 meters, slowed a mad rush of Academy of Art scoring in the sprints that closed what had been a wide Azusa Pacific cushion on the men's side.

"I knew I couldn't take the 800 out slow because the field had some runners with great kicks," said Cantong, who successfully defended his conference crown. "So I went out at a good pace with a 54 or 55 first lap, and then went all out on the second lap and maintained it at long as I could.  Last year had it been a race of 805 meters I would not have won, and that was the same case this year."

In the end, Azusa Pacific's men registered 218 points to collect the team title, while Academy of Art was second with 179 points. Concordia finished third with 136 points.   The Cougars won seven events, six in the field.

The Cougar women tallied 204.5 points to out-distance second-place Point Loma, which had 153 points, and third-place Fresno Pacific, which finished with 135 points.  Azusa Pacific won six women's individual events, four in the field, two on the track.

Freshmen shined for both teams, including the PacWest's Field Male Athlete of the Meet, Raymon Harper, who won the high jump with a meet record of 6' 10¼" and then came back to take the triple jump with a season-best launch of 47' 1"

"I love that guy," Hoyt said of Harper. "He is something special, and I'm really happy that the conference honored him with that award."

For the women, freshman Chin Agina made an immediate impact of what could prove to be an outstanding PacWest career, winning the high jump with a season-best showing of 5' 7¼".  Freshman Abi Hume also collected all-conference recognition by finishing third with a leap of 5' 5".

Fellow rookie Mechaela Hyacinth clocked the second fastest 100 meters in Azusa Pacific history, winning the event with an 11.61, the third fastest effort by a DII woman this year.  What's more impressive about her 100 time is that less than an hour earlier she teamed with senior Jazmine Robertson to lead the Cougars' 4x100-meter relay a season-best time of 46.76 and a second-place finish.  Hyacinth closed out her day with a sixth-placed showing in the 200-meters with a 24.75, while Robertson was second with a 24.21.

"The freshmen had a little dip about the last month, and partly because the length of the season with the indoor competition," said Hoyt.  "But then they just locked in here because we were home.  The freshman class really stepped up in this meet."

Junior Elle Alexander, who yesterday won the PacWest hammer throw, turned around today to win the discus with a toss of 161' 5.  She also took second in the shot put with a season-best effort of 42' 1½", and in all tallied 28 points during the meet.

Junior Ki'ana Thomas held off Concordia's hard-charging Jenna Lanskey to hang on for a wire-to-wire victory in the 400-meter hurdles with a 1:03.55, beating Lanskey by just .17 of a second.
"You could see Ki'Ana's effort in the 400 hurdles and Josh's in the 800 that in that final 50 they said, 'No, this is my race, my track, and I going to own it," said Hoyt  "They along with Elise (Larson) in last night's 10K and Nate (Tamminga) and Nixon (Korir) in the steeplechase showed great determination."

The Cougars picked up nine points in the 1500 meters with All-American senior Eileen Stressling and sophomore Jenna Wilson finishing fourth and fifth with times of 4:37.32 and 4:42.51, respectively.

Azusa Pacific tallied 15 points in the hepathlon with Nikohl Jordan (4,439 points), Natalie Klapp (4,324), and Meagan Warwick (3,731) finishing third, fourth, and fifth, respectively, over the two-day event.

Senior Andy Hurtado made his final PacWest meet a most memorable one, collecting two conference titles, his first ever, with victories in the men's discus (170' 3") and in the shot put, using a personal best effort of 48' 9" on his final attempt to snatch the championship from Concordia's Chase Hamilton.

 "Up to the moment I had fouled three of my five previous throws in the shot," said Hurtado, "and I knew I had to stay calm and just stick it, meaning planting my foot and not moving.  I heard my coach say it, I did it, and a great mark came out of it.  I'm so excited to win the shot."

Senior Isaac Mowbray paced a set of Cougars who gave Azusa Pacific "depth" points.  He picked all-conference honors with his third-place showings in the 110-meter high hurdles (15.37) and 400-meter hurdles (54.90).  Lewis Gray V, another freshman, was fourth in the 400 hurdles (55.13) and sixth in the 110 hurdles (15.76).  Freshman Damarjay Guy was seventh in the 110s (15.80) and eighth in the 400 hurdles (1:06.48).

"The hurdlers made a huge difference and set us up very nicely to get the win on the men's side," said Hoyt.

In just his second effort ever, former junior college baseball standout Weston Ellis won the decathlon with a tally of 6,621 points, winning 5 events.

Azusa Pacific takes next week off for finals and graduation before returning to competition the following week with a home Twilight Meet followed by the Occidental Invitational.