FRESNO, Calif. –- It wasn't hard to determine which was hotter Saturday afternoon – the temperatures in Fresno or the Azusa Pacific sprinters.

In unusual sweltering April heat that approached 100 degrees, Azusa Pacific swept all 4 sprint races – even the 800 meters by a stretch of the definition – and won all 3 relays to literally run away with its 14th Golden State Athletic Conference men’s track & field championship Saturday afternoon at Fresno Pacific University.

The Cougars scored 255 points, easily outdistancing meet host Fresno Pacific, which was second with 162 points. Point Loma Nazarene finished third with 121 points.

Point Loma Nazarene won the women’s GSAC championship, tallying 255 points to beat second-place Azusa Pacific which finished with 189. Fresno Pacific was third with 168.

Two years ago when the Cougar men won the GSAC crown, then-sophomore Tony Ramirez led Azusa Pacific by becoming the first athlete ever to sweep the 100-, 200- and 400-meter titles. This year, however, Ramirez is on the shelf with an inured foot, so an army of Cougars subbed in and Azusa Pacific didn’t miss a beat. Senior Tal Mor swept the 100 and 200, using a season-best 10.62 and a 21.47 to become the sixth person in conference history to take the both short-sprint titles in the same year. He led a fleet of Cougars who claimed the top 4 finishes, including Nate Nasca who was second (10.98), and followed by Monti Sutton (11.13) and Darnell Dodson (11.18), all of whom posted season-best times.

Senior Chris Page collected his first-ever GSAC individual title when he held off Vanguard’s Zach Powell to win the 400 meters with a 49.88. Powell clocked a 49.91.

And as the races progressed in length, the Cougars just kept on winning despite some oppressive heat that wreaked havoc on the times. Junior Jason Zichterman took the 800 meters with a 1:55.08, nearly 3 seconds off his season best that he clocked 2 weeks ago, and NAIA champion Aron Rono ran alone in his victory in the 1500 meters, recording a 3:48.60 nearly 10 seconds ahead of his nearest competitor.

All told, Azusa Pacific tallied 96 points among the 100- to the 1500-meter races, and when victories in the 4x100 (42.15) , 4x400 (3:21.33), and 4x800 (7:44.42) are figured into the mix, nearly half of the Cougars’ points came in the speed events.

Meanwhile, on the field, senior thrower James Ferguson personally accounted for 26 points by winning the hammer (season-best 181’ 5”) and finishing second in both the discus (152’ 5”) and the shot (54’ 4¾”).

Sutton became the first Cougar since Hong Li in 1997 to win the GSAC triple jump title, winning by nearly 3 feet over his nearest competitor with a leap of 48’ 2½”. Sophomore Devyn Wills became the eighth different Cougar in the past 13 years to claim the GSAC decathlon crown, tallying a personal-best 5,433 points to edge Westmont’s Josh Collins who finished with 5,317.

In all, Azusa Pacific won 11 of 22 events and was second in 3 others.

The championship is the ninth straight conference crown for the Cougar men, matching the GSAC record for the longest title streak (Azusa Pacific men’s basketball won 9 straight conference championships as did Westmont women’s tennis). It is also Azusa Pacific’s 91st GSAC championship, the most in conference history.

In the GSAC’s 20-year history, no schools other than Azusa Pacific and Point Loma Nazarene have won the women’s track & fi8eld team championship, and though the Cougars were the reigning champion, they knew they would be hard-pressed to keep Point Loma from wrestling away the crown.

The Cougar women were in the hunt in the early going and matched Point Loma’s effort by winning 7 event titles, but PLNU’s depth proved to be too much for Azusa Pacific, particularly in events such as the 800 meters and 110-meter hurdles where the Sea Lions out-scored Azusa Pacific despite Cougars winning the individual titles in both events.

All-American Lorraine Swaby proved her strength in the most difficult of all sprint races, winning the 400 meters (58.18) and the 400-meter hurdles (1:03.62) and in the process becoming just the third person in conference history to claim such a difficult double victory.

Junior Zora Golcevsak, the favorite to win the NAIA heptathlon championship next month, sidestepped her specialty in order to tally more points for the Cougar team. The strategy paid off with Golcevsak winning the 100-meter hurdles (14.65) and finishing second in the 200 meters (25.93), third in the long jump (18’ 1 ½”) and seventh in the javelin (112’ 9”), all the while registering 26 points for the Cougar attack.

Sophomore Jaime Canterbury claimed her first-ever GSAC crown by winning the 800 meters (2:18.24). Senior Whitney Jacobsmeyer captured her second GSAC steeplechase title in 3 years with a heat-influenced time of 11:57.38, more than 40 seconds off her season-best pace.

During Friday’s competition sophomore Mandy Pohja proved that her career-best 11’ 7” leap in the pole vault achieved 2 weeks ago was not a fluke by repeating the same mark to win her first-ever GSAC title.

Three years ago, Renee Eckley shocked the NAIA by winning the national javelin crown as a mere freshman. She may have equaled the impact by winning the GSAC javelin title today with a throw of 128’ 9”. Eckley has endured numerous surgeries because of the javelin and had moved on to other events in effort to prolong her track & field career. However, for the first time in 2 years, she picked up the spear today and won the conference championship by more than 5 feet.

Azusa Pacific takes the week off for graduation and returns to the track Saturday (May 12) at the Claremont Classic.