FRESNO, Calif. – Four weeks ago, Azusa Pacific women’s track & field head coach Mike Barnett was hoping his team could just get to the podium at the upcoming NAIA Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

Imagine his surprise. Barnett’s Cougars now own the podium.

The Cougars put together a near-perfect meet for themselves, building a commanding 35-point lead and then holding on in silence over the final 2 hours of competition to capture the 2007 NAIA women’s outdoor track & field national championship. It is Azusa Pacific’s third women’s outdoor crown in the past 5 years.

Azusa Pacific scored 73 points to out-distance upstart Cedarville University (Ohio) which finished second with 58 points. Oklahoma Baptist University was third with 55 points.

The Cougars entered Saturday’s competition in the lead with a 22-point advantage over Cedarville, and a 25-point lead on pre-meet favorite Wayland Baptist. Two hours into the competition, they were finished for the day and the meet, but in those 2 hours, everything went right for Azusa Pacific.

Barnett hoped a trio of Cougars could tally a combined 18 points in 3 events Saturday. What he got instead were 4 Cougars registering 28 points.

“This was one of those meets where everything fell into place,” said Barnett. “The girls trained hard, worked hard, and they were firing on all cylinders this week.”

All-American senior Lorraine Swaby led the Cougar charge Saturday, winning the 400-meter hurdles with a school-record time of 59.81 (the first sub-1-minute intermediate hurdler in school history). With less than 120 meters to go, Swaby was closing in on Oklahoma Baptist’s Sherene Pinnock. As Pinnock turned her head to find Swaby she tripped over the ninth hurdle, falling hard to the ground and giving Swaby clear sailing to the title. Swaby’s victory clinched the national championship, though no one really knew it at the time. Six more event finals had to be staged, and not a Cougar was in any of them.

Barnett sat idly by in the stands for 2 hours with his score sheet in hand, keeping tabs of Wayland Baptist and Oklahoma Baptist athletes. Only he was aware of the scoring, and it wasn’t until the 800 meters were concluded that he told his team that they were national champions again.

“I just started crying when he told me,” said Swaby. “No one saw this coming, and that’s what makes it so great.”

Indeed, Barnett admitted that when he started the season back in January, he didn’t see a national championship coming this season.

“We were low on numbers with only 17 girls, and I thought we were probably a fourth- to sixth-place team at best,” said Barnett. “I wasn’t surprised by our ninth place showing at indoors. So I figured a fourth-place finish here at outdoors would be great. We’d get some hardware and a chance to be on the podium at the end.”

While Swaby’s victory locked up the title, it was the performance of Jaime Canterbury and Olivia Richert in the 1500 meters that went above and beyond all expectations. Canterbury came into the championship meet with the third best time in the 1500 this year, but half way through the race she took over second place and stayed there the rest of the way, holding off Olivet Nazarene’s Carmin Green while clocking a 4:30.43. Right on Caterbury’s heels was the junior Richert, who surprisingly finished fifth with a 4:34.79, a 6-second PB that garnered her first individual All-American honor.

“That was huge,” said Barnett. “We were hoping to get 6 points out of the 1500 but instead we came up with 12. Olivia’s effort was something else; especially considering the temperature was well into the 90s.”

Senior Whitney Jacobsmeyer concluded her fine career with her third All-America honor in the steeplechase, finishing third with a time of 11:00.70.

“During the season we talked as a team about the tradition that so many of them helped set when they were freshmen and sophomores,” said Barnett, “when they were part of the 2003 or 2004 national championship teams. That tradition was in their minds, and I reminded them it was in their hands as well.”

The national championship is Azusa Pacific 27th in school history, third most all-time in the NAIA. For women’s track & field, it is the program’s fifth national title. The Cougars swept the indoor and outdoor national crowns in both 2003 and 2004.

The Azusa Pacific men finished third with 51 points, trailing only Oklahoma Baptist, which won its first outdoor national championship since 1990 with 77 points, and 3-time defending national champ Dickinson State University (N.D.) which had 58.

The Cougars opened the day in the team lead with 38 points, but they were unable to post big points in several events throughout the afternoon, and Oklahoma Baptist tallied 29 points alone in just the 200 meters and 400-meter hurdles to overtake Azusa Pacific midway through Saturday’s competition.

Nonetheless, Azusa Pacific posts its tenth straight Top 5 finish at the NAIA Outdoor Track & Field Championship Meet.

Sophomore Aron Rono, who earlier in the meet won the 10,000 meters and anchored the Cougars to victory in the 4x800-meter relay, finished fourth in the 1500 meters today with a 3:48.43 to collect another All-America honor. Junior Jason Zichterman, who teamed with Rono in the 4x800 victory Friday, finished sixth in the open 800 with a 1:52.12 for his own All-America recognition as well.

In a reversal of fortunes, Azusa Pacific and Oklahoma Baptist won the NAIA indoor championships back in March with the Cougars claiming the men’s crown, and OBU taking the women’s title. The 2 schools switched championships at this week’s outdoor meet.