AZUSA, Calif. – Fifteen Cougars punched their tickets to next month’s NAIA Indoor Track & Field Championships during Saturday’s Azusa Pacific’s “Indoor Qualifier Meet” at Cougar Stadium.

Under ideal weather conditions which weren’t so assured of just 24 hours before during Friday’s constant rainfall, over 300 athletes from 9 different schools competed in an effort to qualify for their respective national indoor championships meets.

Azusa Pacific, which is the reigning NAIA indoor men’s champion, added 9 individual men and its 4x400 relay to the NAIA docket during Saturday’s meet. Junior All-American Staphon Arnold highlighted the qualifiers and the day’s competition by winning the high jump with a career-best leap of 6' 10 3/4", the fourth highest jump in school history.

The Cougars dominated the men’s 600 meters by not only sweeping the top 3 finishes but by having All-American Anthony Logan (1:20.19), and newcomers Montrail Brooks (1:20.33) and Garrett Zambros (1:21.03) all qualify for the NAIAs. Logan’s effort pushed him onto Azusa Pacific’s all-time list at No. 9 in the 600.

Zambrows, a transfer at semester’s break from Purdue University, went on to win the 1000 meters with an NAIA qualifying time of 2:31.04.

No newcomer though was as impressive as freshman Cedrique Smith, who in his first meet in Cougar Stadium clicked off a sterling 8.23 in the prelims of the 60-meter hurdles, one of the top 6 times in the NAIA this year. He won the finals with an 8.32.

All-American Monti Sutton went 47' 9 3/4" to win the triple jump to assure his place at the NAIAs, while in his first collegiate competition in nearly 2 years, junior Jordan Savidge took the pole vault with an NAIA-qualifying effort of 15’ 7”.

In the heptathlon, sophomores Casey Stevick (5040) and Jeff Altizer (4638) went 1-2 and most likely posted scores that will stand up for qualification into the NAIA meet.

The men’s 4x400-meter relay also qualified with a winning time of 3:17.31.

On the women’s side, freshman Mercedes Arnold, Staphon’s younger sister, registered a pleasant surprise by qualifying for the NAIAs in the long jump with a leap of 18' 0 1/4".

All-American sophomore Mandy Ross is headed to the NAIAs after winning the 400 meters (58.24). Senior Becca Reyes (3:01.10) and sophomore Kayla Carstensen (3:02.64) each qualified in the 1000 meters.

All-Americans Zora Golcevska and Tiffeny Parker both qualified in 3 different events, including the pentathlon. Golcevska tallied 3,501 points, the second best effort in the NAIA this season, while Parker scored 3,041.

Golcevska also qualified in the long jump (18' 6") and the 60-meter high hurdles (8.90). Parker, who has been hampered by a sore hamstring muscle in the early weeks of the season, qualified in her specialty the triple jump (37' 7 1/4") and as well as in the 60-meter hurdles (9.15).

Azusa Pacific's top 3 distance runners, Aron Rono, Jack Kipwambok and Jaime Canterbury, were in Seattle over the weekend for the Husky Classic at the University of Washington. All 3 runners posted career bests in the mile with Rono and Kipwambok breaking their own school records. Rono clocked a 4:01.71 to break his record by nearly 4 seconds. Kipwambok set the women's standard at 4:54.16, a 2-second improvement on the school record, while Canterbury followed with a 4:56.84.

Azusa Pacific returns to Cougar Stadium next Saturday (Feb. 21) for a "Last Chance Indoor Qualifier: that begins at 10 a.m. A women’s pentathlon and men’s heptathlon will be held on Friday (Feb. 20) starting at 2 p.m.