SAN DIEGO, Calif. – Azusa Pacific ended a 2-week layoff by opening the outdoor season at the Point Loma Collegiate Challenge, and despite missing the strongest part of their attack, the distance runners, the Cougars still showed quite well among the dozen schools competing.

The Cougar men won their competition with 313.5 points, beating second-place MIT by nearly 30 points. The Cougar women were third, tallying 236.5 points. Meet host Point Loma took the women’s competition with 303 points, while MIT was second with 267.5.

Led by freshmen Zachary Keene and Cedrique Smith, the Cougar men won 10 of 20 events at Point Loma. Keene, who was Washington’s state 1A high school sprint champ last year at Cedar Park Christian High, won both the 100- and 200- meter dashes in rather convincing fashion, clocking a 10.89 and a 21.85, respectively, to pull away from the field in both races.

Also a state high school champ last year in the hurdles at Agua Fria High in Arizona, Smith made his collegiate outdoor debut quite memorable by winning both hurdle races – the 110 highs in 14.66 and the 400 intermediates in 53.69 – and then taking the long jump with a leap of 22’ 6½”.

The rookie pair worked together to lead the Cougars to a victory in the 4x100 as well, Smith running the open leg with Keene anchoring the Cougar quartet to an outstanding season-opening 41.91.

The meet was Azusa Pacific’s first showing on the track since capturing its third straight NAIA indoor crown the first weekend in March.

Junior Montrail Brooks won the men’s 800-meters with a fine season-opening race of 1:55.73. He then anchored the Cougars to victory in the 4x400-meter relay with a 3:18.91.

The Cougars won 3 of the 4 jump events. Along with Smith’s victory in the long jump, reigning NAIA indoor pole vault champ Jordan Savidge used an effort of 15’ 9” to win the pole vault at Point Loma. All-American Staphon Arnold won the high jump at 6’ 9”.

Azusa Pacific did not win any of the 4 throwing events, but junior Casey Stevic and freshman Shedrick Griggs both threw over 184 feet in the javelin to provisionally qualify for the NAIA outdoor championships while finishing third and fourth respectively. Stevick posted a PR at 188’ 1” while Griggs registered a mark of 184’ 10”.

Paced by All-Americans Tiffeny Parker and Mandy Ross, the Cougar women won 4 of 20 events at Point Loma.

Parker won the 100-meter hurdles with an NAIA automatic-qualifying 14.70, while Ross wasted no time punching her ticket to the NAIA’s with a winning time of 24.79 in the 200 meters. The 2 then teamed with Alyssa Shury and Emily Nash to win the 4x100-meter relay at 47.68, the fastest time recorded by a Cougar quartet since the school record was set in 1995 at 46.24.

Parker went on to finish second in the triple jump (36’ 10 ¼”), and Ross was second in her first 100-meter (12.18) race of the season.

Junior Brittani Daniels, a transfer from the University of Wyoming who sat out the indoor season, made an impressive Cougar debut by winning the discus at 148’ 5” and taking second in the hammer with a throw of 164’ 9”, both NAIA qualifying marks.

Friday evening at the Stanford Invitational, NAIA champion Jaime Canterbury ran a 16:41.17 in the 5000 meters, recording the only distance mark of the weekend for the Cougars.

The entire Azusa Pacific squads will be back in action Saturday (April 4) at the Pomona Invitational on the campus of Pomona-Pitzer Colleges in Claremont, Calif.