SAN DIEGO, Calif. – Some might believe that conference championships are routine for Azusa Pacific, but this pair of titles carries a special feeling that shakes any Cougar from the status quo.

For the sixth time in the past 9 years Azusa Pacific has swept the men’s and women’s track & field titles of the Golden State Athletic Conference, and in the process the Cougars established history on multiple fronts.

First, and perhaps most significantly, the Cougar women wrestled the GSAC title from 2-time defending champ and meet host Point Loma Nazarene University by a mere 6.5 points, downing the Sea Lions, 190.5 to 184. With the title in hand, Azusa Pacific becomes the first school to reach 100 conference championships, all captured in the past 23 years since the GSAC’s inaugural campaign on 1986-87.

“We actually won because of the growing strength of the conference,” said Azusa Pacific women’s coach Mike Barnett. “We won the events that we’ve won in the past but other schools are now scoring in a variety of events. The growth of the programs at Fresno Pacific, Biola and Concordia took points from areas where Point Loma has scored in the past.”

Indeed, the conference is growing in caliber of performance. For the first time in meet history 5 women’s teams scored over 100 points.

The Cougar men ran away from the 7-team field, beating second-place Fresno Pacific University, 271 to 198.5. The championship, the 101st in school history, is the Cougars’ 11th straight conference title, the longest championship streak ever attained by any GSAC school and program.

The Cougar women grabbed the early lead after Friday’s first-day of competition and then held off Point Loma Nazarene, winning 8 of 22 events in the process. NAIA champion Jaime Canterbury led the way by taking the individual crowns in the 800- and 1500-meters with GSAC-record-setting efforts. She opened Saturday’s competition on the track by edging teammate Jacky Kipwambok in the 1500 on a dead sprint with a 4:26.96, breaking the 11-year old conference by 2 seconds. Kipwambok, who would later get her own conference record, was second at 4:26.99.

Seventy-five minutes later Canterbury was back on the track with another record-setting pace, blowing by the field in the 800 with personal-record time of 2:10.27 and breaking the GSAC’s 14-year old former standard of 2:11.33.

Canterbury opened her competition Friday by anchoring the Cougars’ 4x800-meter relay to victory with a stadium-record time of 9:16.49. She completes her GSAC career with 5 conference championships and owner of 3 conference records.

Kipwambok, who teams with Canterbury to give Azusa Pacific the premier distance-running duo in the NAIA, clinched the conference team crown late in the meet Saturday by winning the 5000-meters with the first sub-17-minute effort in conference history, clocking a sizzling 16:55.45 and finishing more than 50 seconds ahead of her nearest competitor.

“We nearly pulled Jacky from the race simply to rest her, but when we realized we had a chance to win the championship we kept her in there and she ran a great race,” said Barnett.

While Canterbury and Kipwambok controlled the distances, sophomore Mandy Ross stole the show in the sprints. A San Diego native, Ross came home to blitz the field with the first sub-12-second 100-meters in the GSAC meet since 1994, clocking an 11.89, the second fastest time in GSAC Meet history, trailing only the 11.69 recorded by Cougar hall-of-famer Fatima Yusuf 15 years ago. Far from finished, Ross came back later in the day to take the 200-meters with a 24.23, again the second fastest time in GSAC history trailing only Yusuf’s 23.8(h) of 1994. With the sweep of the short sprints, Ross joins Yusuf (1994) and Niema Golphin (2003) as the only Cougars to take both the 100- and 200-meter GSAC crowns in the same meet.

“That was an impressive performance,” added Barnett. “Mandy was sick earlier in the week, so to come back with those kinds of times is amazing.”

Ross earned additional All-GSAC honors by anchoring the Cougars’ 4x100-meter relay (47.83) and 4x400-meter relay (3:57.48) to second- and third-place finishes, respectively.

Azusa Pacific has won at least 1 throws titles in all but 1 GSAC Championship Meet and senior Ryann Schnieder, who returned to the sport this year after a 2-year layoff, kept Azusa Pacific’s presence known by winning the hammer with a heave of 143’ 0” and the shot with a personal record and NAIA provisional put of 41’ 5”.

Other notable individual performances were turned in junior Tiffeny Parker, who finished second in the long jump (18’ 1¾”) and third in the 100-meter hurdles (13.9h). Freshman Lauren Jimison was second in the 10,000-meters with an NAIA-qualifying effort of 36:42.78, the third fastest time in Azusa Pacific history.

The victory gives Azusa Pacific its 14th GSAC championship in women’s track & field, it’s first since 2006 but its sixth since 2001. Only Point Loma Nazarene and Azusa Pacific have won GSAC team championships in women’s track& field.

While it is expected for Azusa Pacific and Point Loma Nazarene annually wrestle for the women’s crown, it is just as expected for Azusa Pacific to run away with the men’s title, and for an unprecedented 11th straight year the Cougars did so.

The Cougars recipe for victory included both quality and quantity. Azusa Pacific won 13 of 22 events and finished second in 3 other events it didn’t win. They tallied 18 or more points in 5 different events.

“Maybe 80-percent of our guys hit season or personal records today,” said Cougar men’s coach Kevin Reid. “As much as we’re talked about as a national program, it’s still important for us to do well on the conference level, and we had a number of guys step up with quality performances.”

Senior Aron Rono led the Cougar parade with a pair of GSAC-record setting efforts, crushing his own conference standard in the 1500-meters by 6 seconds with a 3:48.58. He begin the meet Friday night by posting the first sub-30-minute 10,000-meter run in conference history with a winning time of 29:18.02, beating the nearest competitor by more than 2 minutes.

“It was pretty windy and to have Aron run in conditions like that and all by himself and still finish with those that kind of times is pretty impressive,” said Reid, who was named GSAC Men’s Co-Coach of the Year along with Vanguard’s Bryan Wilkens.

Rono become the first person ever to win 3 GSAC 1500 titles and the first-ever to claim a 1500-10,000 double.

“He’s definitely the greatest distance runner in GSAC history and arguably the best in NAIA history,” added Reid.

Like Rono, Cedrique Smith pulled off a unique double victory, becoming the sixth person in GSAC history and the first freshman ever to sweep the hurdle races, taking the 110-meter highs (14.29) and the 400-meter intermediates (52.26).

Sophomore Rocky Richardson was a triple winner, claiming his first-ever GSAC individual title by winning the 800 meters in personal-record time of 1:51.84 and anchoring the Cougars to victory in the 4x800-meter relay at 7:44.62. It was Azusa Pacific’s third 4x800 victory in the past 6 GSAC meets.

Richardson finished the meet by running the third leg on the Cougars’ victorious 4x400-meter relay that clocked a 3:17.24

Junior Jordan Savidge won the pole vault with the best winning mark in 6 years at 16’ 4¾” and then followed with a somewhat surprising but very impressive 10.81 to finish third in the 100 meters behind freshman teammate Zachary Keene, who won the 100 with a personal-record 10.69 to de-thrown reigning champ Nathan Winkler of Concordia by .03 of a second. Keene finished the day second in the 200-meters with another personal-record at 21.56.

Junior Forrest Lewton became just the second Cougar ever to win the steeplechase, running a 9:21.42 and winning by more than 10 seconds over the next competitor.

The Cougars won 6 of 10 events on the track and finished second in 3 others.

Other Cougar winners include sophomore Casey Stevick, who successfully defended his conference title in the javelin with a throw of 191’ 2”. Junior Monti Sutton became the first person in conference history to win 3 triple jump titles, taking this year’s crown with a leap of 48’ 8¼”

Other than a handful of throwers who will compete Saturday (May 2) at the Steve Scott Invitational in Irvine, Calif., the Cougars take this week off and return to the track Saturday, May 9 for Occidental Invitational in Eagle Rock, Calif.