EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – In a matter of 10 minutes Azusa Pacific not only stunned the meet field, but the Cougars shocked themselves with an improbable sweep of the men’s and women’s high hurdles races Friday afternoon during the 58th Annual NAIA Outdoor Track & Field Championships on the campus of Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville.

The back-to-back victories electrified the Azusa Pacific tracksters who were then spurred on to outstanding second day at the national championship meet. Both the men’s and women’s teams are poised to make runs for their respective national titles during Saturday’s final round of competition.

Running her eighth race in just 30 hours, junior Tiffeny Parker had enough left in her legs to rally from the middle of the pack and win the NAIA 100-meter hurdles in a personal-record time of 14.21. Moments later, freshman Cedrique Smith burned the men’s field to take the 110-meter high hurdles with a 14.17.

Neither athlete was favored to win their own finals. In fact, Smith was nursing a strained muscle in the back of his knee, and Parker was on the down side of a flurry of events through the first day-and-a-half of the meet. A third-place showing was the best expectation for Smith, and Cougar women’s coach Mike Barnett had said just said moments before the start of Parker’s race that a seventh-place finish would produce bonus points toward the team’s national championship pursuit.

Only 3 hours earlier Parker had run a grueling 800-meters (2:47.15) in the heat and sun to finish off the heptathlon, and she had already run the opening legs on a pair of Cougar 4x100-meter relays to go along with the a high hurdles race and a 200-meters that are part of the heptathlon contingent.

“This may be the biggest upset win in program history,” said Cougar assistant coach Brian Arnold, who up to this moment had been bestowed with that honor after coming from nowhere to capture the men’s 400-meter intermediate hurdles crown at the 1985 NAIA championship meet. “Considering all the events she has competed in the past 30 hours, the fact that she could even win the hurdles race is amazing, let alone set a PR.”

Parker’s victory completed an impressive run through several hurdle races. She opened the meet Thursday morning by matching her PR with a 14.38 to start the heptathlon. Later in the day, she clocked a 14.35 in the prelims of the open high hurdles. Today, in the open semis, she managed to qualify for the finals by finishing third with a 14.44 only 30 minutes after running the heptathlon 800. She capped the progression with yet another PR and championship-winning 14.21.

“This is like the happiest moment in my life,” said Parker. “Honestly, I was dead. I didn’t think I was going to win. I was losing after the fifth hurdle and then I heard (men’s coach) Kevin’s (Reid) voice in my head, ‘snap down first 2 steps.’ On my last 2 hurdles I don’t think I’ve snapped down so hard in my entire life. I leaned, and didn’t know I had won until the starter came up and gave me the shell, and I said, ‘Are you serious?’.”

Parker is only the second Cougar ever to win an NAIA title in the high hurdles, equaling Michelle Campbell’s feat of 1995. And with Smith’s victory in the men’s 110s, Azusa Pacific becomes only the second school ever to sweep the men’s and women’s high hurdle titles in the same NAIA championship meet. Central State University of Ohio was the first to do it in 1992.

Adding to Parker’s amazing accomplishment in the hurdles is the fact that earlier in the day she tallied a personal-best score of 4,633 points (sixth-best in school history) to finish fourth in the heptathlon and pick up an All-American honor.

She closed the day with another first All-America honor, this time in the triple jump, finishing sixth with season-best jump of 39’ 1”.

“Tiffeny is the MVP of the meet so far,” said Barnett. “I think she finally believes what we’ve been telling her for a long time – she’s very good and can do some extraordinary things if she’ll just have confidence in herself. All I can say about her performance today is ‘wow!’ and she’s put us in a position to contend on Saturday.”

The Cougar women are currently in fourth place with 28 points, 18 of which Parker produced today.

The Cougar men are in the lead after 11 events and 2 days of competition, registering 45 points. First-day leader Concordia University of Oregon is now second with 36 points, while University of British Columbia is third at 35. Oklahoma Baptist University, which is expected to make a run at the Cougars on Saturday, is fourth with 22.

Senior Staphon Arnold put in a yeoman’s day of work, scoring 7 points in 2 events and running the third leg on the Cougars 4x100-meter relay that advanced to Saturday’s finals. Arnold gave the Cougars a bonus 3 points with a surprise sixth-place finish in the long jump, an event he wasn’t expected to score but nonetheless posted a career-best leap of 23’ 8” on his sixth and final attempt. Three hours later he finished fifth in the high jump, clearing 6’ 9” to pick up another 4 points and another All-America award.

Sophomore Casey Stevick finished second in the decathlon with a personal-record score of 6,863 points. Stevick, the first-day leader, opened the second day of the decathlon much like he closed the first, with another PR in the 110-meter high hurdles (15.30). However, a sub-par mark in the discus (113’ 0”) and an average throw in the javelin dropped him out of the lead and well behind defending champ Jonathan Hilton of Oklahoma Baptist.

Nonetheless Stevick fought off other contenders, including British Columbia’s Reid Gustavson and Lucas Ohmes of Eastern Oregon University, both of whom beat Stevick as last year’s national championship meet, to become Azusa Pacific’s 29th All-American in the decathlon, joining the likes of Olympians Dave Johnson and Bryan Clay along with NAIA Hall-of-Famer Doug Loisel.

Fellow sophomore Jeff Altizercame on strong in the decathlon, recording personal-bests in the final 4 events to finish with a career-best score of 6,253 points and in ninth place, just 13 points shy of scoring in the event.

In prelims held during Friday’s competition, sophomore Mandy Ross anchored Azusa Pacific into the finals of the women’s 4x100-meter relay with a 47.61 rallying effort that gave the Cougar quartet the last spot in the 8-team finals.

NAIA champions Jaime Canterbury and Jacky Kipwambok cruised in each of their 5000-meter semifinal, as did All-Americans Aron Rono and Abednego Magut on the men’s side.

In addition, Smith came back from his victory in the high hurdles to advance to the finals of the 400-meter intermediate hurdles with a 51.42 in his semifinal race.

Cougars will be competing in 12 of Saturday’s 25 event finals, including the women’s marathon, which opens the third final day of competition at 6 a.m. (CDT).

Click here to follow real-time results of Saturday’s final day and the chase for the NAIA men’s and women’s national championships.