SAN DIEGO, Calif. For the third straight year Azusa Pacific swept the men’s and women’s GSAC Track & Field Championships as the women cruised to their title while the men used a mid-afternoon sprint to rally for its crown.

By winning 14 of the 23 events staged, the Cougar women amassed a whopping 279 points and ran away from second-place Point Loma Nazarene, which finished a hundred points off the pace at 179.

Led by freshman Niema Golphin, sophomore Vivian Chukweumeka and senior Vanessa Wilhelm the Cougars swept 3 relays and won all 4 throw events, including 2 with meet records. Golphin carried the Cougar banner by winning the 100 meters (12.33) and 200 meters (25.42) and then anchored the winning 4x100 (48.17).

Meanwhile, Wilhelm, who is recovering from a severe leg injury sustained when she was hit by a hammer during practice 5 weeks ago, nonetheless was able to win the javelin (137’ 11”) and take the hammer title with a meet record (177’ 1”), breaking the former standard by nearly 18 feet.

Chukweumeka supported Wilhelm’s effort in the hammer with a second-place showing (172’ 3”), and then won the shot title (50’ 7½”) before winning the discus with another meet record throw (173’ 11”) that bested the old conference record by more than 17 feet.

All told, Azusa Pacific collected 81 points in the sprints and relays and tallied another 74 counters in the throws, thus needing just 10 events to register 155 of its winning 279 points.

The Cougars also swept both hurdles races. Senior Mireya Beltran took the 100-meter highs with a personal-best (15.37). Perhaps most surprising of all the victories was the one recorded by junior Janessa Lepp, an All-American in the 400 meters who won the 400-meter hurdles (1:03.54) despite having not run a single intermediate hurdle race all season.

Other Cougar event winners include: junior Lisette Saucedo in the 800 (2:16.94) for her first-ever GSAC individual crown, and freshman Sarah Stafford in the pole vault (11’ 0” – sixth best mark in Azusa Pacific history).

On the men’s side, Point Loma Nazarene grabbed the early lead on Friday and held it the rest of the day and throughout much of Saturday’s field competition. However, when the meet moved in full force to the track, Azusa Pacific took over in a rather grand fashion, using the long sprints to surpass Point Loma and literally run away with the title, beating the Crusaders by a margin of 288 to 216.

Led by All-American Nate Farris the Cougars swept the 400 meters, taking the first 3 spots to move past Point Loma in the team standings, and then went one step farther in the 200 meters by taking the top 4 spots to clinch the team championship.

Farris won both the 200 (personal-best 21.58) and 400 (personal-best 47.87, eighth best in Cougar track history). Teammate Gabe Cabrerra was second in the 400 (48.08) and fourth in the 200 (22.06). Sophomore Rob Jarvis was third in both the 400 (48.59) and 200 (21.91). Senior Steve Heffernan, who earlier in the meet won his first-ever GSAC title by taking the 100 meters (10.85), was second in the 200 (21.88). In all, the Cougars collected 53 points between the 200 and 400 meters.

“It was pretty fun to watch,” said Azusa Pacific men’s coach Kevin Reid, who was named GSAC men’s coach of the year. “The guys came around the corner and there was nothing but a sea of black leading the way in both races.”

As might be expected, the Cougars blitzed the 4x100 crown (season-best 41.31) with Heffernan, Cabrerra, Jarvis and Farris running the legs.

“To be honest they were pretty conservative in their handoffs,” Reid added. “I think this group can be much faster when it gets to the NAIA meet in late May.”

Senior Dominique DeGrammont became only the third person ever and the first since Azusa Pacific’s David Fair in 1994 to win both hurdle championships -- the 110-meter highs (14.32) and the 400-meter intermediates (54.06). Interestingly, DeGrammont, who has already qualified for the U.S. championships with a 13.74 in the high hurdles, won the intermediate championship despite running the race for the first time since his 1997 high school senior year when then it was just a 300-meter race.

Sophomore Tim Ramirez, the reigning NAIA indoor champ in the half mile, won the GSAC’s 800 meters (1:52.0h) and was second in the 1500 (3:54.43). All-American Brian Wardell won his first-ever GSAC crown by taking the 5000 meters (15:13.70) and then finished second in the steeplechase (9:25.7h).

Junior Micah Goins, who the past 2 seasons has competed in the shadow of NAIA champ Jesse Roberge, stepped into the light at this GSAC meet by winning the discus (145’ 10”) and hammer (155’ 4”) throws.

The Cougar men won 11 of 25 events on the way to its fifth straight GSAC championship and a record ninth all-time. For the Azusa Pacific women, this was their third straight conference title and their record 11th since the conference’s inception in 1987.

Azusa Pacific has now won 69 GSAC championships among all sports, the most by any conference school.

Also, Azusa Pacific is the reigning NAIA indoor track & field champion in both the men’s and women’s divisions and is looking to become only the second school ever to sweep both the indoor and outdoor team championships in both men’s and women’s in the same season.