AZUSA, Calif. – NAIA champion Brianna Carstensen admits she doesn’t care much for the 3000 meters. Perhaps she is having a change of heart.

In her first effort at this length this year, Carstensen broke the 19-year old school record by more than 9 seconds with a sizzling 9:49.68 to highlight Azusa Pacific’s "indoor" qualifying track & field meet Saturday at Cougar Stadium.

Carstensen ran with Concordia’s Natalie Perkins through the first 4 laps and then began to pull away over the second half of the race, eventually eclipsing Maura Bookout’s 1986 school-record of 9:58.14. Carstensen’s previous personal best was a 10:07.44 that she ran as a 2002 freshman.

Fellow Azusa Pacific senior Vivian Chukwuemeka won the women’s 20-pound weight throw with a heave of 63’ 4” just 2 inches shy of her own school record that she set last year. Chukwuemeka also won the shot with a put of 58’ 11 ¼.”

Azusa Pacific swept the men’s and women’s 400 meters with All-Americans Tony Ramirez (48.02) and Niema Golphin (55.95) blazing to easy victories. Ramirez’ winning time is the top time in the NAIA to date.

The Cougars also swept the 1000 meters with freshmen Olivia Richert (3:02.70) and Caleb Lynch (2:28.60) taking the honors. Lynch’s time is the second fastest in the NAIA this season.

In the pentathlon, an event that was rained out yesterday but re-staged during today’s meet, Azusa Pacific freshmen Capree Bell of Boise, Ida., and David Pichler of Yelm, Wash., won their respective events, Bell tallying an NAIA leading 3,323 points while Pichler registered 3,355 points.

Click on “Box Scores” at the top to view the meet’s entire results.