AZUSA, Calif. – Point Loma Nazarene women won 5 of 14 events staged on the final day of competition to rally from 39 points down to win the Golden State Athletic Conference women’s track & field championship, Saturday at Azusa Pacific.

The victory, which snapped Azusa Pacific’s 3-year reign atop the GSAC, is Point Loma’s seventh GSAC championship and its first since 2000.

On the men’s side, Azusa Pacific took an early lead in Friday’s competition, held off a Friday-night charge from Concordia and a mid-day attack by Fresno Pacific this afternoon, to run away for its seventh straight GSAC men’s crown and its 11th title overall since the conference’s inaugural meet in 1987.

Junior Kate Alderson literally carried the Point Loma load, scoring a meet high 35 points in literally 12 different events, though technically only 6 counted. A transfer from Boise State, Alderson won the 7-event heptathlon (3,915 points) that ran over the course of both days of the meet and then in the open events finished second in the 100 meters (12.58), third in the javelin (120-9), fourth in both the 200 (25.96) and the 100-meter high hurdles (16.15) and eighth in the long jump (16-8¼).

Azusa Pacific women led throughout two-thirds of the meet, which included owning a 90-51 lead after Friday’s competition. However, Christina Metzler’s victory in the 400 hurdles (1:05.15) followed by Jessica Mercado’s win in the 200 (25.55) combined with 38 other points the Sea Lions accumulated in the sprints (compared to Azusa Pacific’s 11) allowed Point Loma Nazarene to overtake Azusa Pacific with 4 events remaining.

Jasmine Marks and Samantha From, who went 1-2 in the 10,000 only 20 hours earlier in the meet, sealed the team title for Point Loma with 14 additional points in the 5000, finishing third (18:01.7) and fourth (18:19.4), respectively. Point Loma finished with 231 points while Azusa Pacific tallied 197. Fresno Pacific was third with 142 points.

In the men’s competition, Fresno Pacific scored 47 points in Saturday’s field events and jettisoned into Azusa Pacific’s company with a sweep of the hammer throw and an additional 26 points to pull to within a 1.5 point of the Cougars with 5 events left.

Azusa Pacific, though, won 3 straight events and literally ran away from the crowd on the legs of sophomore Tony Ramirez, who became the first athlete ever to sweep all 3 sprint titles, taking the 100 (10.85), the 200 (21.56) and his specialty the 400 (48.22). He won the events in a matter of 95 minutes, and had just 20 minutes to rest between the 100 and 400 races.

Fellow sophomore Matt Sparks rolled to victories in the 110-meter high hurdles (14.67) and the 400 hurdles (53.73). The combined 50 points by Ramirez and Sparks was too much for the rest of the field, and Azusa Pacific rolled to 216 points. By winning the final event of the meet, the men’s 4x400-meter relay Point Loma Nazarene finished second, edging Fresno Pacific, 145.5 to 141.5.

In the midst of Ramirez’ and Sparks’ take-over of the meet, freshman Caleb Lynch put together a dramatic kick over the final 80 meters to overcome Vanguard’s Brandon Shaw and Matt Meyer to win the 800 meters (1:51.53) by just .33 of a second.

Though no meet records were broken among the 39 individual events staged, the future of GSAC track & field certainly shined under the spotlight of the conference meet. Eight events were won by freshmen this weekend and another 12 were captured by sophomores.

Fresno Pacific’s Eric Schwab (men’s) and Point Loma Nazarene’s Jerry Arvin (women’s) were named the 2005 GSAC Track & Field Coaches of the Year.