SAN DIEGO, Calif.. –- These were no baby steps. Yes, it may be the first meet of the outdoor season, but NAIA power Azusa Pacific hit the track running, and in particular, throwing as well.

In a meet hosted by Point Loma Nazarene and featuring several teams from the east coast, Azusa Pacific came away not only satisfied with the early season results, but encouraged too. Nowhere was that more evident than in the women’s throws, an area Azusa Pacific expects to dominate on the national level, yet still had new athletes emerge on the horizon to make Azusa Pacific stronger than originally expected.

Four different Cougars hit automatic qualifying marks for the NAIA Outdoor Championship meet in 3 different throwing events, and none of them included 13-time NAIA champion Vivian Chukwuemeka, who took the weekend off. Instead, fellow NAIA champion Barbara Sugar stepped to the forefront, winning the discus (156’ 11”) and hammer (167’ 8”) and easily qualifying the NAIAs.

Sugar led a parade of Cougar throwers, particularly in the discus where all told 3 Cougars reached NAIA qualifying marks. As expected, sophomore Ruth Wilhelm qualified with a throw of 141’ 1” but in a surprise showing, fellow sophomore Megan Ilertsen PRd by 9 feet, finishing second to Sugar with a heave of 147’ 4” in her first live discus competition in nearly 10 months.

And that was just the beginning of a terrific day for Ilertsen. She recorded additional PRs in the hammer (137’ 11”) and shot put (36’ 4¼”), and though neither was a qualifying mark, they nonetheless catapult Ilertsen into running for NAIA berths in those events.

Meanwhile, the steady senior Kristi Young, an All-American in the hammer, put in an NAIA qualifying effort with a throw of 156’ 7” to finish second in the event behind Sugar.

Another pleasant surprise showed up on the track when All-American junior Sarah Jackson ripped off an NAIA automatic qualifying time of 1:02.29 to win the 400-meter hurdles, her best showing in nearly 2 years. Sidelined much of last year with a foot injury, Jackson was thought to have given up the high-intensity foot-pounding of the hurdles in favor of the more foot-friendly 400-meter sprint. Yet, feeling strong and healthy, Jackson gave her foot a test and looked impressive in the process. Sophomore Kjersti Housman was a close second with a 1:04.08, one of several provisional qualifying marks reached by the Cougar women during the women’s 19-event meet.

Sarah Stafford was one of those provisional qualifiers, winning the pole vault at 11’ 4”.

The Cougar men put together some striking, if not surprising considering the time of the season, marks on both the track and the field.

Junior Matt Parish clocked a personal-best and the seventh fastest 400 meters in Azusa Pacific history, running a 47.56 to easily win the event and qualify for the NAIAs.

Junior James Ferguson, who is attempting to re-establish a Cougar presence on the national throwing scene, crushed the competition in the hammer throw with a winning, and again NAIA qualifying, throw of 192’ 3”, an early-season effort that puts him in line to become only the tenth Cougar ever to throw the hammer over 200 feet.

NAIA champion Brian Bernard and All-American David Pichler put together strong enough decathlons during Thursday and Friday’s competition at Point Loma to likely place among the top 16 who qualify for the NAIAs. Bernard scored 6,440 points while Pichler tallied 6,393, totals that will likely be improved upon when the duo competes in additional decathlons later this season.

Bernard came back Saturday to win the open pole vault with a personal-best vault of 16’ 0”, the tenth best leap in Cougar program history.