PacWest Conference Men's Athletes of the Week (Apr. 20, Apr. 27)
PacWest Conference Women's Athletes of the Week (Apr. 20, Apr. 27)
IRVINE, Calif. -- In a Wednesday announcement, a total of five Academy of Art University track & field Urban Knights were named Pacific West Conference Athletes of the Week from this and the previous week. Coming off career records in the mile and 800m respectively at Cal's Brutus Hamilton weekend,
Valentin Pepiot and
Ashley Brown earned the honor of Male and Female Track Athletes of the Week. Retroactively,
Mobolade Ajomale took home his second Track Athlete of the Week honor for his performances at the Mt. SAC Relays while
Johnny Carter and
Rian Young-Werner were their respective gender's Field Athletes of the Week for their efforts in a trio of Southern California meets. The awards are based on competition from April 11-24.
Pepiot ran an incredible mile at the Brutus Hamilton Challenge, finishing second as the only NCAA Division II runner in the race. His time of 4:04.85 beat the program record by nearly six seconds. The performance was converted to a 1500m time of 3:46.71, an NCAA DII provisional qualifier and the ninth-best in the country this season.
Brown continued to improve her performance in the 800m, dropping her time for the fourth-consecutive week at the Brutus Hamilton Open. Her personal-best of 2:15.95 put her in third place and was the third-fastest in program history.
Ajomale earned his second weekly conference honor with four NCAA provisional qualifier performances at the Mt. SAC Relays. He finished sixth in the 100m open race at 10.33, the second fastest time in program history and the third-best in NCAA DII this season. He matched his school record in the 200m at 20.88. He was a part of the 4x100m relay team that won the event with a time of 40.37, setting yet another program record. He also ran in the 4x400m relay that put the Urban Knights into the top-16 at 3:12.96.
Carter made his 2016 jumps debut at the Mt. SAC Relays and Beach Invitational. He posted an NCAA DII provisional qualifier mark in the triple jump at Mt. SAC with a height of 14.74m. The Bakersfield native then posted another provisional mark in the long jump at the Beach Invitational with a height of 7.24m.
Young-Werner finished third in the triple jump at the Bryan Clay Invitational, losing to two Division I competitors. She recorded an NCAA provisional qualifier jump of 12.04m, putting her in the top-20 in the nation and third in program history.
This is the second PacWest weekly honor for both Pepiot and Ajomale. For Carter, Brown, and Young-Werner, this is their first career award.
