2022 Pacific West Conference Championships Results

SAN DIEGO – Impressive performances at the Pacific West Conference Championships led Academy of Art track & field to titles in eight different events as the Urban Knights raised trophies throughout Saturday's action at PLNU Track & Field. Among the honors was Marie-Jeanne Ourega earning PacWest Most Outstanding Women's Field Athlete of the Meet after she swept the horizontal jumps championships with one in the triple jump on Saturday.

"Great performances all around this weekend," said Director of Track & Field/Cross Country Kevin LaSure. "This was by far the best all-around PacWest Championship meet I have had the pleasure to be a part of and I thought our teams stepped up and rose to the occasion. When you look at our performances, you don't even realize that we were competing with only 12 student-athletes per gender because they made no excuses and answered the challenge."

Following her title in the long jump one day prior, Ourega returned to the runway and was dominant once again in the triple jump. Holding the event's first position one jump in and remaining top two throughout, the Communications & Media Technologies major saved her best for last as she posted a personal record 42-1.5 (12.84m) to become the champion, elevate to second in program history, and carry the distinction of being one of just two NCAA Division II student-athletes to surpass 42 inches (12.80m) this season. Additionally, Ourega went 13.75 to finish as the runner-up in the 100m hurdles.

The men's triple jump also saw an Urban Knight claim the title with Yacouba Gnacko having a career day. Going back and forth with teammate and eventual runner-up Mathieu Tshani, Gnacko turned in not only his best jump of the day, but also his top collegiate mark on his final attempt, going 51-11 (15.82m) to break the meet record. Third in the nation, his mark becomes second-best in program history only to Tshani who finished on a 51-1.5 (15.58m) in his last jump.

Horizontal jumpers weren't the only ones to excel Saturday. In the men's high jump, Daniel Cortes Gonzalez found himself in a battle with Azusa Pacific's Raymon Harper that yielded a new meet record. Cortes Gonzales cleared seven heights en route to first overall at 6-10.75 (2.10m). Along with breaking the meet record and his own program record both by half an inch, the performance put the Photography major inside the country's top 20 as an Outdoor Nationals provisional qualifier.

Shareez Hamm visited the top spot on the podium three different times Saturday, winning the 110m hurdles, 400m hurdles, and 4x100m relay with his teammates. The 110mH saw him deliver a personal record 14.46 for first overall and an Outdoor Nationals provisional qualification. Later he and fellow hurdler Duncan Agyemang crossed the finish line as one and two, going 52.62 and 54.27 respectively.

Combining the efforts of Kaze Poitier, Daquan Berry, Hamm, and Agyemang, the Knights' 40.95 were more than half a second faster than the next closest team in the 4x100m. Overall Hamm competed in five different events Saturday, adding fourth-place results in both the 400m and 4x400m relay. In that 400m, Agyemang ended up second overall with a time of 46.58 that was not only third in program history, but fourth-fastest in NCAA Division II this year.

For the second consecutive year, the 1500m championship belonged to Natalia Novak. She led the 12-runner field with a season-best 4:29.74 that was also an Outdoor Nationals provisional while Delanie Dykes came through just over a second back of her teammate in second place at 4:30.96. Novak later bettered her personal record in the 5000m by more than 16 seconds with a 17:03.90 that made her the event's runner-up and was also a provisional mark. Also strong in other action, Dykes finished third in the 800m with a time of 2:13.78 while Alexandria Okon came in fourth in that event, less than a second behind at 2:14.34.

The women's 4x400m relay saw Alice Coisne team with Ombretta Picciolie Minkue Meye, Erine Collard, and Selena Arjona-Alcazar for a 3:44.60 which earned them the PacWest title over Azusa Pacific by 0.19 seconds. The time was second-fastest for Academy of Art this season and put the quartet 13th in the country as Outdoor Nationals provisional qualifiers.

Individually, Minkue Meye significantly dropped her best time in the outdoor 400m to 54.75. Part of an event final that featured seven Outdoor Nationals provisional qualifications, Minkue Meye was fifth, but the improvement by more than half a second rose her to 10th in the country. Meanwhile, Alisha Wilson took seventh at 55.89.

Though minorly wind-aided (+2.3 m/s), Arjona-Alcazar broke the Academy of Art 100m dash record by nearly a full tenth of a second with her third-place result at 11.54. The effort good for eighth in NCAA DII was followed by Darria Matthias in fifth with her own season-best of 11.81.

Another extremely fast women's 200m final was highlighted by Arjona-Alcazar (23.50) in second, followed by Minkue Meye (24.08) in fifth, and Matthias (24.40) in seventh. The marks were accompanied by a +2.6 m/s wind, but the first two were both outdoor bests which elevated Arjona-Alcazar to third in the nation and Minkue Meye 22nd overall. Together in the women's 4x100m relay, Arjona-Alcazar and Minkue Meye along with Ourega and Matthias finished third at 45.12 which made ART U one of three PacWest teams inside the nation's top five thus far in 2022.

Also scoring five points for her team, Coisne came through in fourth place in the 400m hurdles, sporting a 1:04.08 time.

A quartet of personal records also came out of the men's 100m and 200m finals as, despite positive 2.3 and 2.6 m/s winds respectively, Berry went 10.56 and 21.33, finishing second on both occasions. He remains fourth in program history in the 100m while Roshard Williams was the owner of the other bests at 11.10 and 21.80 respectively in the 100m and 200m. 

Abdelouakil Mustapha twice made the podium Saturday with a runner-up result in the 800m at 1:51.89 and a third-place finish in the 1500m at 3:51.13. Saba Khvichava (3:51.58) was less than a second back of his teammate in the latter event.

Among the team scores, the Knights finished third on both the men's and women's sides as the men scored 147 points back of team champion Azusa Pacific (313) and Fresno Pacific (200) while the women's teams were identical with APU (258) followed by FPU (139) and ART U (128).

"We had far too many people do amazing things this weekend to name them all individually, but it was great to see every event group contributing in a big way this weekend," LaSure said. "The PacWest is beginning to establish itself as one of the best and most competitive track & field conferences in all of NCAA Division II and it's exciting to be a part of that."

With just more weeks of competition before NCAA DII Outdoor Nationals, Academy of Art will be in Los Angeles next to contest the Oxy Invitational on May 7.