2023 PacWest Awards

IRVINE, Calif. – A little over two weeks after both were crowned Pacific West Conference Champions and broke meet records at the PacWest Championships, the Academy of Art track & field duo of Robin Black and Yacouba Gnacko were recognized by the conference for their outstanding outdoor seasons to date on Wednesday. Black garnered PacWest Track Athlete of the Year honors while Gnacko earned Field Athlete of the Year.

Coming off four All-Region honors in the indoor season, Black added six more during an outdoor campaign that saw him rank among the top 26 in NCAA Division II in four individual events and top seven in two relay events. The Music Production & Sound Design for Visual Media major was a three-time PacWest Champion, winning the 100m and 400m dashes plus the 4x100m relay, as well as the PacWest Most Outstanding Men's Track Athlete of the Meet after scoring over 28 points for ART U at the PacWest Championships.

Individually, Black's broke the conference meet record with a 50.72 for gold in the 400m hurdles on Apr. 29 one day after he bettered the Academy of Art record in the 110m hurdles prelims with a 14.11 and went a season-best 10.17 in the 100m dash prelims both on Apr. 28 in Azusa. Ranked fourth nationally in the 400m hurdles, eighth in the 100m, and 25th in the 110m hurdles, Black fastest 200m dash would follow at the APU Franson Last Chance where he clocked a 20.96 on May 13 to assume the country's 26th position.

Adding to his collection of Outdoor Nationals provisional qualifications, Black joined his teammates, Makarios Page, Shareez Hamm, and Duncan Agyemang, for a historic 4x400m relay that went 3:05.20 on Apr. 15 to close out the Mt. SAC Relays. The mark, which displaced an ART U record that had stood for nearly a decade, registered as the sixth-fastest time in NCAA DII history and has kept the quartet in the nation's top spot by more than three seconds for the season's duration. Additionally, Black was responsible for the second leg with Ajani Ince, Emmanuel Ajiroba, and Agyemang in the Urban Knights' 4x100m relay which bettered the fastest Academy of Art mark twice this year, ending at seventh in the country with a 39.97 to make them PacWest Champions.

An All-American for the third time in his career at Indoor Nationals, Gnacko has only continued to jump farther and farther ahead this outdoor season. The Industrial Design major steadily improved his marks across four meets prior to not just the two best jumps of the season but also his career at the PacWest Championships where he defended his title in the triple jump and was runner-up to the champion in the long jump.

Gnacko had placed first in three of five jump events coming into the conference meet and there he started with a 24-8.25 (7.52m) to take second in the long jump on Apr. 28, putting himself in what would be 18th place nationally by the end of the regular season as well as fourth in Academy of Art history. One spot higher all-time among Urban Knights in the triple jump, Gnacko once again stood atop the PacWest podium on Apr. 29 after a 52-3.25 (15.93m) which broke his own meet record. Elevating to second in NCAA DII, the native of Paris, France wrapped up mid-May as a two-time Outdoor Nationals provisional qualifier.

This is the second PacWest annual honor for Gnacko after he was named PacWest Field Freshman of the Year in 2022 and it is the first for Black in his career.