Junior multi-event athletes Tomek Czerwinski and Justin Young helped the men to third place at the NCAA Indoor National Championships. Courtesy: APU Sports Information
The Azusa Pacific track & field team continued its strong season last weekend when the women placed fifth and the men third at the NCCAA indoor national championships in Illinois.
On the first day of competition, the women’s team scored 23 points, putting themselves at fourth place. The men scored 18 points and were close to being in fifth place heading into the next day of competition.
The distance medley relay won its event Friday by less than two seconds because of senior mid-distance runner Diandra Carstensen’s strong finish, coming in at 12.19.02.
Senior hurdler Jordan Chesley earned her season-best time of 9.06 in the women’s 60-meter hurdles and placed herself in the finals for Saturday’s competition.
Junior distance runner Elle Farrar turned in a personal-best time of 18.32.02 and a fourth-place finish in the 5,000 meters, adding five more points to the total score.
Junior thrower Amber Panapa came in fifth place in the weight-throw and added almost a foot to her best throw previous to prelims. She started at a 49-foot and added an 11-inch toss in the finals.
Senior thrower Brad Beckwith and sophomore thrower Miles Gastil were placed back-to-back in the men’s weight throw. Gastil had the competition’s fifth-best throw in prelims and finished with a season-best distance of 48 feet, 7.5 inches. Beckwith passed Gastil in the finals by only half an inch with a throw of 48-feet, 8 inches. Beckwith placed seventh and Gastil placed eighth.
In the sprint prelims, freshman sprinter Benjamin Byer and sophomore sprinter Ronald Douglas advanced to the finals in the 60-meter dash. Freshman hurdler Matt Kenney, junior multi-event runner Justin Young, junior hurdler/multi-event runner Jake Hare and junior heptathlete Tomek Czerwinski all registered qualifying times as well for Saturday’s 60-meter dash.
Azusa Pacific was close behind Indiana Wesleyan in the 4 x 200 meter relay. Finishing fifth, the Cougars clocked in at 1.46.44.
Overall, the Cougars registered five scoring performances on Friday and sent six entries to the finals of the 60-meter dash and 60-meter hurdles.
The men edged their way on to the podium Saturday, tallying up 78 more points because of the 4 x 400 meter relay.
There were many personal-best times accomplished in all events Friday and Saturday. Czerwinski won the heptahlon with 5,124 points, which crushed his personal-best by more than 200 points. In addition, he only had 10 minutes to be prepared for the 60-meter hurdles but placed sixth. Czerwinski won the “Field Event Athlete of the Meet” title.
Czerwinski also scored more points with Young and sophomore multi-event runner Davy Mellado in the heptathlon. Young placed fourth with a personal best of 4,720 points and Mellado placed seventh with 4,255 points. Mellado also placed fifth in the pole vault.
Beckwith placed fourth in the men’s shot put and junior distance runner Peter Buscheck claimed fifth in the men’s 3,000.
Sophomore high jumper Faith Douglas claimed fourth place in the women’s high jump, Chesley took third place in the women’s 60-meter hurdles and Panapa took third in the women’s shot put.
The women were half a point away from Indiana Wesleyan’s fourth-place spot on Saturday. IWU’s women finished with 78 points and Azusa Pacific’s women finished with 77.5.
This meet ended the indoor season for the Cougars. They will be taking two weeks off before their outdoor training begins. The first outdoor competition will be at Cal State Fullerton on Saturday, March 15.