2025 PacWest Championships Results
FRESNO, Calif. – Academy of Art collected gold medals on the track and in the field during the finale of the Pacific West Conference Championships on Saturday. Among the standouts were
Yacouba Gnacko in the triple jump and the ART U men's 4x100m relay continuing their dominance while many of those same relay runners also delivered a 4x400m title.
Josh Marlin's 400m hurdles and
Lina Hanich's 1500m performances also led them to the top spot on the podium at Ramirez Field.
For the fourth consecutive year, the PacWest triple jump title was earned by Gnacko as his first two completed marks proved to be better than the respective bests of 10 others in the competition. His fourth attempt saw him go 50-0 (15.24m) to eventually top the 13-jumper field by close to two full feet.
Both the start and end of the day on the track was marked by gold for Urban Knights in the men's relay as the 4x100m quartet of
Tre'Sean Bouie,
Robin Black,
Tariq Dacres, and
Ajani Ince made it nine straight championships with a 40.60 NCAA Division II Outdoor Nationals provisional effort that was top 40 in the country. Bouie and Black later joined with
Vaughn Lacour and
Josh Marlin in securing the 4x400m title as well, going 3:11.66 across the finish line to give ART U three different combinations inside the top 31 in the nation.
The duo of Marlin and Black excelled individually as well, each finishing at least one full second ahead of the rest of the eight-hurdler field in the 400m hurdles final. Marlin was first across at 51.29, good for eighth in the country, and Black followed with his own Outdoor Nationals provisional at 52.29.
In the 1500m final, Hanich took nearly 10 seconds off her prelim time by going 4:29.12 for the highest position of 12 overall. It was the first 1500m title in her career and came along with a silver medal in the 800m where she joined Azusa Pacific's Olivia Alexandre in breaking the previous meet record with a 2:07.26 as the runner-up.
Ince also had individual success in event finals, placing second in the 100m dash by way of 0.01 seconds at 10.52. He also claimed third in the 200m distance as his 21.55 kept him on the podium.
Out of 22 runners in the 5000m,
Grace Southern found herself contending with Biola's Bethany Mapes for the top spot. Less than one second determined the winner as Mapes narrowly finished first despite Southern's 17:25.72 time.
Bronze was awarded to Bouie in the 400m final where he ended just shy of his prelim time, turning in a 46.83 which kept him a perfect 6-for-6 in posting Outdoor Nationals provisional marks in the event this season.
The ART U tandem of
Ethan Forbes and Lacour made it two straight days inside the 800m event's top four as a 1:53.60 for the former had him third of nine finalists and the latter's 1:54.27 placed him fourth.
Jaylen Walker and Point Loma's Makenna Sullivan wasted no time in making the triple jump a two-competitor race as their respective first attempts would not be bettered by the 19 others the rest of the way. Those marks ended up being their farthest of the day as Walker's 37-7.25 (11.46m) had her second by the sixth tries for all.
A pair of women's relays combined for 10 points as
Tresley Love, Walker,
Erine Collard, and
Maika Cuenca-Andreo placed fourth in the 4x100m (47.88) before Love,
Michaela Andrews, Collard, and Hanich went 3:47.46 in the 4x400m for another result amid the upper tier.
Coming into Saturday fifth of 12 in the heptathlon, Cuenca-Andreo improved upon that position by one spot, taking fourth with 4461 points after she led the way in the long jump at 17-4 (5.28m) and was top three in the javelin throw at 99-9 (30.40m).
In terms of the team scores, the ART U men's squad wrapped up in fourth with 101 points behind meet winner Fresno Pacific (231) while the women's 66 points put them sixth overall following the top finishers from APU (209).
Academy of Art returns to Southern California for its final regular season week of action that features Azusa Pacific's Franson Last Chance (May 8-10) and the Cal State LA Very Last Chance (May 11).
