FULL RESULTS

FRESNO, Calif. - It was a historic two days on the track and in the field for the Fresno Pacific Sunbirds as the men's team took home the hardware, scoring the program's second ever PacWest Championship while the women finished second. 

The win for the men snaps Azusa Pacific's eight-year streak atop the conference.  Coming into the meet, the pre-rankings appeared to give the Cougars a slight edge over the Sunbirds based on predictive scoring 183-182.  The Sunbirds held on to a narrow two-point lead after day one, but erased any doubt after day two outscoring Azusa Pacific by a massive 87 points to give the 'Birds 231 over the Cougars' 144. 


DAY 1

FPU's first points of the championships came early on Friday in the hammer throw, as sophomore Chavez Grey finished second with a mark of 55.65m for the men and senior Casey Davis narrowly missed the podium on the women's side in fourth.  Next, the men's trio of Dejan Mileusnic, Forrest Gray, and Zach Sims swept the javelin podium, highlighted by Mileusnic's top mark of 67.52m.  The win was Mileusnic's third consecutive PacWest title in the jav.  The men's team would add one more gold in the field on Friday, as junior Jackson Paramo emerged victorious in the men's pole vault, clearing a height of 4.66m to earn his first ever PacWest title and individual medal.

On the track, it was mostly prelims on day one except for a pair of distance contests in the 3000m steeplechase and the 10000m.  Junior Julissa Avila pointed for the women's team with a seventh place finish in the 10000m, and Bryan Banuelos ended the night with some fireworks in the men's 10000m.  On the final lap of the 25-lap endurance run, the senior and reigning PacWest champ turned on the jets to explode past the leaders and entered the final 200 meters in a full-out sprint to the line.  The crowd erupted as he and his competitor drag-raced down the front stretch before ultimately coming up just short by less than one second to finish in the runner up position.  The podium finish gave the 'Birds a slim two-point lead atop the standings heading into day two.


DAY 2

The women started off day two with a bang, as the team of Nydia Chance, Brianna Green, Sariyah Copeland, and Shaniya Randolph took home the first gold in the women's 4x100m relay with a time of 44.80 - a mark that places them fourth in country and gives them back-to-back PacWest wins in the event.  Green kept her day rolling with a second place finish in the 100m hurdles, with teammate Alexis Ranger-Dunbar just missing the podium by .03 seconds to take fourth.  The 'Birds continued to shine next in the 400m, where Kenahdi Haslip ran a 54.57 to take second with teammate Randolph right behind in third at 54.69 - a new personal best.  Showcasing the Sunbirds' speed in the sprints, Chance and Copeland took the two top spots in the 100m.  In the women's 800, freshman Mattie Whipple finished just outside the podium taking fourth, but earned valuable points for the 'Birds.  A highlight of the day for the women came in the 400m hurdles where Green defended her title and set a new PacWest Championship meet record previously set in 2022 with a time of 57.85, a whole 2.4 seconds ahead of the field.  Green currently sits second in the nation in the event, off the leader by a mere .01 difference.  Behind Green was freshman Avril Mendoza making her PacWest Championship debut, setting a personal best time of 1:00.25 to take home the silver and place her in the top-15 in the country.  In the women's 200, Copeland and Chance continued their winning ways, finishing one-two, with Copeland's 23.67 giving her a DII top-15 mark.  FPU barely missed on sweeping the 200m podium as teammate Randolph finished just .002 seconds behind the third place finisher.  The women finished off the meet defending their title in the 4x100m relay as the team of Copeland, Green, Randolph, and Ariana Vera came in at a blistering time of 3:40.84, a top-five DII mark, falling just .20 short of breaking the PacWest Championships record set in 2023 by the 'Birds.  That win in the final race of the day propelled FPU over Concordia in the overall standings by one point to confirm the Sunbirds' second place finish with 143 points behind four-time reigning woomen's champion Azusa Pacific, who earned 209 points. 

The men kicked off the scoring early as Grey took home silvers in the shot put with a mark of 15.33m and discus with a mark of 52.10m, giving the 'Birds a crucial early set of points.  Combined with Friday's runner up mark in the hammer, Grey took home three silvers in the throws.  On the track side, 'Birds Estevan Gonzalez, Zavian Cook, Shemar Palmer, and Makahri Wadley finished second in the 4x100 relay to get Saturday's podium train started for the men's team.  The first gold of the day for the Sunbirds came in thrilling fashion as Emanuel Salas surged ahead in the final 100 meters to steal the victory in the 1,500m with a time of 3:56.24.  Freshman Jonathan Biffle earned the 'Birds their next medal of the day, a third place finish in 110m hurdles.  In the men's 200m, Palmer defended his title and beat his previous PacWest Championship record by .12 with a time of 45.77, a time placing him second in the country.  The Sunbirds were back on the podium in the 100m where Cook edged out his sprinting competition by .02 to take home third.  The next gold of the day came from senior Bo Olsen, who took home the victory in the 800m after a thrilling back-stretch kick.  Biffle earned another bronze for the 'Birds, this time in the 400m hurdles, edging out teammate Damian Smith who finished just off the podium in fourth.  Palmer earned his second gold of the day in the 200m, where he smoked the competition by .71 at 20.69.  Palmer is now the back-to-back PacWest champion in both the 400 and 200 and has cemented his standing as one of the nation's most elite speed men.  In the field, freshman Malachi Carrasco earned the next gold for the 'Birds in the high jump where he cleared 2.03m (6'8).  It was a dramatic finish in the 5000m, as Banuelos and fellow senior Abelsolom Teffra took one-two after a dive to the finish line that had Teffra edging out his competitor right on his heels.  Like in the 10000m the night before, Banuelos used some late heroics and charged to the lead on the backstretch before crossing the finish line in first.  Teffra kept churning to the very end putting himself in a position to lunge from fourth to second on the final stride of race.  Paramo earned the next pair of critical points for the Sunbirds as he took second in the Decathlon with a score of 5,818 points.  Rounding out the track competition was freshman Jerome Brown along with Palmer, Smith, and Olsen taking third in the 4x400m to give Brown and Smith their first PacWest medals.  To end the day with a cherry on top for the 'Birds win were senior Adrian Hodges and Carrasco who earned second and third respectively in the men's triple jump. 

After their record-breaking performances, Green and Palmer were named Women's and Men's Track Athlete of the Meet respectively, with Palmer earning the recognition for the second-straight year.  The men's team title is their first PacWest win since 2014 and third-ever conference crown, having also won the GSAC Conference (NAIA) in 2011.  The women's second place finish marks significant progress and a tremendous push up the standings for the program; they placed fifth at least year's championships and were projected by the PacWest coaches to finish fourth this year.  This weekend's results, combined with numerous long-standing school records being routinely broken and reset all season long, prove that 2025 has been one of the most-successful seasons in Sunbird Track & Field history.  Both teams will look to build on these achievements at the upcoming NCAA Division II Championships in May.  Over two dozen Sunbirds will compete for individual and team national championships next month.  

"It was an incredible experience to make some history today with the most incredible group of student-athletes, and a truly world-class coaching staff." said program director Dr. Ray Winter.  "I'm so proud of the Sunbirds' family because winning is hard - especially in a conference like the PacWest, one of the best Track & Field collectives in all of NCAA DII.  I am also so proud of the buy-in from every single student-athlete that commits to our vision and purpose, and trusted the coaching staff's vision.  Everybody chipped in and created this win, it has taken many years to build a culture of winning and doing it for Jesus Christ, the only thing worth fighting for.  It's a true privilege to finish a season as a conference champion, and we turn the glory to God for the blessings that He's given us." 


UP NEXT

Select Sunbirds will compete at the Oxy Invite at Occidental College on May 3, as well as the Last Chance Meet at Azusa Pacific on May 9-10.  The NCAA Division II National Championships will be held May 22-24 in Pueblo, Colorado.


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