FRESNO, Calif.-It is officially award season, and the Fresno Pacific Sunbirds Men's and Women's Track Team brought in a haul of awards from the PacWest Conference and the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) on Monday. 

Headlining the awards for the men is junior Shemar Palmer who was named Men's PacWest Track Athlete of the Year and Men's USTFCCCA West Region Track Athlete of the Year. This season, Palmer took home the championship in the 200m, where he smoked the competition by .71 at 20.69 and in the 400m where he set a PacWest record and Fresno Pacific School record at 45.77. Palmer is the back-to-back PacWest champion in both the 400m and 200m and took home PacWest Track Athlete of the Meet for the second-consecutive season. With his teammates, Palmer also secured second in the men's 4x100 relay and third in the 4x400 relay. At the DII NCAA National Championships, Palmer earned third place in the men's 400m after recording a personal-best time and school record time of 45.57. In his second event of the day, Palmer picked up fourth in a loaded 200m field, doing so with a time of 20.63.1. Palmer earned USTFCCCA All-Region Honors in four events (4x400 relay, 100m, 200m, and 400m), and dual All-American honors in the 200m and 400m. 
 
Freshman Malachi Carrasco earned PacWest Rookie Field Athlete of the Year honors. This season, Carrasco secured third at NCAA DII National Championships in the high jump. Seeded 19th coming into the competition, Carrasco flew above the field as he set a personal best and a school record with a jump of 2.15m (7ft 1/2in). In the PacWest Championships, Carrasco won the high jump with a mark of 2.03m (6ft 8in) and third in the triple jump (14.51m). Carrasco also earned All-American honors and USTFCCCA All-Region Honors in the high jump.
 
Coaches Robert Foster and Ray Winter were also recognized, winning honors for the USTFCCCA West Region in both the Men's and Women's categories and Men's PacWest Coach of the Year. The duo led the men's team to the team title at the PacWest Conference Championships, winning eight events and an 11^th-place team finish at the NCAA DII Outdoor Championships, highest among West Region programs. For the women, the pair led the Sunbirds to a fourth-place team finish at the NCAA DII Outdoor Championships, scoring 35 points and was team runner-up at the PacWest Conference Championships, winning five events.
 
Rounding out the awards for the women was graduate student Brianna Green who won Women's Track Athlete of the Year and Women's USTFCCCA West Region Track Athlete of the Year honors. At the PacWest Championships, Green earned Women's Track Athlete of the Meet after medaling in four events. Green dominated at the PacWest Championships, taking home two individual medals and two team medals. Green's first gold of the day came with her teammates in the women's 4x100m relay. Green followed that up with a second-place finish in the 100m hurdles and a first-place finish in the in the 400m hurdles where she 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 finished the day with her teammates defending the 'Birds title in the 4x400 relay, earning them second place in the team competition at the PacWest Championships.  

At the NCAA DII National Championships, Green qualified for four events, the 4x100 and 4x400 relay, the 100m hurdles, and the 400m hurdles. Green reached the finals in three events, just missing the fourth by .04. After qualifying for the finals, Green and teammates won the National Championship in the 4x100 relay, breaking a DII record and Fresno Pacific school record with a time of 43.85. Green followed up that performance with an individual National Championship in the 400m hurdles running a personal best and school record 56.88, and DII sixth all-time mark. Green's win marked the first individual National Championship in Fresno Pacific history.  The Sunbirds finished the day in fourth place in the team competition, tied for the highest team finish in Fresno Pacific athletics history with the 2012 Swimming & Diving team. 

The graduate student also earned USTFCCCA All-Region Honors in four events, the 4x100 relay, 100m, 400m, 400m hurdles and is an All-American in three, the 4x100 relay, the 400m hurdles, and the 4x400 relay. 

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