IRVINE, Calif. – The 2021 All-PacWest women’s cross country awards are led by Academy of Art’s Natalia Novak, who was voted the conference’s Runner of the Year after winning the PacWest Championships, while head coach Bruce Jackson earned recognition as Coach of the Year.
 
For the second year in a row, the PacWest Newcomer of the Year is from Azusa Pacific with Mikayla Akers receiving the most votes from the PacWest coaches, while Biola’s Lynette Ruiz is the PacWest Freshman of the Year after her runner-up finish in Kahuku, Hawai`i.
 
Novak finished in fifth place at the 2019 PacWest Championships, and after a strong track & field season in the spring, she took first place in the 2021 PacWest Cross Country Championships last week in Kahuku, Hawai`i. She finished the race in 22:15.1 to win by four seconds and lead the Urban Knights to their first PacWest title in program history.
 
Novak is the second Urban Knight in a row to be named PacWest Runner of the Year after her teammate Hasna Kaarour won the award in 2019. Novak trailed Ruiz slightly at the first two splits, but she finished the race strong in windy conditions to win the race and lead her team to the title by a single point.
 
Jackson was named the interim head coach of cross country just in September after previously serving as a volunteer and more recently as director of operations. In his short time in the role of interim head coach he helped prepare the team for the PacWest Championships after having been named the PacWest preseason favorite despite having never before won the title. The Urban Knights lived up to expectations and edged Biola by a single point with three runners in the top-7 to win the title.
 
Ruiz was the pace-setter for most of the PacWest Championships race, leading a pack of three runners for most of the race. The freshman pulled away to make it a two-person race in the end and finished in second place with a time of 22:19.2, which was the best time by a freshman by nearly a minute. Her performance also helped Biola take second place as a team and put the Eagles in good position to make a strong showing at Saturday’s NCAA West Regional.
 
Akers led a group of three Cougars that all earned All-PacWest first-team honors. She took fourth place in the race with a time of 22:36.3 at her first PacWest Championships. She helped Azusa Pacific take third place as a team as she made her fourth-consecutive top-10 finish of the season. Akers is the fourth Cougar to be named the PacWest Newcomer of the Year, joining Staci Foster, Jenna Wilson and Sammy Bockoven.
 
Mackenna Mason from Biola became just the sixth runner in PacWest history to win four All-PacWest awards in her career and only the second runner to do it in the last decade. Kaarour and Audrey Rosencrans became the 20^th and 21^st runners in PacWest history to win All-PacWest recognition three times in their careers.
 

2021 ALL-PACWEST WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY AWARDS
Runner of the Year	Newcomer of the Year	Freshman of the Year	Coach of the Year
Natalia Novak Academy of Art	Mikayla Akers Azusa Pacific	Lynette Ruiz Biola	Bruce Jackson Academy of Art