IRVINE, Calif. – Azusa Pacific and Academy of Art each took two of the four PacWest Track & Field Athlete of the Year awards that were voted on by the PacWest coaches with all four awards going to first-time winners, while Jack Hoyt from Azusa Pacific repeated as the Coach of the Year for both men’s and women’s track & field.
 
James Young from Academy of Art was named the Men’s Track Athlete of the Year after leading the PacWest in the 1500 and the 5000 this season. Young ran the second-best time in NCAA Division II history in the 1500 with a time of 3:37.72 at the Bryan Clay Invitational. He currently has the best time in the nation. Young’s time of 14:09.5 in the 5,000 is also the best in the PacWest and a provisional qualifier.
 
Jaylah Walker is the Women’s Track Athlete of the Year after she recorded the best time in the conference in all four events that she has competed in so far this year for Azusa Pacific. In the 400-meter hurdles, Walker recorded a time of 58.16 seconds, which is the only automatic qualifier recorded in that event in the nation. She also ranks in the top-10 in the nation in the 200-meter dash, 400-meter dash and 100-meter hurdles.
 
Marie-Jeanne Ourega is the PacWest Women’s Field Athlete of the Year as a freshman at Academy of Art. She is the national leader in the long jump with a distance of 6.58 meters. She also has a provisional qualifier in the triple jump of 12.17 meters. Ourega also ranks in the top-10 in the nation for the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 13.87 seconds, which is only one-hundredth of a second behind Walker after both runners posted their best times of the season at the PacWest Championships.
 
Jermel Jones earned recognition as the Men’s Field Athlete of the Year in the PacWest. He ranks in the top-10 in the nation for Azusa Pacific in both the long jump and the triple jump. His distance of 15.29 meters in the triple jump ranks seventh in the nation, and his season-best of 7.59 meters in the long jump places him 10th on the performance list. He ranks first in the PacWest and West Region in both events.
 
Hoyt is the PacWest Coach of the Year for both men and women for the second time in a row after he led both teams to PacWest titles in Fresno. It was the fifth year in a row that Azusa Pacific had won both titles in men’s and women’s track & field. In the USTFCCCA national rankings, Azusa Pacific’s women are ranked No. 1. The Cougars women’s team has posted 26 provisional qualifiers this year with nine automatic qualifiers.
 
Fresno Pacific won both of the men’s Freshman of the Year awards with Patrick Kiprop earning the track award, while Moe Bradley took the field award. Concordia’s Jori Paradis is the PacWest Women’s Track Freshman of the Year, and Ourega is the Field Freshman of the Year for Academy of Art.
 
The All-PacWest team is the top-3 finishers at each event from the PacWest Championships.
 

2021 ALL-PACWEST MEN’S TRACK AND FIELD AWARDS
Track Athlete of the Year	James Young	Academy of Art
Field Athlete of the Year	Jermel Jones	Azusa Pacific
Track Freshman of the Year	Patrick Kiprop	Fresno Pacific
Field Freshman of the Year	Moe Bradley	Fresno Pacific
Coach of the Year	Jack Hoyt	Azusa Pacific