IRVINE, Calif. – The 2021 PacWest Male & Female Athletes of the Year are
James Young from Academy of Art,
Jaylah Walker from Azusa Pacific and
Paige Austin from Biola with Austin and Walker tying for first place in the voting to be named Co-Female Athletes of the Year.
This is the most prestigious individual award given by the PacWest to the top male and female student-athlete across all sports as voted on by the conference’s 11 member institutions. It is the first time that there was a tie for Female Athlete of the Year and the first time that Biola or Azusa Pacific has won Female Athlete of the Year. For Academy of Art, it is the third time in a row that the Urban Knights have won Male Athlete of the Year with Mobolade Ajomale winning the previous two awards.
Young won two national titles in track & field this year as well as two PacWest titles as he finished the year as the PacWest Men’s Track Athlete of the Year. After having his cross country season cancelled, Young focused on the indoor and outdoor track & field seasons. He qualified for the indoor national meet by taking first place in the mile at the Indoor Gorilla Classic. He then won the national title in the event with a time of 4:00.40.
In the outdoor season, Young put his name in the record books with the second-best 1500 meter time in NCAA Division II history. He won the event at the Bryan Clay Invitational with a time of 3:37.72, which is the PacWest record in the event. Two weeks later, he won the PacWest title in the 1500 with a time of 4:04.99 to go along with his title in the 5000, which he finished in 15:01.30. At the outdoor national championships in Michigan, Young won the 1500 with a time of 3:52.95 for another national title, diving at the finish line to win a neck-and-neck race.
Walker led Azusa Pacific to the first national championship by a PacWest program since 2016. She also won an individual national championship along the way and an individual national runner-up medal. Walker won three individual titles at the PacWest Championships in the 100-meter hurdles, 400-meter hurdles and the 4x100 relay. She qualified for the finals in all three events at the NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field National Championships.
In the 400-meter hurdles, Walker took first place with a time of 57.29 seconds, which was a new personal best in the event, becoming an individual national champion. She also gave Azusa Pacific eight crucial points for the team title in the 100-meter hurdles, taking second place in the event with another personal-best time of 13.47 seconds. Azusa Pacific eventually defeated Grand Valley State for the national championship by four points, and Walker earned 18 points by herself to push the Cougars over the top.
Over the last four years, Austin has consistently been one of the PacWest’s toughest pitchers for Biola, but the 2021 season was the best so far for the three-time All-PacWest selection. She had a career-best 16 wins, 1.33 ERA and 175 strikeouts in a shortened season. Austin helped Biola go 14-10 in the PacWest SoCal Pod to earn second place and the No. 2 seed for the NCAA West Regional, hosted by Concordia University.
Austin earned the first two wins for Biola, including a shutout against Hawai`i Hilo to earn a spot in the regional championship, where Biola went on to win the regional title. In Biola’s first year of NCAA postseason eligibility, the softball team went into the world series as the No. 5 seed, where they earned three wins against the top-2 teams in the NFCA rankings to earn a spot in the NCAA National Championship Series. Austin threw her fourth shutout of the postseason in the first game of the series to give Biola a 5-0 win over West Texas A&M. She eventually threw a total of 34.1-consecutive scoreless innings for Biola to help the Eagles finish the season as national runner-up.
Austin is the first softball player in PacWest history to earn an Athlete of the Year award, while Walker and Young are the third and fourth track & field athletes to earn the honor. They join Ajomale and Vashti Thomas from Academy of Art among track & field athletes to win the award.