SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Adrian Aguirre made Dominican history as he became the first athlete for track and field to win an individual event on Saturday at the PacWest Championships at Westmont Track and Thorington Field.
 
Azusa Pacific won both the men's and women's team titles with 243 and 218 points, respectively. The Penguin men finished sixth with 37 points, topping last year's mark by 14 points. The Dominican women finished eighth overall with two points.
 
Aguirre began the championships topping the field in the 110m hurdles prelims with a time of 14.25 seconds to qualify for Saturday's finals, a tenth of a second faster than second place. He left no doubt about his qualifications in the final as he topped all competitors finishing in 14.32 seconds to best Kalobe Jimenez of Fresno Pacific who finished second with a time of 14.39. It was the first time a Penguin won an event at the PacWest Championships and gave the men 10 points.
 
Wakilli Bennett garnered the most individual points for Dominican as he narrowly missed out on winning the 100m dash finals taking second with a time of 10.43 seconds while Academy of Art's Ajani Ince won the final with a time of 10.41. The duo were well above the rest of the field as Matthew Kaloustian of Biola came in third with a time of 10.80. With eight points in his pocket, Bennett took to the track again in the 200m dash finishing third with a time of 21.37 to earn six more points for the Penguins while topping runners from ART U, BU and APU. Logan McNamar earned the first points for Dominican's track side as he earned three points finishing the 10,000m in 31:49.71 to take sixth and top runners from CUI, Biola and Azusa Pacific.
 
Caytlin Capulong led the women's side as it took three throws but she set a new personal and school record with a throw of 33.29m to finish ninth in the javelin on Friday. She then took to the track on Saturday as she started off the 4x100 relay team followed by LaNicia Ellis, Sarah Chavez and Shulien Kemmler Liu as the team finished seventh overall with a new program record of 49.96 to earn the teams two points of the meet.
 
In the field events for the men, Andrew Reinhard started the Penguins off strong on Friday as his third throw sailed 51.87m to push him into fourth place overall and netting his team five more team points. Omari Davis leaped ahead of athletes from APU on his second and third attempts of Friday's long jump competition ultimately landing in sixth overall with a mark of 6.99m to bring home three more points for his side. Adrian Taylor's meet was cut short due to injury but not before he set a new personal and school best in the 400m as he tied for fourth in Friday's prelims with a time of 48.37. Taylor also had a personal best in the 200m with a time of 21.63 and qualified for the finals in both events.
 
With Taylor out, Dominican relied on alternates to step into the 4x400 and the team of Worthy Gutierrez, Stefan Mueller, McNamar and Reinhard finished in 3:38.38 to take seventh and add two points to their score to top Westmont College in the final standings.
 
Aguirre and Bennett have met NCAA Division II provisional marks and will continue to compete looking to secure their trip to the NCAA Championships May 23-25 in Emporia, Kansas, at Francis G. Welch Stadium.