By Ron Smith and Natalie Fagen
April 26, 2025
 
(FRESNO, Calif.) Zola Sokhela, Abigail Hundley and David Oyebade are bringing home All-PacWest honors as a result of top-three finishes at the PacWest Outdoor Track and Field Championships held at Fresno Pacific.
 
As a team, the Westmont men finished sixth out of nine teams with 58 points. The women's team accumulated 19 points to finish ninth out of 10 teams.
 
Sokhela finished second in both the men's 1500 meter run and 800 meter run, earning eight team points in each race. His time of 3:56.57 in the 1500 was 0.33 behind the first-place finisher.
 
In the 800 meter run, Sokhela posted a time of 1:53.46, 0.58 seconds behind the first place runner. Jack Vanden Heuvel also scored for the Warriors in the 800 meter run, crossing the finish line is a time of 1:56.01 to earn eighth place.
 
Hundley earned All-PacWest honors with a third place finish in the women's 3,000 meter steeplechase, posting the second-fastest time in Westmont history of 11:09.59.
 
"On Friday, the standout performance for me was Abigail Hundley's 3000 meter steeplechase," said Westmont's assistant coach Lindsey Connolly. "She went into it with clear goals and totally put herself out there and went for it. She put herself in a good position the whole race.
 
"When it came time to push in, she did. That got her third, and the first medal for women's track and field in the PacWest, which is pretty exciting. It was a huge personal record for her and she was really close to breaking the school record.
 
"All of that was great, but the most exciting for me was seeing a culmination of four years happen in a performance. She was able to perform her best when it mattered."
 
Oyebade placed third in the men's hammer with a throw of 50.53 meters (182-7), claiming six points for the Warriors.
 
"I have had a couple of good meets this season so far, so I was decently confident that I could do something good today," said Oyebade. "Of course, the nerves are always going to present themselves right before competition, and I did feel nerves. I didn't have the biggest breakfast, and I was feeling a little light before I got in the ring.
 
"Going through warm-ups, they felt pretty good. I felt pretty balanced, my throws were going far. My first throw was, unfortunately, a foul, as it always seems to be. I was pretty frustrated with a that. My second throw was good, my third throw was good. I messed things up in the finals, fouled out of those, but I was pretty happy to leave with my best mark of 50.53."
 
Joel Nakazawa also picked up a point for the Warriors in the hammer, finishing eighth with a throw of 47.95 meters (157-3).
 
Oyebade also earned a point with an eighth place finish in the men's shot put with a distance of 13.69 meters (44-11).
 
Three Warriors finished out of the medals, but claimed five points with fourth place finishes: Josh Lin posted a time of 48.55 in the men's 400 meter dash, Kennah Shaffer cleared 5.66 meters (18-7) in the women's long jump, and Roary Erskine tallied 5,287 points in the men's decathlon.
 
Also scoring in the men's decathlon was Andy Baltgalvis whose 4,568 points earned him eighth place.
 
"In the decathlon, each of them had five personal records out of 10 events and both had overall personal records," said Westmont's assistant coach Derek Masterson. "That was great work by some young decathletes, which is going to be exciting as we move forward."
 
Erskine and Baltgalvis talked about the special bond that is formed between decathlon competitors.
 
"Everyone gets along with each other, no matter what team you are on, because you are going through two days back-to-back with the same guys through every event," explained Erskine. "You get to know each other. Everyone is encouraging. We are not really good at anything but we are decent at everything."
 
"We're well rounded," added Baltgalvis.
 
"Everyone is trying to help each other with the events," continued Erskine. "Some are stronger in some events and will help the athletes that are struggling in those events. It is a really positive environment. I really love it."
 
"You don't want to see someone fail, but you want to do better than they do," noted Baltgalvis. "People don't understand how hard the decathlon is with both the mental and physical athlete. You are basically competing for 48 hours. We train for eight months to do this at conference."
 
The Warriors claimed fifth place finishes in four men's events to claim four points each: Easton Rose, Josh Lin, Justin Hess and John Sakaguchi posted a time of 42.23 in the 4 x 100 meter relay; Hess, Jack Vanden Heuvel, Sokhela and Lin ran the 4 x 400 meter relay in a time of 3:18.33; Nakazawa threw the discus for 45.94 meters (150-8); and Bryce Gardhouse completed the 5,000 meter run in a time of 14:57.42.
 
Finishing in sixth place in the women's 5,000 meter run was Landon Torres. It was only the second time this season she has run the event, but she took more than 25 seconds off her previous time to cross the line in a time of 17:43.56.
 
"On Saturday, the highlight performance was Landon Torres in the 5,000 meters," said Connolly. "She came in ranked 24th and had very clear goals about what she wanted to do and who she wanted to run with. From the start, she put herself in the position she wanted to be and fought the whole time to keep herself there.
 
"When she got a little tired and the race started to get away from her, she made a decisive decision to put herself back in it and that was the move that kept her in a good spot to run a huge personal record and score and get sixth place."
 
Also earning three points with a sixth point finish was Sakaguchi with a mark of 6.99 meters (22-11.25) in the men's long jump. Sakaguchi also earned a point for the Warriors in the men's 100 meter dash with an eighth place finish in a time of 11.23.
 
Freshman Easton Rose picked up two points with a seventh place finish in the men's pole vault, clearing 4.21 meters (13-9.75).
 
"Easton did amazing in the pole vault with three personal records," said Masterson. "The pole vault is one of those interesting events in track and field - you always go out on a miss. Inevitably, you go out failing, but Easton had three personal records along the way for a great freshman performance."
 
The women's 4 x 400 meter relay team of Shaffer, Hundley, Jaiden Rodrigues and Charlotte Williams placed eighth in a time of 3:57.30 to pick up a point. Miranda Irwin also scored with an eighth place finish in the women's heptathlon after tallying 3,828 points.
 
"We had three women go into the heptathlon and every one came out with a personal record - at least in an event if not a total personal record," said Masterson.
 
Reflecting on the meet on the way home, Westmont's head coach Russell Smelley said, "At the end of the day, both 5,000 meter races were amazing. Both our athletes were fresh and competed really well – above what they were expecting to do.
 
"David getting to the finals of the shot put and scoring was a highlight. We had some things happen that we didn't expect that really added to the success of the team.
 
"We consistently tend to come up to the level of competition at the championship, like Easton having three personal records and jumping nearly 14 feet in the pole vault."