April 28, 2004
TEMPE, Ariz. - For the second time this season, intrastate bragging rights are on the line as the Arizona State track and field teams travel to Tucson for the annual Double Dual with Arizona and Northern Arizona. The meet will be contested Saturday, May 1, at the Roy P. Drachman Stadium-Rincon Vista Track Complex.
HASTINGS HONORED
Amy Hastings ran her first steeplechase race over the weekend and finished with an impressive time to earn Pac-10 Female Track Athlete of the Week honors, the conference announce Monday. Hastings finished second in the race at 10:17.67, just behind former Sun Devil Kelly MacDonald. Hastings' time is the fastest in the conference by 24 seconds and stands as the third-fastest time in school history and fourth overall in Pac-10 annals.
The weekly honor is the first for Hastings in her career and the first for the ASU women this season. It is the second award earned by a Sun Devil athlete this year following the honor Domenik Peterson earned two weeks ago (April 12).
FILLER' UP!
Competition marks will not be the only numbers recorded by Sun Devil athletes over the next four weekends as the team will head to Tucson for four meets in a row, logging numerous miles to and from the home of the Wildcats. Following the Double Dual this weekend, Arizona State's heptathlon and decathlon athletes will compete in the Pac-10 Multi-Event Championships (May 7-8) before returning with the rest of the team one week later (May 14-15) for the Pac-10 Championships. The final meet is the May 22 Wildcat Classic.
MEN HIGH IN THE RANKINGS
The latest national rankings were released this week with the Sun Devil men retaining a stronghold on its Top 5 rankings. In the Trackwire.com Top 25, Arizona State is tied for fifth place while remaining fourth in the Trackshark.com Top 25. ASU also is fourth in the latest team power rankings. The women remained 15th in the Trackshark.com lists and is 30th in the power rankings.
MOVING ON UP
The men's 4x400m relay team was back at it again April 3 at the Texas Relays, breaking the school record in the event that was set before any of the four was born: 1977. The quartet of Steve Fitch, Domenik Peterson, Jason Barton and Lewis Banda returned to Tempe after finishing third in the event at 3:01.51. The Sun Devils broke the previous school mark of 3:01.74 that was set by Cliff McKenzie, Gerald Burl, Tony Darden and Herman Frazier, a mark that has stood for 27 years.
OLD RECORDS
Although the previous 4x400m relay mark was set numerous years ago, there are still four more marks on the men's lists that have been around longer. Jerry Bright holds the 200m mark at 20.29 while Ron Freeman II clocked a 44.41 in the 400m. Both marks were set in 1968. Two years later, Chuck LaBenz set the standard in the 1,500m and mile runs, both during the 1970 season.
BIG JUMPS
At the Arizona State Invitational two weeks ago, Trevell Quinley had a big day in the jumps. He opened the day with a regional and conference qualifier in the long jump as he leaped to 7.50m (24-07.25) to finish second. Quinley then competed in the high jump which he won with a clearance of 2.15m (7-00.50).
FRESHMAN LEADING THE WAY
Along with the success of the rookie multi-event athletes (Jacquelyn Johnson and Joshua Kinnaman), there have been several other Sun Devils that have fared well in their freshman campaigns this year. For the men, Steven Koehneman is among the top athletes in the nation at 100m and 200m while Domenik Peterson is near the top of the 400m event. Brandon Glenn and Stephen Dolk bother are faring well in the pole vault with Aaron Aguayo, though he is a redshirt freshman this year, has qualified in both the 1,500m and 5,000m events at the regional and conference level.
Johnson has qualified in three individual events so far this year with marks recorded in the 100m hurdles, the high jump and the long jump.
MULTI EVENT SUCCESS
On March 23-24, Joshua Kinnaman competed in his first collegiate decathlon and returned from Tucson with a fifth-place finish overall and was the third collegiate athlete in the standings. On the first day of competition, Kinnaman clocked a 10.78 in the 100m dash to break the mark of 10.88 Dannie Jackson recorded in 1981. From there, Kinnaman put on other strong performances, including a throw of over 200 feet in the javelin to win the event. In the end, Kinnaman accumulated 7,147 points to rank eighth all-time in Sun Devil history and provisionally qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Championships in June.
Also at the meet, Jacquelyn Johnson competed in the heptathlon before withdrawing early from the meet. She had accumulated over 4,000 points with two events to go and earned regional and Pac-10 standards in three events; the 100m hurdles, the long jump and the high jump.
ALL-AMERICANS
Members of the track and field program traveled to Fayetteville, Ark., for the 2004 NCAA Indoor Championships, March 14-15, and returned with stellar performances. Of the 10 athletes that competed in the national event, six returned home as All-Americans. Those Sun Devils included Lewis Banda (4x400m), Jason Barton (4x400m and 400m), Domenik Peterson (4x400m and 200m), Seth Amoo (4x400m), Amy Hastings (5,000m) and Jacquelyn Johnson (pentathlon).
As a team, the men finished tied for 12th with 17 points earned while the women took a tie for 27th with eight.
MORE FRESHMAN SUCCESS
Johnson was not the only Sun Devil freshman that had an impressive debut at the NCAA Championships. Domenik Peterson competed in three races to earn All-America honors twice while setting one school record. Individually, Peterson finished fourth in the 200m dash with an ASU record time of 20.54. He then anchored the men's 4x400m relay team to a third place finish in the final event of the meet.
AT THE LAST DOUBLE DUAL
In the last outdoor Double Dual, the men defeated Arizona, 101-92, and Northern Arizona, 107-67, to win the Double Dual for the second time this year after taking the indoor meet in Flagstaff earlier this year. The women also swept both intrastate rivals by handing the Wildcats a 91-87 decision and the Lumberjacks a 104-47 loss.
LAST TIME OUT: TRIO OF ROAD MEETS
In Eugene, the distance corps shined for ASU as three marks went for spots on the Top 5 lists in school history. On the women's side, Amy Hastings placed second in the 3,000m steeplechase at 10:17.67 to qualify for the Pac-10 and NCAA West Region meets, as well as rank third all-time at ASU. Liz Lindgren finished sixth in the same race at 10:52.34 to meet the standards for both meets and place fifth all-time. Jessie McLaughlin finished fourth in the 800m run at 2:12.69 while Desiree Davila (16:49.34) and Alvina Begay (17:28.91) finished third and 14th, respectively, in the 5,000m run.
On the men's side of the meet, Juan Reyes (14:39.06) finished runner-up in the 5,000m open race while J.J. Duke finished 15th in the same race at 14:54.52. In the invitational portion of the race, Casey Burchill clocked a 14:15.43 to finish 14th overall. Aaron Aguayo finished sixth in the 3,000m steeplechase at 8:51.89 to qualify for both races and moved into fourth all-time at ASU while Ryan Warrenburg finished 11th overall in 8:59.60. Roger Cahill rounded out the meet with an eighth-place finish in the 1,500m run at 3:51.27.
The Sun Devils turned in several solid performances at the UCSD event Saturday. On the women's side, Jana Pintz closed out the women's throws with her second-place finish in the javelin at 42.77m (140-4).
Jacquelyn Johnson placed fourth in the 100m hurdles (13.95) as well as finishing fourth in the long jump with a leap of 5.93m (19-5.50). In the pole vault, Angela Tavlarides placed fifth with a clearance of 3.69m (12-1.25) to mark the second time this season she has cleared the 12-foot barrier, the only Sun Devil woman to do so ever. Kristi Raban also competed in the pole vault, finishing 12th at 3.34m (10-11.50).
On the men's side, Luiz Mello winning the meet at 20.94. In the field events, Jason Kravitz took 48th in the discus at 48.39m (158-9) while Andrew Smith rounded out the Sun Devil entrants with his 24th-place finish at 50.05m (164-2) in the hammer.
At the Drake Relays, ASU was represented in two races. Individually, Steve Fitch took fourth in the 400m dash at 47.37 after he teamed with Jeff Dodge, Jay DeGroot and Dan Maher to place fifth in the distance medley relay at 9:57.85.
UP NEXT
The 2004 Pac-10 Championships get underway next weekend with the multi-events taking center stage at the Roy P. Drachman Stadium-Rincon Vista Track Complex in Tucson. The heptathlon and decathlon events will be contested May 7-8 with the remaining events being contested May 14-15.