March 24, 2004
TEMPE, Ariz. - A pair of freshmen on the Arizona State track and field teams opened competition at the Arizona Multi Event meet Tuesday and completed the first of two days of competition in second place. Jacquelyn Johnson (Fr., Yuma, Ariz.) stands second in the women's heptathlon, trailing the leader by 260 points, while Joshua Kinnaman (Fr., Chandler, Ariz.) is second in the decathlon, 210 points out of first place.
Johnson, the national runner-up in the women's indoor pentathlon just two weeks ago at the NCAA Indoor Championships, won two of the opening four events and finished in the Top 3 in the other two to record 3,552 points. Team Nike's Austra Skujyte is first with 3,812. For Johnson, her first day total is just 107 points off the record set by Gea Johnson in 1990 (3,659).
In the opening event, the 100m hurdles, Johnson sprinted to first place with a time of 13.53 to earn 1,046 points and qualify for the NCAA West Region Championships in the individual event. She followed that with a second-place finish in the high jump with a clearance of 1.76m (5-9.25) for 928 points. In the shot put, Johnson tied for third place with a toss of 12.10m (39-8.50) to earn 668 points before closing the day with a win in the 200m dash in a time of 24.75 (910 points).
Kinnaman built 3,877 points on the first day while setting a school record in the 100m dash portion of the decathlon. He placed second overall in a time of 10.78 (910 points) to rewrite the original mark of 10.88 set by Dannie Jackson during the 1981 season. From there, Kinnaman finished sixth in the long jump with a mark of 6.81m (22-4.25) to garner another 769 points before capturing 609 points in the shot put, where he finished eighth with a toss of 12.05m (39-6.50). In the high jump, he placed tied for fourth with a clearance of 1.95m (6-4.75) to grab another 758 points before finishing the day with a third-place finish in the 400m dash (49.65) to earn his final 831 points of the day.
On the final day of competition, Johnson will compete in the long jump, javelin and 800m run while Kinnaman takes part in the 110m high hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and 1,500m run.
The Sun Devils will play host to the ASU Invitational Friday night at Sun Angel Stadium with several other members of the team heading to the Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto, Calif.