Jan. 28, 2005
TEMPE, Ariz. - Three members of the Arizona State University track and field team returned to Flagstaff, Ariz., Friday afternoon to compete in the Northern Arizona Multi-Events Meet held inside the JL Walkup Skydome. Freshman Alana Waterford placed third in the women's pentathlon while sophomore Joshua Kinnaman leads the men's heptathlon after day one.
In her first multi-event competition, Waterford tallied 2,787 points to finish third behind a pair of NAU athletes. Waterford opened the meet with a third-place finish in the 60m hurdles at 9.86 (738 points) before winning the high jump with a clearance of 1.65m (795 points). From there, Waterford would place fifth out of seven competitors in the next to events, including the shot put at 8.14m (408 points) and long jump at 4.41m (406 points). In the final event of the day, the 800m run, Waterford clocked in at 2:52.34 to finish third in the race (440 points) and in the overall competition.
Kinnaman, who finished 12th at the 2004 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships as a true freshman, has built a commanding lead of 600 points over second place, teammate Ryan Ehler. Kinnaman has tallied 3,248 points with Ehler accumulating 2,648. Unattached athlete Tim Ellis rounds out the three-man field with 2,359 points following four events.
The meet opened with Kinnaman winning the 60m dash at 6.88 (925 points) while Ehler took second at 7.16 (826 points). Kinnaman added another 900 points to his total with a jump of 7.36m while Ehler again took second at 6.09m for 606 points. The shot put saw Kinnaman win with a throw of 13.98m for 727 points while Ehler's toss of 11.99m gave him 606 points for the second event in a row. The first day of action was concluded with Kinnaman winning his fourth event, taking the high jump with a clearance of 1.88m (696 points). Ehler totaled 610 points with a clearance of 1.78m.
Both Kinnaman and Ehler will return to action Saturday morning as they complete the seven-event heptathlon. The three contested events will be the 60m hurdles, the pole vault and the 1,000m run.