May 13, 2006
Results Link (Oregon site)
EUGENE, Ore. - On the strength of three more individual champions and a total of 45 points scored in the distance races, the women of the Arizona State University track and field team closed the first day of action at the 2006 Pac-10 Track & Field Championships in Eugene, Ore., Saturday with the team lead. The men, who sit seventh overall, also recorded one individual championship on the day.
The Sun Devil women accumulated 82.5 points with the host Ducks in second (50) and defending champion Stanford in third (40). UCLA (38) and California (18.5) round out the Top 5 teams in the women's standings. On the men's side, the Sun Devils' 29 points are good for seventh in the standings while intrastate rival Arizona leads the competition with 53.5 points. UCLA is second (49) while defending champion Oregon (42.5) is third.
ASU's women stole the show Saturday as the distance crew dominated a pair of races for 45 points. In the first running final of the day, the Sun Devils continued their dominance in the 3,000m steeplechase event as Brooke Bennett won the race in 10:20.08, beating out defending champion and teammate Anna Masinelli, who placed second in 10:29.54. Corey Randall also ran in the event and placed fifth in a personal-best time of 10:36.24. The trio earned 22 points for the team with their first, second, fifth finish.
In the final event of the night, the 10,000m run, the women again scored big as Amy Hastings and Victoria Jackson finished one-two in the event to score 18 points while Cassie Rios crossed the line in fourth place to add five more team points. Hastings captured the crown in 34:03.85 while Jackson finished in 34:07.64 and Rios in 35:17.74.
In the field, the Sun Devil women again scored big with Sarah Stevens winning the shot put with a school-record toss of 17.42m (57-2.00) and Jessica Pressley placing third in the same event with a toss of 16.59m (54-5.25). Jacquelyn Johnson, the winner of the heptathlon last weekend, placed second in the high jump with a personal-best clearance of 1.81m (5-11.25) before placing sixth in the long jump at 6.02m (19-9.00). Stephanie Garnett rounded out the scoring in the field as she tied for eighth in the long jump at 5.95m (19-06.25).
The men also utilized the distance events for their scoring on the day as Aaron Aguayo became just the second man to win three Pac-10 steeplechase crowns, this time taking the title with a school-record time of 8:35.04. Teammate Ryan Warrenburg finished just behind him at 8:39.01, the second fastest time in school annals. Casey Burchill scored an eighth-place finish in the final running event of the day, the 10,000m run, with his time of 31:19.94. The Sun Devil men closed out their scoring in the javelin as Andrew Smith placed seventh overall with his toss of 63.87m (209-6).
Along with the two school records on the day (Stevens in the women's shot put and Aguayo in the men's steeplechase), the Sun Devil women collected two more historic notes. Stevens became the first ASU female to win the shot put competition while Bennett's win in the steeplechase gave ASU its sixth consecutive win in the event with five different runners winning the title in the six years the conference has held the race. Bennett joins Kelly MacDonald (2001), two-time winner Lisa Aguilera (2002-03), Hastings (2004) and Masinelli (2005) as the champions in the event.
Looking ahead to Sunday, the women had 15 entries on Saturday in track events with seven of those runners advancing to the finals. The qualifiers include Latosha Wallace (400m dash and 400m hurdles), Christina Hardeman (400m dash), Bridgette Williams (400m dash), Rachel Ellison (1,500m run), Jenna Kingma (1,500m run) and Johnson (100m hurdles). Wallace's time of 58.62 in the 400m hurdles was the top time on the day.
On the men's side, ASU advanced eight of its nine entries, including the doubles by Velibor Radejovic (1,500m run), Jack Mann (1,500m run) and Marquis Profit (400m hurdles) all advanced to action Sunday.
Action concludes Sunday in Eugene.
2006 Pac-10 Track & Field Championships
Conference Champions
Women's Heptathlon - Jacquelyn Johnson
Women's Shot Put - Sarah Stevens
Women's 3,000m Steeplechase - Brooke Bennett
Women's 10,000m Run - Amy Hastings
Men's 3,000m Steeplechase - Aaron Aguayo