Feb. 16, 2008
TEMPE, Ariz. - The Arizona State University track and field team competed at a trio of meets on the road Saturday with three NCAA automatic and six NCAA provisional marks attained at the various meets. The Sun Devils competed at the Iowa State Classic in Ames, Iowa, and the Husky Classic in Seattle while also sending runners to the USATF Cross Country Championships in San Diego.
The ISU meet produced several top marks for the Sun Devils, including three NCAA automatic and four provisional qualifiers. In the field, the shot put proved to be the top event for ASU as Ryan Whiting won the men's event with a school-record and national-leading toss of 20.75m (68-01.00), improving his record mark from last week by over one and one-half feet (66-10.50), to earn an automatic mark. In the women's event, Sarah Stevens hit a national leading and event-winning mark of 17.78m (58-04.00) to automatically qualify while teammate Jessica Pressley was third in 17.12m (56-02.00). Her mark also was an automatic qualifier and stands as the second-best mark in school history.
Four Sun Devils earned provisional marks in the sprint events, including two by each gender. On the men's side, Justin Kremer clocked in at 46.78 in the 400m dash to earn a provisional standard before joining the 4x400m relay to clock a time of 3:06.58 to finish second in the race. The women's relay also earned a provisional berth, running 3:38.65 to win the 4x400m relay. Jacquelyn Johnson placed second in the 60m hurdles with a time of 8.23 to earn the final provisional and also move into second on the all-time lists at ASU.
Jasmine Chaney ran 8.49 in the semifinals of the 60m hurdles to move up to No. 4 on the ASU chart while fellow sprinters Charonda Williams and Dominique' Maloy turned in the third (7.46, third place in the meet) and fourth (7.48, fourth in the meet) times, respectively, in school history.
In Seattle, Nectaly Barbosa made his individual event debut a success as he clocked a time of 1:49.87 in the 800m run to place eighth overall and earn a provisional berth to the NCAA Championships. His mark also stands as the second fastest in school history, just 0.36 off the mark of Treg Scott in 1985 (1:49.51) when he placed fifth at the national meet. Kyle Alcorn ran 7:55.63 in the 3,000m run to place fifth overall and earn a provisional berth while his time also ranked second all-time in ASU history. For the women, Kari Hardt place sixth overall in 9:29.00 in the women's 3,000m race to earn a provisional berth.
Off the track in San Diego, Calif., several current and former Sun Devils competed in the 2008 USATF Cross Country Championships. In the junior men's 8K race, Dylan Hatcher led the way for ASU as he place 11th overall in 25:11 while Zach Mason (62nd in 27:17) and Derek Cardinale (68th in 27:33) rounded out the ASU entries in the event. In the women's open 8K race, Amy Hastings led the former Sun Devils as she placed eighth in 27:12 and was followed by Lisa Galaviz (26th in 28:38) and Mary Houchin (30th in 29:01). The men's 12K open race saw Fasil Bizuneh (16th in 36:49) and Ryan Warrenburg (40th in 38:03) also compete.
The Sun Devils will travel to Flagstaff, Ariz., next weekend for the NAU Tune-up. The following weekend will mark a return to Seattle for the 2008 MPSF Championships, the first met of the championship season.