April 17, 2009
TEMPE – Brandon Bethke broke the school record in the 5,000m run by nearly 10 seconds and Jasmine Chaney became the seventh women in Arizona State University track and field history to break 59 seconds in the 400m hurdles as the Sun Devils wrapped up competition at the 51st Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif., on Friday.
Bethke, running his first 5,000m race of the season, opened with a time of 13:27.74, almost 10 seconds ahead of the previous school record of 13:37.71 that was set in 2007 by Aaron Aguayo. Last week, at the 30th Sun Angel Track Classic, Bethke ran 3:42.82 in the 1,500m run, which placed him fourth on the all-time list in ASU history.
Chaney, the lone ASU woman to compete on the day, clocked a winning time of 58.57 to not only win by nearly two seconds, but also become the seventh woman in school history to run a sub-59 second time. Her time pushed her to No. 6 on the all-time Top 10 in ASU history.
The men’s short sprinters also were in action on Friday, including Marcus Duncan, who ran 10.46 to finish third in the open 100m dash while also meeting the regional qualifying standard. In the same event, Allante Battle took seventh (10.64) and Lawrence Trice was 11th (10.68). Battle and Trice also ran in the open 200m dash and clocked times of 21.44 (seventh) and 21.52 (eighth), respectively.
Action concludes on Saturday with the sprinters returning to the track for a few individual races as well the 4x100m and 4x400m relays.