Jan. 29, 2010
TEMPE – The Arizona State University track and field team sent several athletes to compete in a pair of meets on Friday with the Sun Devils winning a pair of events, including the men’s distance medley relay at the Washington Invitational in Seattle and the men’s long jump at the Mountain ‘T’ Invitational in Flagstaff.
In Seattle, the Sun Devils sent out a pair of distance medley relays with both just missing provisional qualifying marks in the event while recording times that rank among the Top 6 all-time in school history. The men’s relay of Mason McHenry, John Kline, Nectaly Barbosa and Brandon Bethke combined to run 9:50.23 in the DMR to win the race, just ahead of rival Arizona, to run the sixth-fastest time in school history. The time just missed the national qualifying standard of 9:41.70. In the women’s distance medley, the team of Kari Hardt, Jasmine Chaney, Alyssa Allison and Anna Sperry combined to run 11:31.50 and finish third overall in the race while recording the fourth-best time in ASU history. The women’s time also just missed the provisional standard, falling just shy of the 11:31.50 needed.
Back in the state of Arizona, seven individuals began competition in the Mountain ‘T’ event, including three men in the first of two days of the heptathlon. The lone victory on the day in Flagstaff came in the long jump as Michael Stokes recorded a mark of 7.15m (23-05.50) for the win in the open event. In the women’s open long jump, Constance Ezugha took second place with a jump of 5.95m (19-06.25) while fellow rookie Keia Pinnick was third at 5.45m (17-10.75). Two women competed in the open portion of the shot put as well with Samantha Henderson placing fourth with a toss of 12.34m (40-06.00) while Pinnick was 13th with a mark of 9.57m (31-04.75).
Earlier in the day, the trio of Jamie Sandys, Jeremy Marcinko and Austin Prince all began competing in the Mountain ‘T’ Multis and currently stand second, third and fourth, respectively, through the first four of seven events with all three men recorded personal-best marks in every event on the day. Sandys stands second overall with 2,772 points, which is 388 more than this point last year; Marcinko is third overall with 2,632 points, which is 214 more than last year; and Prince stands fourth with 2,593 points, which is 109 more than last year.
Sandys opened the day in fourth place overall with a time of 7.38 in the 60m dash (752 points) before taking third in the long jump with a mark of 6.34m/20-09.75 (661 points) to move into third overall. He remained in third overall after taking second in the shot put with 601 points on his toss of 11.91m/39-01.00 before moving into second overall with a leap of 1.95m/6-04.75 (758 points) in the high jump. Marcinko started his day in second overall with a time of 7.30 in the 60m dash and stayed in second overall after taking second in the long jump (6.38m/20-11.25) and third in the shot put (11.86m/38-11.00). He slipped to third overall with a fourth-place finish in the high jump (1.75m/5-08.75).
Prince opened the day in third place by running 7.35 in the 60m dash before slipping to fourth for the rest of the day as he took fourth in the long jump with a leap of 6.26m (20-06.50). He was fifth in the shot put with a toss of 11.23m (36-10.25) and then was third in the high jump with a clearance of 1.80m (5-10.75). On Saturday, all three will complete the heptathlon as they compete in the 60m hurdles, the pole vault and the 1,000m run.
Action will continue Saturday for a large group of Sun Devils that will compete at the Mountain ‘T’ meet in open and invitational events on the track and in the field.