March 12, 2004
TEMPE, Ariz. - The first day of competition at the 2004 NCAA Indoor Championships concluded Friday evening with one Arizona State track and field student-athlete earning All-America honors and a second runner putting himself into position for the national honor at the meet being held in Fayetteville, Ark. In total, four Sun Devils competed on the opening day with the men holding a tie for 21st place (five points) and the women yet to score in the national meet.
In his first collegiate national meet, true freshman Domenik Peterson (Jefferson City, Mo.) finished fourth in the 200m dash, though his school-record time of 20.57 was the same as the second and third-place finishers. Peterson was assigned fourth place when the computer scoring system looked at the times down to the one-thousandth of one second. His finish was an improvement of both placement and time from the preliminaries where he finished seventh overall in a time of 20.92.
Also on the men's side, Jason Barton (Jr., Phoenix) and Lewis Banda (So., Bulawayo, Zimbabwe) each competed in the preliminary rounds of the 400m dash with Barton advancing to the finals (Top 8) while Banda fell one position short in ninth, just 0.02 seconds off the pace. In the second of four heats, Banda finished third with a time of 46.48. One heat later, Barton would clock in at 46.11 for the win as well as the third-fastest time overall. He trails TCU's Jerry Harris (46.06) and Baylor's Jeremy Wariner (46.08) in the race for gold. Barton will compete in the finals that are slated for 6:55 p.m. EST Saturday evening.
On the women's side, Arizona State was represented by one competitor in freshman Amy Hastings (Leavenworth, Kan.). A two-time competitor in the NCAA Cross Country Championships, Hastings ran in the 5,000m race and finished 11th out of the 17 entrants with a time of 16:24.58. Hastings was the lone freshman in the race.
The final day of competition gets underway Saturday with three individual Sun Devils and two relays set to compete. The day will open at 9 a.m. with Jacquelyn Johnson (Fr., Yuma, Ariz.) competing in the pentathlon that consists of the 60m hurdles (11 a.m.), the high jump (12:15 p.m.), the shot put (2:15 p.m.), the long jump (3:15 p.m.) and the 800m run (4:30 p.m.). Along with Barton in the 400m, freshman Brandon Glenn (Avondale, Ariz.) will enter the pole vault (5:30 p.m.) while the women's (7:55 p.m.) and men's (8:10 p.m.) 4x400m relay teams round out the ASU contingent.