April 15, 2004
TEMPE, Ariz. - With the home schedule behind it, the Arizona State track and field teams will send several of its members on the road this weekend with participants heading to two California locations. Nine athletes will head to the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif., Friday through Sunday while four middle-distance runners will enter the Long Beach Invitational Saturday.
PETERSON EARNS CONFERENCE HONOR
The Pac-10 Conference not only released the first descending order lists for the outdoor season this week, but also selected four athletes of the week with the Sun Devils' Domenik Peterson earning the Male Track Athlete of the Week honor. Peterson won the 25th Annual Sun Angel Classic presented by Coca-Cola 200m dash in a nation-leading 20.62 and move into eighth all-time on the Arizona State lists. Only a freshman, Peterson holds the school's indoor mark and is a member of the collegiate 4x400m relay team that established the indoor collegiate record earlier this season at a meet in Ames, Iowa.
MEN ARE NUMBERS 1, 4 and 4
The Sun Devil men have climbed to the top of the collegiate ranks this week in one ranking service while moving into the Top 4 of two others following more strong showings at the Sun Angel Classic presented by Coca-Cola. In the power rankings (www.team-power.org) which are based on points earned for the Top 2 performances on each team in each contested NCAA event, ASU is No. 1 with 377.67 points with Tennessee sitting second at 373.96. In the latest Trackwire.com Top 25 ranks, the men remained No. 4 while holding the same position in the new Trackshark.com lists.
On the women's side, Arizona State is No. 25 in the power rankings and No. 15 in the Trackshark.com polls while not being ranked in the Trackwire.com lists.
TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADERS
The Pac-10 Conference released the first order lists of the season and four men's events have Sun Devil athletes on top. Domenik Peterson leads the 200m dash at 20.57 while Lewis Banda is first at 400m in 45.23. The 4x100m relay and 4x400m relay both are conference leaders right now. Along with their conference leads, the four recorded marks also lead the west region with Peterson and Banda sitting in second overall in the nation. Both relays are third in the national standings.
LAST TIME OUT: SUN ANGEL CLASSIC
The Sun Devil men picked up four victories with wins in both relays as well as one field and one track victory on the individual front. The relay of Steven Koehnemann, Domenik Peterson, Seth Amoo and Lewis Banda clocked a 39.40 to win the 4x100m relay while Peterson, Amoo and Lewis joined Jason Barton in the 4x400m relay. Their time of 3:03.97 took the gold in the event. Individually, Trevell Quinley won the high jump for the second home meet in a row as he again cleared 2.15m (7-00.50). Peterson closed out the wins with his top finish in the 200m at 20.62, the eighth-fastest time in school history.
On the women's side, the 4x400m relay clocked a 3:36.91 to win the event while Angela Tavlarides cleared 3.75m (12-03.50) to claim victory in the pole vault. Her clearance improves upon the school record she set twice this season while also eclipsing a milestone: she became the first Sun Devil woman to clear 12 feet.
In the showdown of the evening, the men's 400m race did not disappoint as the Top 3 finishers clocked the fastest times in the collegiate ranks this season to lead the way as 11 athletes earned regional qualifying marks. Jeremy Wariner of Baylor, the 2004 NCAA Indoor Champion at 400m, won the race at 45.21, just edging ASU's Banda who took second at 45.23. Barton took third at 45.67 while Florida's Reggie Witherspoon rounded out the athletes that ran a sub-46.00 time (45.73) to take fourth.
UP NEXT
A trio of meets await the Sun Devils next weekend as the teams will split up and head to destinations in Iowa, Oregon and California. Several members will head to the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa (April 21-24) while others will compete at the Oregon Invitational in Eugene, Ore. (Apri. 23-24). The final meet is the UC San Diego Open in LaJolla, Calif. (April 23-24).