March 21, 2006
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TEMPE, Ariz. - For the second weekend in a row, the Arizona State University track and field team will compete outdoors at its home facility as Joe Selleh Track at Sun Angel Stadium will be the site of ASU Invitational Friday and Saturday. The hammer throw will take place Friday night starting at 5 p.m. with the remaining field events starting at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday. The running events will start on the track at 5:30 p.m. Saturday. Several Sun Devils also will open the weekend one day earlier as they take part in the Jim Click Combined Events meet in Tucson on Thursday and Friday.
THE INVITED
Along with several unattached entrants, the field of competitors for the ASU Invitational will be comprised of the following schools: Arizona State, Ashland (Ohio), BYU, Central Arizona, Dartmouth, Michigan State (men), Missouri, Northern Arizona, Princeton, Purdue, UC Davis, Washington, Western State and Xavier (Ohio).
STRONG START
At the Baldy Castillo Invitational last weekend, the Sun Devils' first outdoor meet of the 2006 season, four women's and six men's marks met NCAA regional qualifying standards. On the women's side, Jacquelyn Johnson (100m hurdles), Cara Walker (pole vault), April Kubishta (pole vault) and Sarah Stevens (hammer) each met the standards while the men earned entrances from Domenik Peterson (100m dash), Marquis Profit (110m high hurdles), Kelvin Love Jr. (200m dash), Andrew Smith (javelin), the 4x100m relay of Steven Koehnemann, Peterson, Love Jr. and Jimmie Gordon and the 4x400m relay of Jerry Jones, Chris Adams, Peterson and Gordon.
SPRINTING TO VICTORY
Of the seven contested sprints, the Sun Devil men captured five at the Baldy Castillo Invitational and added a second-place showing in one other. The victorious runners included Domenik Peterson in the 100m dash (10.47), Kelvin Love Jr. in the 200m dash (21.08), Jerry Jones in the 400m dash (47.32), the 4x100m relay of Steven Koehnemann, Peterson, Love Jr. and Jimmie Gordon (39.96) and the 4x400m relay of Jones, Chris Adams, Peterson and Gordon (3:06.82). Marquis Profit was second in the 110m high hurldes (14.29).
WORLD LISTS
Jacquelyn Johnson ran 13.67 in the 100m hurdles to open the Baldy Castillo Invitational to not win the event and earn an NCAA regional qualifying mark, but also rank highly on the world lists. So far this season, her mark ranks 18th in the world and is the seventh-fastest by an American in 2006.
TOP 10
Two marks recorded at the Baldy Castillo Invitational by Sun Devil competitors rank among the Top 10 on the all-time Arizona State lists with both coming in field events. On Friday night, Sarah Stevens threw the hammer 62.79m (206-00) to move into second on the list as just the second female to break the 200-foot barrier. Then, on Saturday, April Kubishta cleared 3.80m (12-05.50) in the pole vault to move into third place all-time.
IMPROVEMENTS
After only one outdoor meet this season, three marks recorded in 2006 are better than the top mark of a year ago. On the men's side, Velibor Radejovic in the 3,000m run at 8:18.26. On the women's side, Jacquelyn Johnson's 100m hurdle time 13.67 also is an improvement.
BRONZE
The women's track and field/cross country program has been hot this academic year as the cross country team finished fourth at the NCAA Championships to claim the first trophy for the women's program. Last weekend, the women made history again by finishing third overall at the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships in Fayetteville, Ark. That finish was better than the 1991 team's tie for fourth place.
GOLD
Although the team finished with the bronze medal in the team standings, two individual Sun Devil women won gold in the respective events to claim the program's first national titles since the 1992 indoor season. Amy Hastings won the individual title in the 5,000m run on the first day of the meet before Jacquelyn Johnson took home the title in the pentathlon.
MORE ON THE GOLD
The titles won by Amy Hastings and Jacquelyn Johnson marked the first time in program history that a national title in an indoor distance event and an indoor multi-event had been captured. Hastings' crown is the second distance title ever and the first since 1959 when Alex Henderson won the school's first NCAA title by taking the men's two mile run. The multi-event crown had been won three other times in school history with Dana Collins winning the outdoor pentathlon in 1977 (the first women's national title) before Gea Johnson in 1990 and Jacquelyn Johnson in 2004 won the outdoor heptathlon. All told, the women have now won seven individual and one relay national title indoors while adding 10 individual and three relay crowns outdoor. The men, despite not having won an indoor title, have collected 13 individual and one relay national championship, as well as the 1977 team title.
ALL-AMERICANS
Eight Sun Devils earned All-America honors at the NCAA Indoor Championships, including six women and both men's entrants. For the women, Jacquelyn Johnson (penathlon), Amy Hastings (5,000m), Victoria Jackson (5,000m), Jenna Kingma (3,000m), Sarah Stevens (shot put) and Jessica Pressley (weight throw) all attained the honor while Joshua Kinnaman (heptathlon) and Ryan Zimmerman (triple jump).
ALL-AMERICAN LIST
In the history of the women's track & field/cross country program, Amy Hastings has earned the eighth-most All-America honors with six after capturing three in indoor track and field and three in cross country (the only Sun Devil to do so). Jacquelyn Johnson is tied for 17th with a handful of others after earning her third career accolade (two indoor, one outdoor).
GROWING LEGACY
NCAA champions Amy Hastings and Jacquelyn Johnson added to their successful careers over the weekend by winning their first and second titles, respectively. Hastings, who became the first Sun Devil to win a distance event national title in track, also is the only ASU cross country runner to ever win the Pac-10 title, doing so in 2004. Johnson, the national runner-up indoors in 2004, also won the outdoor heptathlon in 2004 before redshirting last year to compete on the ASU basketball team.
FIRST TIME
Several of the Sun Devils that attained All-America honors over the weekend earned the award for the first times in their careers. That list includes Victoria Jackson, Jenna Kingma, Sarah Stevens and Joshua Kinnaman.
MPSF CHAMPIONS
Five women and four men's events at the MPSF Indoor Championships were won by Sun Devil athletes at the meet in Seattle, including both multi events. For the women, Jacquelyn Johnson won the heptathlon with 4,207 points while Victoria Jackson secured gold in the 5,000m run (16:03.15) on the first day of competition. On the second and final day, the women saw Christina Hardeman take the 400m dash (53.98), Jenna Kingma won the 3,000m run (9:13.09) and Sarah Stevens took the shot put title (16.55m). The men had Joshua Kinnaman winning the heptathlon with a Dempsey Indoor record 5,603 points while Ryan Zimmerman won the triple jump (15.86m). Domenik Peterson took gold in the 200m dash (21.15) and then helped the 4x400m relay continue its conference relay dominance as the team of Chris Adams, Peterson, Jerry Jones and Jimmie Gordon won in 3:09.91.
TEAM RESULTS
In their first Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championship meet, the Sun Devils fared well with the women placing second and the men sixth. In the women's team race, Stanford secured the crown with 161 points with ASU second with 115 points. Washington won the men's crown with 107 points while the Sun Devil men placed sixth with 66 points.
RECORD RETURNS
Two more records were set two weeks ago with both bettering the mark the same person set one week earlier. April Kubishta cleared 4.14m in the pole vault to increase her record clearance while Ryan Warrenburg became the first Sun Devil to break 14 minutes in the 5,000m run with a time of 13:58.54.
BROKEN RECORDS
During the indoor season, five school records were broken with four coming from the women's side of competition. April Kubishta opened the year by breaking the record in the pole vault and has reset the mark on three occasions this season while fellow field event competitors Sarah Stevens (shot put) and Jessica Pressley (weight throw) have taken over the top spot in their respective events. Stevens' mark broke a 23 year-old record while Pressley's topped the mark set in 2001. The other two records came from Amy Hastings in the 5,000m run and Ryan Warrenburg in the 3,000m run (see above).
OLD MARK BROKEN
Leslie Deniz set the school record in the women's indoor shot put with a heave of 17.03m back in 1983. Three years later, current Sun Devil thrower Sarah Stevens was born. Twenty years after her birth, Stevens bumped Deniz' mark to the No. 2 position after winning the Air Force Invitational with a toss of 17.52m and breaking the 23 year-old record. Deniz' mark also fell during the last outdoor season as Jessica Pressley recorded a toss of 17.05m to break the 22 year-old mark of 17.03m.
RETURNING PAC-10 CHAMPIONS
Four men and two women return to the track this season after winning Pac-10 titles one year ago while one other woman returns after a redshirt season. For the men, two-time 3,000m steeplechase champion Aaron Aguayo is back and will look for his third title in a row while Steven Koehnemann (4x100m), Kelvin Love Jr. (4x100m) and Domenik Peterson (4x100m and 4x400m) round out the returning men. On the women's side, Christina Hardeman is the lone returning member of the championship 4x100m relay of one year ago while Anna Masinelli is back following her victory in the steeplechase last year. Two years ago, Jacquelyn Johnson won gold twice as she was crowned champion in the heptathlon and the high jump during the 2004 season.
NEXT TIME OUT
Two meets on the road await the Sun Devils next weekend as several members of the distance corps will head to Palo Alto, Calif., for the Stanford Invitational (March 31-April 1) while other members of the team will head south to Tucson for the Arizona Invitational (April 1).