June 7, 2012
DES MOINES, Iowa - The Arizona State University track and field team finished up the second day of competition at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Des Moines, Iowa, with several student-athletes earning All-America honors on the day.
Christabel Nettey became the second Sun Devil of the weekend to earn USTFCCCA first-team All-America accolades as she posted an eighth-place finish in the women's long jump Thursday at Drake Stadium. Nettey sailed 6.37m (20-10.75) on her second attempt of the day to earn first-team honors for the second consecutive season.
With the performance, the Sun Devil women improved to nine points on the weekend thus far and were sitting in 10th after two days of competition.
Nettey's teammate, Constance Ezugha, just missed qualifying into the finals of the event with her best jump of 6.28m (20-07.75). Ezugha would finish 11th overall and missed advancing to the finals by just two centimeters. The sophomore did, however, earn second-team All-America accolades for the performance.
In the men's high jump, sophomore Bryan McBride matched his career outdoor best with a leap of 2.20m (7-02.50) to take 12th overall and earn second-team All-America accolades. McBride had a couple third-attempt clearances on the day and only narrowly missed the bar at 2.24m (7-04.25) in a spirited effort from the youngster.
The men's 4x400-meter relay team posted its fastest time of the year in the NCAA semifinals, clocking in at 3:04.19 and taking fourth in their heat. Despite the performance, the team of Chris Burrows, Kelsey Caesar, John Kline and Will Henry came just shy of advancing to the final, finishing 10th overall. The crew did, however, earn second-team All-America honors for the performance.
Keia Pinnick set two all-around career bests, one heptathlon best and scored the highest first day total in her career in the women's heptathlon. Pinnick opened the day with her fastest 100-meter hurdle heptathlon of her career, taking third overall in 13.48 to start the competition.
Pinnick would follow that up with a clearance of 1.63m (5-04.25) in the high jump competition before posting a career best-toss of 11.37m (37-03.75) in the shot put though she fell to ninth at that point.
She would recover quickly though en route to clocking her fastest 200-meter dash time in history at 24.00 to move up to eighth and finish the day with 3,424 points. Pinnick's time also set the school record for the heptathlon 200 meters, passing Jacquelyn Johnson's four-year-old record of 24.01.
Pinnick will enter tomorrow just less thank 200 points out of second place with arguably her two best events - the high jump and the 800 meters - still to come tomorrow.
In the men's 200-meter dash, junior Chris Burrows took 18th overall in 20.91 and did not advance to the final. Burrows will, however, earn All-America honorable mention honors courtesy of the finish.
The women's 4x400-meter relay team of Brianna Tate, Brierra Winfrey, Alycia Herring and Kayla Sanchez rounded out the competition on the day as they, too, earned an All-America honorable mention nod with their 20th-place finish in 3:38.18.
The Sun Devils will resume action tomorrow with a couple point-scoring opportunities on the men's side with Jordan Clarke (hammer), Chris Benard (triple jump) and Derick Hinch (pole vault) all in action. Pinnick will also conclude her heptathlon condition tomorrow, beginning at 3 p.m. CST and Anna Jelmini will round out her season in the shot put competition as well. A complete recap of the day's action will be available at www.TheSunDevils.com at the conclusion of events.