April 22, 2004
TEMPE, Ariz. - A trio of meets are on tap for the Arizona State track and field teams this weekend with members of the team heading to destinations in Iowa, California and Oregon. One group of participants will head to Des Moines, Iowa, for the Drake Relays while others will head to Eugene, Ore., for the Oregon Invitational or to the UC San Diego Open in La Jolla, Calif.
MEN HIGH IN THE RANKINGS
The Sun Devils men retained their stronghold on the upper tier of the national rankings this week. According to the power rankings (team-power.org), Arizona State is No. 2 in the nation with Wisconsin surging ahead of the Sun Devils this week. In the April 20 release of the Trackwire.com Top 25, the men remained in the Top 10, this week falling two spots to No. 6. ASU is still No. 4 in the Trackshark.com Top 25.
For the women, the Sun Devils are No. 15 in the Trackshark.com release and No. 29 in the power poll. ASU is not ranked in the Trackwire.com Top 25 this week.
TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADERS
With three weeks of competition remaining before the Pac-10 Championships (May 14-15 in Tucson), the Sun Devil men hold the top marks in four events with another 10 marks ranking them in the Top 5 of their respective events.
Leading the conference are Domenik Peterson in the 200m (20.57), Lewis Banda in the 400m (45.23) and both the 4x100m (39.31) and 4x400m (3:01.51) relay teams.
Although the women do not lead any of the events, they have compiled 10 Top 5 marks with three being the No. 2 marks in the Pac-10. Kandace Tucker is second in the 200m (23.72) and Jacquelyn Johnson is second in the high jump (1.76m) while the 4x100m relay team is just out of the top spot with a time of 44.93. USC leads the relay with a time of 44.71.
MOVING ON UP
The men's 4x400m relay team was back at it again over the weekend at the Texas Relays, breaking the school record in the event that was set before any of the four was born: 1977. The quartet of Steve Fitch, Domenik Peterson, Jason Barton and Lewis Banda returned to Tempe after finishing third in the event at 3:01.51. The Sun Devils broke the previous school mark of 3:01.74 that was set by Cliff McKenzie, Gerald Burl, Tony Darden and Herman Frazier, a mark that has stood for 27 years.
OLD RECORDS
Although the previous 4x400m relay mark was set numerous years ago, there are still four more marks on the men's lists that have been around longer. Jerry Bright holds the 200m mark at 20.29 while Ron Freeman II clocked a 44.41 in the 400m. Both marks were set in 1968. Two years later, Chuck LaBenz set the standard in the 1,500m and mile runs, both during the 1970 season.
BIG JUMPS
At the Arizona State Invitational two weeks ago, Trevell Quinley had a big day in the jumps. He opened the day with a regional and conference qualifier in the long jump as he leaped to 7.50m (24-07.25) to finish second. Quinley then competed in the high jump which he won with a clearance of 2.15m (7-00.50).
FRESHMAN LEADING THE WAY
Along with the success of the rookie multi-event athletes (Jacquelyn Johnson and Joshua Kinnaman), there have been several other Sun Devils that have fared well in their freshman campaigns this year. For the men, Steven Koehneman is among the top athletes in the nation at 100m and 200m while Domenik Peterson is near the top of the 400m event. Brandon Glenn and Stephen Dolk bother are faring well in the pole vault with Aaron Aguayo, though he is a redshirt freshman this year, has qualified in both the 1,500m and 5,000m events at the regional and conference level.
Johnson has qualified in three individual events so far this year with marks recorded in the 100m hurdles, the high jump and the long jump.
MULTI EVENT SUCCESS
On March 23-24, Joshua Kinnaman competed in his first collegiate decathlon and returned from Tucson with a fifth-place finish overall and was the third collegiate athlete in the standings. On the first day of competition, Kinnaman clocked a 10.78 in the 100m dash to break the mark of 10.88 Dannie Jackson recorded in 1981. From there, Kinnaman put on other strong performances, including a throw of over 200 feet in the javelin to win the event. In the end, Kinnaman accumulated 7,147 points to rank eighth all-time in Sun Devil history and provisionally qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Championships in June.
Also at the meet, Jacquelyn Johnson competed in the heptathlon before withdrawing early from the meet. She had accumulated over 4,000 points with two events to go and earned regional and Pac-10 standards in three events; the 100m hurdles, the long jump and the high jump.
ALL-AMERICANS
Members of the track and field program traveled to Fayetteville, Ark., for the 2004 NCAA Indoor Championships, March 14-15, and returned with stellar performances. Of the 10 athletes that competed in the national event, six returned home as All-Americans. Those Sun Devils included Lewis Banda (4x400m), Jason Barton (4x400m and 400m), Domenik Peterson (4x400m and 200m), Seth Amoo (4x400m), Amy Hastings (5,000m) and Jacquelyn Johnson (pentathlon).
As a team, the men finished tied for 12th with 17 points earned while the women took a tie for 27th with eight.
MORE FRESHMAN SUCCESS
Johnson was not the only Sun Devil freshman that had an impressive debut at the NCAA Championships. Domenik Peterson competed in three races to earn All-America honors twice while setting one school record. Individually, Peterson finished fourth in the 200m dash with an ASU record time of 20.54. He then anchored the men's 4x400m relay team to a third place finish in the final event of the meet.
LAST TIME OUT: MT. SAC/LONG BEACH
At the Mt. SAC Relays, Travis Jones led the charge as he won the men's open division of the shot put with a throw of 17.06m (55-11.75) to qualify for both championship meets at the end of the season. Also on the men's side, Trevell Quinley placed 11th in the long jump invitational with a jump of 7.06m (23-2.00).
The women also saw solid results and were led by the shot put throws of Julia Pedersen and Jennifer Kowacz. In the invitational portion of the shot, Kowacz finished 10th overall with a throw of 15.64m (51-3.75) and moved into fifth overall on the all-time Sun Devil lists. Pedersen, who one day earlier won the discus, placed third in the shot put open division with a throw of 15.39m (50-6.00). Her mark is the seventh-best in school history.
In the jumps, Tinishia Johnson placed 13th in the long jump invitational with a mark of 5.90m (19-4.25) while Porchea Carroll took 18th in the same event with a leap of 5.78m (18-11.75). Carroll also competed on the track and finished second in her heat and seventh overall in the 100m dash in a time of 11.80.
On Saturday night, four men traveled to the Long Beach meet and swept the Top 4 finishes in the 800m run. Dan Maher led the charge with a first-place finish at 1:51.69 while teammates Jeff Dodge (1:52.19), Greg Halver (1:52.25) and Jay DeGroot (1:52.88) finished second, third and fourth, respectively, in the event that featured 40 runners.
UP NEXT
Bragging rights are on the line once again as the Sun Devils head to Tucson for the annual Double Dual with Arizona and Northern Arizona, May 1. Both the men and the women swept their intrastate rivals a year ago in Tempe and also swept the Wildcats and Lumberjacks earlier this year in Flagstaff at the indoor dual.