April 15, 2000
Box Score
TEMPE, Ariz. -- Arizona State's men's and women's track squads won eight events and posted 11 qualifying marks for the NCAA Championships at the 21st annual Sun Angel Track Classic this evening at Sun Angel Stadium.
The men's 4x100 meter relay was already provisionally qualified with a 39.33 posted earlier this season, but is now automatically qualified for the NCAAs by bettering the mark to 39.01, winning the race. That Sun Devil relay also defeated an unattached team that featured 1996 100m Olympic Champion Donovan Bailey.
Also automatically qualifying for the men's team were Kris Alexander, Ronnie Buchanan and Jeremy Rasmussen, all in the men's 3,000m. Rasmussen placed second with an 8:23.57, followed by Alexander in third with an 8:37.39. Buchanan placed fifth, posting an 8:40.68. Teammate Charles Sharpe provisionally qualified with an 8:48.31 as he placed sixth.
Dwight Phillips' win in the long jump and third-place finish in the men's 100m were also provisional marks. He posted a 25-7.5 leap and a 10.28 run. Brandon Strong won the men's 1,500m and provisionally qualified for nationals with his 3:44.01 mark. The men's 4x400 provisionally qualified with a 3:05.67, placing second.
Lisa Aguilera, already provisionally qualified for the Sun Devils in the women's 3,000m, added the 1,500m standard as she won that event in 4:20.67. The women's 4x100m relay also provisionally qualified with a 45.01 win in that event.
The NCAA Championships will take place May 31-June 3 in Durham, N.C.
The other Sun Devil winners were the women's 4x400m relay (3:40.34), Olivia Mazzaglia in the women's high jump (5-7) and Casey Clark in the men's high jump (7-1).
Only one meet record was broken this afternoon. Angelo Taylor of Vector Sports Management won the men's 400m event in 44.91, breaking Jerome Davis' (USC) 45.42 mark that was set three years ago.
Next up for the Sun Devils is a trip south to the Arizona Elite Classic, which will be held April 21-22 in Tucson.