June 11, 2004
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AUSTIN, Texas - The Arizona State track and field team nearly had its second national championship title in as many days while competing at the 2004 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships being held at Mike A . Myers Stadium in Austin, Texas, Friday. The men's 4x100m relay team nearly caught Florida at the line, but instead finished a close second in the race. Overall, the women are in eighth place as a team with 10 points while the men sit tied for ninth with the eight points the relay earned.
The Sun Devil quartet of Steven Koehnemann, Domenik Peterson, Seth Amoo and Lewis Banda entered the finals as the final of nine qualifiers and hung tough with the field through the 200-meter mark. In the outside lane, ASU stayed with the field with Amoo handing the baton to Banda with the team in fourth place. From there, Banda exploded down the straightaway to pass Florida State and TCU before nearly clipping champion Florida. Prior to the meet, the same four Sun Devil student-athletes combined to win both the Pac-10 and NCAA West Region titles.
In the decathlon event, Joshua Kinnaman opened the day by clocking a 10.80 in the 100m dash to earn 906 points and move into third place overall early in the competition. From there, Kinnaman jumped to a mark of 7.25m (23-9.50) to earn 874 points and retain his third-place status overall following the long jump. In event three, Kinnaman recorded a mark of 12.83m (42-1.25) in the shot put for 657 points, pushing him down to seventh overall in the decathlon. Event four saw him clear 1.94m (6-4.25) in the high jump to add 749 points to his total, but again slipping in the overall standings, this time to ninth. With 789 points earned for his 50.56 in the 400m dash, Kinnaman closed the first day of competition with 3,975 points and in seventh place overall. The Sun Devil freshman is only 257 points out of the top position in the decathlon.
Individually, three ASU sprinters competed on the track in the 400m dash with two advancing to the finals and the third missing by 0.01 seconds. In the women's race, Cassandra Reed finished third in her heat at 52.67 and finished 10th overall to miss the finals by one place. The eighth and ninth-place runners recorded marks of 52.65 and 52.66, respectively, to edge Reed. On the men's side of the race, Jason Barton was second in his heat at 45.48 before Banda took second in his heat at 45.72 as both advanced to the finals. Barton was the top nonautomatic qualifier, seeding him fifth in the finals, while Banda is eighth overall.
In the field, a pair of women competed in the discus, each placing high in their respective flights, but failing to advance to the finals. Julia Pedersen finished fourth in her flight and 14th overall with her throw of 51.98m (170-6) while Sandra Orsund closed out her collegiate career with a throw of 50.34m (165-2) to finish third in her flight and 20th overall.
The final day of competition in the national meet is set for Saturday with ASU sending the following athletes into competition: Kinnaman will compete in the final five events of the decathlon; the men's and women's 4x400m relays will close out the meet with the finals races of the day; Desiree Davila will compete in the finals of the women's 5,000m run; and Barton and Banda will battle for the national crown in the open 400m dash as the fifth and eighth-seeded runners, respectively.