June 6, 2000
TEMPE, Ariz. - The 2000 Sun Devil track teams made huge gains this season. The men's squad posted its best outdoor NCAA finish in 17 years, tying for 17th place while the indoor national squad posted the program's first top-10 finish in school history by placing 10th. The Lady Devils also improved on the national scene, as the outdoor squad placed 38th, the first time it's placed in four years.The indoor team placed 23rd, its best finish in five years.
NCAA Championship Recap
ASU sent 10 athletes to Wallace Wade Stadium in Durham, N.C., for last weekend's NCAA Track & Field Outdoor Championships (May 31 - June 3). The Sun Devil men tied for 17th, the programs best finish since 1983, while the women's 38th-place tie marked the first time the Lady Devils have placed since 1996. The men scored 13 points, from Dwight Phillips' runner-up finish in the long jump and the 4x100m relay's fourth-place finish. The women earned points from Tiffany Greer, who placed fourth in the long jump, and Lisa Aguilera and her eighth place in the 1,500m. Complete ASU results are below.
Not Making the Cut
ASU posted 15 other qualifying marks but were not selected to participate in the NCAA Championships.
A Look Ahead to the Olympic Trials
To get to the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, athletes will first pass through Sacramento, Calif., home of the USA Track and Field Olympic Trials. The Trials will take place at Hornet Stadium on the California State University, Sacramento, campus July 14-23. The Sun Devils will be represented by several athletes and a coach. Assistant Throws Coach Dawn Dumble, a two-time national champion for UCLA, is wrapping up her first year as assistant coach for ASU while training for the shot put and discus events. She's listed on Track & Field News' Top 10 U.S. list in both events (5th-shot, 7th-discus). Freshmen Tiffany Greer has the 11th highest qualifying mark and will compete in the long jump. On the men's side, senior Dwight Phillips has the third best qualifying mark in the long jump and the 14th in the triple jump. He's listed 10th in Track & Field News' Top 10 list. Junior Marcus Brunson has qualified for the 100m, his time of 10.10 from last season is the 14th best qualifying time.
Junior Sprinter Michael Campbell is also looking to make the Olympic Team in the 400m, for his home country of Jamaica. Former Sun Devils competing are Nick Hysong in the pole vault and Maicel Malone Wallace in the 400m.
Outgoing Sun Devils
Five seniors have finished their athletic careers at ASU. Teniqua Broughton, Erika Johnson, Jim McGee, Dwight Phillips and LaVell Robinson-Blanchard. All three men are leaving as Pac-10 Champions as part of the men's 4x100m relay and became All-Americans after finishing fourth at the NCAA Championships last weekend. On the women's side, Broughton raced in sprint events for the Devils while Johnson was a jumper, briefly holding the school's record in the triple jump during the season.
2000 Pac-10 Championships
The men's squad placed third at the conference Championships, posting the team's best finish in 17 years, while the women placed fifth, the team's best finish in five years, during the May 20-21 meet at the University of Oregon's Hayward Field.
Behind senior Dwight Phillips' 26.5 points, ASU men's squad recorded 101 points, surpassing the100-point mark for the first time since the 1981 Pac-10 Championship team scored 133. The Lady Devils were led by Oregon native Kelly MacDonald's18 points, as the squad posted its first top-five finish since 1995.
"I'm extremely proud," head coach Greg Kraft said. "We did all we could as a team. Everybody produced. We've been getting better each year and our depth has improved, but we've still got more ahead. This is only part of the progression."
Pac-10 Champions include Dwight Phillips in the men's long jump, Jeremy Rasmussen in the men's 3,000m Steeplechase, Tiffany Greer in the women's long jump, Kelly MacDonald in the women's 5,000m and the men's 4x100m Relay (Phillips, LaVell Robinson-Blanchard, Jim McGee and Marcus Brunson).
2000 Pac-10 Championship Notes
ASU's men's team placed third, the highest finish for the Devils since a tie for second place in 1983, a span of 17 years... ASU's men's team also scored 101 points, surpassing the 100-point mark for only the second time in conference history... The first was the team's 1981 Championship squad, which posted 133 points... Dwight Phillips scored 26.5 of those points, scoring more than any other individual in the entire conference at the Championships... ASU's women's team placed fifth, the first top-five finish for the Lady Devils since a fifth-place showing in 1995... The 75 points the team scored was the most since 1995, when the team posted 78... The men posted 10 season bests while the women notched six (preliminaries included)... Career bests were achieved by Jeremy Rasmussen, Kris Alexander, Colleen Burke, Valerie Williams, Adrienne Judie and Brianna Torres... Tualatin native and junior Kelly MacDonald became ASU's first conference champion in the 5,000m when she won in her home state in a time of 16:28.45... She scored 18 of the team's points, sixth best of an individual at the Pac-10s... Walk-on redshirt freshman Jeremy Rasmussen recorded a career-best 8:49.23 in winning the men's 3,000m Steeplechase, becoming the first Pac-10 Champion in Sun Devil history in that event... He bettered his previous best time by nine seconds... The men's 4x100 Relay became the fourth quartet in ASU history to win the league crown and the first since 1986... That win was also the first time a school other than UCLA or USC took the title since Washington State in 1991... Greer became the school's first long jump champion since Gea Johnson's victory in 1990... ASU took home titles in five events this year (men's long jump, women's long jump, men's 4x100, men's 3,000m steeplechase and women's 5,000m)... The last time the team won more was 1994, when the men's and women's squad earned six conference championships... In 40 years of conference history, Dwight Phillips became only the seventh man to repeat as the long jump champion... Valerie William's fourth-place triple jump of 42-1.5 set a new school record, broken earlier this season by teammate Erika Johnson.
National Rankings
The Sun Devils' men's squad finished the season ranked 19th by TrackWire.com. They were ranked as high as 12th earlier in the season. The women were not ranked during the year. In the men's rankings, six Pac-10 teams made the top 25, leading with second-ranked Stanford and 11th-ranked USC, and followed by California at 16th, Washington at 19th, and Oregon at 24th. On the women's side, league member UCLA is ranked first, followed by USC in second, Arizona in ninth and Stanford at 16th.
Pac-10 Athlete of the Week
Senior Dwight Phillips earned the season's first Pac-10 athlete of the week honors on April 11 as he placed third in the 100m at the Texas Relays with a wind-aided 10.12. In the previous day's qualifier, he clocked a wind-aided 10.11 to win his heat. As the wind was above the NCAA-allowable 4.0 mps in both events, he could not use those times to qualify for the NCAA Championships, but his time was the second fastest in ASU history. The senior from Tucker, Ga., finished his Sun Devil career an eight-time All American, holding four school records. In the long jump, he is a three-time NCAA runner-up and owns two Pac-10 titles.
Into the Outdoor Recordbooks
Senior Erika Johnson broke a school record May 6 at the Double Dual in Tucson, Ariz. Her second-place finish in the triple jump broke a 16-year-old school record. Johnson recorded a leap of 12.57 meters, or 41 feet, 3 inches, to top Anna Van's 1984 mark of 12.37 (40-7.25). But Johnson's mark did not last long. At the Pac-10 Championships in Eugene, Ore., May 21, junior Valerie Williams topped that mark with a 42-1.5 to take fourth place. Two other records were broken on April 14 at the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif. Redshirt freshman Fasil Bizuneh broke a 31-year-old school record in the men's 10,000m run, posting a 29:13.61 to place 18th. His time was five seconds better than the mark Jerry Jobski posted for Arizona State in 1969. Bizuneh's mark also earned him an invitation to the NCAA Championships and his time was just seven seconds away from qualifying for the Olympic Trials. Junior Kelly MacDonald qualified for the NCAA Championships and the Olympic Trials with her 15:55.90 performance in the women's 5,000m. That time placed her 10th in the meet and broke Lynn Nelson's 1984 school standard by three seconds. MacDonald's record-setting performance was her third this season, as she also holds ASU record in the indoor 3,000 and 5,000 meter events.
Adrienne Judie (HT) Olivia Mazzaglia (PV), Marcus Brunson (100m) and Dwight Phillips (LJ) are current Sun Devils that also hold school records.
NCAA Indoor Season Recap
The men's track and field team recorded its first top-10 finish in the program's history at the NCAA Indoor Championships, tying for 10th with 16 points to surpass the previous school-best of 11th at last year's event ... The Lady Sun Devils placed 23rd with eight points, the team's best finish since placing 19th in 1995 and only two points away from a top-10 finish ... Ten Sun Devils earned All-America honors ... Tony Berrian (400), Dwight Phillips (LJ & TJ) and the distance medley relay of Brandon Strong, LaVell Robinson-Blanchard, David Burke and Garrett Jensen for the men, and Lisa Aguilera (Mile), Kelly MacDonald (5,000), Valerie Williams (LJ) and Tiffany Greer (LJ) on the women's side ... Overall, the women's squad broke five Sun Devil records this season, more than any other year in ASU record books and the most successful season since four records fell in 1991 ... The men broke three records during the five-week indoor season, breaking those records multiple times ... Four school records were broken at NCAAs ... Senior Dwight Phillips initially broke the long jump record at the MPSF Championships when his 25-9.5 leap broke a 16-year-old record by .5 inch ... He topped that leap two weeks later at NCAAs with a 26-7.25, earning runner-up honors for the second straight year ... Four weeks into the season, Phillips set a new triple jump mark of 52-7.5, only to break that one week later at nationals with a 52-8.75 to place eighth ... Junior Tony Berrian broke a 21-year-old record last season, but bettered it twice during nationals ... He topped it first in a preliminary with a 46.26 ... In the next evening's finals, he bettered his standard to a 46.16 ... Junior Kelly MacDonald set a school standard in the 5,000m the only time she ran the event this season, but that time of only lasted seven days, as she notched a 16:13.41 at the Championship ... She also posted an ASU-best 9:34.56 in the 3,000m, during the regular season ... Freshman Lisa Aguilera posted a 4:44.44 in the mile for a spot in Sun Devil lore ... Two school field records were broken at the in-state Double Dual ... Freshman Tiffany Greer recorded a long jump of 21-4 to set a new Sun Devil mark while junior Valerie Williams posted a new high in the triple jump with a 41-0.5 mark.
Kraft-ing ASU's Program
Greg Kraft, ASU's eighth director of track & field and cross country, has tirelessly rebuilt the Sun Devils' program from probation to prosperity in his four years as a Sun Devil. This season, the men's squad posted its best outdoor NCAA finish in 17 years, tying for 17th place while the indoor national squad posted the program's first top-10 finish in school history by placing 10th. The Lady Devils also improved on the national scene, as the outdoor squad placed 38th, the first time it's placed in four years.The indoor team placed 23rd, its best finish in five years. Twelve athletes earned 17 All-America honors this year. Four school records were broken during the outdoor season, while eight fell during indoors, four alone at the Indoor NCAAs. At the Pac-10 Championships, the men's squad finished third, followed by the women in fifth, bringing home five league crowns.
Kraft, 44, was introduced as ASU's head coach July 28, 1996, after spending seven years heading the track & field and cross country programs at the University of South Carolina where he was the 1996 SEC Coach of the Year. During Kraft's tenure at South Carolina, he rebuilt the men's program into a league power and built the women's program from scratch. Kraft also headed the men's program transition from the Metro Conference to the SEC. Kraft, a Cal Poly SLO graduate, is now entering his 20th year of Division I coaching and 11th as a head coach, has long been associated with successful track & field and cross country programs. As an assistant, Kraft tutored 34 All-Americans and individual conference champions while helping guide his schools to four conference championships and three NCAA Top 10 finishes.
Trackwire.com
Rankings
(final)
Men
| 1. | Arkansas | 72 |
| 2. | Stanford | 63 |
| 3. | Louisiana State | 45 |
| 4. | Auburn | 37 |
| 5. | Florida | 32 |
| 6. | Alabama | 29 |
| 7. | Baylor | 27 |
| 8. | Southern Methodist | 22 |
| UTEP | 22 | |
| 10. | South Carolina | 20 |
| 11. | Wisconsin | 18 |
| USC | 18 | |
| 13. | Texas Christian | 17 |
| Texas | 17 | |
| BYU | 17 | |
| 16. | California | 16 |
| 17. | Texas A&M | 15 |
| 18. | Missouri | 14 |
| 19. | ARIZONA STATE | 12 |
| Oklahoma | 12 | |
| Tennessee | 12 | |
| Colorado State | 12 | |
| Washington | 12 | |
| 24. | Clemson | 11 |
| Oregon | 11 | |
| Illinois | 11 |
Women
| 1. | UCLA | 76 |
| 2. | USC | 74 |
| 3. | Arkansas | 54 |
| 4. | Texas | 53 |
| 5. | Louisiana State | 50 |
| 6. | South Carolina | 49 |
| 7. | Nebraska | 29 |
| 8. | BYU | 24 |
| 9 | Arizona | 23 |
| Southern Methodist | 23 | |
| 11. | Houston | 22 |
| 12. | Colorado | 20 |
| 13. | Kansas State | 19 |
| 14. | UTEP | 17 |
| Villanova | 17 | |
| 16. | Stanford | 16 |
| Ohio State | 16 | |
| 18. | Auburn | 14 |
| Syracuse | 14 | |
| 20. | Harvard | 13 |
| 21. | Florida | 12 |
| Alabama | 12 | |
| 23. | Mississippi | 10 |
| Akron | 10 | |
| Georgia | 10 | |
| Wyoming | 10 |