May 16, 2004
TUCSON, Ariz. - The final day of competition at the 2004 Pac-10 Track and Field Championships came to a close Saturday evening with the Arizona State men placing third overall and the women fourth at the meet being held in Tucson, Ariz. Three more championships were won on the day by the men to pace the team's 120 points while the women tallied 97. UCLA won both team titles.
The men sent a buzz through stands for most of the evening as history was made time and again by the sprinting corps. Individually, Lewis Banda won the 400m dash for the second year in a row, this time clocking a 44.58 to record the second-fastest time in school history and the seventh-best the conference has ever seen. He was pushed across the finish line by teammate Jason Barton, the race runner-up that clocked the third-fastest time in ASU history at 44.82. His mark also goes for the 10th-best all-time in the conference.
The duo joined Steve Fitch and Domenik Peterson in the 4x400m relay for several historic tidbits as the Sun Devil quartet won the title in 3:01.26. The mark is the school record, bettering the 3:01.51 recorded earlier this season, and also stands as the Pac-10 Championships meet record. Added to that, the time is the fourth-fastest in conference annals and gives the Sun Devils their fourth win in the relay event in as many years, breaking the previous consecutive streak record held by ASU and UCLA at three. But Banda was not done as he joined Steven Koehnemann, Peterson and Amoo on the 4x100m relay team to help win the crown at 38.97. Their time is the fourth-fastest in school history.
Amoo had a very impressive meet as well as he clocked two of the fastest times in school annals in the two short sprints. In the 100m dash, Amoo finished third at 10.38 to move into No. 8 all-time at ASU. He then tied for the seventh-best mark in school history in the 200m dash as he placed second in 20.57. On the women's side, Kandace Tucker also recorded the seventh-fastest time in school history in the 200m dash with a mark of 23.56 as she finished fourth in the race. Cassandra Reed, the 2003 conference champion in the 400m dash, could not retain her crown as she finished second at 51.97, becoming just the third woman at ASU to break the 52-second barrier. Her mark is third on the Sun Devil lists and 10th in the conference all-time.
The 120 points accumulated by the men are the second-most ever as the 1981 team recorded 133 points on its way to winning the team title. The third-place finish also goes as the team's highest finish since 2000 (third) and is extends the streak to six seasons in a row by finishing in the Top 5. For the women, their 97 points is the third-highest all-time while their streak of seasons in a row with a Top 5 finish extends to five.
Overall, the men recorded 14 marks that will earn them berths into the NCAA West Region Championships while the women posted nine total.
Next up for the Sun Devils is a return trip to Tucson, for the fourth week in a row, as members of the team will compete in the Wildcat Classic (May 22) in preparation for the NCAA West Region Championships in two weeks.