May 29, 2004
TEMPE, Ariz. - Arizona State's track and field teams concluded action at the 2004 NCAA West Region Track and Field Championships Saturday night at Cal State Northridge's Track Facility with the men finishing tied for fourth in the team standings while the women took fifth in the second annual event. The Sun Devil men were paced by three victories, including both relays, on there way to 63 points to tie Oregon for a team trophy while the women got two victories en route to 47 points. UCLA swept the team standings with both the men and women scoring 141 points each.
The 4x100m relay team of Steven Koehnemann, Domenik Peterson, Seth Amoo and Lewis Banda got things started for the men as they clocked the second-fastest time in school history at 38.92. After several solid individual performances in the sprints, Aaron Aguayo took to the track for the 3,000m steeplechase where he won another close race with Stanford's Ian Dobson, out-kicking the Cardinal junior down the stretch to finish with an 8:42.79, the second-fastest mark in school history. One race later, the relay corps of the Sun Devils again shined as the quartet of Steve Fitch, Amoo, Peterson and Jason Barton clocked a 3:01.77 to win the 4x400m relay.
With their Top 3 relay finishes and Top 5 performance in the steeplechase, all three earned a berth into the national meet and will be joined by four more individual entries. Amoo (20.78) and Peterson (20.80) finished second and third, respectively, in the 200m dash to punch their tickets while Banda (45.10) and Barton (45.47) also garnered national spots in the 400m dash. In the 200m event, Amoo and race winner Wes Felix of USC each clocked a 20.78, but Felix was given the victory by virtue of the computer timing system reevaluating the marks to the one-thousandth of one second.
On the women's side of the meet, the relays also shined by securing the two Sun Devil victories on the day. The 4x100m group of Porchea Carroll, Cassandra Reed, Marcia Smith and Kandace Tucker clocked a 44.35 to open the meet with the victory. The women's portion of the running events came to a close with Smith, Tucker, Christina Hardeman and Reed combining to clock a very speedy 3:31.44 to win the 4x400m relay. Both relays will be joined at nationals by two individual berths earned Saturday. Reed finished as the runner-up in the 400m dash at 52.01 while Tucker took third in the 200m dash at 23.59 to advance to the national meet.
Along with the men's 4x100m relay and Aguayo in the steeplechase, two other marks recorded made its way onto the Top 10 lists at ASU. For the women, Liz Lindgren finished 18th in the 3,000m steeplechase at 10:47.26 to move into the No. 5 all-time slot in the event while Ryan Warrenburg claimed the No. 9 spot on the men's 3,000m steeplechase event with his 10th-place time of 8:56.81.
Both teams had one other athlete score points on the day. Amy Hastings placed eighth in the steeplechase with a mark of 10:20.45 while Fitch also claimed eighth in the 400m dash in 46.90.
Also competing for ASU on the day were the following: Hardeman in the 400m dash (9th at 54.69); Jana Pintz in the javelin (14th at 43.81m/143-9); Stephen Dolk in the pole vault (10th at 5.01m/16-5.25); Brandon Glenn in the pole vault (10th at 5.01m/16-5.25); and Travis Jones in the discus (13th at 50.19m/164.8).
Next up for the Sun Devils is a trip to the 2004 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships to be held June 9-12 in Austin, Texas, at Mike A. Meyers Stadium.