May 28, 2005
EUGENE, Ore. - The 2005 NCAA West Region Championships came to a close Saturday evening at a cold and rainy Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., with eight men and seven women earning berths into the NCAA Championships by placing among the Top 5 in their respective events. The women place third as a team with 74 points while Stanford captured the regional crown with 110.5 points as UCLA finished runner-up with 85. On the men's side, USC won the title with 103 points while Oregon (87.5), UCLA (71.33), ASU (71) and BYU (68) rounded out the Top 5 team finishers.
On the day, Sun Devil student-athletes combined to collect a trio of victories with Jessica Pressley leading the way as she captured the shot put event with a school-record mark of 17.05m (55-11.75). Her mark, just two centimeters better than the previous mark of 17.03m set in 1983 by Leslie Deniz, qualified Pressley in her second event of the weekend (hammer). For the men, the quartet of Steven Koehnemann, Domenik Peterson, Seth Amoo and Kelvin Love, Jr., combined to win the 4x100m relay at 39.14 to open the running events before the team of Jason Barton, Amoo, Peterson and Lewis Banda combined to win the final event of the day, the 4x400m relay, in 3:06.94.
For the men, Amoo and Peterson earned national berths in the 200m dash (20.72) and 400m dash (46.33), respectively, as both sprinters finished second in their respective events. Also earning automatic berths to the Sacramento meet were Aaron Aguayo, third in the 3,000m steeplechase (8:41.80); Ryan Zimmerman was fourth in the triple jump (15.77m); Koehnemann placed fifth in the 100m dash (10.58) and Barton took fifth in the 400m dash (46.54). The trio of Banda (6th in the 400m dash at 47.05), Ryan Warrenburg (6th in the steeplechase at 8:42.60) and Love (7th in the 200m dash at 21.48) all must await the NCAA's wildcard selections to see if they will be invited to the national event.
The women saw six other join Pressley in earning national berths with the 4x100m relay of Porchea Carroll, Kandace Tucker, Christina Hardeman and Cassandra Reed finished second with a mark of 44.57. Carroll, who advanced to the national event in the long jump one day earlier with a fourth-place finish, added berths in the 100m dash (11.67) and 200m dash (23.22) as she finished third in both races. Julia Pedersen added the final two automatic qualifiers as she placed third in the discus (53.78m) and fourth in the shot put (15.93m).
Four other women will have to await the wildcard selections to see if they will advance to the national event after finishing outside of the Top 5. That list includes sixth-place finishers Tucker (23.76) in the 200m dash and Hardeman (54.03) in the 400m dash and eighth-place finishers Reed (55.01) in the 400m dash and Rachel Ellison (4:22.67) in the 1,500m run.
Also competing on the day for ASU were: Brandon Glenn in the pole vault (no height); Travis Jones in the hammer (60.21m for 9th place); Tomas Navarro in the hammer (53.54m for 24th); Liz Lindgren in the 3,000m steeplechase (10:47.51 for 17th); Corey Randall in the steeple (10:52.68 for 21st); Jennifer Kowacz in the shot put (14.15m for 15th); Pressley in the discus (45.72m for 15th) and Becky Holley in the javelin (41.19m for 18th). Jones' hammer mark was the third time he has bettered his personal best and moved him into third on the ASU all-time list.
Those Sun Devils that have qualified for the national meet will head to Sacramento June 8-10 for the 2005 NCAA Championships hosted by Sacramento State.