June 8, 2005
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The first day of competition at the 2005 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships got underway Wednesday with mixed results for members of the Arizona State University team at the meet being conducted at the Alex G. Spanos Sports Complex in Sacramento, Calif. Overall, five student-athletes advanced to the finals of their respective events with two others moving through to the semifinals before bowing out.
The field event competitors shined brightly, despite a steady drizzle that lasted throughout the day, as two of three Sun Devils advanced to the finals. In the first event of the day, Julia Pedersen tied for seventh overall in the women's discus to advance to the Friday final with a toss of 51.58m (169-03). In the long jump, Trevell Quinley recorded the top mark of the men's event at 7.96m (26-01.50) and was the only competitor to surpass the automatic standard into the finals (7.90m or better). The national runner-up in the indoor event, Quinley enters the Thursday finals as the favorite. On the women's side, Porchea Carroll failed to qualify as her best mark of 5.95m (19-06.25) tied her for 20th overall.
On the track, men's steeplechase athletes Aaron Aguayo and Ryan Warrenburg advanced to the finals following the preliminary rounds of the 3,000m event. Aguayo was sixth in his section of the event with a school record time of 8:38.16, bettering the previous ASU best of 8:39.19 set in 1992 by Todd Lewis, to qualify 13th overall while Warrenburg, who also recorded a personal best time in the event, finished 14th overall at 8:42.32 to secure the final qualify position. He beat out Indiana State's Jordan Fife, who came in 0.11 seconds behind Warrenburg at 8:42.43 in the second section.
In the sprints, the men's 4x100m relay of Steven Koehnemann, Domenik Peterson, Seth Amoo and Kelvin Love Jr., clocked a 39.19 to finish second in their heat and fifth overall to advance to the finals. Last year, Koehnemann, Peterson, Amoo and Lewis Banda combined to finish second overall in the finals after qualifying last. The women's 4x100m relay of Porchea Carroll, Kandace Tucker, Christina Hardeman and Cassandra Reed finished second in their heat at 44.69, but it was not fast enough as they placed 10th overall, missing the finals by two places.
The lead legs on both relays, Koehnemann for the men and Carroll for the women, also competing in the 100m dash and advanced to the semifinals before bowing out. For Koehnemann, he placed fifth in his heat and 13th overall at 10.45 to move on before clocking a 10.62 in the semifinals to finish 8th in his heat and 17th overall. Carroll also placed 13th in the preliminaries after taking fourth in her heat at 11.48 before taking 15th (eighth in her heat) at 11.68.
Four other Sun Devils entered competitions but did not advance to the next rounds. On the women's side, Anna Masinelli placed 14th in her heat and 27th overall in the 3,000m steeplechase at 10:30.31 while Desiree Davila, competing in her final collegiate event, placed 25th overall and 13th in her section of the 5,000m run with a time of 17:03.98. For the men, Jason Barton placed 25th overall and fifth in his heat of the 400m dash with a time of 49.04 while Peterson, also competing in the open quarter, was disqualified from the event after a false start.
The national meet continues Thursday with several Sun Devils in action, including several finals and more qualifying rounds. In the field, ASU will see Jessica Pressley compete in the hammer qualifying round before joining Pedersen in the shot put qualifying round. Angela Tavlarides will enter the qualifying rounds of the pole vault while Quinley competes in the finals of the long jump. On the track, Amoo, Carroll and Tucker will run the 200m dash, Rachel Ellison will the 1,500m and the men's 4x400m relay will all be in qualifying action before a trio of runners compete in the 10,000m finals: Casey Burchill for the men and the women's Amy Hastings and Victoria Jackson.