May 15, 2005
LOS ANGELES, Calif. - The 2005 Pac-10 Conference Track and Field Championships came to a conclusion Sunday afternoon with both the men and women's teams representing Arizona State University claiming third-place finishes in the meet conducted inside Drake Stadium on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles. The Sun Devil men captured three individual and two relay crowns while the women secured one of each.
Oregon won the men's race with 152 points with UCLA (134.50), ASU (122), USC (106) and Washington (75.5) rounding out the Top 5. The point total for the men is the second-largest in school history, bettered only by the 1981 Pac-10 Championship team that secured 133 points. On the women's side, Stanford ran away with the crown with 173 points and were followed by the Bruins (125), Sun Devils (118), USC Trojans (99) and California Golden Bears (82) in the Top 5. For ASU, the 118 points stands as a school record and is just the third time the women have broken the century mark in points.
Seth Amoo went out on top in a trio of events as the senior opened the day as the third leg of the championship 4x100m relay. Along with Steven Koehnemann, Domenik Peterson and Kelvin Love, the relay clocked in at 39.10 to win the race for the second season in a row. Later in the day, Amoo again stepped on the track and won the 200m dash in 20.63 to give the program its first 200m champion since 2001 when Marcus Brunson won gold. Also in the race, the Sun Devils picked up numerous team points as Peterson placed third, Lewis Banda took fourth and Love finished seventh. Amoo, a little less than one hour removed from the 200m event, returned to the track one last time and ran the second leg of the victorious 4x400m relay team (3:02.85). Amoo, Jason Barton, Peterson and Banda combined to win the event for the fifth-year in a row.
The women also were victorious in the final race of the meet as Cassandra Reed staked the Sun Devils to an early lead that Christina Hardeman, Porchea Carroll and Kandace Tucker would maintain the remainder of the race and finish first at 3:35.68. The win for ASU marks the first relay title in 10 years when the quartet of Lade Akinremi, Tayo Akinremi, Jacqui Gayle and Avia Morgan won the race in 1995.
On the final day, Peterson finished runner-up in the 400m dash while three ASU men finished third in their respective events, including Amoo in the 100m dash, Peterson in the 200m and Ryan Zimmerman in the triple jump. Several others scored for the team on the day including Barton in the 400m dash (seventh), Aaron Aguayo (fifth) and Ryan Warrenburg (eighth) in the 5,000m run and Travis Jones (sixth) in the discus.
On the women's side, Carroll, the third-place finisher in the long jump one day earlier, finished second in the 200m dash and third in the 100m dash to help pace the team. Reed (400m dash) and Jessica Pressley (hammer) each captured runner-up finishes in their respective events while third-place finishes were captured by Desiree Davila in the 5,000m run and Angela Tavlarides in the pole vault.
Overall, the team earned points from Top 8 finishes from Tucker (seventh) and Reed (eighth) in the 200m, Hardeman (seventh) in the 400m dash, Rachel Ellison (fifth) in the 1,500m run, Victoria Jackson (fourth) in the 5,000m run, Julia Pedersen (fourth) and Pressley (seventh) in the discus and Jennifer Kowacz (seventh) in the hammer. Historically, Carroll's time of 23.32 ranks as the fourth-fastest in school history while Ellison's time of 4:21.73 matches the fourth-fastest time in school history set by Amy Hastings last year.
In ASU's annual Pac-10 Championships High Point Award, Carroll earned the honor for the women as she tallied 21.5 points for the Sun Devils on the weekend. Pressley was second with 18 points following by Jackson with 13 points, Reed with 11.5 points and Anna Masinelli with 10 points. Amoo captured the distinction on the men's side with 21 points while Peterson was second with 19 points and Aguayo third with 14 points.
Several members of the Sun Devil program will return to action next weekend as they travel south to Tucson for the Tucson Elite Invitational Saturday. One week later, those members of the team that have qualified will head to Eugene, Ore., for the 2005 NCAA West Region Championships, May 27-28.