June 7, 2006
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The first day of action at the 2006 NCAA Track & Field Championships came to a close Wednesday night at the Alex G. Spanos Sports Complex in Sacramento, Calif., with several members of the Arizona State University program faring well in the qualification rounds of the national event. In all, six of the nine Sun Devil athletes that competed in qualifying events advanced to the later rounds while one competitor is at the half-way point of the first scored event of the meet.
Joshua Kinnaman stands seventh in the decathlon following the first day of competition, using a personal best mark in the fifth event of the day to vault up the standings. Kinnaman opened the day in third place following a time of 11.22 in the 100m dash before slipping to 11th overall after a leap of 6.65m (21-10.00) in the long jump. Kinnaman then fell five spots to 16th after his toss of 12.14m (39-10.00) in the shot put before a personal-best tying clearance of 1.98m (6-06.00) brought him back to 11th place. In the 400m dash, Kinnaman turned in a personal-best time of 48.24 to move into seventh place.
Also in the men's competition, Aaron Aguayo and Ryan Warrenburg both qualified for the finals of the 3,000m steeplechase as Aguayo recorded the fastest qualifying time of the day in 8:38.28 while Warrenburg was the fifth-fastest on the day with his time of 8:39.91. Kelvin Love Jr., also competed for the men as he clocked a 21.04 in the 200m dash first round to rank 16th overall and move on to the semifinals.
On the women's side, Jessica Pressley and Sarah Stevens both qualified for the next round of the discus with both finishing in the Top 10 of the standings. Pressley finished fifth in the qualifying round as she tossed a mark of 52.82m (173-03) while Stevens, competing in her first NCAA outdoor meet, tied for ninth overall with a mark of 49.77m (163-03). The final female to qualify for the finals in an event was Jenna Kingma, who advanced in the 5,000m run with her time of 16:19.71 to finish 14th.
A trio of women came close to qualifying, but did not move on in their events. In the 3,000m steeplechase, Brooke Bennett, despite falling twice during the race (once due to interference from another runner) clocked a personal best time of 10:18.91, but placed 15th overall, just one place shy of reaching the finals. In the 400m dash, both Christina Hardeman and Bridgette Williams failed to advance to the semifinals as the duo placed 21st (53.84) and 28th (55.51), respectively. Both will still compete in the meet as both will run on the 4x400m relay later this week.
Competition at the national championship meet continues through Saturday.