Sept. 15, 2006
TUCSON, Ariz. - The Arizona State University cross country program headed south Friday afternoon to compete in the Dave Murray Invitational and returned to Tempe with solid performance on both the men's and women's sides. The meet, which was hosted by Arizona, took place on the Dell Urich Golf Course in Tucson, Ariz., and saw the men compete in a 6k race while the women ran a 4k circuit.
The men led off the meet with their race with Aaron Aguayo, competing in his first cross country race for the Sun Devils since the 2004 NCAA Cross Country Championships, led the charge as he placed third in the meet at 18:07.10. He was followed across the line by Kyle Alcorn (18:16.70), who finished fourth in his first race as a Sun Devil following a transfer from Oregon. Joey Heller (18:30.20), freshman Mikias Gelagle (18:38.80) and Kal Clark (18:49.70) all placed in the Top 10, finishing sixth, seventh and 10th, respectively.
ASU also was represented in the men's race by Jeff Helmer (15th in 19:01.80), David Gott (18th in 19:08.50), Jack Mann (26th in 19;36.80), David Mehlhorn (27th in 19:38.90), Max Baecker (41st in 20:31.10), Brent Wood (51st in 21:30.20) and Ross Blahnik (56th in 21:57.60).
The Sun Devil women dominated their competition as eight of its 10 entrants placed in the Top 10 of the race. Jenna Kingma led the charge for the women as she captured runner-up honors in 13:27.00. True freshman Kari Hardt took third in 13:34.70 while redshirt freshman Ali Kielty placed fourth in 13:36.40. Other Sun Devils in the Top 10 included Cassie Rios (13:37.60) in fifth place, Brooke Bennett (13:43.50) in sixth place, Krystal Duke (13:53.70) in eighth place, Whitney Hardt (14:14.60) in ninth place and Sereena Harmon (14:37.10) in 10th place. Jenny Cohen (13th in 14:50.30) and Samantha Knobbe (46th in 17:32.80) also competed.
Arizona State will make its annual trek to Minnesota next weekend as the team takes part in the 21st Roy Griak Invitational in Minneapolis, Minn., Saturday, Sept. 22.