April 15, 2006
TEMPE, Ariz. - The Arizona State University track and field program's final home meet came to a close Saturday night inside Sun Angel Stadium with the Sun Devils scoring 24 regional berths and 12 victories at the 27th Sun Angel Track Classic presented by Coca-Cola. Overall, the field events for the men and women recorded great success as seven of the 12 victories and 11 of the 24 regional bids came from these athletes.
On the women's side, Sarah Stevens won her second event of the weekend by adding the discus title to her hammer crown won one day earlier. Her mark of 53.95m was a regional mark, as was her 16.76m in the shot put. Jessica Pressley won the shot put with a regional mark of 16.80m while also qualifying in the discus with a toss of 52.48m. Becky Holley was victorious in the javelin with a winning mark of 40.85m while Jacquelyn Johnson (1.80m in the high jump) and Stephanie Garnett (6.18m in the long jump), both of which earned regional berths, rounded out the field victories for the women.
On the track, Amy Hastings captured the mile run in 4:47.29 to earn a regional berth while fellow distance runner Victoria Jackson qualified in the 5,000m run with her winning time of 16:45.46. The final victory came in the 4x400m relay with Shauntel Elcock, Christina Hardeman, Bridgette Williams and Latosha Wallace clocking in at 3:36.55.
Domenik Peterson won the 200m dash in 20.86 before helping the 4x400m relay team of Kelvin Love Jr., Richard Allen and Chris Adams to victory in 3:09.2. Both marks are regional qualifiers. Andrew Smith took the javelin crown with a winning toss of 66.31m while Ryan Zimmerman captured the triple jump with a mark of 15.58m.
Others adding regional marks included Johnson in the 100m hurdles (13.41), Wallace in the 400m hurdles (58.29), Hardeman in the 400m dash (53.61) and April Kubishta (4.06m) and Cara Walker (3.80m) in the pole vault. Kubishta's mark made her just the second Sun Devil female to break the 4.00m barrier following Angela Tavlarides' 4.10m clearance one year ago.
Peterson added a regional berth in the 400m dash with a time of 46.11 while Adams joined him in 46.94. Love Jr., earned a berth in the 100m dash at 10.49 while Aaron Aguayo, who made a valiant effort at running a sub-4 minute mile, qualified with a time of 4:04.30. Brandon Glenn rounds out the men's qualifiers as he cleared 5.05m in the pole vault.
Several Sun Devil alums competed in the meet with Dwight Phillips, the 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist in the long jump, winning two events. After taking the 100m dash in 10.38, Phillips moved to his signature event and won with a mark of 7.82m. Also in the field, Nick Hysong, the 2000 Olympic champion in the pole vault, competed in his event and placed second on a tie-breaker after clearing 5.30m.
ASU will head to a pair of twilight meets next weekend with some athletes heading to Eugene, Ore., for the Oregon Twilight on April 21-22 while others will return to Austin, Texas, for the Texas Twilight on April 22.