May 26, 2007
EUGENE, Ore. - The 2007 NCAA West Region Track and Field Championships came to a close Saturday afternoon at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., with three members of the Arizona State University program, as well as the women's team, winning championship crowns.
The Sun Devil women accumulated 94 points to outdistance runner-up USC (74) while UCLA (67), Stanford (60) and San Diego State (53) rounded out the Top 5. On the men's side, a close margin again came into play for the Sun Devils as they finished one-half of one point out of earning a trophy (Top 4) as their 53 points was just being the 53.5 points of UCLA for fourth place. USC won the men's title with 83 points with Oregon (75) and Washington (70) placing second and third, respectively.
For the women, Sarah Stevens had an impressive day again as she won the discus with a toss of 55.60m to lead the way as ASU finished first, third and fourth in the event. Jessica Pressley took third with a mark of 53.56m while Tai Battle was fourth at 53.03m. Stevens also placed second in the hammer with a school-record toss of 66.34m to punch her ticket to the NCAA Championships in a third event (discus, shot put and hammer).
Also in the field, the pole vault duo of April Kubishta and Alana Waterford excelled with Kubishta winning the event with a school-record clearance of 4.26m. Waterford also achieved a personal best as she cleared 3.96m to become just the third Sun Devil woman to clear 13 feet in competition while also recording the third-best mark in the history of the program. Waterford finished 11th in the meet and will have to await word from the NCAA to see if she will earn an at-large berth into the national meet.
The women also sent three track events through to the national meet, including a pair of hurdle athletes. Jacquelyn Johnson placed second in the 100m hurdles with a wind-aided time of 13.31, tying her personal best and the fourth-fastest time in school history. Latosha Wallace finished second in the 400m hurdles in a personal-best and second-fastest time in school history of 56.43. Wallace also anchored the team to 4x400m relay of Bridgette Williams, Shauntel Elcock and Jordan Durham to second place in a time of 3:35.25.
The men were led by Aaron Aguayo, who won the 3,000m steeplechase in 8:33.67 to lower his school-record mark. Kelvin Love Jr., took second place in the 200m dash in 20.79 while Jimmie Gordon finished fourth in the 400m dash (47.21) to earn berths into the NCAA Championships. In the field, Ryan Whiting took second in the shot put (20.07m) to earn a national berth.
The NCAA will release its list of at-large selections on Tuesday.
Those Sun Devils that have qualified will head to the Sacramento State campus on June 6-9 for the 2007 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, the final collegiate event of the season.