March 29, 2008
TEMPE, Ariz. - Jacquelyn Johnson had a monster day and the Arizona State University track and field team won seven events Saturday as the program closed out its second meet of the year, the ASU Invitational, on Joe Selleh Track at Sun Angel Stadium in Tempe. Johnson, a six-time national champion, ran the third-fastest time in school history (13.19) in the 100m hurdles before breaking the school record in the javelin (46.22m) to lead the way.
Johnson was joined by Ryan Whiting, who moved up to No. 2 on the all-time ASU discus list with his toss of 61.11m. Staying in the field events, the women's discus produced two more regional qualifiers as Jessica Pressley (54.24m) and Tai Battle (53.97m), the national runner-up in the event last year, qualified for the regional meet and placed second and third, respectively. Johnson was joined by Lissa Regets (44.19m) as a regional qualifier in the javelin while Tomas Navarro hit 17.57m in the shot put to qualify. The final field event high mark came in the men's high jump as Matt Turner won the event with a clearance of 2.20m.
On the track, the women's 4x100m relay of Dominique' Maloy, Charonda Williams, Stephanie Garnett and Shauntel Elcock combined to win in 45.18 while the men's 4x400m relay of Darryl Elston, Jimmie Gordon, Marquis Proifit and Joel Phillip won in 3:08.56. Maloy and Williams each won individual events as Maloy ran 53.98 in the 400m dash while Williams turned in a time of 23.94 to take the 200m dash. Both times are regional qualifiers. The final winner for the Sun Devils was Jimmie Gordon with a time of 47.24 in the 400m dash, just 0.04 from qualifying.
The 400m hurdles produced three qualifiers for the men as Phillip (51.78), Profit (51.93) and Elston (52.27) finished second, third and fourth, respectively, in the race. The final regional berths were earned in the 1,500m run with Kari Hardt running 4:25.11 in the women's race to place third while the men's race saw Nectaly Barbosa (3:45.49) edge out Kyle Alcorn (3:45.62) for second place.
ASU will head to a pair of meets next weekend with many of the student-athletes traveling to Tucson for the Jim Click Invitational and Jim Click Multis while several Sun Devils will compete at the Stanford Invitational.