April 25, 2008
TEMPE, Ariz. - The Arizona State University track and field program competed in a pair of events on Friday with several Sun Devils running in the distance events at the Oregon Relays in Eugene, Ore., while the remaining members of the team competed in the 99th Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa.
At Drake, the Sun Devils and all other competitors battled through chilly temperatures and gusty winds all day as several finals and preliminary rounds were held in the field and on the track. The field events produced a pair of champions as Jessica Pressley won the discus with a toss of 51.65m (169-05) and Matt Turner captured the men's long jump with a leap of 7.53m (24-08.50). The women's discus also saw Sarah Stevens place second (51.44m/168-09) and Tai Battle was fifth (48.49m/159-01). The victory for Pressley marked only the second time in the history of the Drake Relays that a Sun Devil woman won an event, following Fiona Daly's title in high jump in 1999. Turner's triumph in the long jump was the first for a Sun Devil in the event and marked the 16th Drake Relays crown earned by ASU on the men's side of competition.
In other field events, April Kubishta battled the gusty winds to finish fourth in the pole vault with a clearance of 3.85m (12-07.50) while Alana Waterford cleared 3.70m (12-01.50) to place tied for 14th. Brad Roth took ninth in the javelin as he hit a mark of 62.63m (205-06); Tomas Navarro (16.45m/53-11.75) and Jason Lewis (15.38m/50-05.50) placed 11th and 20th, respectively, in the men's shot put; Jacquelyn Johnson tied for 14th in the high jump (1.65m/5-05.00); and Corey Phallen fell victim to the high winds in the pole vault as he did not clear a bar.
In the running events, the Sun Devils competed in eight races (four men, four women) and qualified all but two of its entries to the finals that will be held on Saturday. On the women's side, Johnson was the top qualifier in the 100m hurdles at 13.34 while Charonda Williams (11.65) and Dominique' Maloy (11.81) finished third and sixth, respectively, in the 100m dash. Maloy and Williams joined up with Jordan Durham and Shauntel Elcock to run 45.43 in the 4x100m relay to advance to the finals while Maloy, Durham and Elcock joined Jeavon Benjamin to run 3:42.23 to finish fourth in the 4x400m relay and qualify for the finals.
The men advanced Calvin Abram in the 100m dash as his time of 10.51 was the third-fastest on the day while the 4x400m relay team of Joel Phillip, Justin Kremer, Darryl Elston and Jimmie Gordon ran the fourth-fastest time of 3:10.75 to move on. The 4x100m relay of Abram, Marcus Duncan, Elston and Kremer did not finish the race while Marquis Profit placed 14th in the 110m high hurdles in 14.45.
In Eugene, Ben Engelhardt won the second section of the men's 5,000m run in 14:24.66 and was followed by teammate Patrick Milloy, who placed third in 14:28.71, to pace the Sun Devils. Also in the race, Alonso Contreras placed ninth in 14:35.92. Joey Heller clocked a time of 3:49.71 to take second place in the 1,500m run (section three) while Angela Spadafino was 12th in the 3,000m steeplechase in a regional-qualifying time of 10:40.79. Jenna Kingma was 13th in the 1,500m run in 4:45.31 while Krystal Duke was 13th in the 5,000m run in 16:47.67 to round out the competitors for the Sun Devils.
Action continues for the Sun Devils at Drake on Saturday. Next weekend, intrastate bragging rights will be on the line as the Sun Devils head to Tucson to face both Arizona and Northern Arizona on May 3.