March 27, 2009
TEMPE – The Arizona State University track and field program sent athletes to compete at a pair of meets on Friday and recorded one NCAA provisional and two regional qualifying marks on the third of four-consecutive days of action for the Sun Devils. Both distance women that attended the Stanford Invitational collected qualifying marks while Sarah Stevens regionally qualified in the hammer on the first day of action at the ASU Invitational.
In California, Ali Kielty entered the top section of the women’s 10,000m run and clocked a time of 33:56.97 to provisionally qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Championships in June while placing 10th overall in the race. Her time, which was the sixth-best among current collegiate competitors, stands as the fifth-best in school history and makes her just the fifth to run a sub-34 minute race. At the same meet, Jenna Kingma competed in the top section of the 5,000m run and turned in a time of 16:09.11 to place 13th overall and record an NCAA regional qualifying time.
At home, Stevens opened her outdoor season as she took part in the hammer throw and placed second overall and first among collegiate entries with a toss of 63.18m. Her mark regionally qualified her in an event that she placed third nationally one year ago. In the same event, Cj Navarro placed 11th with a toss of 49.33m, which is the 10th-best mark in school history. Ashley Lampley made her Sun Devil debut in the event and placed 17th overall at 45.51m.
In the men’s hammer, Ryan Whiting made the finals and finished 10th overall to lead the men as he threw a personal-best 55.75m. Jeff Helwig, just like Navarro, was the first competitor to not make the finals as he too placed 11th with a mark of 54.67m.
On Saturday, the remaining events of the ASU Invitational will take place with the discus leading off at 10 a.m. while the running events start at 5 p.m.