April 17, 2010
Mt. SAC Results Page (link)
TEMPE – The Arizona State University track and field team completed competition at the 52nd Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif., on Friday night with several marks attained ranking among the best in the program’s history while others going down as improvements on their individual personal bests. Three distance runners led the charge for the Sun Devils, including Brandon Bethke, who ran the second-fastest time in the NCAA so far this season in the 5,000m run.
Bethke continued his solid senior season as he clocked in at 13:27.83 to finish fourth overall in the invitational section of the 5,000m event and was the top collegiate competitor in the race. His time, bettered only by Northern Arizona’s David McNeill (13:25.63), which was run several weeks ago. Bethke’s time also was just fractions of one second off his school record pace set last year at the Mt. SAC event when he ran 13:27.79.
One night earlier, a pair of women competed in the invitational section of the 3,000m steeplechase and posted two times that rank among the best in school history. Kauren Tarver, already on the list at No. 8, moved up one place to seventh as she ran 10:26.61 to finish 12th overall in the race while Cherise McNair added her name to ledger for the first time as she placed 17th overall with a time of 10:35.97, the 10th-best all-time at ASU.
The final all-time ASU Top 10 mark recorded came in the field on Friday as Cj Navarro threw the hammer 51.91m (170-4) to finish 23rd overall in the event while posting the eighth-best mark in school history. She also competed in the open section of the discus and won the event with a toss of 51.24m (168-1).
Of the over 45 marks and times recorded on the day by the team, four went down as victorious marks while 10 total ranked a Sun Devil among the Top 3 in their events. Dominique’ Maloy was the lone victor on the track for the Sun Devils on Friday as she took the open division of the 100m dash with a time of 11.94. Navarro was the other woman to win as she took the discus. On the men’s side, Jordan Clarke captured the open discus event with a toss of 55.19m (181-1) while Austin Prince cleared 5.05m (16-06.75) to win the Open ‘C’ division of the pole vault.
The Mt. SAC Relays conclude on Saturday. Next weekend, ASU will play host to the Sun Devil Open on Saturday, April 24, in its final home meet of the season.