May 5, 2012
PAC-12 COMBINED EVENTS - DAY ONE RESULTS
EUGENE, Ore. – Keia Pinnick had a career best day and Jamie Sandys and Austin Prince both sit in the top five for the Arizona State University track and field team after the first day of competition at the Pac-12 Combined Events in Eugene, Ore.
Pinnick scored 3, 402 points for the No. 11 Sun Devils at Hayward Field and finds herself sitting pretty soundly in second place heading into the second day, nearly 200 points ahead of third-place Brianna LeRoy of Utah.
Arguably Pinnick’s two strongest events – the long jump and the 800-meter run – will take place tomorrow as Pinnick tries to track down favorite and indoor pentathlon NCAA Champion Brianne Theisen of Oregon.
Pinnick scored season heptathlon bests in the 100-meter hurdles and the high jump toady to open the day, clocking in at 13.73 in the hurdles before posting a clearance of 1.65m (5-05.00) as she moved into the shot put event in third place.
In the shot put, Pinnick posted an overall career record with a throw of 11.32m (37-01.75) to close the gap on then-second place LeRoy. In the final even of the day, Pinnick clocked the second-fastest time at 200 meters in a career-best time of 24.07 to jump well ahead of LeRoy, though she will have her work cut out for her tomorrow in tracking down Theisen, who leads with 3,758 points.
In the decathlon, consistency was the key of the day for Sandys and Prince and the No. 3 ASU men as they look for just their second Pac-12 Conference crown in school history.
Prince opened the day with the seventh-best 100-meter dash time in 11.39 while Sandys was 10th in 11.43. Sandys would then go on to post the fourth-best long jump of the day with a leap of 6.70m (21-11.75) while Prince led the Sun Devils with a seventh-place finish in the shot put with a throw of 12.27m (40-03.25), just head of Sandys.
Both Sandys and Prince cleared 1.91m (6-03.25) for the sixth-best jump on the long jump round before posting the sixth and ninth-best times, respectively, at 400 meters in 50.96 and 51.11 to wrap up the day.
Sandys leads the way in fourth for ASU with 3,624 points while Prince sits right behind him with 3,604 points. Things will be tight heading into tomorrow though, as just 200 points separate the third-ninth positions in an event that could produce some big points for the ASU men heading into next week’s Pac-12 Championship.
The team will return to action tomorrow at 11 a.m. PST. There will be updates posted throughout the day on the Sun Devil track and field Facebook page at www.facebook.com/sundeviltfxc and a full recap will be available at the conclusion of the day’s action.