MEET NOTES | MEET SCHEDULE | LIVE RESULTS
TEMPE, Ariz. – The indoor season is already a month old, but for most of the country, this weekend is the unofficial start to the season as teams start to hit their strides and intensity ramps up.
"The first weekend of February really kicks off the indoor season," coach Greg Kraft said. "Before this, people are trying to get healthy, people are coming off winter break, so the student-athletes and coaches are juggling a lot early on. Really, this is where the indoor season begins in earnest."
To ring in the turning of the calendar, the Sun Devils make their way to the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational in Lincoln, Nebraska, where they'll face competition from the Big Ten, Big 12 and AAC, among others, at one of the premier meets of the indoor season.
"We're excited to go up there to the University of Nebraska, which I think is one of those athletic departments that is grossly underrated," Kraft said. "We know going up to Lincoln is going to be a first-rate experience, and all of our student-athletes are looking forward to it."
While a handful of Devils competed at the Puma Invitational just up the road in Paradise Valley, most of Kraft's squad took the week off to prepare for the trip to the Bob Devaney Sports Center.
NCAA champion and Bowerman Award finalist Magdalyn Ewen enters the meet a couple of weeks removed from her historic shot put mark that thrusted her into the top-five in collegiate history. Also for the women, Darreyl Woodson will look to improve upon her personal best from Texas A&M that put her at second in school history in the triple jump.
On the men's side, Herbert Polk and Holland Cabara will have opportunities to make a statement in the MPSF after uncharacteristic debuts in Aggieland two weeks ago.
Polk helped ASU take the 4x400-meter title at the MPSF Championships a season ago and Cabara won two conference titles at the College of the Sequoias last year.
The Husker Invitational is a two-day meet that will see the multievents, several prelims on the track and a handful of field events take place on Friday.
Saturday gets started early and runs through to the 4x400-meter relays at 1:40 p.m., before an awards ceremony for the meet winners.
What to Watch For
Sun Devil senior Maggie Ewen has already broken her own school record in the shot put and moved up to fifth in NCAA history, and the Bowerman finalist is unsurprisingly one to watch this weekend in Nebraska.
She'll compete in the shot put and weight throw for the third time this season with an opportunity to move up in the NCAA in the weight throw and cement her place atop the shot put standings.
With the likes of Iowa State, BYU and Wisconsin scheduled to be in attendance, the ASU middle distance and distance crew will come up against some of the top endurance athletes in D1 track of field.
The meet will also feature 6(M)/22(W) Alabama, and Iowa, which will provide the sprints group with a challenge to look forward to.
Herb Polk and Khalil Parris will have the 10th fastest 400-meter runner in the NCAA in their event, and Holland Cabara will toe the line with a couple of speedsters in the 60-and 200-meter dashes.
Shaunie Morrison has the second-fastest time in the field in the 60-meter hurdles, and she'll be on the hunt for a season's best in this unofficial first weekend of the indoor season.
Jessica Barreira will make her indoor season debut alongside the woman with the second-best triple jump mark in school history in Darreyl Woodson.
Looking Back – 2017 Husker Invitational
It was all about Magdalyn Ewen and Drelan Bramwell at last season's Husker Invitational as the Sun Devil duo exploded to record two of the best marks in school history in the shot put and the 200-meter dash, respectively.
Bramwell's 21.25 put him at ninth all-time in school history, and he also ran a time of 6.83 in the 60-meter final to finish fifth a day after running 6.79 in the prelim.
Then transfer Garrett Starkey cleared the bar at 5.20m/17-0.75, which put him at seventh in school history in the event, and Darreyl Woodson's triple jump mark of 12.35m/40-6.25 feet put her at fifth in Sun Devil history.
Entries – Husker Invitational
Men – Ryan Bright, Holland Cabara, Michael Chadwick, Matthew Eckles, Gregory Fernandez, Mason Ford, Nathan Hiett, Ivan Hinson, Marcus Howard, Elijah Hughes, Khalil Parris, Herbert Polk, Cole Riddle, Grant Sisserson, Alexander stevens, Michael Titherington, Kevin Wilkinson
Women – Kaylee Antill, Jessica Barreira, Vanessa Davis, Katie Eidem, Magdalyn Ewen, Sha'Maya Flanagan, Haleigh Fritts, Daan Haven, Tommi Hintnaus, Courtney Lewis, Kalei Matthews, Deshaunda Morrison, Alexis Nichols, Samantha Noennig, Anna Pruter, Megan Reniewicki, Bianca Tinoco, Kristiana Warth, Alexandra Williams, Christine Williford, Darreyl Woodson
Frosh Faces
With just over a month to go in the indoor season, the Sun Devils have been led by some new faces, including several freshmen and sophomores who have made names for themselves in Tempe.
Leading the way is the Arizona high school pole vault record-holder Cole Riddle, whose 5.20m/17-0.75 foot leap is the seventh-best mark in school history, and a top-five mark in the MPSF.
Clearing a different bar, Ryan Bright has the best high jump mark among Sun Devils and the eighth-best mark in the conference at 2.05m/6-8.75 feet.
Bianca Tinoco's ninth-best 800-meter time in school history ranks in the top-10 in the MPSF and is just a second off the top-five in the ultra-competitive conference.
While Maggie Ewen is the face of the ASU throwers, true freshman Samantha Noennig has put herself into the all-conference conversation by throwing the sixth-best mark in the shot put in the MPSF and 12th best weight throw mark.
Ewen's Meteoric Rise
Last season saw Maggie Ewen steal the national spotlight at the NCAA Outdoor Championships when she scored a meet-high 21 points, won a national title and set a collegiate record in the hammer throw, and so far her follow-up act has lived up to the hype.
Ewen opened the season by setting the school record in the shot put, one of ASU's most-decorated events in school history. The throw put her at ninth in the NCAA all-time, but her name wouldn't stay there long.
Just a week later, Ewen launched the shot put 18.67m/61-3.00 feet, the fifth-best throw in collegiate history, and a throw more than a meter greater than her closest competitor in the NCAA this season.
Ewen found herself on the Bowerman Award preseason watch list for the first time after she was a finalist for the prestigious award last December.
The next update to the watch list will be released in February.
Devils Rewriting the Record Books
After just two weekends of competition, several members of the 2018 crop of Sun Devils have already grabbed places in the record books.
Marcus Howard (60-meter hurdles), Shaunie Morrison (60-meter hurdles), Cole Riddle and Matthew Eckles (pole vault), Bianca Tinoco (800 meters), Darreyl Woodson (triple jump) and Samantha Noennig and Maggie Ewen (shot put) have all put marks onto this this season.
Ewen set the school record in the shot put, while Woodson recorded the second-best mark in school history.
TEMPE, Ariz. – The indoor season is already a month old, but for most of the country, this weekend is the unofficial start to the season as teams start to hit their strides and intensity ramps up.
"The first weekend of February really kicks off the indoor season," coach Greg Kraft said. "Before this, people are trying to get healthy, people are coming off winter break, so the student-athletes and coaches are juggling a lot early on. Really, this is where the indoor season begins in earnest."
To ring in the turning of the calendar, the Sun Devils make their way to the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational in Lincoln, Nebraska, where they'll face competition from the Big Ten, Big 12 and AAC, among others, at one of the premier meets of the indoor season.
"We're excited to go up there to the University of Nebraska, which I think is one of those athletic departments that is grossly underrated," Kraft said. "We know going up to Lincoln is going to be a first-rate experience, and all of our student-athletes are looking forward to it."
While a handful of Devils competed at the Puma Invitational just up the road in Paradise Valley, most of Kraft's squad took the week off to prepare for the trip to the Bob Devaney Sports Center.
NCAA champion and Bowerman Award finalist Magdalyn Ewen enters the meet a couple of weeks removed from her historic shot put mark that thrusted her into the top-five in collegiate history. Also for the women, Darreyl Woodson will look to improve upon her personal best from Texas A&M that put her at second in school history in the triple jump.
On the men's side, Herbert Polk and Holland Cabara will have opportunities to make a statement in the MPSF after uncharacteristic debuts in Aggieland two weeks ago.
Polk helped ASU take the 4x400-meter title at the MPSF Championships a season ago and Cabara won two conference titles at the College of the Sequoias last year.
The Husker Invitational is a two-day meet that will see the multievents, several prelims on the track and a handful of field events take place on Friday.
Saturday gets started early and runs through to the 4x400-meter relays at 1:40 p.m., before an awards ceremony for the meet winners.
What to Watch For
Sun Devil senior Maggie Ewen has already broken her own school record in the shot put and moved up to fifth in NCAA history, and the Bowerman finalist is unsurprisingly one to watch this weekend in Nebraska.
She'll compete in the shot put and weight throw for the third time this season with an opportunity to move up in the NCAA in the weight throw and cement her place atop the shot put standings.
With the likes of Iowa State, BYU and Wisconsin scheduled to be in attendance, the ASU middle distance and distance crew will come up against some of the top endurance athletes in D1 track of field.
The meet will also feature 6(M)/22(W) Alabama, and Iowa, which will provide the sprints group with a challenge to look forward to.
Herb Polk and Khalil Parris will have the 10th fastest 400-meter runner in the NCAA in their event, and Holland Cabara will toe the line with a couple of speedsters in the 60-and 200-meter dashes.
Shaunie Morrison has the second-fastest time in the field in the 60-meter hurdles, and she'll be on the hunt for a season's best in this unofficial first weekend of the indoor season.
Jessica Barreira will make her indoor season debut alongside the woman with the second-best triple jump mark in school history in Darreyl Woodson.
Looking Back – 2017 Husker Invitational
It was all about Magdalyn Ewen and Drelan Bramwell at last season's Husker Invitational as the Sun Devil duo exploded to record two of the best marks in school history in the shot put and the 200-meter dash, respectively.
Bramwell's 21.25 put him at ninth all-time in school history, and he also ran a time of 6.83 in the 60-meter final to finish fifth a day after running 6.79 in the prelim.
Then transfer Garrett Starkey cleared the bar at 5.20m/17-0.75, which put him at seventh in school history in the event, and Darreyl Woodson's triple jump mark of 12.35m/40-6.25 feet put her at fifth in Sun Devil history.
Entries – Husker Invitational
Men – Ryan Bright, Holland Cabara, Michael Chadwick, Matthew Eckles, Gregory Fernandez, Mason Ford, Nathan Hiett, Ivan Hinson, Marcus Howard, Elijah Hughes, Khalil Parris, Herbert Polk, Cole Riddle, Grant Sisserson, Alexander stevens, Michael Titherington, Kevin Wilkinson
Women – Kaylee Antill, Jessica Barreira, Vanessa Davis, Katie Eidem, Magdalyn Ewen, Sha'Maya Flanagan, Haleigh Fritts, Daan Haven, Tommi Hintnaus, Courtney Lewis, Kalei Matthews, Deshaunda Morrison, Alexis Nichols, Samantha Noennig, Anna Pruter, Megan Reniewicki, Bianca Tinoco, Kristiana Warth, Alexandra Williams, Christine Williford, Darreyl Woodson
Frosh Faces
With just over a month to go in the indoor season, the Sun Devils have been led by some new faces, including several freshmen and sophomores who have made names for themselves in Tempe.
Leading the way is the Arizona high school pole vault record-holder Cole Riddle, whose 5.20m/17-0.75 foot leap is the seventh-best mark in school history, and a top-five mark in the MPSF.
Clearing a different bar, Ryan Bright has the best high jump mark among Sun Devils and the eighth-best mark in the conference at 2.05m/6-8.75 feet.
Bianca Tinoco's ninth-best 800-meter time in school history ranks in the top-10 in the MPSF and is just a second off the top-five in the ultra-competitive conference.
While Maggie Ewen is the face of the ASU throwers, true freshman Samantha Noennig has put herself into the all-conference conversation by throwing the sixth-best mark in the shot put in the MPSF and 12th best weight throw mark.
Ewen's Meteoric Rise
Last season saw Maggie Ewen steal the national spotlight at the NCAA Outdoor Championships when she scored a meet-high 21 points, won a national title and set a collegiate record in the hammer throw, and so far her follow-up act has lived up to the hype.
Ewen opened the season by setting the school record in the shot put, one of ASU's most-decorated events in school history. The throw put her at ninth in the NCAA all-time, but her name wouldn't stay there long.
Just a week later, Ewen launched the shot put 18.67m/61-3.00 feet, the fifth-best throw in collegiate history, and a throw more than a meter greater than her closest competitor in the NCAA this season.
Ewen found herself on the Bowerman Award preseason watch list for the first time after she was a finalist for the prestigious award last December.
The next update to the watch list will be released in February.
Devils Rewriting the Record Books
After just two weekends of competition, several members of the 2018 crop of Sun Devils have already grabbed places in the record books.
Marcus Howard (60-meter hurdles), Shaunie Morrison (60-meter hurdles), Cole Riddle and Matthew Eckles (pole vault), Bianca Tinoco (800 meters), Darreyl Woodson (triple jump) and Samantha Noennig and Maggie Ewen (shot put) have all put marks onto this this season.
Ewen set the school record in the shot put, while Woodson recorded the second-best mark in school history.