PALO ALTO, Calif. – School may be out in Tempe, but the Sun Devils' season is heating up this weekend as Arizona State travels to Palo Alto, California for the Pac-12 Championships Saturday and Sunday.
Coach Greg Kraft is hoping for another quick start like last season with Magdalyn Ewen and Kaylee Antill scheduled to open the competition in the women's hammer throw.
Ewen is the defending champion in the event, as well as two others as the senior Sun Devil took gold in the discus and shot put in 2017 before she took All-America honors in all three later that season.
The men have one returning champion in Matthew Eckles. The junior pole vaulter scored at the MPSF Championships back in February, but the Devils have plenty of depth in the event with four men in the top-10 in the conference.
Freshman Cole Riddle is second in the Pac-12 heading into the weekend in the pole vault, and senior Nathan Hiett is fourth. Another freshman in Michael Chadwick sits in ninth tied with Eckles.
This weekend's conference gathering will be the final chance for the Sun Devils to pick up points against Arizona for the Territorial Cup Series. So far, ASU has only grabbed the women's indoor track and field point.
Last season, the Wildcats went into the championships as the favorites to win both points, but the Devils managed to pull off the upset to secure both points and give ASU its fourth-straight T-Cup Series win.
The Pac-12 Championships get started this Saturday at 11:30 a.m., with the aforementioned hammer throw final. The meet runs until Sunday evening when the awards presentation will take place at 6:25 p.m.
Rankings Update
The pre-conference championships rankings by the USTFCCCA put the Sun Devil women's team at No. 14, down a place from the previous poll.
ASU has fluctuated between 13 and 15 for most of the outdoor season after the squad took 13th at the NCAA Indoor Championships back in March.
In the Pac-12, Oregon remains in pole position as the second-ranked program in the country, but Southern California is just behind the Ducks in third. Stanford sits in seventh and UCLA comes in at No. 20.
With Oregon, USC and Stanford, the Pac-12 makes up three of the top-10 while the SEC owns six of the other places and Minnesota takes the 10th spot.
Individually, Maggie Ewen still holds the top-place in three events, and two of her marks are collegiate records.
Samantha Noennig is the other Sun Devil in the top-10 in the region with her sixth-best shot put mark in the West.
Sun Devil Track and Field Sweeps Kajikawa Award
Two of Sun Devil track and field's best representatives have been named as this year's Bill Kajikawa Award recipients in seniors Mason Ford and Maggie Ewen.
As a senior, Ford was named co-president of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee and was the student leader for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
Ford is currently the team captain for the track and field team and has six ASU Scholar Baller distinctions to go along with his a two academic all-conference honors from last outdoor season and this past indoor season.
As for Ewen, the Kajikawa Award is just the latest in a laundry list of achievements for the ASU thrower.
She will leave ASU as one of the most decorated women in school history, and with a case for being one of the greatest collegiate athletes in NCAA history.
This outdoor season, she broke the NCAA hammer throw record, which she already owned, and set the shot put record within a few weeks of one another. By holding two records, Ewen is currently one of two women with two NCAA outdoor records.
Ewen and Ford are both in competition this weekend at the Pac-12 Championships. Ford is looking for his first all-conference honor in his final championship appearance, and Ewen heads to Palo Alto as the conference's defending shot put, discus throw and hammer throw champion.
Wild Wild West Region
So far this season, five men and 12 women are in position to make the prelims this season, and two of the Sun Devil women's relay squads are in the hunt for a qualifying place as well.
While it's mostly the seniors leading the way with Maggie Ewen, Alethia Marrero, Nathan Hiett, Khalil Parris and Shaunie Morrison all in the top-15 in their respective events, two freshmen have stood out this season in Samantha Noennig and Cole Riddle.
Noennig is sixth in the region in the shot put and nearly advanced to the NCAA Indoor Championships in the same event just over a month ago.
Riddle sits in 12th in the West in the men's pole vault and is second in the Pac-12 in the event he took third in at the MPSF Championships in February.
Only 48 athletes earn places in the preliminary rounds, and 24 relay teams will advance to Sacramento. Of the 48, just 12 will advance to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon, June 8-10.
What to Watch For
The Sun Devils are going for points and trophies this weekend in Palo Alto as they take on the rest of the Pac-12 for conference supremacy at the outdoor championships.
ASU is hoping for a quick one-up on the conference on the women's side as defending NCAA and Pac-12 hammer throw champion Maggie Ewen takes to the ring first Saturday morning.
Ewen completed then historic treble in 2017, taking the hammer throw, discus and shot put Pac-12 titles and leads the nation and conference once again heading into this year's championships.
While her lead in the shot put and hammer is significant, the discus crown will be the most competitive with host school Stanford sending the No. 2 thrower in the nation into the ring this weekend.
Elsewhere on the track, Alethia Marrero and Shaunie Morrison have proven they are two of the best in the conference in their respective events all season long.
The seniors will run in the 800-meter and 100-meter hurdles prelims Saturday, hoping to make the final and score for the Devils.
Jessica Barreira jumped herself into contention in the women's long jump at ASU's final regular-season competition when she leaped 6.25m/20-6.25 feet, putting her firmly in scoring position at the conference level.
On the men's side, it's all about the vertical jumps for the Sun Devils with coach Ron Barela's pole vaulters owning five of the 11 best marks in the Pac-12, and Elijah Hughes and Mason Ford sitting in the top-eight in the high jump.
True freshmen Cole Riddle and Michael Chadwick tied for third in the pole vault at the MPSF Championships, and Nathan Hiett and Matthew Eckles both finished in the top-eight indoors.
Hughes and Ford both made the final indoors, but the two have surpassed their season bests from the indoor season under the sun with Hughes clearing 2.13m/6-11.75 and Ford just under at 2.10m/6-10.75.
Khalil Parris ran himself into the ASU record books and also into scoring position in the conference in the 400-meter hurdles. He'll look to lead the other hurdlers on the track to the podium in his first and only season in maroon and gold.
Ewen's Super Senior Season
Sun Devil senior Maggie Ewen has followed up her phenomenal junior season that put her in the final three for the Bowerman Award with marks that have propelled her into the conversation as one of the greatest throwers in NCAA history.
Ewen opened her outdoor season without recording a mark in the discus but two weeks later had an incredible performance in all three of her events in which she recorded the NCAA record in the hammer throw, the second-best shot put mark in collegiate history and the NCAA-lead in 2018 in the discus.
Less than a month later, Ewen one-upped herself and the nation when she broke the NCAA shot put record with a monster heave of 19.46m/63-10.25 feet.
She is one of just two women to currently hold two NCAA records and has been named as the USTFCCCA Female Athlete of the Week and Pac-12 Women's Field Athlete of the Week three times.
For her outdoor success, coupled with her first indoor title and two All-America honors during the indoor season, Ewen has been on the Bowerman Award watch list all season.