TEMPE – After a week off from competition, the Sun Devils head into enemy territory for the Dave Murray Invitational this Friday in Tucson.
The women come into the meet after a solid start in Fullerton that saw them finish third led by Daan Haven and Alexis Nichols.
"The race is 4K, so the one thing that will help us in this particular event is getting out hard," head women's cross country coach Jeremy Rasmussen said. "In all of the races we'll be in the rest of the year, that's going to be something we have to be great at in order to have success."
Samantha Ortega was the No. 3 finisher last time out, but no current Sun Devil has been more successful at the Randolph Municipal Golf Course than she has with her win in 2015 and a sixth-place finish last year.
As for the men, last season's Dave Murray Invitational was John Reniewicki's season debut and the start to his stranglehold on the Devils' No. 1 place. Jackson Lewis finished in 12th to finish as the No. 3 scorer, but ultimately ASU saw its streak of back-to-back team titles break when they finished third as a squad.
"I'm just expecting the guys to compete," men's head coach Cory Leslie said. "It's going to be hot, but it'll be hot for everybody. Anytime you're in a setting where you get to compete against all of your in-state rivals, there's some bragging rights on the line.
"We're going to let the younger guys get another go out it at a shorter distance, but ultimately we want to give them an opportunity to go beat our in-state rivals," Leslie said.
As is always the case during Summers in the Grand Canyon State, heat will play a factor as start time temperatures are expected to be over 100 degrees for the first time since the 2010 running.
"There's an added challenge with it being 102 degrees, but we'll have to figure out how to manage that so we can get what we want to get out of the race," Rasmussen said.
The women's 4K race opens the afternoon at 5:15 p.m., then the men's 6K starts at 5:45 p.m.
Results will be provided by Finished Results, and Arizona State's full results and a recap of the day's events will be available at thesundevils.com following the races.
Sun Devils: Reloaded
The Sun Devil men's cross country team got an upgrade this offseason when they added some talented transfers and freshmen to the fray for the 2018 campaign.
Spearheaded by All-American Princeton graduate transfer Garrett O'Toole, the Sun Devils welcomed seven new faces for the season with impressive credentials across the board.
The other transfer who is expected to play a crucial role in the ASU lineup is Fearghal Curtin, who picked up three all-Big South honors before joining the Sun Devils over the summer.
Joseph Dicke (Colorado), Ian Kebenei (Kenya), Adam Klein (Oregon), Fitzgerald Laurie (Illinois) and Timothy Sterkel (California) round out the new crop of Sun Devils.
Rankings Update
The Sun Devils weren't featured in the week one polls both on the regional or national level, but a majority of their competition made the rankings as the Pac-12 dominated the polls once again.
On the women's side, Colorado (2), Stanford (3) and Oregon (4) make up most of the top-five, sandwiched by defending champion New Mexico at No. 1 and Mountain West powerhouse Boise State at No. 5.
Washington (16) and California (21) also made the list to give the Pac-12 five ranked programs, the joint second-best behind the Big Ten's six.
Predictably led by Stanford at No. 4, the week one men's poll features six Pac-12 schools in its top-30.
Colorado (7), Oregon (8), Washington State (13), UCLA and Washington (20 and 26), each own a place in the poll after one week of competition.
A Look Back: Dave Murray 2017
The Sun Devil women picked up their second-straight second-place finish to start the 2017 season at last year's Dave Murray Invitational, while the men took third in John Reniewicki's season debut.
Chelsey Albertson and the other four women who scored for the Devils each finished in the top-10 of the race with Albertson nearly coming away with the race victory in her first competition of the season.
The women overall finished with 32 points, just behind the host squad Arizona that came away with 27.
In the men's race, Reniewicki's fourth-place finish was followed by a cluster of Sun Devils in 11th, 12th, 14th, 16th and 17th. The Devils finished with 57 points, two behind Grand Canyon and Arizona completed the team sweep by scoring 21.
#SunDevil4Life Linden to be inducted into Hall of Fame
2018 Boston Marathon champion and former Sun Devil All-American cross country runner, Desiree Linden will be inducted into the Sun Devil Sports Hall of Fame later this month along with another track and field legend in Jacquelyn Johnson.
Linden was the third woman to compete at four-straight NCAA Cross Country Championships and also earned an All-America honors on the track when she competed in the 5,000 outdoors in 2003.
Linden's notoriety skyrocketed after she made history in Boston this past April by becoming the first American woman in 33 years to win the historic Boston Marathon.
The induction ceremony will be on Sept. 28.
American Distance Renaissance Led by Devils
While names like Desiree Linden and Shelby Houlihan are popping up in national headlines across the country, their exploits are nothing new to those from Tempe as those two and a handful of former Sun Devils have been leading a renaissance for American distance running in the past two years.
Linden's notoriety surged after she became the first American woman in more than 30 years to win the Boston Marathon, a feat she accomplished this past April.
As for Houlihan, along with competing with some of the best women in the world in the 1,500-and 5,000-meter runs, she's owned the American circuit by claiming seven U.S. titles since 2017 alone.
Elsewhere in the world of distance running, Amy Cragg-Hastings won the bronze medal at the IAAF World Championships in 2017. The medal was the USA's first since the 1980s in the event.
Back the Pac
There have been some astronomical changes made across the NCAA this past summer in an attempt to shift the landscape of cross country.
Coaches have moved, transfers have bolstered already strong lineups and recruiting classes have raised some eyebrows.
The Pac-12, however, remains unbothered on its perch as the deepest and most-competitive conference in the NCAA.
Over the past three seasons, no Power Five conference has put more teams into the NCAA Championships than the Pac-12 with 19 men's programs toeing the line for gold, and 16 women's teams.
On the men's side, the closest conference to the Conference of Champions is the ACC with 13, and even though Syracuse has the lone Power Five NCAA title since 2015 (NAU has won back-to-back), the Pac-12 has nine top-10 finishes to the opposite coast's three.
The women have competition from the Big Ten's 14 entries, but again the Pac-12 has them doubled in top-10 finishes with eight to its four.
Oregon won the women's title in 2016, and has been sandwiched by wins from New Mexico.
The women come into the meet after a solid start in Fullerton that saw them finish third led by Daan Haven and Alexis Nichols.
"The race is 4K, so the one thing that will help us in this particular event is getting out hard," head women's cross country coach Jeremy Rasmussen said. "In all of the races we'll be in the rest of the year, that's going to be something we have to be great at in order to have success."
Samantha Ortega was the No. 3 finisher last time out, but no current Sun Devil has been more successful at the Randolph Municipal Golf Course than she has with her win in 2015 and a sixth-place finish last year.
As for the men, last season's Dave Murray Invitational was John Reniewicki's season debut and the start to his stranglehold on the Devils' No. 1 place. Jackson Lewis finished in 12th to finish as the No. 3 scorer, but ultimately ASU saw its streak of back-to-back team titles break when they finished third as a squad.
"I'm just expecting the guys to compete," men's head coach Cory Leslie said. "It's going to be hot, but it'll be hot for everybody. Anytime you're in a setting where you get to compete against all of your in-state rivals, there's some bragging rights on the line.
"We're going to let the younger guys get another go out it at a shorter distance, but ultimately we want to give them an opportunity to go beat our in-state rivals," Leslie said.
As is always the case during Summers in the Grand Canyon State, heat will play a factor as start time temperatures are expected to be over 100 degrees for the first time since the 2010 running.
"There's an added challenge with it being 102 degrees, but we'll have to figure out how to manage that so we can get what we want to get out of the race," Rasmussen said.
The women's 4K race opens the afternoon at 5:15 p.m., then the men's 6K starts at 5:45 p.m.
Results will be provided by Finished Results, and Arizona State's full results and a recap of the day's events will be available at thesundevils.com following the races.
Sun Devils: Reloaded
The Sun Devil men's cross country team got an upgrade this offseason when they added some talented transfers and freshmen to the fray for the 2018 campaign.
Spearheaded by All-American Princeton graduate transfer Garrett O'Toole, the Sun Devils welcomed seven new faces for the season with impressive credentials across the board.
The other transfer who is expected to play a crucial role in the ASU lineup is Fearghal Curtin, who picked up three all-Big South honors before joining the Sun Devils over the summer.
Joseph Dicke (Colorado), Ian Kebenei (Kenya), Adam Klein (Oregon), Fitzgerald Laurie (Illinois) and Timothy Sterkel (California) round out the new crop of Sun Devils.
Rankings Update
The Sun Devils weren't featured in the week one polls both on the regional or national level, but a majority of their competition made the rankings as the Pac-12 dominated the polls once again.
On the women's side, Colorado (2), Stanford (3) and Oregon (4) make up most of the top-five, sandwiched by defending champion New Mexico at No. 1 and Mountain West powerhouse Boise State at No. 5.
Washington (16) and California (21) also made the list to give the Pac-12 five ranked programs, the joint second-best behind the Big Ten's six.
Predictably led by Stanford at No. 4, the week one men's poll features six Pac-12 schools in its top-30.
Colorado (7), Oregon (8), Washington State (13), UCLA and Washington (20 and 26), each own a place in the poll after one week of competition.
A Look Back: Dave Murray 2017
The Sun Devil women picked up their second-straight second-place finish to start the 2017 season at last year's Dave Murray Invitational, while the men took third in John Reniewicki's season debut.
Chelsey Albertson and the other four women who scored for the Devils each finished in the top-10 of the race with Albertson nearly coming away with the race victory in her first competition of the season.
The women overall finished with 32 points, just behind the host squad Arizona that came away with 27.
In the men's race, Reniewicki's fourth-place finish was followed by a cluster of Sun Devils in 11th, 12th, 14th, 16th and 17th. The Devils finished with 57 points, two behind Grand Canyon and Arizona completed the team sweep by scoring 21.
#SunDevil4Life Linden to be inducted into Hall of Fame
2018 Boston Marathon champion and former Sun Devil All-American cross country runner, Desiree Linden will be inducted into the Sun Devil Sports Hall of Fame later this month along with another track and field legend in Jacquelyn Johnson.
Linden was the third woman to compete at four-straight NCAA Cross Country Championships and also earned an All-America honors on the track when she competed in the 5,000 outdoors in 2003.
Linden's notoriety skyrocketed after she made history in Boston this past April by becoming the first American woman in 33 years to win the historic Boston Marathon.
The induction ceremony will be on Sept. 28.
American Distance Renaissance Led by Devils
While names like Desiree Linden and Shelby Houlihan are popping up in national headlines across the country, their exploits are nothing new to those from Tempe as those two and a handful of former Sun Devils have been leading a renaissance for American distance running in the past two years.
Linden's notoriety surged after she became the first American woman in more than 30 years to win the Boston Marathon, a feat she accomplished this past April.
As for Houlihan, along with competing with some of the best women in the world in the 1,500-and 5,000-meter runs, she's owned the American circuit by claiming seven U.S. titles since 2017 alone.
Elsewhere in the world of distance running, Amy Cragg-Hastings won the bronze medal at the IAAF World Championships in 2017. The medal was the USA's first since the 1980s in the event.
Back the Pac
There have been some astronomical changes made across the NCAA this past summer in an attempt to shift the landscape of cross country.
Coaches have moved, transfers have bolstered already strong lineups and recruiting classes have raised some eyebrows.
The Pac-12, however, remains unbothered on its perch as the deepest and most-competitive conference in the NCAA.
Over the past three seasons, no Power Five conference has put more teams into the NCAA Championships than the Pac-12 with 19 men's programs toeing the line for gold, and 16 women's teams.
On the men's side, the closest conference to the Conference of Champions is the ACC with 13, and even though Syracuse has the lone Power Five NCAA title since 2015 (NAU has won back-to-back), the Pac-12 has nine top-10 finishes to the opposite coast's three.
The women have competition from the Big Ten's 14 entries, but again the Pac-12 has them doubled in top-10 finishes with eight to its four.
Oregon won the women's title in 2016, and has been sandwiched by wins from New Mexico.