TEMPE – Friday marks the start of the 2019 indoor track and field season for the Arizona State Sun Devils as director of track and field Greg Kraft takes his squads into the mountains for the NAU Friday Night Duals in Flagstaff.
"It's always exciting to start a new year, and for both teams, it's going to be quite a different look," Kraft said. "I think both teams have been enhanced by our recruiting efforts, and we'll see a little more of a presence on the track."
The trip up I-17 is a familiar one for ASU. The Sun Devils have started their indoor campaigns in the Walkup Skydome in each of the past seven years, and this season, ASU will make three trips into the mountains.
The season-opener will be the first chance for sprints coach Dion Miller to see his new-look sprints group in competition.
"It's super early, but for indoors we have just January and February to post a time to get on the descending order list for the national meet," Miller said. "We've spent all fall training, so it's going to be exciting for our kids to represent the maroon and gold and compete for ASU for the first time."
Freshmen standouts from a year ago, Cole Riddle and Samantha Noennig will start their quest to the indoor championships Friday after just missing out on the opportunity in 2018.
In just his first year of collegiate competition, Riddle tied for third at the MPSF Championships with his own teammate, Michael Chadwick, and finished just five spots shy making his NCAA Championships debut the pole vault. His season-best mark of 5.32m/17-5.5 was less than six inches below the final qualifying height.
As for Noennig, she scored in her conference championship debut by taking fifth in the shot put, and was four places out of the cutoff for the Championships in the same event.
The Devils have one indoor All-American on the roster for the 2019 season in redshirt-freshman Kentre Patterson. He dashed his way into the 60-meter hurdles semifinal while as Illinois State last season, and while he won't have any barriers to hurdle this weekend, he'll get some work in the longer sprints on the ASU 4x4 team with another new face in Marcus Reaves.
"I don't want to put any pressure on the kids, I just want to see them to go out and apply some of the things we've been working on over the fall and see how we conduct ourselves at a meet," Miller said. "It's exciting to be back and competing, but this is really just the beginning for our team."
Live results for the NAU Friday Night Duals will be provided online by Wingfoot Finish.
Follow @SunDevilTFXC on Twitter and Instagram for updates from the meet and visit thesundevils.com following the meet for a recap of the Sun Devils' day in Flagstaff.
"It's always exciting to start a new year, and for both teams, it's going to be quite a different look," Kraft said. "I think both teams have been enhanced by our recruiting efforts, and we'll see a little more of a presence on the track."
The trip up I-17 is a familiar one for ASU. The Sun Devils have started their indoor campaigns in the Walkup Skydome in each of the past seven years, and this season, ASU will make three trips into the mountains.
The season-opener will be the first chance for sprints coach Dion Miller to see his new-look sprints group in competition.
"It's super early, but for indoors we have just January and February to post a time to get on the descending order list for the national meet," Miller said. "We've spent all fall training, so it's going to be exciting for our kids to represent the maroon and gold and compete for ASU for the first time."
Freshmen standouts from a year ago, Cole Riddle and Samantha Noennig will start their quest to the indoor championships Friday after just missing out on the opportunity in 2018.
In just his first year of collegiate competition, Riddle tied for third at the MPSF Championships with his own teammate, Michael Chadwick, and finished just five spots shy making his NCAA Championships debut the pole vault. His season-best mark of 5.32m/17-5.5 was less than six inches below the final qualifying height.
As for Noennig, she scored in her conference championship debut by taking fifth in the shot put, and was four places out of the cutoff for the Championships in the same event.
The Devils have one indoor All-American on the roster for the 2019 season in redshirt-freshman Kentre Patterson. He dashed his way into the 60-meter hurdles semifinal while as Illinois State last season, and while he won't have any barriers to hurdle this weekend, he'll get some work in the longer sprints on the ASU 4x4 team with another new face in Marcus Reaves.
"I don't want to put any pressure on the kids, I just want to see them to go out and apply some of the things we've been working on over the fall and see how we conduct ourselves at a meet," Miller said. "It's exciting to be back and competing, but this is really just the beginning for our team."
Live results for the NAU Friday Night Duals will be provided online by Wingfoot Finish.
Follow @SunDevilTFXC on Twitter and Instagram for updates from the meet and visit thesundevils.com following the meet for a recap of the Sun Devils' day in Flagstaff.