TEMPE – With the midpoint of the season approaching, the Sun Devil track and field squads split up to compete in the UW Invitational, Texas Tech Classic and New Mexico Team Invitational, looking to move up on the NCAA descending order list.
It's not uncommon for teams to split up to attend meets more tailored to different events to chase faster times and higher competition.
The Devils are doing just that as coaches Jeremy Rasmussen and Cory Leslie take their crews to a distance hotbed in Seattle, coaches Greg Kraft and Dion Miller take the sprinters and jumpers to one of the faster contests in the West, and coach Ron Barela and the pole vaulters go back to altitude in New Mexico.
"This is probably the first weekend across the country where people are coming out and trying to assess their true fitness," Kraft said. "We've decided to send our sprints and jumps crew to Texas Tech to get some great competition as well as to give our sprinters a chance to run on a banked 200-meter track."
The meet in Washington will be the season-opener for graduate transfer William Paulson (mile) and newcomer Fearghal Curtin (3,000). U.S. Junior steeplechase champion Jackson Lewis and senior John Reniewicki will also run the 3,000 at Dempsey Indoor.
"Traditionally, this is kind of the first big distance meet of the year," Leslie said. "Looking through the accepted entries, it's going to be a good opportunity for our guys to run fast."
The lure of a banked track with standout competition is what brought Kraft's jumpers and Miller's sprinters into West Texas as Lubbock's new facility is one of the few premiere indoor arenas in the Southwest.
As for the pole vaulters, while logistics prevented the group from joining the other jumpers at Texas Tech, jumping in Albuquerque won't be quite the same as last week's outing in Flagstaff that saw two Devils clear heights in the record book, but the ABQ Convention Center still sits at more than a mile above sea level.
Live results for each event can be found online at the hosts' respective sites. The UW Invitational will be live streamed on FloTrack.
Results and a full recap will be available on thesundevils.com following the completion of each day's events.
Rankings Update
Week one of the USTFCCCA rankings didn't see any changes at the top as the Texas Tech men's program and Arkansas women's team held onto No. 1.
Elsewhere in the top-25, there was plenty of movement as teams and top-athletes opened up across the country.
On the men's side, Baylor made the biggest jump, moving up 24 spots to 16. Texas Tech had the biggest improvement on the women's side, slotting in at 16 after debuting at No. 26.
BYU remains as the highest ranked men's program from the MPSF at No. 9. Stanford checks in at 13, Oregon and Colorado at 17 and 18, and Southern California breaks into the top-25 to No. 22 after starting the season at 31.
As for the women, The Trojans come in at No. 7 and Oregon rounds out the top-10. Washington is the 12th ranked squad, Stanford is 17th, and Colorado squeaks in at No. 23.
The Sun Devil women gained a huge bump from their weekend in Flagstaff and moved up to 36th after coming in at 89th in the preseason poll.
The men took a slight tumble down to 61st, down four places from their previous spot.
Breaking Four
In sports there are universally accepted thresholds for determining greatness. For mid-distance runners, it's the 4-minute mile.
Breaking 4 minutes has become a necessity for men seeking an NCAA Championship berth, but it's been an elusive accomplishment for the Sun Devils in the past 10 years.
Since 2009, only one Sun Devil has broken four, and it was Nick Happe's school record-setting 3:58.73 from 2012.
This season, however, ASU has two men on the indoor roster who have times around four minutes coming into the indoor season.
William Paulson is a little over two seconds away from completing a 3:59. The graduate transfer's personal best of 4:01.78 is the fastest PR of any Sun Devil on the active roster.
Coach Cory Leslie's lineup will have plenty of opportunities to go after history with their best chance likely coming against elite distance competition at next weekend's UW Invitational, the Iowa State Classic and the MPSF Championships.
New Year, New Faces
Along with new associate head coach Dion Miller taking the reins of the sprints program, Arizona State has bolstered its roster by adding some impact freshmen and transfers for the 2019 season.
The fastest newcomer based on time is the JUCO All-American Marcus Reaves (10.30; 100), but just behind him is the highly-touted frosh Austin Kratz (10.31; 100) out of Pennsylvania.
Kentre Patterson, an All-American 60-meter hurdler from Michigan, was added in the fall and Devin Cadena has already proven his ability by taking fourth in the 300 (35.54) during the opener.
On the women's side, Nia Brown ran herself into the Sun Devil record book after just one race. Her altitude adjusted 60-meter time put her at 10th in school history.
The trio of transfers, Josephine Anokye, Jeminise Parris and Anaya Bailey, have yet to open up in an individual race this season, but are expected to improve a young sprints team that fields just two seniors in Courtnee Oglesby and Alexandra Williams.
Rewriting the Record Books
After just two weeks of competition, the 2019 Sun Devil squads have already made themselves a part of ASU history by setting numerous top-10 marks indoors.
The All-American Samantha Noennig threw herself into the top-three in the shot put, breaking her personal best twice. With a mark of 17.81m/58-5.25 feet, the sophomore Noennig passed Sun Devil greats Jessica Pressley, Leslie Deniz and Anna Jelmini, who all set their marks as seniors. Only Sarah Stevens and school-record holder Maggie Ewen sit ahead of Noennig.
Nia Brown's altitude adjusted 60-meter time put her at No. 10 in ASU history in just her first career race donning the pitchfork, and Kentre Patterson also landed in the top-10 in the men's hurdles in his first race in Maroon and Gold.
The senior Alexandra Williams moved into the top-10 in the women's hurdles at last weekend's Lumberjack Invitational as well.
Back in the field, freshman Sydnee Larkin leapt her way to sixth in school history in the triple jump, recording a distance of 12.01m/39-5.00 feet.
Derrick Monroe's leap of 7.60m/24-11.50 feet in the long jump moved him to sixth all-time with just two meets under his belt.
All-American Beatrice Llano didn't take long to make her presence in the West known either as she recorded a throw of 19.50m/63-11.75 feet to jump into the ASU top-10.
In the men's pole vault, Matthew Eckles and Cole Riddle both recorded the fourth-best clearance by a Sun Devil, but Riddle matched his PR while Eckles set a new one to move up on the all-time list.
Each of the Devils will continue their seasons this weekend, except for the throwers who will remain in Tempe.
Blu's Crew
Although Sun Devil legend Maggie Ewen graduated from Arizona State in the spring, ASU's throws program is still thriving with returning All-Americans, a new crop of freshmen and a handful of transfers with national championship experience.
Leading the way for the Devils is sophomore Samantha Noennig, who finished as the runner-up in the shot put at the Pac-12 Championships a season ago, and advanced to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the shot put as a freshman after just missing out on a berth to the indoor championships.
Kaylee Antill is the other returning All-American, who represented ASU in the hammer throw last year outdoors after scoring in the indoor weight throw and hammer at conference meets.
Although she has yet to compete in a Sun Devil uniform, All-American transfer Beatrice Llano is expected to make an impact as she finished third at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in her last season of competition.
On the men's side, Arizona native Turner Washington joined the Devils in the fall after a successful freshman season that ended in a trip to Eugene for the school down south.
The only javelin champion in Arizona high school history, Carlan Naisant, and Texas throwing standout Jared Tracy will join Connery McLaughlin and represent the Sun Devils on the men's side.
It's not uncommon for teams to split up to attend meets more tailored to different events to chase faster times and higher competition.
The Devils are doing just that as coaches Jeremy Rasmussen and Cory Leslie take their crews to a distance hotbed in Seattle, coaches Greg Kraft and Dion Miller take the sprinters and jumpers to one of the faster contests in the West, and coach Ron Barela and the pole vaulters go back to altitude in New Mexico.
"This is probably the first weekend across the country where people are coming out and trying to assess their true fitness," Kraft said. "We've decided to send our sprints and jumps crew to Texas Tech to get some great competition as well as to give our sprinters a chance to run on a banked 200-meter track."
The meet in Washington will be the season-opener for graduate transfer William Paulson (mile) and newcomer Fearghal Curtin (3,000). U.S. Junior steeplechase champion Jackson Lewis and senior John Reniewicki will also run the 3,000 at Dempsey Indoor.
"Traditionally, this is kind of the first big distance meet of the year," Leslie said. "Looking through the accepted entries, it's going to be a good opportunity for our guys to run fast."
The lure of a banked track with standout competition is what brought Kraft's jumpers and Miller's sprinters into West Texas as Lubbock's new facility is one of the few premiere indoor arenas in the Southwest.
As for the pole vaulters, while logistics prevented the group from joining the other jumpers at Texas Tech, jumping in Albuquerque won't be quite the same as last week's outing in Flagstaff that saw two Devils clear heights in the record book, but the ABQ Convention Center still sits at more than a mile above sea level.
Live results for each event can be found online at the hosts' respective sites. The UW Invitational will be live streamed on FloTrack.
Results and a full recap will be available on thesundevils.com following the completion of each day's events.
Rankings Update
Week one of the USTFCCCA rankings didn't see any changes at the top as the Texas Tech men's program and Arkansas women's team held onto No. 1.
Elsewhere in the top-25, there was plenty of movement as teams and top-athletes opened up across the country.
On the men's side, Baylor made the biggest jump, moving up 24 spots to 16. Texas Tech had the biggest improvement on the women's side, slotting in at 16 after debuting at No. 26.
BYU remains as the highest ranked men's program from the MPSF at No. 9. Stanford checks in at 13, Oregon and Colorado at 17 and 18, and Southern California breaks into the top-25 to No. 22 after starting the season at 31.
As for the women, The Trojans come in at No. 7 and Oregon rounds out the top-10. Washington is the 12th ranked squad, Stanford is 17th, and Colorado squeaks in at No. 23.
The Sun Devil women gained a huge bump from their weekend in Flagstaff and moved up to 36th after coming in at 89th in the preseason poll.
The men took a slight tumble down to 61st, down four places from their previous spot.
Breaking Four
In sports there are universally accepted thresholds for determining greatness. For mid-distance runners, it's the 4-minute mile.
Breaking 4 minutes has become a necessity for men seeking an NCAA Championship berth, but it's been an elusive accomplishment for the Sun Devils in the past 10 years.
Since 2009, only one Sun Devil has broken four, and it was Nick Happe's school record-setting 3:58.73 from 2012.
This season, however, ASU has two men on the indoor roster who have times around four minutes coming into the indoor season.
William Paulson is a little over two seconds away from completing a 3:59. The graduate transfer's personal best of 4:01.78 is the fastest PR of any Sun Devil on the active roster.
Coach Cory Leslie's lineup will have plenty of opportunities to go after history with their best chance likely coming against elite distance competition at next weekend's UW Invitational, the Iowa State Classic and the MPSF Championships.
New Year, New Faces
Along with new associate head coach Dion Miller taking the reins of the sprints program, Arizona State has bolstered its roster by adding some impact freshmen and transfers for the 2019 season.
The fastest newcomer based on time is the JUCO All-American Marcus Reaves (10.30; 100), but just behind him is the highly-touted frosh Austin Kratz (10.31; 100) out of Pennsylvania.
Kentre Patterson, an All-American 60-meter hurdler from Michigan, was added in the fall and Devin Cadena has already proven his ability by taking fourth in the 300 (35.54) during the opener.
On the women's side, Nia Brown ran herself into the Sun Devil record book after just one race. Her altitude adjusted 60-meter time put her at 10th in school history.
The trio of transfers, Josephine Anokye, Jeminise Parris and Anaya Bailey, have yet to open up in an individual race this season, but are expected to improve a young sprints team that fields just two seniors in Courtnee Oglesby and Alexandra Williams.
Rewriting the Record Books
After just two weeks of competition, the 2019 Sun Devil squads have already made themselves a part of ASU history by setting numerous top-10 marks indoors.
The All-American Samantha Noennig threw herself into the top-three in the shot put, breaking her personal best twice. With a mark of 17.81m/58-5.25 feet, the sophomore Noennig passed Sun Devil greats Jessica Pressley, Leslie Deniz and Anna Jelmini, who all set their marks as seniors. Only Sarah Stevens and school-record holder Maggie Ewen sit ahead of Noennig.
Nia Brown's altitude adjusted 60-meter time put her at No. 10 in ASU history in just her first career race donning the pitchfork, and Kentre Patterson also landed in the top-10 in the men's hurdles in his first race in Maroon and Gold.
The senior Alexandra Williams moved into the top-10 in the women's hurdles at last weekend's Lumberjack Invitational as well.
Back in the field, freshman Sydnee Larkin leapt her way to sixth in school history in the triple jump, recording a distance of 12.01m/39-5.00 feet.
Derrick Monroe's leap of 7.60m/24-11.50 feet in the long jump moved him to sixth all-time with just two meets under his belt.
All-American Beatrice Llano didn't take long to make her presence in the West known either as she recorded a throw of 19.50m/63-11.75 feet to jump into the ASU top-10.
In the men's pole vault, Matthew Eckles and Cole Riddle both recorded the fourth-best clearance by a Sun Devil, but Riddle matched his PR while Eckles set a new one to move up on the all-time list.
Each of the Devils will continue their seasons this weekend, except for the throwers who will remain in Tempe.
Blu's Crew
Although Sun Devil legend Maggie Ewen graduated from Arizona State in the spring, ASU's throws program is still thriving with returning All-Americans, a new crop of freshmen and a handful of transfers with national championship experience.
Leading the way for the Devils is sophomore Samantha Noennig, who finished as the runner-up in the shot put at the Pac-12 Championships a season ago, and advanced to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the shot put as a freshman after just missing out on a berth to the indoor championships.
Kaylee Antill is the other returning All-American, who represented ASU in the hammer throw last year outdoors after scoring in the indoor weight throw and hammer at conference meets.
Although she has yet to compete in a Sun Devil uniform, All-American transfer Beatrice Llano is expected to make an impact as she finished third at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in her last season of competition.
On the men's side, Arizona native Turner Washington joined the Devils in the fall after a successful freshman season that ended in a trip to Eugene for the school down south.
The only javelin champion in Arizona high school history, Carlan Naisant, and Texas throwing standout Jared Tracy will join Connery McLaughlin and represent the Sun Devils on the men's side.