TEMPE – The Sun Devil throwers return to action this weekend, joining a small group of field eventers heading up to Flagstaff, while the sprinters dash across the border into Albuquerque to run on one of the fastest tracks in the West.
"It's kind of a transition week for us," coach Greg Kraft said. "Last week was our first big weekend of competition, and this week is another opportunity to get some work in before the second weekend of February, which is typically the biggest weekend of the regular season."
Sun Devil sophomore Samantha Noennig will look to extend her lead in the shot put in the same ring where she set her personal best 17.81m/58-5.25 two weeks ago.
Pac-12 runner-up in the outdoor shot put, Noennig is in pole position on the NCAA's descending order list and seeking her first NCAA Indoor Championships appearance. Last year, she advanced to the outdoor championships where she finished seventh and earned a first-team All-America honor.
Kaylee Antill was a second-team All-American a season ago, and she'll get back into competition this weekend in the weight throw, along with newcomer Beatrice Llano – a 2017 first-team All-American in the hammer throw.
True freshman Austin Kratz made his collegiate debut in the 200-meter dash last weekend and recorded the ninth-fastest time in the MPSF this season. It was the fastest time by a Sun Devil since 2017, and the Pennsylvania native still has several weekends of competition to go to bring his time lower.
"We have a lot of youth in our men's sprints program and indoor track becomes a situation where you're chasing marks a lot of the time," associate head coach Dion Miller said. "We're just excited to go to Albuquerque to run on another banked track before Tyson next weekend."
No Sun Devil sprinter has run the 200 in under 21 seconds since Devan Spann in 2015, and Jamol James was the last Devil to drop a sub 6.70 in the 60.
The Mt. T's Invitational will be ASU's first overnight meet in Flagstaff this season. The two-day event will have its live results on Wingfoot Finish.
The meet in Albuquerque will put its results on liverunningresults.com.
Rankings Update
There were some big changes in the latest USTFCCCA poll as the first weekend of big competition sent a wave of new names to the top of the NCAA's descending order lists.
The two best teams in the nation, according to the rankings, stayed the same as Texas Tech and Arkansas held onto the No. 1 spots for the third-straight release.
The men from USC had the biggest jump in the poll, improving to ninth. The Akron Zips also made a big jump into the top-25, slotting in at No. 21.
On the women's side, the MPSF's BYU soared 22 places from 42nd to earn a top-25 ranking for the first time this season.
Five men's teams from the MPSF are ranked, including USC, No. 11 Stanford, 13th-ranked BYU, No. 16 Oregon and No. 23 Colorado.
Southern Cal leads the way on the women's side for the conference as well, coming in at No. 2. The Trojans are joined by No. 6 Oregon, No. 12 Washington, No. 15 Stanford, 20th-ranked BYU and the Buffaloes of Colorado at No. 22.
The Sun Devil women checked in at 38 and the men came in at 65.
Going the Distance
This past weekend, several of ASU's distance and middle-distance specialists made their season debuts at the UW Invitational.
Jumping into the History Books
A month into the new year and six Sun Devil jumpers have put themselves into the ASU record book.
In the pole vault, both Matthew Eckles and Michael Chadwick improved on their top-10 marks that they set last season as the senior Eckles moved to fourth in school history into a tie with Cole Riddle and two others, and Chadick improved to seventh.
In the long jump, both Derrick Monroe and Jessica Barreira secured top-10 places for the first time in their ASU careers. Monroe owns the seventh-best mark while Barreira sits in a tie for tenth.
Barreira also soared to second in history in the triple jump with her 12.85m/42-2-foot leap. Freshman Sydnee Larkin joins Barreira in the triple jump at sixth all-time.
Newcomer Erika Voyzey rounds out the top-10 marks with her 1.75m/5-8.75 in the high jump that's good for sixth on the list.
What to Watch For
William Paulson and the distance crew will take a weekend off, but there will still be plenty to watch at this weekend's meets in the mountains.
The Sun Devil pole vaulters go back to Flagstaff where Cole Riddle and Matthew Eckles both cleared season-best height of 5.32m/17-5.5.
The trio that includes Michael Chadiwck will likely need to clear a bar over the 5.50m/18-0.50 mark to have a shot at making their first NCAA Championship event. 12 men have already cleared 5.52m/18-1.5 feet, and only 16 vaulters can advance to the indoor meet.
A recovering Kaylee Antill will throw the weight with All-American Beatrice Llano, and Samantha Noennig will look to put more distance between her and the rest of the NCAA in the shot put.
Kentre Patterson is already one of the 10 fastest men to run the 60-meter hurdles in school history, and the newcomer is less than two-tenths of a second away from becoming just the third man in ASU history to complete the race in under 8 seconds.
Also in New Mexico, Austin Kratz, Marcus Reaves and Holland Cabara will get a chance to run on one of the fastest tracks in the country at the Albuquerque Convention Center.
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 kind of a transition week for us," coach Greg Kraft said. "Last week was our first big weekend of competition, and this week is another opportunity to get some work in before the second weekend of February, which is typically the biggest weekend of the regular season."
Sun Devil sophomore Samantha Noennig will look to extend her lead in the shot put in the same ring where she set her personal best 17.81m/58-5.25 two weeks ago.
Pac-12 runner-up in the outdoor shot put, Noennig is in pole position on the NCAA's descending order list and seeking her first NCAA Indoor Championships appearance. Last year, she advanced to the outdoor championships where she finished seventh and earned a first-team All-America honor.
Kaylee Antill was a second-team All-American a season ago, and she'll get back into competition this weekend in the weight throw, along with newcomer Beatrice Llano – a 2017 first-team All-American in the hammer throw.
True freshman Austin Kratz made his collegiate debut in the 200-meter dash last weekend and recorded the ninth-fastest time in the MPSF this season. It was the fastest time by a Sun Devil since 2017, and the Pennsylvania native still has several weekends of competition to go to bring his time lower.
"We have a lot of youth in our men's sprints program and indoor track becomes a situation where you're chasing marks a lot of the time," associate head coach Dion Miller said. "We're just excited to go to Albuquerque to run on another banked track before Tyson next weekend."
No Sun Devil sprinter has run the 200 in under 21 seconds since Devan Spann in 2015, and Jamol James was the last Devil to drop a sub 6.70 in the 60.
The Mt. T's Invitational will be ASU's first overnight meet in Flagstaff this season. The two-day event will have its live results on Wingfoot Finish.
The meet in Albuquerque will put its results on liverunningresults.com.
Rankings Update
There were some big changes in the latest USTFCCCA poll as the first weekend of big competition sent a wave of new names to the top of the NCAA's descending order lists.
The two best teams in the nation, according to the rankings, stayed the same as Texas Tech and Arkansas held onto the No. 1 spots for the third-straight release.
The men from USC had the biggest jump in the poll, improving to ninth. The Akron Zips also made a big jump into the top-25, slotting in at No. 21.
On the women's side, the MPSF's BYU soared 22 places from 42nd to earn a top-25 ranking for the first time this season.
Five men's teams from the MPSF are ranked, including USC, No. 11 Stanford, 13th-ranked BYU, No. 16 Oregon and No. 23 Colorado.
Southern Cal leads the way on the women's side for the conference as well, coming in at No. 2. The Trojans are joined by No. 6 Oregon, No. 12 Washington, No. 15 Stanford, 20th-ranked BYU and the Buffaloes of Colorado at No. 22.
The Sun Devil women checked in at 38 and the men came in at 65.
Going the Distance
This past weekend, several of ASU's distance and middle-distance specialists made their season debuts at the UW Invitational.
William Paulson stole the show in Seattle when he clocked a 3:59.94 mile, becoming the first Sun Devil since 2012 to record a mile time under 4 minutes.
Bianca Tinoco opened her sophomore campaign with a 2:12.64 in the open 800, a day after anchoring the Sun Devil DMR team to a 15th-place finish.
Newcomer Fearghal Curtin showed promise when he finished third overall in the men's 5,000-meter run in 14:05.08. The conference-leading time was only three seconds off of his personal best and two seconds off the Sun Devil top-10 list.
Alexis Nichols and Daan Haven were two of the fastest Sun Devils during the cross country season, and both opened up their seasons in Seattle in the mile and 3,000, respectively.
Jackson Lewis set a 30 second personal best in the 5,000 and John Reniewicki's 10-second PR in the 5K gave him seventh place overall.
With under a month to go until the conference championships, five Sun Devils hold marks in the top-15 in the conference, including all three of the men who ran the 5,000 this past weekend.
Jumping into the History Books
A month into the new year and six Sun Devil jumpers have put themselves into the ASU record book.
In the pole vault, both Matthew Eckles and Michael Chadwick improved on their top-10 marks that they set last season as the senior Eckles moved to fourth in school history into a tie with Cole Riddle and two others, and Chadick improved to seventh.
In the long jump, both Derrick Monroe and Jessica Barreira secured top-10 places for the first time in their ASU careers. Monroe owns the seventh-best mark while Barreira sits in a tie for tenth.
Barreira also soared to second in history in the triple jump with her 12.85m/42-2-foot leap. Freshman Sydnee Larkin joins Barreira in the triple jump at sixth all-time.
Newcomer Erika Voyzey rounds out the top-10 marks with her 1.75m/5-8.75 in the high jump that's good for sixth on the list.
What to Watch For
William Paulson and the distance crew will take a weekend off, but there will still be plenty to watch at this weekend's meets in the mountains.
The Sun Devil pole vaulters go back to Flagstaff where Cole Riddle and Matthew Eckles both cleared season-best height of 5.32m/17-5.5.
The trio that includes Michael Chadiwck will likely need to clear a bar over the 5.50m/18-0.50 mark to have a shot at making their first NCAA Championship event. 12 men have already cleared 5.52m/18-1.5 feet, and only 16 vaulters can advance to the indoor meet.
A recovering Kaylee Antill will throw the weight with All-American Beatrice Llano, and Samantha Noennig will look to put more distance between her and the rest of the NCAA in the shot put.
Kentre Patterson is already one of the 10 fastest men to run the 60-meter hurdles in school history, and the newcomer is less than two-tenths of a second away from becoming just the third man in ASU history to complete the race in under 8 seconds.
Also in New Mexico, Austin Kratz, Marcus Reaves and Holland Cabara will get a chance to run on one of the fastest tracks in the country at the Albuquerque Convention Center.
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.