Azusa Pacific's Bryan Clay Invitational has been a hub for qualifying marks in the distance and middle distance events for years now, and the Devils are hoping this year's collection of elite talent can keep the trend alive.
"Usually there's great weather, great competition and the coaching staff at Azusa Pacific works to make sure it's a great meet with rabbits and opportunities for athletes to run fast," women's distance coach Jeremy Rasmussen said. "You need that competition in a race like a 10K where you're running for 30-35 minutes."
Three women and one man will enter the 10,000-meter run in Azusa, including 2018 regional qualifier Samantha Ortega, and senior cross country team captain John Reniewicki, who already has a team-best mark in the 5,000.
"For distance runners, it's always nice to get into a competition where you have good weather and you have good competition around you," Rasmussen said. "We have good 8 and 15 runners on campus, and that's great, but for steeplechase 5K, 10K, you want people to have very competitive fields."
While names like Bianca Tinoco, William Paulson, Alexis Nichols and Fearghal Curtin highlight the entries in Azusa, just south in Long Beach, Steven Champlin will return to action.
The senior sat out the Sun Angel Classic and Texas A&M Invitational, but will lace up for the 400 out west. Along with Champlin, senior Matthew Eckles leads the men's and women's pole vault squads into competition, and a few javelin throwers will try to improve their season's best marks.
The Bryan Clay Invitational will be streamed live on FloTrack and available for viewing with a valid subscription. Finished Results will provide live results for the Bryan Clay Invitational and Royal Results will be used by the meets in Long Beach.
Wild, Wild West Region
The road to the NCAA Championships runs through Sacramento, California, once again in 2019 as Hornet Stadium hosts the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds for the second-straight season.
Only 48 of the top athletes in each event receive a place in the regional meet, and so far this outdoor season, 25 Sun Devils find themselves in position to advance to preliminary rounds, including NCAA champion Samantha Noennig and All-Americans William Paulson, Beatrice Llano, Kaylee Antill and Jessica Barreira.
The men have 14 in the top-48 with Paulson leading the way thanks to his No. 2 mark in the 1,500-meter run.
Fellow distance senior John Reniewicki finds himself in the top-10 in the region and with a good chance of qualifying for his first regional in the 5,000 with newcomer Fearghal Curtin, whose mark has him in 16th.
In the sprints, Steven Champlin's 400-meter time from the Baldy Castillo Invitational still has him comfortably in the top-48 in the event, and Holland Cabara's team leading 100-meter time is the 39th-best in the region.
Two of the region's and nation's best on the women's side call Tempe home with Noennig and Llano owning the No. 1 shot put and hammer throw marks, respectively.
Barreira is the only woman in maroon and gold with three marks in the top-25. She sits in 11th in the javelin with her school record mark from earlier this season, 17th in the long jump and 21st in the triple jump.
Josephine Anokye's season opening 200-meter mark is still the 10th-fastest in the region, and Bianca Tinoco clocked a top-12 time in the 800 at the Sun Angel Classic.
The complete list can be found on page five of the weekly meet notes.
If Ya Know, Llano
Beatrice Llano received her first Pac-12 honor as the Women's Field Athlete of the Week, and was also named as the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association's Division I Women's Athlete of the Week.
She took home the honors following her record-setting series in the hammer throw during the ASU Invitational.
With her fifth throw of the day, and just her fifth throw as a Sun Devil, Llano set the Norwegian record in the hammer throw with a heave of 71.43m/234-4 feet. The mark also put her into the top-10 in NCAA history, making her the second Sun Devil in two years to put themselves on the list with Maggie Ewen setting the collegiate record last season.
The mark leads the NCAA this season by more than a meter, and has her at second in school history behind another mark that Ewen set outside of the collegiate season.
In the world standings, Llano's throw puts her in seventh in 2019, and qualifies her for the IAAF World Championships in Doha, Qatar, this fall.
Llano is one of three current Devils competing under throws coach Brian Blutreich with All-America honors, joining 2019 NCAA shot put champion Samantha Noennig and 2018 second-team honoree Kaylee Antill.
Llano and the Sun Devil throwers will compete this weekend in the Sun Angel Classic with Noennig opening up in the shot put for the first time this outdoor season.
Suped-Up Sprints Squad
Arizona State once made a name for itself in the sprints department, earning more than 60 All-America honors in the events between 2000 and 2016.
A slight dip in production has been followed by a renaissance in the shorter distances with a handful of Sun Devils vying for regional qualifying places in the sprints in 2019.
Leading the way for the squads is Josephine Anokye, whose season-opening 200-meter dash mark has had her safely in the top-10 in the region for more than a month now. The time of 23.26 is only three-tenths of a second off the regional lead and good enough for fourth in the Pac-12.
Steven Champlin has the 19th-best time in the 400 and his 46.70 is the fastest 400 by a Sun Devil since 2017.
Freshman Nia Brown and senior Holland Cabara both have 100-meter times in the top-48, with Brown's personal best 11.62 good enough for 32nd in the West and Cabara's time putting him at 41st.
Blu's Crew
Led once again by an NCAA champion, the Arizona State throws group is expected to be a force in the Pac-12 and in the NCAA this season.
Samantha Noennig won her first NCAA title in dramatic fashion, placing the shot at 17.91m/58-9.25 feet on the final throw of the competition at the indoor championships.
Noennig will open up in the women's shot put for the first time this season at the Sun Angel Classic, and already has a mark in the top 15 in the nation in the discus.
The Devils have a contingent of talented javelin throwers, including school record-holder and MPSF triple jump champion Jessica Barreira.
Along with Barreira, the Devils boast the 2017 NAIA javelin champion Seri Geisler, Cerah Moren and Melanie Johnson. Geisler, Moren and Johnson hold spots in the ASU top-10 with Moren's mark placing her at No. 4, Johnson at 8 and Geisler at 9.
On the men's side, the only Arizona boys' javelin champion in state history Carlan Naisant suits up for ASU along with freshman Connery McLaughlin.
Ian Schulz set a personal best nearly every week during the indoor season, and he's looking to build upon that under the sun.
In the hammer throw, though the Devils are without their NCAA record-holder from a season ago, ASU has two All-Americans in the event on their roster in 2017 third-place finisher Beatrice Llano and 2018 All-American Kaylee Antill.
Coach Brian Blutreich's throwing crew has been important for the Sun Devils scoring at Pac-12 and NCAA Championships since he arrived in Tempe three years ago, and his elite group in 2019 looks like it will keep the trend going as the Devils advance into the outdoor season.