TEMPE – A week after Arizona State's outdoor opener that saw the Devils set a school-record and an NCAA-leading mark, ASU is back in action at Sun Angel Stadium for the ASU Invitational, Friday and Saturday in Tempe.
"I think you can see how we're better suited for outdoors when you look at events we add outside," director of track and field Greg Kraft said. "On the women's side, we looked good in the javelin, in the discus and I thought we had a good opener in the women's steeple last week, too."
A few new faces are scheduled to lace up for their season and Sun Devil debuts this weekend, including Fearghal Curtin, John Reniewicki and Beatrice Llano among others.
For Llano, she'll open the meet for the Devils as she steps into the circle to throw the hammer in a collegiate competition for the first time since she finished third at the NCAA Outdoor Championships back in 2017.
She is one of four All-Americans in the women's throws group competing for ASU this season joining Samantha Noennig (shot put), Kaylee Antill (hammer) and Jessica Barriera (long jump).
The aforementioned Barreira will get another chance to extend her school record that she set in the javelin throw, as well as compete in the triple jump for the first time since taking the MPSF crown last month.
Just before Barreira revs up on the runway, Curtin and Reniewicki will make their outdoor debuts in the 1,500-meter run. Curtin is coming off of an indoor season where he moved to fourth in school history in the 5,000-meter run and finished third at the conference championships in the same event.
"We have balance across the board, but we're still eight weeks out from the Pac-12 meet, so some of those pieces aren't quite there yet," Kraft said. "Adding Steven last week was big, but we've got Fearghal and John running this week, Garrett and Will haven't raced, and we're working Austin back."
ASU will welcome Big Ten programs Indiana and Penn State among others this weekend.
"We got done what we needed to get done last week," Kraft said. "This weekend will be a smaller meet, but regardless of who we're competing against, we're just looking at coming back and making progress on the track, the runway and in the circle."
Results will be provided by Finished Results and meet information can be found on thesundevils.com.
Rankings Update
Just like the indoor rankings, Texas Tech once again topped the USTFCCCA Top-25 on the men's side, but women's indoor champion Arkansas made way for the reigning outdoor champion Trojans from USC in the women's poll.
Per usual, the SEC owns a bulk of the places in both top-25 poll.
10 men's teams from the SEC make up the top-25, including half of the top-10. While only eight women's teams from the SEC own rankings, the conference makes up three-fifths of the top-five with the Pac-12 owning the other two places.
Oregon leads the way for the Pac-12 on the men's side as the seventh-ranked side. Arizona, Stanford and UCLA all come in consecutively from 15-17, and USC is just outside the top-25 at 30.
As for the women, behind top-ranked USC is No. 5 Oregon, ninth-ranked Colorado, No. 11 Stanford, No. 20 Washington and No. 22 UCLA.
Making a "Champ"
Associate head coach Dion Miller wasn't completely unfamiliar with the squad he inherited when he took over as the Sun Devil sprints coach back in August.
When he arrived in the summer, so did a face from the past in senior Steven Champlin.
Champlin was recruited by Miller when Miller was the sprints coach at Texas Tech and after a few years apart, the two have reunited in Tempe for one final outdoor season, gunning for Champlin's first individual All-America honor.
The decorated Devil has been on five 4x400-meter relay teams that have advanced to the NCAA Championships, and three of those quartets earned first-team All-America honors, finishing as high as fifth.
In his Sun Devil debut at the Baldy Castillo Invitational, Champlin clocked a 46.80 in the 400-meter dash and recorded a similar split in the 4x400-meter relay.
Race for the Record
Chuck LaBenz' ASU 1,500-meter record of 3:40.70 has stood for nearly 50 years, but its days at the top could be numbered.
A pair of first-year Sun Devils come into the outdoor season with personal bests faster the LaBenz' 49-year-old mark. Both newcomers do have the two fastest times in school history, but not at ASU, at their undergraduate institution – Princeton University.
William Paulson made a splash when he set the school record in the indoor mile with his time of 3:58.07 on his way to an MPSF crown. The senior would go on to finish fifth in the mile at the NCAA Championships to earn his first, first-team All-America honor.
Paulson's personal best of 3:39.51 is second in Princeton history behind his Tiger and Sun Devil teammate Garrett O'Toole.
O'Toole was a key member of the Sun Devil cross country team this past fall and has been gearing up for his final outdoor campaign since November.
O'Toole owns the Princeton record at 3:39.34 and is seeking his first NCAA Championships appearance after advancing to the East Preliminary Rounds in each of the last three seasons.
Both Devils will try for the record and an NCAA berth this spring.
Jav Record for Jessica
She is a conference champion in the triple jump and an All-American in the long jump, and now Jessica Barreira is the Arizona State record-holder in the women's javelin.
Barreira set the school record on just her second throw of the new outdoor season when she wound up and launched the javelin 50.46m/165-7 feet, ending Jacquelyn Johnson's 11-year reign as the record-holder.
The leading mark is not the Sun Devil senior's personal best, though. Barreira's PR came this past summer when she threw an inch farther in her home country of Portugal.
The record could be short-lived with true freshman Cerah Moren jumping up to fourth in school history in her first competition as a Sun Devil and the 2017 NAIA champion yet to make her ASU debut.
That champion is Seri Geisler, and her personal best coming into 2019 is nearly 15 feet better than Johnson's previous record and would have given her ninth at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in 2018.
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.
So far this season, Noennig leads the nation in the discus throw and has yet to enter a shot put contest, but is an early favorite in the event.
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. Both Moren and Johnson hold spots in the ASU top-10 with Moren's mark placing her at No. 4 in history and Johnson at 8.
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.