TEMPE – With the conclusion of the Sun Devils' home schedule, Arizona State finds itself on the road for the rest of the 2019 outdoor season, starting with a weekend getaway to College Station, Texas, and San Diego.
"One of the blessings of Arizona State is that we have wonderful home meets and this year was no different with the three that our meet director Kris Alexander put together for us," director of track and field Greg Kraft said. "With that, though, we have to travel now to get out of our comfort zone a bit because we've been spoiled here."
While the Sun Devil throwers led by national champion Samantha Noennig will head out to the west coast for the Triton Invitational, Kraft's jumpers, a few vaulters and the sprints crew will trek into the heart of Texas this weekend.
The Sun Devils find themselves in a familiar situation at this point in the season as a majority of the squad's current regional qualifying athletes are from the field events.
Unlike 2018, though, the Devils have a number of men and women in position to advance to the regional meet on the track as well.
"It fluctuates quite a bit this time of year," Kraft said. "We're at 25 right now, but I have a feeling we'll have more on the women's side with Seri Geisler coming back and Anaya Bailey running the 200 this weekend."
Steven Champlin will not run this weekend, but the graduate transfer sits in the top-20 in the 400 and William Paulson, Fearghal Curtin and John Reniewicki each have marks in the top-20 of their respective events. Paulson owns the No. 2 mark in the 1,500, and Reniewicki's 13:55.90 in the 5,000 is the 10th-fastest in a deep west region.
On the women's side Josephine Anokye and Bianca Tinoco have the Devils near the top of the region in the 200 and 800, respectively. Tinoco recently clocked the No. 8 time in school history in the 800, and Anokye's 23.26 has her comfortably in qualifying position at No. 9 in the west.
"The thing we always talk about is competing," Kraft said. "If you're competing and trying to win, you'll qualify. We don't want anyone to be preoccupied with hitting a certain mark or time."
Anokye will get another chance to move up on the list as she competes in an elite field down in Aggieland with teammate Bailey (200) and freshman standout Nia Brown (100).
The meets will begin this Friday and conclude Saturday evening. Live results will be provided by Finished Results in San Diego, and the A&M Invitational results can be found on 12thman.com or Flash Results.
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 11 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 35th-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, 14th in the long jump and 21st in the triple jump.
Josephine Anokye's season opening 200-meter mark is still the ninth-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 nearly 11 feet, 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 are off this weekend, but still own places in the top-48 in each of the throwing events with Llano and Noennig leading the nation in the hammer and shot.
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 with only one competition under her belt since coming back from surgery.
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.
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.
"One of the blessings of Arizona State is that we have wonderful home meets and this year was no different with the three that our meet director Kris Alexander put together for us," director of track and field Greg Kraft said. "With that, though, we have to travel now to get out of our comfort zone a bit because we've been spoiled here."
While the Sun Devil throwers led by national champion Samantha Noennig will head out to the west coast for the Triton Invitational, Kraft's jumpers, a few vaulters and the sprints crew will trek into the heart of Texas this weekend.
The Sun Devils find themselves in a familiar situation at this point in the season as a majority of the squad's current regional qualifying athletes are from the field events.
Unlike 2018, though, the Devils have a number of men and women in position to advance to the regional meet on the track as well.
"It fluctuates quite a bit this time of year," Kraft said. "We're at 25 right now, but I have a feeling we'll have more on the women's side with Seri Geisler coming back and Anaya Bailey running the 200 this weekend."
Steven Champlin will not run this weekend, but the graduate transfer sits in the top-20 in the 400 and William Paulson, Fearghal Curtin and John Reniewicki each have marks in the top-20 of their respective events. Paulson owns the No. 2 mark in the 1,500, and Reniewicki's 13:55.90 in the 5,000 is the 10th-fastest in a deep west region.
On the women's side Josephine Anokye and Bianca Tinoco have the Devils near the top of the region in the 200 and 800, respectively. Tinoco recently clocked the No. 8 time in school history in the 800, and Anokye's 23.26 has her comfortably in qualifying position at No. 9 in the west.
"The thing we always talk about is competing," Kraft said. "If you're competing and trying to win, you'll qualify. We don't want anyone to be preoccupied with hitting a certain mark or time."
Anokye will get another chance to move up on the list as she competes in an elite field down in Aggieland with teammate Bailey (200) and freshman standout Nia Brown (100).
The meets will begin this Friday and conclude Saturday evening. Live results will be provided by Finished Results in San Diego, and the A&M Invitational results can be found on 12thman.com or Flash Results.
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 11 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 35th-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, 14th in the long jump and 21st in the triple jump.
Josephine Anokye's season opening 200-meter mark is still the ninth-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 nearly 11 feet, 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 are off this weekend, but still own places in the top-48 in each of the throwing events with Llano and Noennig leading the nation in the hammer and shot.
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 with only one competition under her belt since coming back from surgery.
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.
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.