TEMPE – The Sun Devil track and field program sends 22 athletes and one relay quartet to the Californian capital this weekend, each with the goal of advancing out of the region and into the national championship meet next month.
"Here at the regional meet, your main focus is to just advance," head coach Greg Kraft said. "Twelfth place is as good as first place here because they're both moving on to the national meet."
Out of the 48 entrants in all 40 events, only the top-12 move on to Austin, Texas, to compete for a national title.
For ASU, senior All-American Jessica Barreira will line up in three of those 36 open events, competing in the javelin and long jump Thursday, and the triple jump Saturday. The decorated Devil is looking for her second All-America honor of the season as she finished ninth in the indoor long jump back in March.
"When you're a senior, we give you flexibility to decide what you want to do," Kraft said. "She'll start with the javelin, and a coach you're always a little worried because the javelin and the long jump kind of bump up a little bit, but she's as big a track nut as anyone on our team, so for her to try and pick one event would be difficult. She's been most consistent in the long jump, so that's what we're expecting the most from."
Barreira is one of five Sun Devil javelin throwers in Sacramento this weekend, and coach Brian Blutreich's throwers once again have a solid contingent heading into the regional, led by national champion Samantha Noennig, and All-Americans Kaylee Antill and Beatrice Llano.
After an uncharacteristic display on the track in 2018, the Sun Devils have athletes entered in the sprints, mid-distance and distance events in 2019.
Josephine Anokye and Marcus Reaves both have top 200-meter marks, All-American William Paulson and Bianca Tinoco will try for spots in the men's and women's 1,500, and senior John Reniewicki makes his regional debut in the 5,000 alongside Fearghal Curtin who ran in the East's 5,000-meter semifinal a season ago.
"One of the things you're always looking at in a program is how it's trending," Kraft said. "At nationals you're rewarded for your quality more than quantity. While our depth has improved from last year to this year, we still have kids ranked near the top of the region and in the country and that's what you want to see heading into this part of the year."
The 2019 NCAA West Prelims will get going Thursday at 12 p.m. PT and will run until Saturday evening. Live results will be provided by Flash Results and both the East and West Regionals will be available to watch live on FloTrack with a valid subscription.
What to Watch For
This weekend marks the official start of championship season as the Sun Devils head to Sacramento, California, for a shot at advancing to the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Austin, Texas, next month.
The weekend gets started when the No. 1 women's javelin group in the NCAA vies for their championship berth led by school record-holder Seri Geisler. Along with the Pac-12 runner-up Geisler, Jessica Barreira and Cerah Moren will look to claim their first championship place in the event.
The field events continue with Derrick Monroe in the long jump, and two women in the hammer throw later in the afternoon, including All-Americans Beatrice Llano and Kaylee Antill. Former Pac-12 Champion Matthew Eckles and Michael Chadwick make their second regional appearances Thursday just before the track opens with Beatrice Llano and two-time conference champion William Paulson lining up for the women's and men's 1,500-meter runs.
Nia Brown in the 100 will be the last event on the track and All-American Barreira will head to the runway for her second event of the day, the women's long jump.
NCAA Champion Samantha Noennig starts her regionals run in the women's discus, then true freshmen Carlan Naisant and Connery McLaughlin throw in the men's javelin.
Ian Schulz throws in the first of his two events, and Jeminise Parris and Kentre Patterson hit the track for the short hurdles.
The sprints group keeps the spotlight later in the evening as Josephine Anokye and Marcus Reaves both run for places in the 200-meter quarterfinal set for Saturday.
Along with other quarterfinals, Noennig, Schulz and Barreira all get back in action on Saturday in their respective events and Elijah Hughes competes in the high jump at the Prelims for the third-straight season.
The evening and the event for the Sun Devils will be wrapped up with John Reniewicki and Fearghal Curtin both running in section one of the 5,000.
The complete schedule can be found on page five of the meet notes.
Coach Kraft Stepping into Administrative Role after 2019 Season
After 23 years and one of the most storied tenures in Arizona State history, Sun Devil director of track and field Greg Kraft announced that he will cede head coaching duties to associate head coach Dion Miller and move into an administrative role following the completion of the 2019 season.
With Kraft's new title as associate director of athletics for track and field, Miller will be named director of track and field on July 1, 2019.
A four-time United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Coach of the Year, and three-time Pac-12 Coach of the Year, Kraft's teams won four NCAA titles and recorded 12 top-four finishes at national championships. At least one Sun Devil has won an NCAA individual title in 13 of the last 16 years, and overall Kraft has seen his student-athletes win 38 national titles, earn 21 Olympic berths and take home more than 300 All-America honors since the Devils' first NCAA appearance under Kraft in 1998.
Miller has seen success at every stop during his career. In his first term with ASU, Miller's sprinters helped the Sun Devils win two Pac-10 titles and the aforementioned NCAA crown in 2007. He then went on to lead the sprints program at his alma mater of Texas Tech and saw the Red Raiders earn a Big 12 outdoor title in 2014. In his final season with Alabama, the Tide men won the program's first SEC indoor title.
As an assistant, Miller has coached his fair share of elite talent, including four Olympians and two IAAF world champions. In his near 20-year career, Miller has coached 137 men and women to All-America status and another 37 to conference crowns in the Big 12 and Pac-10/12.
All-Americans Look for NCAA Return
For six Sun Devils, the regional meet is just another stop on what they hope to be a return trip to an NCAA Championship.
Just a redshirt sophomore, Samantha Noennig already has two All-America honors and a national title to her name. Last year, she advanced to the NCAA Outdoor Championships with an 11th-place finish in Sacramento but took seventh at the national meet to earn a podium finish.
It's been two years since Beatrice Llano finished third at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the women's hammer throw, but the Sun Devil sophomore made sure the nation didn't forget who she was when she launched the seventh-farthest throw in NCAA history back in March.
Jessica Barreira picked up her first All-America honor this past March at the indoor championship in the long jump, but the senior has only gotten better as the competition moved outdoors, recording the second-best triple jump, seventh-best long jump and second-best javelin throw in school history all in 2019.
The Sun Devil with the most experience at the national championships earned his first podium finish at this year's indoor championship. William Paulson took fifth in the men's mile, but heads into the West Regional seeking his third-straight NCAA Outdoor Championship berth in the 1,500.
Despite entering the regional last year with the 27th-best throw in the region in the hammer, Kaylee Antill saved her best performance of the season for the biggest moment when she launched a personal best to finish fourth in the region and claim her place in the NCAA Championships back in 2018.
On the track, Kentre Patterson shocked the Missouri Valley and the nation when he dashed himself into the top-16 in the country in the 60-meter dash a season ago and managed to grab a spot in the NCAA Indoor Championships. He'll be running for the Sun Devils this time around in the 110-meter hurdles, racing for a lane in Austin.
The six Sun Devil All-Americans will all compete for the Maroon and Gold this weekend in Sacramento.
New Digs, Same Path
The road to the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships may lead to the Lone Star State this season, but directions remain the same.
For each event in both the West and East Regionals, only the top-12 finishers get through to the national meet. For the sprints, relays, 800-meter runs and steeplechases, this means that the top-three finishers in each quarterfinal heat will automatically advance along with the three fastest non-automatic qualifying times.
In the 1,500s and 5,000s with only two heats in their regional finals, the top-five finishers from both heats plus the next two fastest get through.
The 10,000s will flow like the field events as only the top-12 finishers advance.
The biggest change at a regional meet is that field events with series only get three attempts with no final. Those three attempts will either send the athlete into the top-12 and through to Austin, or sent them home.