March 10, 2004
TEMPE, Ariz. - Members of the Arizona State track and field team will travel to Fayetteville, Ark., for the 2004 NCAA Indoor Championships, Friday and Saturday, inside the Randal Tyson Track Center on the campus of the University of Arkansas.
THE STAKES
Team and individual national titles are on the line this weekend, as well as All-America honors. All-America status will be bestowed upon the Top 8 finishers in each event of the NCAA Indoor Championships. If any of those eight individuals are foreign athletes, the national association will then give All-America honors to those American athletes, in order of their finishes, until eight awards to Americans have been given.
WHO IS IN?
Ten Sun Devils make up the contingent heading to Arkansas this weekend. Amy Hastings (5,000m) and Jacquelyn Johnson (pentathlon & mile relay) will join 4x400m relay members Christina Hardeman, Kandace Tucker, Cassandra Reed and Tinishia Johnson as the women's entrants into the meet for Arizona State while the men will be represented by Brandon Glenn (pole vault), Domenik Peterson (200m and mile relay), Lewis Banda and Jason Barton (400m and mile relay) and 4x400m relay members Steve Fitch and Seth Amoo.
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE
Friday, March 12
Lewis Banda (400m) .......... Prelims ...... 5:50 pm
Jason Barton (400m) ......... Prelims ...... 5:50 pm
Domenik Peterson (200m) ..... Prelims ...... 7:35 pm
Amy Hastings (5,000m) ....... Final ........ 7:50 pm
Domenik Peterson (200m) ..... Final * ...... 9:00 pm
Saturday, March 13
Jacquelyn Johnson (pent) .... Final ..... morning
60m Hurdles .... 11:00 am
High Jump ...... 12:15 pm
Shot Put ........ 2:15 pm
Long Jump ....... 3:15 pm
800m Run ........ 4:30 pm
Brandon Glenn (pole vault) ... Final ..... 5:30 pm
Lewis Banda (400m) ........... Final * ... 6:55 pm
Jason Barton (400m) .......... Final * ... 6:55 pm
Women's 4x400m ............... Final ..... 7:55 pm
Men's 4x400m ................. Final ..... 8:10 pm
* Will only compete in finals if advances from the preliminary rounds
FRESHMEN MAKE FIRST NATIONAL MEET
Four freshmen (two men and two women) on the Arizona State track and field team have qualified for their first NCAA Championship meet on track with only one having competed in an NCAA event before. Amy Hastings, a redshirt freshman, competed in the past two cross country championships and is the only non-true freshman of the group. She will run in the 5,000m event. The other three are Jacquelyn Johnson (pentathlon/4x400m), Brandon Glenn (pole vault) and Domenik Peterson (200m/4x400m).
LAND SPEED RECORD
Over the weekend at the Iowa State Last Chance meet in Ames, Iowa, the men's 4x400m relay of Jason Barton, Steve Fitch, Seth Amoo and Domenik Peterson made history by clocking in with a 3:03.43 to not only win the race and establish a school record, but also break the collegiate record. The former mark, 3:04.25, was set by Oklahoma on March 8, 1997. The new standard also stands as the fastest in the world so far this year.
ATHLETES OF THE WEEK
For their record-breaking performance, the men's 4x400m relay team was honored as the Trackshark.com Male Athletes of the Week. The award was the first of the season for any member of the Arizona State track and field program.
ONE RECORD NOT ENOUGH
Not only did true freshman Domenik Peterson return to Tempe as a member of the school and collegiate record-setting mile relay, he also came back to campus with the program mark in the 200m dash. Peterson won the race with a time of 20.84, which also tied him for the fifth-fastest in the collegiate ranks this season.
SPINNING RECORDS
Overall in the 2004 indoor track and field season, one women's and three men's school records fell, with one going as the collegiate record. For the women, Amy Hastings clocked a 16:06.91 in the 5,000m run at the Pac-10 Indoor Invitational in Seattle (2/14) to break the previous standard set by Kelly MacDonald in 2000 (16:13.41). On the men's side, two individual marks joined the record relay team. Domenik Peterson set the mark in the 200m dash at the ISU Last Chance (3/6) at 20.84 surpassing the standard set last year by Seth Amoo (21.01). Jason Barton now holds the 400m mark at 45.80 following his run at the Double Dual (1/31), bettering the 46.16 Tony Berrian attained in 2000. Barton, and race runner-up Lewis Banda (45.82), are the only Sun Devils to ever run under 46 seconds indoors at ASU.
ACADEMIC HONORS
The men's and women's cross country have been honored by their respective national coaches associations for their success in the classroom. The men were honored by the United States Cross Country Coaches Association while the women earned their sixth honor in as many years from the Women's Intercollegiate Cross Country Association.
JOHNSON PERFECT IN PENTATHLON
Although she has only competed in the pentathlon once this year, freshman Jacquelyn Johnson is perfect in the event heading into the national meet. At the Holiday Inn Invitational in Boise, Idaho, Feb. 13, Johnson claimed first place in the overall event while winning each of the five individual events as well. Johnson clocked in at 8.56 for the 60m hurdles to open the pentathlon and closed it with a 2:26.51 in the 800m run. In the field, she cleared 1.75m in the high jump, threw for 11.27m in the shot and recorded a 5.75m long jump. Her total of 4,044 was six points shy of automatic qualification into the NCAA meet and was the national leader at the time of the victory.
SECOND NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP?
Ranked ninth heading into the meet, Amy Hastings will look to grab her second national title in the 5,000m event and her first as a collegiate runner. Competing as an unattached athlete at the USA Junior Track and Field Championships last June, Hastings won the 5,000m race with a time of 16:28.60. Her winning time also goes down as the meet record.
TITLE SEARCH
If an Arizona State entrant can bring home a national title, it will end a long drought of success at the national meet. For the men, Pal Arne Fagernes was the last man to win an NCAA title by capturing the 1996 javelin event. The women last saw the title come to Tempe when Maicel Malone won the 400m dash in 1992, her sixth national title.
On the indoor surfaces, the men have yet to win a national title with all 14 titles coming outdoors while the women have had five indoor golds, with Maicel winning the latest indoor title in 1992.
REVIEW: 2003 NCAA INDOOR MEET
Four individuals and one relay team competed in the 2003 NCAA Indoor Championships with all but one entry earning All-America honors. For the women, Lisa Aguilera finished fifth in the 3,000m run to garner the national honors while Seneca Holmes, although finishing 10th overall, earned the honor as the eighth American to finish in the 60m hurdles.
On the men's side, Trevell Quinley took 12th in the long jump and earned All-America honors as the eighth American finisher. The final individual, Seth Amoo, finished 15th in the 200m dash. The men's 4x400m relay of Jason Barton, Amoo, Steve Fitch and Lewis Banda won their heat, but saw the final heat post faster times to push ASU to fifth overall.
As a team, the women earned two points from Aguilera's fifth-place finish to end the championships tied for 43rd place. The men, thanks to the four points earned by the relay team, took home a tie for 44th.
SO CLOSE
A pair of current Sun Devil harriers competed in the USA Cross Country Championships (Feb. 7) with Kal Clark finishing the junior men's 8,000m race in seventh place, one spot away from qualifying for the USA Junior National Team. Fellow freshman Ian Chestnut completed the same event in 38th place. Several other former Sun Devils competed in the meet, including Fasil Bizuneh, Lisa Aguilera, Kelly MacDonald, Brianna Torres and Priscilla Hein. Aguilera, much like Clark, just missed out on a national team spot, finishing eighth in the women's 4,000m.
LAST TIME (INDOOR): LAST CHANCE
The second to last weekend of the indoor season saw several Sun Devils head to two locations for Last Chance meets. The first group went to Ames, Iowa, for the Iowa State meet while the others traveled to Seattle for the Washington meet.
In Ames, along with the record performance of the relay team and Domenik Peterson in the 200m, Jacquelyn Johnson (60m hurdles), the women's 4x400m relay of Christina Hardeman, Kandace Tucker, Johnson and Cassandra Reed, Lewis Banda (400m), Steve Fitch (400m), Reed (400m), Seth Amoo (200m) and Trevell Quinley (long jump) all earned provisional marks in their events.
At the Washington meet, three athletes earned provisional marks. Jessica Pressley (weight throw), Roger Cahill (3,000m) and Jennifer Kowacz (shot put) each met national standards.
LAST TIME (OUTDOOR): BILL SAWYER
The outdoor season got underway March 6 with the remaining Sun Devils playing host to the Bill Sawyer Invitational. Travis Jones led the way with two regional qualifying marks, one each in the hammer and shot put. Stephen Dolk became the first Arizona State athlete this season to earn a spot in both the NCAA West Region and Pac-10 Championship meets with his performance in the pole vault.
Overall, the men captured four first-place finishes on the day while the women recorded five. The men took runner-up honors five times and the women six while both squads captured three third-place finishes on the day.
RETURNING ALL-AMERICANS
Ten Sun Devils (five men and five women) return to the track this year following campaigns in which they earned All-American honors. On the indoor oval, Seneca Holmes leads the women after taking national accolades in the 60m hurdles one year ago. Joining her are Trevell Quinley in the long jump and the 4x400m relay team of Seth Amoo, Lewis Banda, Jason Barton and Steve Fitch for the men's team.
On the outdoor surface, three of the women's 4x400m relay team return in Cassandra Reed, Kandace Tucker and Katrice Walton (graduated senior Joni Smith was the fourth member of the team). Also earning outdoor honors a year ago was Desiree Davila in the 5,000m run.
Davila, along with Amy Hastings, come to track this winter following a cross country season in which each earned All-American honors at the NCAA meet.
UP NEXT
The second weekend of the outdoor season comes calling with the Arizona State track and field program playing host to the Baldy Castillo Invitational, March 19-20 at Sun Angel Stadium.