June 6, 2005
ASU's Notes for 2005 NCAA Championships
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TEMPE, Ariz. - The final collegiate competition of the 2005 outdoor season awaits members of the Arizona State University track and field program June 8-11 as the team heads to Sacramento State's Alex G. Spanos Athletic Complex in Sacramento, Calif., for the 2005 NCAA Championships.
THE STAKES
National titles will be up for grabs in Sacramento as individuals, relays and teams compete for the top prize in collegiate track and field. Teams will look to finish among the Top 4 to garner a trophy while individual competitors will try and finish among the Top 8 to garner All-America accolades.
BACK FOR MORE
Three women and five men return to the NCAA Championships one year removed from attaining All-America accolades at the outdoor meet held in Austin, Texas. All three women, Christina Hardeman, Cassandra Reed and Kandace Tucker, earned the honor last year as members of the 4x400m relay with Marcia Smith. This year, with Porchea Carroll added to the mix, the Sun Devil women will look to place among the Top 8 in the 4x100m relay. Seth Amoo, Lewis Banda and Domenik Peterson return to the outdoor national meet following All-America performances last year in both the 4x100m and 4x400m relays with Banda adding a third award from the 400m dash. Also attaining All-America status was Jason Barton in the 400m dash and 4x400m relay and Steven Koehnemann in the 4x100m relay.
BACK IN SAC(RAMENTO)
In 2003, Sacramento played host to the NCAA Championships with seven Sun Devil women and one man earning All-America honors. Of those seven women, three will make a return trip to the capital of the Golden State as Cassandra Reed, Kandace Tucker and Desiree Davila each competed in Sacramento two years ago. Reed and Tucker, along with Joni Smith and Seneca Holmes, earned the honor in the 4x400m relay while Davila took home accolades in the 5,000m run. Also earning All-America status in Sacramento were Lisa Aguilera (3,000m steeple), Tiffany Greer (long jump) and Fasil Bizuneh (men's 10,000m).
HOMECOMING - THE FIRST TIME
Jessica Pressley has qualified in a pair of events at the national meet this week (shot put and hammer) and will be competing in both events a mere 15 miles away from her hometown of Elk Grove, Calif. The Laguna Creek HS product and a redshirt freshman for ASU, currently ranks fifth in the nation in the shot put and sits seventh in the hammer heading into the NCAAs.
HOMECOMING - THE FINAL TIME
On the opposite end of the homecoming spectrum, senior Trevell Quinley will be competing in his final collegiate national meet. A product of Merrill F. West HS in Tracy, Calif. (70 miles south of Sacramento), Quinley enters the meet as the No. 1 long jumper in the nation this season.
ACADEMICALLY SOUND
A pair of Sun Devil student-athletes earned ESPN The Magazine First Team Academic All-District VIII recently and are now on the ballots for ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America honors, CoSIDA announced Friday (June 3). For the women, Jennifer Kowacz attained the academic honor with a 4.00 GPA in fine arts while men's cross country and track runner Kal Clark made the list with a 3.94 in honors biology.
ALL-AMERICAN CLIMBERS
Marcus Brunson, Herman Frazier, Tony Berrian and Nick Hysong had a great deal of success in their respective times as Sun Devils. Brunson and Frazier each ended their careers at ASU with a program-best seven All-America honors each. Right behind them are Tony Berrian and Nick Hysong, each collecting six. This week, Seth Amoo and Domenik Peterson could surpass all of them.
As it stands, Amoo and Peterson have each collected five All-America honors in their careers and both will be competing in three events this week. If All-America status is attained in all three events, they would move up to No. 1 on the list. Both men will run in the 4x100m and 4x400m relays while Amoo will take part in the 200m dash and Peterson in the 400m dash.
HEADING IN ON TOP
Arizona State enters the national meet this week with two of the top marks in the nation. In the men's 4x100m relay, the Sun Devils' 38.71 is the best in the collegiate ranks with Arkansas (38.75) and LSU (38.77) hanging close with the 2004 NCAA runner-up relay from Tempe. The other top mark is held by Trevell Quinley, who's leap of 8.17m is the best in the NCAA.
SPRINTER GOING A MILE?
Several ASU student-athletes will competed in multiple events this week, but not as much as one individual women's sprinter. Porchea Carroll leads the charge with entries in four events, including the 100m dash, the 200m dash, the 4x100m relay and the long jump. If Carroll can advance to the finals in all four events, she will have run five 100m dashes (first round, semifinal and finals of the 100m dash and qualifying and finals of the 4x100m), three 200m dashes (first round, semifinal and final) and nine attempts in the long jump (three qualifying, three preliminaries and three finals). In the running events, the senior sprinter would need another 500m to record one full mile of running.
THREE FOR ME
Seth Amoo and Domenik Peterson lead the men in multiple events entered this weekend as each will participate in three. Amoo will enter the 200m dash as well as the 4x100m and 4x400m relays while Peterson also will compete in both relays while entering the open 400m dash as well.
TWO FOR YOU
The list of double-duty athletes does not stop there, though, as five other student-athletes are slated to compete in two events this weekend. For the men, Jason Barton will look to earn All-America honors in the 400m dash and 4x400m relay, just as he did a year ago, while Steven Koehnemann will look to add honors in the 100m dash and the 4x100m relay. On the women's side, Cassandra Reed will run the 400m dash and the 4x100m relay while a pair of throwers will each enter a pair of events. Jessica Pressley will enter the shot put and the hammer while Julia Pedersen will compete in the discus and the shot put.
RELAY HISTORY?
Dating back to the 1964 season, the first year the NCAA lists in its record books, only three times has the same school swept the relay events. Most recently, LSU did so in 2003 (in Sacramento) with USC in 1977 and UCLA in 1966 being the other schools. Ranked first in the 4x100m relay and third in the 4x400m relay, the Sun Devils have a shot of becoming just the fourth school to add their names to this historical list.
STRIKING GOLD IN THE WEST (REGION)
One individual and two relays came away from the 2005 NCAA West Region Championships held May 27-28 in Eugene, Ore. Individually, Jessica Pressley won the women's shot put with a school-record toss of 17.05m while the men's 4x100m and 4x400m relays were both able to defend their crowns won a year earlier. The members of the relays included Steven Koehnemann, Domenik Peterson, Seth Amoo and Kelvin Love Jr., in the 4x100m with Peterson and Amoo joining Jason Barton and Lewis Banda on the 4x400m relay team.
WINNERS OF THE PAC
On May 14-15 at the 2005 Pac-10 Championships held on the UCLA campus, Arizona State competitors captured six titles (two women's, four men's) to help both the men and women to third-place finishes in the team race. For the women, Anna Masinelli continued ASU's tradition of success in the steeplechase event as she captured her first conference crown and the school's fifth in a row before the 4x400m relay of Cassandra Reed, Christina Hardeman, Porchea Carroll and Kandace Tucker brought home the gold in the final event of the meet.
On the men's side, Seth Amoo had a hand in three titles as he won the 200m dash and was a member of the championship 4x100m and 4x400m relays. His teammates included Steven Koehnemann, Domenik Peterson and Kelvin Love in the short relay and Peterson, Jason Barton and Lewis Banda in the longer relay. Trevell Quinley also won his first title as he captured the long jump.
TAKE FIVE - PART I
In 2001, the Pac-10 Conference added the 3,000m steeplechase to the list of events in the women's championship meet. That year, ASU's Kelly MacDonald brought the title back to Tempe. The crown has stayed in town since then as Lisa Aguilera won it in 2002 and 2003 before Amy Hastings was victorious in 2004. This year, Anna Masinelli made if five-for-five for the Sun Devils as she recently won the title in Los Angeles.
TAKE FIVE - PART II
The Sun Devil men also have pulled off a five-peat of their own as the 4x400m relay title has remained in Tempe for the past five years. The streak began in 2001 when Marcus Brunson, Michael Campbell, Jason Barton and Tony Berrian took first place. They were followed by the quartet of Lorenzo Parham, Steve Fitch, Pete Lopez and Seth Amoo in 2002; Lewis Banda, Barton, Amoo and Fitch in 2003; Amoo, Banda, Barton and Domenik Peterson in both 2004 and 2005.
BRINGING OUT THE BROOMS
At the 2005 Pac-10 Championships, the Sun Devils dominated a pair of events as the titles were won by ASU student-athletes in both steeplechase events as well as both 4x400m relay events. The sweep of the relays marked the first time that had happened since the 1995 season and the sweep of the steeplechases was a repeat performance of a year ago as Aaron Aguayo successfully defended his men's title and Anna Masinelli won her first in the women's race.
MORE GOLD THAN KING MIDAS
Seth Amoo captured three titles this year at the Pac-10 Championships and, in the process, etched his name in school history as he became the Sun Devil male athlete with the most conference crowns since the institution joined the Pacific-10 in 1979. Along with his 200m, 4x100m and 4x400m crowns in 2005, Amoo earned gold in the 4x100m and 4x400m events in 2004 after winning titles in the 4x400m in both 2003 and 2002. His seven titles are the second most in school history among men and women with ASU Hall of Famer and Olympic Gold Medalist Maicel Malone leading the way with 10. In her stellar career, she won the 200m and 400m dashes in 1988, 1990 and 1991 and added relay titles each of those three years: 4x100m in 1988 and 1991 and the 4x400m in 1988 and 1990.
ASU'S PAC-10 HIGH POINT AWARD
The Sun Devil coaches hand out a Pac-10 High Point Award each year with a pair of seniors collecting the honor in 2005. Based upon the amount of points earned by each individual, the awards were given to Porchea Carroll for the women and Seth Amoo for the men. Carroll collected 22.5 points, the third-most in school history, as she finished second in the 200m dash (8 points), third in the long jump (6) and 100m dash (6) and ran a leg on the winning 4x400m relay (2.5).
Amoo, who recorded two more points than runner-up Domenik Peterson's 19 points, scored points in the 200m dash (10), third in the 100m dash (6) and was a part of two championship relays, the 4x100m (2.5) and 4x400m (2.5). Amoo's point total also ranks as the third-highest in school history.
PAC-10 HONORS
ASU had several of its track and field members honored as Pac-10 Athletes of the Week. Trevell Quinley started the trend as he earned the honor (April 11) after winning the Texas Relays with a national-leading and Top 5 in the world long jump of 8.17m. Aaron Aguayo was next (April 23) following a 13:49.11 in the 5,000m run, breaking a 15 year old school record. Jessica Pressley reset the school record in the hammer at 63.51m to earn the women's field honor while the men's 4x100m relay of Steven Koehnemann, Domenik Peterson, Seth Amoo and Kelvin Love earned the track honor after breaking a 26 year old school record with the fifth-fastest time in the world, 38.71.
HISTORY: NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
Dating back to 1942 for the men and 1982 for the women, ASU posted several outstanding finishes at the national meet. The men, who have finished among the Top 10 seven times, including last year, won the 1977 NCAA Championships and have placed in the event 45 times in school history. The women have scored 17 times at the national level with five placing them among the Top 10. Their best finishes came in 1988 and 1990 when they finished fourth both years.
WHERE IN THE WORLD
In the latest world lists, a trio of Sun Devil entrants remain among the Top 20. The men's 4x100m relay of Steven Koehnemann, Domenik Peterson, Seth Amoo and Kelvin Love leads the way as the fifth-fastest on the planet while one of the individual members of the relay, Peterson, is ranked 13th in the world in the 400m dash. The final entrant is Trevell Quinley, who ranks No. 8 in the long jump.
MORE ON THE RELAY
Only four other times recorded in the world this season are faster than that of the Sun Devil 4x100m relay, all of which are made up of some of the fastest professional athletes in the world. Some of those runners include Maurice Greene, Leonard Scott, Justin Gatlin and Shawn Crawford, all of who have times of 10.14 or faster in the 100m dash this year.
MORE RECORDS THAN THE BEETLES
During the 2005 outdoor season, school records in six events were established with two of those events seeing the record rewritten on two other occasions. On the track, Amy Hastings set the standard in the women's 10,000m run (33:19.32) while Aaron Aguayo rewrote the mark for the 5,000m run (13:49.11) and the 4x100m relay of Steven Koehnemann, Domenik Peterson, Seth Amoo and Kelvin Love ran 38.71. In the field events, Angela Tavlarides broke her own pole vault mark on three occasions with her latest clearance of 4.10m being the best yet. Likewise, Jessica Pressley set the mark in the hammer a trio of times with a best of 63.51m and recently added the record in the shot put at 17.05m at the regional meet.
THROWING IM-PRESSLEY
Jessica Pressley has been very dominant in her first collegiate outdoor season with the Sun Devils in 2005. So far this season, Pressley not only threw her way onto the Top 10 lists at ASU, she has set two records and put all three of her marks among the Top 6 all-time. In the hammer, her mark of 63.51m (208-04) not only is a school record, but also marked the first time that an ASU woman has thrown past the 60m mark and broken 200 feet. Last weekend, she reset the mark in the shot put with a region-winning mark of 17.05m. Her discus mark (4th) is 55.07m (180-08).
THE J'S HAVE IT!
The women's throws have been paced by a trio of athletes with names starting with the letter J: Jessica, Julia and Jennifer. Jessica Pressley has set the school record in the hammer and the shot put and ranks highly discus. Julia Pedersen also ranks among the best Sun Devils of all-time in the shot put and the discus while Jennifer Kowacz has made her mark in the hammer and shot put.
KING OF THE (SAND) CASTLE
At the 2005 Texas Relays (April 7-9), Trevell Quinley won the men's long jump in his first outdoor competition since finishing as the national runner-up indoors in March. Not only did he win, he won big as he recorded a mark of 8.17m (26-09.75), the best collegiate mark in 2005. His leap also ranks him second all-time on the ASU lists behind 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist Dwight Phillips, who set the bar at 8.21m. Quinley went on to win his first Pac-10 title in the event this year as he recorded a mark of 7.77m on his final attempt.
DOM-INATING PERFORMANCES
Domenik Peterson has put together yet another solid season on the outdoor track following two All-America honors during the indoor season. His time in the 400m (45.15) is the 13th-fastest in the world to date and it also ranks him No. 8 on the all-time ASU lists. At the Pac-10 Championships, Peterson contributed greatly to the team's success as he finished second in the 400m dash and third in the 200m event while running legs on the winning 4x100m and 4x400m relays.
SPEEDY SPRINTERS
Arizona State's sprinting corps has been its strength over the years and 2005 is no different. At this year's conference meet, seven men's finishes and six women's finishes were among the Top 8, including a four victories and two runner-up finishes. Overall, the sprinters collected 37 of the women's 118 points and 59 of the men's 122 points in the meet.
GOING THE DISTANCE
On the heels of yet another successful cross country season, the distance runners have fared very well on the outdoor track surfaces this spring, including a pair of Pac-10 victories and high placements at both the conference and regional levels. For the women, Anna Masinelli and Aaron Aguayo continued ASU's winning tradition in the steeplechase with their titles in the event while Amy Hastings has the top time in the 10,000m run. Ryan Warrenburg will compete at the national meet along side Aguayo in the steeplechase while Victoria Jackson will join Hastings in the 10,000m. In the men's long race, Casey Burchill is an entry for ASU, as is Desiree Davila in the women's 5,000m run. Rounding out the distance runners in the national meet is Rachel Ellison in the 1,500m run.
HELLO, MY NAME IS ...
Several Sun Devils have made immediate impacts in their first campaigns at ASU this year. Victoria Jackson and Rachel Ellison, who transferred in from North Carolina and Mississippi, respectively, have qualified in a pair of events following successful seasons with the cross country team. On the rookie front, Kelvin Love Jr. has bolstered the sprint corps as he has anchored the school record 4x100m relay and regionally qualified for two other events. In the field, Tomas Navarro has earned regional berths in the shot put, hammer and discus while football standout Rudy Burgess turned in solid marks in his first meet in two years, just missing qualifying standards in both the long jump and triple jump events at the Double Dual. Burgess then made the finals in both events at the Pac-10 Championships where he placed eighth in the long jump and ninth in the triple jump.
RUNNING RELAY FAST
Last year, the men's 4x400m relay team of Seth Amoo, Domenik Peterson, Jason Barton and Steve Fitch clocked a school and collegiate indoor record of 3:03.43 at the Iowa State Last Chance Meet to solidify the relay as one of the best of all-time. With their performance at the Double Dual, the men's 4x100m relay of Steven Koehnemann, Peterson, Amoo and Kelvin Love added their group to the list of top relays. The quartet set the school record and ran the fifth-fastest loop in the world at 38.71. The first three legs of the relay, along with Lewis Banda, finished second at the NCAA meet in 2004.
CLIMBING NEW HEIGHTS
Two years ago, the school record in the women's pole vault was 3.51m (11-06.00) and was held by Olivia Mazzaglia, the only Sun Devil woman at the time that had cleared higher than nine feet in competition. Last year, Angela Tavlarides shattered that record as she cleared 3.80m (12-05.50). This year, Tavlarides was up (no pun intended) for higher marks as she set the school record three times, including clearances of 3.90m (12-09.50), 4.00m (13-01.50) and most recently, 4.10m (13-05.25). She is not alone, though, as Cara Walker has climbed to 3.80m as well while redshirting vaulter April Kubishta has cleared 4.00m as an unattached entry.
WATCH OUT BEHIND YOU!
Many Sun Devils have done very well this season, but there are several members of the team that are redshirting this season and should add to the depth of the team in 2006. Along with talented pole vaulter April Kubishta, another field event female to look out for is Sarah Stevens, the No. 1 ranked high schooler in 2004. So far this season, Stevens has equalled or bettered some of the team-leading throws. Several talented distance runners also are awaiting their turns to compete.
THIS YEAR'S ALL-AMERICANS
On March 11-12, the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships were held in Fayetteville, Ark., with 12 members of the ASU program participating in the national event. When the two-day national meet concluded, four Sun Devils emerged as All-Americans, including Trevell Quinley in the long jump (2nd), Domenik Peterson in the 200m dash (4th) and Brandon Glenn in the pole vault (7th) for the men and Amy Hastings in the 5,000m run (5th) for the women. Four months prior to that Hastings and Aaron Aguayo earned the national honor in cross country for their performances at the national meet.
RETURNING ALL-AMERICANS
Including the 2004 cross country season, the Sun Devil track and field program will see 11 of its student-athletes return to the track this season following a 2004 season in which they collectively earned 13 All-America honors.
Outdoors, Seth Amoo, Lewis Banda, Jason Barton, Domenik Peterson and Steven Koehnemann each return following a stellar spring that saw awards earned in both relays, as well as individual awards from Banda and Barton, both in the 400m. The women's 4x400m relay returns, minus one runner. Christina Hardeman, Cassandra Reed and Kandace Tucker were members of the relay while the third leg, Marcia Smith, graduated. Jaquelyn Johnson also returns after garnering the national honor in the heptathlon.
A trio of cross country runners with All-America honors return to the track this year, including two-time award honoree Amy Hastings. She is joined by Desiree Davila and Aaron Aguayo.
LONG JUMP SUCCESS
Arizona State long jumping has seen success in the past year with a trio of solid finishes in competitive meets. Most recently, Trevell Quinley won his first Pac-10 title at the meet held at UCLA. Quinley also finished second at the NCAA Indoor Championships in March with a leap of 7.92m (26-00.00) and earned the third All-America honor of his career. More recently, he recorded the longest leap in the collegiate and American ranks in 2005 (8.17m) outdoors at the Texas Relays (April 8). Seven months prior to Quinley's indoor meet performance, former Sun Devil jumper Dwight Phillips captured gold at the Athens Olympics with a mark of 8.59m.
A TRIPLE CROWN ... OF SORTS
Amy Hastings is two-thirds of the way toward history following her All-American performance at the NCAA Indoor Championships (March 11) where she placed seventh in the 5,000m run. Prior to the track season, she garnered the accolade in cross country. If she attains All-America honors during this outdoor season, she would do what only one other Sun Devil, male or female, has ever done: earn All-America honors in cross country, indoor and outdoor track in one season.
Lisa Aguilera is the only runner (so far) in school history to pull off the `triple crown' as she earned the national honor in 2000. She finished fifth at the NCAA cross country meet before placing seventh in the indoor mile and 8th in the outdoor 1,500m.
NATIONAL RECORD
Last season, Seth Amoo helped the men's 4x400m relay set the NCAA indoor collegiate national record as he and his teammates clocked a 3:03.43 at the Iowa State Last Chance Meet. On Feb. 11, Amoo, the former school record holder in the 200m dash, set a national record on his own by finishing second in the 200m at the Holiday Inn Team Invitational in 20.95. The time made him the first representative of Ghana to run under 21 seconds, giving the senior the national record.
AND THE AWARD GOES TO ...
On Jan. 29, junior All-American and 2004 Olympian Lewis Banda returned to his native Zimbabwe where he was honored as the nation's Sportsman of the Year. Banda finished ninth at the Summer Olympiad after helping the Sun Devil men to a tie for 10th at the NCAA meet and anchoring the 2004 NCAA runner-up 4x100m relay team.
ALL RECORDS GO THROUGH JB
Looking over the men's record book for the indoor season, several impressive things standout. One of those is the men's 4x400m relay of Jason Barton, Steve Fitch, Seth Amoo and Domenik Peterson, who stand No. 1 on the lists with a collegiate record 3:03.43. Looking at all five of the top times for the relay event, one name keeps appearing: Jason Barton. In his four years in Tempe, Barton has helped his teammates record the fastest times around while securing All-America honors and Pac-10 titles.
TAKING OVER
The indoor men's 200m dash record section looks almost like a shortened version of the team roster as all five ranks are currently occupied by student-athletes on the 2005 team roster. Domenik Peterson leads the group at 20.43 set this season while placing fourth at the NCAA meet. Seth Amoo (20.95) and Lewis Banda (21.19) are second and fourth, respectively. The marks by Amoo and Banda are the oldest on the current list as both were achieved in the 2003 season. The remaining two marks were both attained in Flagstaff two weeks ago with Kelvin Love (21.15) and Steven Koehnemann (21.24) sitting third and fifth, respectively.
HISTORICAL HARRIER
Amy Hastings accomplished a feat that no other Sun Devil cross country student-athlete, male or female, had in school history: win a conference title. Hastings led the women to a runner-up team finish as she won the Pac-10 championship crown, and earning the first conference gold of any kind for the program as neither the men nor women have won a team title either.
MAROON AND GOLD (MEDAL)
Arizona State was represented by one current and two former student-athletes at the Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. Lewis Banda, who is the lone current runner, competed for Zimbabwe in the 400m dash and finished in ninth place, one spot shy of making the finals on the largest stage of athletics.
Although Banda fared well, one former athlete stole the spotlight. Dwight Phillips, the world leader in the long jump for the entire year, did not disappoint as he won the gold medal on his first jump of the competition. His win was the 10th gold medal won by a Sun Devil track and field athlete and also marked the third Summer Olympiad in a row that a former ASU standout returned home with gold after Nick Hysong won the pole vault in 2000 and Maicel Malone helped the 4x400m relay win in Atlanta in 1996.
The final 2004 Olympian with ASU ties was Michael Campbell. Representing Jamaica, Campbell ran in the 4x400m relay, but his team was disqualified in the first round of competition.
NEXT TIME OUT
The 2005 NCAA Championships marks the end of the collegiate season. The Sun Devils will return to action in the fall for the start of the cross country season.