June 10, 2006
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The Arizona State University women's track and field team closed out the 2006 NCAA Track and Field Championships in grand fashion Saturday as the team not only saw one of its own win another individual national crown, it brought home another trophy finish after finishing fourth in the team standings. The Sun Devils accumulated 37 points to tie with Nebraska while Auburn won the team crown with 57. The men finishing in 29th place with nine points while Florida State secured the crown with 67 points.
The women's team made a great name for itself with its third trophy of the season after placing fourth in the 2005 NCAA Cross Country Championships before claiming third at the 2006 NCAA Indoor Championships. The Sun Devils are the only school this year, both men and women, to earn a trophy finish in all three major events with several teams making the list twice. Entering the academic year, the program as a whole (track and cross country) had earned just one trophy finish ever. Now, its has three in one year.
Jacquelyn Johnson secured her name among the all-time greats in Sun Devil track and field history as she won her third national title and second outdoors as she secured the heptathlon with 5,93 points, 112 ahead of her closest competitor, Tracy Partain of Missouri State. The overall leader from wire-to-wire, Johnson won the long jump with a mark of 6.09m for 877 points before placing second in the javelin with a toss of 43.28m (142-00) to pick up 730 points. In the final event, Johnson clocked in at 2:21.30 to pick up another 806 points and just missing the 6,000 point barrier.
In the field, Sarah Stevens and Jessica Pressley scored for the women as Stevens finished fourth with a toss of 17.09m to score five team points while Pressley took sixth with a mark of 16.59m for three team points. Pressley was fifth heading into the final round, but was passed by one centimeter by Aubrey Martin of Western Illinois (16.90m). Stevens took a much different path in the event as she fouled her first two throws before qualifying ninth, the final position, in the finals and then improved her marks in each of the next three rounds to move up the rankings.
Three men also competed on the day with Aaron Aguayo placing third in the 3,000m steeplechase in 8:35.78 to score six team points while Ryan Warrenburg finished 10th overall in 8:45.81. Both men earned All-America honors with Warrenburg, despite finishing outside of the Top 8, earning the accolade as the sixth American to cross the finish line. Also competing in the meet was Ryan Zimmerman who finished 11th overall in the triple jump with a mark of 15.09m.
In all, the Sun Devil women earned seven All-America honors on the week while the men brought home three. The women also won two individual crowns with Victoria Jackson winning the 10,000m run on the second day of competition before Johnson won on Saturday. Pressley was the lone athlete to earn All-America honors in two events as she brought home the national acclaim in the discus and the shot put.
Johnson, a four-time All-American, has won five major titles in her two-year career, including the 2004 and 2006 NCAA Outdoor Heptathlon, the 2006 NCAA Indoor Pentathlon and the 2004 and 2006 Pac-10 Heptathlon crowns. In her career in the NCAA meets, she has never finished outside of the Top 2, winning three times and placing second in the indoor pentathlon as a true-freshman (2004).