March 14, 2000
This Week
Arizona State hosts its second meet in three weeks as the ASU/USTCA Invitational will be held at Sun Angel Stadium this Saturday, March 18. Field events will begin at 10 a.m. while running events will start at 2 p.m. ASU, USC, Indiana and Wisconsin will be competing on the men's side while ASU, USC, Indiana and Tennessee will comprise the women's field.
Last Week
The men's track and field team recorded its first top-10 finish in the program's history at the NCAA Indoor Championship, tying for 10th with 16 points to surpass the previous school-best of 11th at last year's event. The Lady Sun Devils placed 23rd with eight points, the team's best finish since placing 19th in 1995 and six places higher than last year's 29th-place showing. In the process, four school records were broken at the event held in Fayetteville, Ark.
For the second straight day, sprinter Tony Berrian broke his own school record in the 400m event. He placed third at nationals with a 46.16, topping his 46.26 from his preliminary. Teammate Dwight Phillips also broke his own school record, placing eighth in the triple jump with a 52-8.75 mark. Phillips earned runner-up honors in the long jump competition for the second straight year, breaking his own school record by almost 1 foot. The distance medley relay team placed eighth to round out the Sun Devil scoring. Berrian, Phillips and the relay team of Brandon Strong, LaVell Robinson-Blanchard, David Burke and Garrett Jensen earned All-America honors.
Sprinter Marcus Brunson raced in the preliminary of the men's 60m dash and finished third in his heat with a 6.71, but placed 11th overall, with only the top eight qualifying.
In the women's competition, Lisa Aguilera placed seventh in the mile with a time of 4:48.77, while Kelly MacDonald broke her own school record by running a 16:13.41 in the 5,000m to place seventh. Valerie Williams placed sixth with a season-best 20-10.5 in the long jump while teammate Tiffany Greer placed eighth in the same event with a 20-6.5. All four women earned All-America honors.
Also competing for the Lady Devils was the 4x400 relay that placed 12th with a 3:38.14. Members on the squad were Courtnie Ratliff, Candida Coulson, Arlaina Davis and Joni Smith.
Host Arkansas won its fifth straight, and 16 of the last 17 titles, in the men's team competition. On the women's side, UCLA took the title while two-time defending champion Texas tied for fifth.
Into the Indoor Record Books
The women's squad broke five Sun Devil records this season, more than any other year in ASU record books and the most successful season since four records fell during the 1991 season. The men were equally impressive, breaking three records during the five-week indoor season, two of those records twice.
The teams peaked during the NCAA Championship, when four records fell: the men's long and triple jumps by Dwight Phillips, the men's 400m by Tony Berrian and the women's 5,000m by Kelly MacDonald. Phillips initially broke the long jump record at the MPSF Championship on Feb. 25 when his 25-9.5 leap broke a 16-year-old record by .5 inch, topping Kenny Frazier's 1984 mark. He topped that leap two weeks later at NCAAs (3/10) with a 26-7.25 mark. In the triple jump, Phillips set a new mark at a March 3 Last Chance Meet in Baton Rouge, La., of 52-7.5, only to break that one week later (3/11) at nationals with a 52-8.75. Tony Berrian set the standard in the 400m event in 1999 with a 46.29, breaking a 21-year-old record, set by another Frazier, Herman. He topped that in the NCAA preliminary (3/10) with a 46.26. In the next evening's finals (3/11), he bettered that mark with a 46.16.
On the women's side, Kelly MacDonald set a new school standard in the 5,000m the first time she ran the event, at a March 3 Last Chance Meet in Ames, Iowa. That time of 16:25.35 only lasted seven days, as she bettered it with a 16:13.41 at the Championship. She also posted an ASU-best 9:34.56 in the 3,000m, at a regular season meet, also in Ames. That same event, the Feb. 11-12 Cyclone Classic, saw another distance mark fall, as Lisa Aguilera posted a 4:44.44 in the mile for a spot in Sun Devil lore. Two school field recrods were broken Feb. 18 at the ASU/UA/NAU Double Dual in Flagstaff, Ariz. Tiffany Greer recorded a long jump of 21-4 to set a new Sun Devil mark while Valerie Williams posted a new high in the triple jump with a 41-0.5 mark.
Trackwire.com Rankings
(as of 3/7/00)
| Men | ||
| 1. | Arkansas | 70 |
| 2. | Stanford | 48 |
| 3. | Clemson | 35 |
| LSU | 35 | |
| 5. | SMU | 31 |
| 6. | Auburn | 26 |
| 7. | Florida | 22 |
| Baylor | 22 | |
| 9. | South Carolina | 20 |
| South Alabama | 20 | |
| 11. | Texas | 18 |
| 12. | Tennessee | 16 |
| 13. | Alabama | 15 |
| 14. | Wyoming | 14 |
| 15. | Northwestern Lousiana | 11 |
| 16. | Georgia | 10 |
| Nebraska | 10 | |
| George Mason | 10 | |
| TCU | 10 | |
| Missouri | 10 | |
| Mississippi | 10 | |
| 22. | Northern Iowa | 9 |
| 23. | UCLA | 8 |
| Indiana State | 8 | |
| ARIZONA STATE | 8 | |
| William & Mary | 8 | |
| Idaho | 8 |
| Women | ||
| 1. | Texas | 56 |
| 2. | UCLA | 47 |
| 3. | LSU | 42 |
| 4. | Arkansas | 37 |
| 5. | South Carolina | 35 |
| 6. | Nebraska | 34 |
| 7. | Villanova | 32 |
| 8. | Auburn | 22 |
| 9. | Kansas State | 21 |
| 10. | SMU | 18 |
| 11. | BYU | 15 |
| 12. | Florida | 14 |
| Stanford | 14 | |
| 14. | Georgia | 13 |
| ARIZONA STATE | 13 | |
| 16. | West Virginia | 11 |
| 17. | Harvard | 10 |
| Florida State | 10 | |
| Manhattan | 10 | |
| 20. | UTEP | 9 |
| 21. | Ohio State | 8 |
| Texas Tech | 8 | |
| Miami | 8 | |
| Cal Poly SLO | 8 | |
| Syracuse | 8 | |
| Wyoming | 8 | |
| North Carolina | 8 |