Bethke, Williams named Arizona State Athletes of the Week

April 22, 2009

Two ASU Track and Field Athletes: <a href="http://thesundevils.cstv.com/sports/c-track/mtt/bethke_brandon00.html">… Bethke</a> and <a href="http://thesundevils.cstv.com/sports/c-track/mtt/williams_charonda00.htm… Williams</a> have been named ASU's Athletes of the Week for the week ending April 25. Both had record breaking performances over the weekend.<separator></separator>Bethke ran his first 5,000m outdoor race in nearly one year and clocked a time of 13:27.79, which bettered the previous ASU school record by nearly 10 seconds (was 13:37.71 by <a href="http://thesundevils.cstv.com/sports/c-track/mtt/aguayo_aaron00.html">Aa… Aguayo</a> in 2007) and also nearly one minute better than his previous personal best of 14:22.82 run last year. Currently, Bethke's time leads the NCAA and is the ninth-best in the world. It also stands as the second-best in the Pac-10 this year and the best among times recorded outdoors this season. Bethke also was selected as the Pac-10 Men's Track Athlete of the Week for this performance.<separator></separator>Williams had another outstanding meet over the weekend at the 51st Mt. SAC Relays as she broke another school record and posted two of the top times in the nation this year. In the invitational 100m dash, Williams clocked in at 11.29, lowering her previous personal best by 0.12 (11.41) and breaking a 26 year-old school record in the process (previous record was 11.33 by Sharon Ware in 1983). That time, which was second only to Carmelita Jeter's world-leading 10.97, is the 14th-best in the world this year and ninth in the NCAA. Later in the day, Williams also ran in the invitational of the 200m dash and won the race in 22.84, just 0.02 off her school-record run from one week earlier, which currently stands as the 5th-best in the world this year.