Sun Devils head to Oregon for NCAA track & field finals
The Arizona State University track and field program will send nine individuals and a pair of relays to Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., this week to compete in the 2010 NCAA Outdoor Championship Finals, the final collegiate meet of the season. The Sun Devils will compete Wednesday through Saturday (June 9-12) on the Oregon campus with national titles and All-America honors up for grabs after qualifying for the event through the NCAA Preliminary Round West meet that was held in Austin, Texas.
THE STAKES
As with every national championship event, team and individual titles will be on the line this weekend, as well as All-America honors for the Top 8 individual and relay finishers in each event. Along with the winning team, the runner-up, third place and fourth place finishers also will earn a team trophy for their finishes in the overall standings.
SMILE FOR THE CAMERA
The NCAA and CBS will provide video coverage of the NCAA Championships this weekend, including live national television broadcasts on Friday and Saturday. CBS College Sports will air championship action live on Friday night from 8p-10p ET (5p-7p Arizona) with CBS following that on Saturday with live coverage from 1p-3p ET (10a-12p Arizona). When the CBS group is not on the air, NCAA.com will provide live web streaming. The broadcast crew on Saturday will feature Larry Rawson, Carol Lewis, Dwight Stones and current ASU volunteer, Dan O'Brien.
NATIONALLY KNOWN
According to the final National Top 25 team rankings released by the USTFCCCA, the Sun Devil men head to Eugene ranked sixth while the women are not in the Top 25 this week. The men's Top 4 teams include Texas A&M, Florida, Oregon and LSU while the women's side is led by Texas A&M, Oregon, LSU and Florida State.
HEADING TO OREGON
ASU will be represented by three individual women and six individual men with both genders having one relay in the NCAA Championships. The women will have Jasmine Chaney in the 100m hurdles and the 400m hurdles; Dominique' Maloy in the 400m dash; and rookie Keia Pinnick in the 400m hurdles while the men will have Brandon Bethke and Zeke Van Patten in the 5,000m run; Jordan Clarke in the shot put; Jason Lewis in the discus, hammer and shot put; Donald Sanford in the 400m dash; and Ryan Whiting in the discus and shot put. The women will have a 4x100m relay (Maloy, Kayla Sanchez, Christabel Nettey and Chaney) while the men have qualified their 4x400m relay (Justin Kremer, Allante Battle, Sanford and Joel Phillip).
BUSY
Five Sun Devils will be competing in two or more events, including Jason Lewis, Donald Sanford and Ryan Whiting for the men and Jasmine Chaney and Dominique' Maloy for the women. If the Sun Devils continue to advance to the finals of their events, Chaney could run the 100m hurdles twice, the 400m hurdles twice and the anchor of the 4x100m twice while Sanford could run the 400m open twice and the 4x400m twice. For the second year in a row, however, Lewis will compete in a trio of individual events as he will throw in the discus, hammer and shot put. He placed sixth in the hammer and discus last year to earn All-America honors and was an All-American in the indoor shot put this year (with the weight as well).