Track and field Flagstaff opener a success
The first meet of the indoor season came to a close in Flagstaff, Ariz., on Saturday for the Arizona State University track and field team with nine victories earned and one NCAA provisional mark recorded as the Sun Devils competed in the Friday Night Challenge at Northern Arizona. The meet was held one day later than scheduled due to the winter storm that rolled through the state earlier this week.
Senior Lawrence Trice led the way for the Sun Devils as he won the 60m dash with a top time of 6.66 (6.70 converted) to provisionally qualify for the NCAA Championships. Currently ranked among the Top 10 times recorded this season, Trice’s mark also stands as the fourth-best all-time in school history and is the first mark added to the Top 5 list since Seth Amoo clocked a time of 6.68 (6.72 converted) in 2005.
Trice’s win was one of five individual titles secured for the men, who swept all the sprint events and added one win in the field. Jamie Sandys won the 60m hurdles with a time of 8.82 (8.86 converted); Bryan Williams won the 200m dash (22.15); Joel Phillip won the 400m dash (47.98); and the team of Justin Kremer, Allante Battle, Nectaly Barbosa and Ray Miller won the 4x400m relay (3:13:55). The final win for the men came in the pole vault as Jeremy Marcinko cleared 4.75m (15-07.00) for the victory.
On the women’s side, a pair of newcomers won individual events, including rookie Constance Ezugha, who took the win in the long jump with a leap of 6.01m (19-08.75) in her first collegiate competition. Another newcomer, junior transfer Samantha Henderson, won the high jump with a clearance of 1.65m (5-05.00) for the remaining field win. On the track, the team of Jasmine Chaney, Keia Pinnick, Kayla Sanchez and Dominique’ Maloy combined to run 3:55.11 to win the 4x400m relay.
The meet had a team scoring component to it as well with the women going 2-1 and the men 1-2 on the day with a very small group of Sun Devils on hand to compete. In the women’s standings, ASU defeated CS Bakersfield, 181-129, and CS Fullerton, 155.66-141.33, while host NAU defeated the women, 229-157. In the men’s scoring, ASU’s victory came over CSUF, 162-0, while falling to CSUB (160-144) and NAU (224-143).
Overall, seven women and four men made their Sun Devil debuts on the track at the meet, including six total true freshmen and two redshirt freshmen. The true freshmen included women’s competitors Ezugha, Christabel Nettey, Pinnick and Linda Kuenzi and men’s competitors Dylan Austin and Ryan Milus while the men also had two redshirt freshmen in Marcinko and Cory Kraft and the women one in Kate Lydy. Henderson and redshirt junior Cherise McNair also made their debuts.
The Sun Devils will return to action at a pair of meets next weekend with some of the team returning to Flagstaff to compete in the Mountain ‘T’ Invitational while others will travel to Seattle for the Washington Invitational.