Sun Devil Track & Field
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -MAY 10, 2012 SUN DEVIL TRACK & FIELD SID Contact: Jeremy Hawkes | [email protected] | (480) 965-9544 | thesundevils.com SEASON WEEK 17 • OUTDOOR WEEK 9 ASU T&F Takes on Conference at Pac-12 Championship The Sun Devils will face off against the best of the Pac-12 Conference on Saturday Meet #17 (Outdoor #9) and Sunday at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. at Pac-12 Championships May 12-13, 2012 TEMPE - The Arizona State University track and field team will take part in the Hayward Field - Eugene, Ore first-ever Pac-12 Track and Field Championships this weekend in Eugene, Ore. hosted by University of Oregon The 2012 season marks the first year of conference action with the additions of 2012 INDOOR SEASON SCHEDULE newcomers from Colorado and Utah. The event will kick off Saturday, May 12 at Date Meet Location 10 a.m. PST with the hammer throw with the majority of events following just after 1 J 14 at Lumberjack Invite Flagstaff, AZ p.m. The competition will then move to Sunday with events slated to begin at 10:45 27-28 at Texas A&M Invite College Station, TX a.m. with the women’s discus and the rest of the action getting underway early in F 4 at NAU Open Flagstaff, AZ the afternoon. The competition will be hosted by the University of Oregon at the 10 at Kirby Invite Albuquerque, NM 10-11 at Boise Team Challenge Boise, ID Historic Hayward Field in Eugene. at Husky Invite Seattle, WA 18 at NAU Tune-Up Flagstaff, AZ OUT OF THE BLOCKS 24-25 at MPSF Championships Seattle, WA • The Sun Devil men are coming off a trophy-earning fourth-place finish at the NCAA M 5 at Last Chance Meets TBD Indoor Championships in Boise earlier in March. The men saw two national cham- 9-10 at NCAA Champs. Boise, ID pions crowned in Jordan Clarke in the shot put and Mason McHenry at 800 meters. • The Sun Devil women return two first team outdoor All-Americans this season in 2012 OUTDOOR SEASON SCHEDULE Date Meet Location Anna Jelmini (discus) and Christabel Nettey (long jump). M 16-17 Baldy Castillo Invite Tempe • Head coach Greg Kraft is in his 16th season at Arizona State, the third-longest 23-24 ASU Invitational Tempe tenure of any of ASU’s current sports coaches. 29-30 at Jim Click Multis Tucson, AZ • Junior Jordan Clarke is currently ranked in the NCAA top-25 in three throwing A 6-7 at Stanford Invitational Palo Alto, CA events (second in the shot put, ninth in the hammer and 25th in the discus) 6-7 Sun Angel Track Classic Tempe • Jordan Clarke is the NCAA”s returning shot put champion outdoors and will be the 14 Arkansas/LSU Tri-Meet Tempe returning champion when the team reaches the 2013 indoor season as well after 20-21 at Mt. SAC Relays Walnut, CA 28 at Double Dual (NAU-UA) Tucson, AZ his performance in Boise earlier this year. M 5-6 at Pac-10 Multis Eugene, OR • The Sun Devil men currently rank fifth nationally while the women sit 10th in the 13-14 at Pac-10 Champs. Eugene, OR latest USTFCCCA computer rankings 18-19 at Tucson Elite Throws Tucson, AZ • Entering the weekend, the Sun Devils have 14 student-athletes in 18 different 24-26 at NCAA Prelims - West Austin, TX events ranked in the top 25 in those respective events in the nation as well as two 6-9 at NCAA Champs. Des Moines, IA relays on the men’s side. 22-30 at USATF Champs. Eugene, OR All dates and sites subject to change; home meets in maroon IN THE RANKINGS: USTFCCCA TOP 25 Check host team web sites for meet schedules for each event the Sun Devil men dropped two spots to No. 5 in the country after a relative off week for the team. The ASU women also climbed remained in the No. 10 position in the latest rankings, marking the first time both teams have been ranked in the top 10 in the computer rankings since the final week of the 2009 season where the men were fourth and the women sat 10th. Entering the weekend, other nationally ranked Pac-12 teams include No. 7 USC, No. 14 Arizona, No. 18 Stanford and No. 22 Oregon on the men’s side. The women feature No. 7 Oregon, No. 9 Arizona, No. 14 Stanford and No. 16 USC. IN THE RANKINGS: USTFCCCA WEST REGION The ASU men still maintain the top stop in the West Regional rankings, holding a slight edge over Oregon with 702.94 points to the Ducks’ 662.21 points. The ASU FOLLOW THE SUN DEVILS ONLINE women are currently fourth in the Regional rankings with 588.55 points behind Or- FACEBOOK egon, Stanford and Arizona. • https://www.facebook.com/sundeviltfxc FOLLOW ALL THE ACTION TWITTER Fans hoping to follow along with the weekend’s action will have several outlets • @SunDevilTFXC available to do so. Live results and a live blog will be available at the Pac-12 Championship website at http://pac-12.org/SPORTS/TrackField/Championships. ARIZONA STATE NCAA • TheSunDevils.com • NCAA.com aspx.There will be a tape-delayed television broadcast of the event courtesy of Fox Sports and the championship will be aired on a variety of channels on several PACIFIC-12 MPSF different days beginning May 17. Fox Sports Arizona will host the broadcast on • Pac-12.org • MPSports.org Saturday, May 19 at 4 p.m. PST. 2012 ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY TRACK & FIELD 1 Coach Kraft / Notes A LOOK BACK - Pac-12 Combined Events HEAD COACH GREG KRAFT Keia Pinnick was the runner-up at the Pac-12 Combined Events in the heptathlon Greg Kraft is in his 16th year with the Sun Devil program for the second season in a row, logging a career best score of 5,703 for the Sun and has built it into a national power. During the 2008 season, his men and women captured the NCAA Indoor Devils after the conclusion of the two-day competition last Sunday in Eugene. That Championships, only the second time in the history of score currently ranks her fourth in the nation and likely sealed her spot in the event the event that the same school swept both titles. The title at the NCAA Championships. Seniors Austin Prince and Jamie Sandys finished was the second in a row for the women and their third overall (2007 outdoor) and the first for the men. Dating fourth and seventh, respectively, for the ASU men as both scored points for the Sun back to the 2006 seasons, the Sun Devil women have Devils at the event for the second time in the careers. Prince’s 6,917 points were won the Pac-10 three times, the MPSF twice, the NCAA a new career-best as well. indoor twice, the NCAA outdoor once and the NCAA West Region outdoor once. The men have added one NCAA indoor and one NCAA West Region outdoor crown to that LOOKING EVER FURTHER BACK - 2011 Pac-10 Championships collection as well. Both the Arizona State men and women took third at the 2011 Pac-10 Champion- Individually, athletes have excelled under the 2008 Men’s and Women’s USTFCCCA National Indoor Coach ships in Tucson, Ariz. The Sun Devils saw individual team titles from Jasmine of the Year, including seven-time NCAA multi-event cham- Chaney (400m), Christabel Nettey (long jump), Anna Jelmini (discus) and Jordan pion Jacquelyn Johnson, who also advanced to the Clarke (shot put). Both teams finished behind Oregon and Arizona in the final team Olympic Games in the heptathlon after winning her fourth NCAA heptathlon title. In 2009, two men captured three standings. For the men, it was the 11th time in the last 13 season that the team NCAA titles, including Ryan Whiting sweeping in the had finished in the top half of the conference standings. For the women, it was indoor and outdoor shot put crown and Jason Lewis won the indoor weight throw. In 2010, Whiting swept the shot the seventh consecutive top-three finish - a streak that included three consecutive put once again and added a discus crown before being Pac-12 titles between 2006 and 2008. Nettey, Jelmini and Clarke all return as the name a finalist for the Bowerman Award. Jordan Clarke returning champions in their respective events and, alongside Cj Navarro (2010 followed Whiting’s footsteps in 2011, winning the NCAA outdoor shot put crown himself. discus champion) reporesent the lone Sun Devils with individual titles at the confer- At the conference level, the Sun Devils have dominated ence championships. on the women’s side with three titles in a row (2006-08) while the men have finished as the meet runner-up three straight years from 2008-10. His athletes have collected NETTEY POT 66 individual titles and added another 14 relay crowns Christabel Nettey looked up to snuff with her outdoor long jumping self that earned in the Pac-10 before going on to collect 171 All-America first-team All-America honors last season as she soared 6.58m (21-07.25) in the honors individually and another 25 in relays. Along with Johnson, other impressive names that have team’s season opener at the Baldy Castillo Invitational for a new career best and been coached by Kraft include 2004 Olympic Long Jump improved her second-place hold on ASU’s all-time list in the event.