(Photo: Sun Devil Athletics)
The Arizona State University Sun Devils kicked off the 2018 Track and Field season at home on the newly resurfaced Joe Selleh Track at the 22nd annual Baldy Castillo Invitational.
Day One
The first official race on the state of the art track proved to be the highlight of the day for the Sun Devils. In the women’s 2000-meter steeplechase, sophomore Courtney Lewis pulled out the victory in a time of 6:59.25 and walked away with an 18 second personal best. Lewis, from Flagstaff, Arizona, ran a smart and controlled race throughout the beginning stages, before making up a significant deficit and outkicking Ashton Hutcherson of Texas A&M down the home stretch. Anna Pruter finished 4th in her first ever attempt at the event, while fellow teammate Billie Jo Dytrt finished sixth.
Lewis credited her first consistent collegiate block of winter training and racing indoors as major contributors to her victory.
“I think going from indoor season to outdoor season really helped me because I already got my feet wet in competition within the new year and so it helped build up to this moment and hopefully it continues to build from here on out,” Lewis said.
Lewis had the only Sun Devils victory on day one, but many other ASU athletes finished with personal bests.
The women’s javelin final was highlighted by a Baldy Castillo meet record-setting throw of 58.36 meters made by Alyssa Olin of North Dakota. Melanie Johnson and Jessica Barreira finished sixth and eighth respectively for ASU in the event.
Bianca Tinoco had a very solid showing in a competitive women’s 1500-meter race finishing in a time of 4:31.86 good for third place and a personal best.
Assistant coach and head of the distance contingent, Jeremy Rasmussen was pleased with how the distance runners performed on day one.
“They all executed their race plans really well and put themselves in situations where we’re able to then build off of this,” Rasmussen said.
Rasmussen emphasized the need to continue to improve so that the team can reach a peak during the more important races of the season later in the spring.
“It’s a good starting board, but we really gotta make sure we stay diligent and make sure we’re progressing forward as the season goes,” Rasmussen said.
Day Two
Day two had some similarities to the first day of competition with the first race of each day being won by a Sun Devil. Junior Shaunie Morrison got things rolling on Saturday for the Sun Devils with a blistering 13.49-second victory in the 100-meter hurdles. Morrison followed that performance with a leg in the 400-meter relay. She capped her day with a personal best good for 11th place in the 200-meter dash in a time of 24.96.
Morrison didn’t let any pre-race jitters get in the way of victory, and came away happy with her performance.
“I was a little nervous in the beginning. I wanted to run 13.3 or 13.4 in the hurdles, and I executed that which is really cool. I feel like I could have had a better race, but opening up with that is really good considering last year I opened up with a 13.7,” Morrison said.
Grad transfer student, Alethia Marrero, and sophomore Sha’maya Flanagan finished in 3rd and 5th respectively in the women’s 400-meter race. This was Marrero’s first outdoor race as a Sun Devil. She also competed on both of ASU’s sprint relays.
Head Coach Greg Kraft highlighted Marrero as a major positive for the Sun Devils.
“In both of our relays, we were significantly better. Part of that is the addition of Alethia Marrero. She ran the second leg on both relays and made a significant impact,” Kraft said.
The ASU women’s 400-meter relay finished 4th with a time of 45.34 seconds. The women’s 1600-meter relay took second to Texas A&M in time of 3:40.86.
The Lady Sun Devil relays hope to continue to improve and are optimistic about the future.
“I really want our 4×100-meter team to make it to nationals. We are all very individually fast, and I feel like as a team if we come together we can for sure make it,” Morrison said.
In the throwing events, nine-time All American, Maggie Ewen had a tough day on the discus, fouling on each of her three attempts. It wasn’t all bad for ASU though as redshirt-freshman Samantha Noennig finished second in the event with a throw of 158′ 4″ (48.26 meters).
The men’s team was highlighted by solid finishes in field events, specifically high jump where Elijah Hughes tied for second with a jump of 6′ 9¾” (2.08 meters) and Ryan Bright finished in seventh with a jump of 6′ 8″ (2.03 meters).
Another positive for the men’s team came in the 3000-meter race. John Reniewicki and Ryan Normand paced the distance squad to second and fourth place finishes respectively with times of 8:31.27 and 8:43.77. Samantha Ortega was fifth in the same race on the women’s side.
Overall, Kraft was pleased with the Sun Devils effort in their first meet of the season. He emphasized the need to stay healthy and continue to develop, especially on the men’s side.
“For the guys, it’s just continuing to develop. We are a little behind the eightball there; we just don’t have the depth that our women have and so we need to be able to stay healthy,” Kraft said.
For the women, Kraft indicated the addition of some key athletes as major factors moving forward, including that of Sierra Irvin who missed the 2018 indoor season and 2017 outdoor season due to injury. Irvin will be competing in the sprints for the Sun Devils.
“It’s just continuing to add people to the mix, and so we are hopeful that Sierra Irvin will be coming back, maybe by the Sun Angel Classic, and if we are able to do those type of things our women’s team will be a much more formidable group at the conference level,” Kraft said.
The Sun Devils will be back in action next week when the distance squad travels to the Paradise Valley Distance in the Dark meet on Thursday, March 23rd. The team will then host the Pac-12/Big Ten Challenge Friday, March 23 and Saturday, March 24 on the Joe Selleh Track in Tempe.
Full meet results can be seen here.
