Sun Devils start outdoor season in Tucson at Willie Williams Classic

(Photo credit: Nickolas Montei/WCSN)

Arizona State opened its outdoor season in Tucson at the Willie Williams Classic, hosted by interstate rival Arizona this weekend. ASU took home two titles, both on the women’s side.

Junior jumper Myla Tate took home gold in the women’s triple jump, going for 12.61 meters, a personal best by just under a foot for the Texas A&M Corpus Christi transfer.

The other first-place winner was the women’s 4x400m relay, with freshman Taiwo Kudoro, senior Ashantai Bollers, redshirt sophomore Ava McCumber Gandara, and freshman Taylor Brown hitting a 3:40.71 on Saturday to put a seal on a solid weekend on the women’s side, beating out second-place Arizona by approximately two and a half seconds.

Senior thrower Ines Lopez and sophomore jumper Alexandria Johnson rounded out the top three finishers for the women, finishing second and third in the discus and triple jump, respectively.

Despite finishing second in discus Saturday, entering last season, discus was not something Lopez enjoyed as much as she does now, calling it “frustrating.”

“Not in a sense that I hated the event itself, but I just didn’t understand it,” Lopez said. “Shot put is the way where I started throwing, so it’s something I’ve known forever, a long time, rather than discus.”

Following her transfer from Western Kentucky, something clicked in Tempe for Lopez and she exploded onto the discus scene, finishing No. 17 at nationals last year.

On the men’s side, the 4×400 team, like the women, took second place. Senior thrower Brandon Lloyd took second as well in the shot put, throwing for 18.81 meters Saturday.

The men’s 4x100m relay of freshman James Bauman, freshman Malik Franklin, freshman Mateo Medina, and junior Trevin Moyer combined for a 40.14 time, which would have placed them third in the meet had they not been disqualified for being out of their zone on one of their exchanges.

The Sun Devils will now look forward to next weekend, where they will travel to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to compete in the Battle of the Bayou, hosted by Louisiana State University on March 28 and 29.