ASU, UA, NAU use Lumberjack Invite as a final tune-up

Art Preuss

Arizona’s Division I colleges used last weekend’s Lumberjack Invitational as a final tune-up heading into the championship portion of the indoor season.

Each came away from Flagstaff with varying results.

Arizona State took home the lion’s share of the honors, as the men’s and women’s teams combined to win 13 events, including a sweep of five different events.  They posted 31 top-three finishes on the day.

The women scored 112 points to win their side of the competition, and the men’s 148 points also gave them a first-place team finish.

Daniel Auberry led the way for the Sun Devils, posting wins in the 60m dash (6.80) and the 200m dash (21.52).   Teammates William Henry (21.53) and Kelsey Caesar (21.67) finished right behind Auberry to give ASU a sweep in the 200m.

Henry and Caesar joined with John Kline to sweep the 400m dash, while Dominique’ Maloy won the women’s 200m and her teammate, Keia Pinnick finished first in the 400m.

The three other sweeps for the Devils came in the field events.

In the women’s events, Samantha Henderson won the high jump (5’04.5″), Shaylah Simpson was first in the pole vault (13’01.5″), and the shot put went to Anna Jelmini (53’11.5″).

On the men’s side, Bryan McBride won the high jump (6’08.75″) and Jordan Clarke took the shot (61’03”).  Three Sun Devils tied for first-place in the pole vault, as Dylan Austin, Corey Phallen, and Austin Prince all cleared 16’01.25.

The event host, Northern Arizona University, took second place in the men’s competition and third place on the women’s side.

Diego Estrada was the big story for the Lumberjacks.  The sophomore earned his second automatic bid for the NCAA indoor championships by running a 13:42.70 time in the 3,000 meters, setting the third-fastest mark in school history.

Three NAU women, all juniors, also picked up qualifying bids, as Jenne Childs got it done in the 60m hurdles, Simone Holder qualified in the 200m dash, and Rashida McKinnon earned her way to the championships in the 400m dash.

Vladimir Jakovljevic, a freshman, picked up an automatic qualifier in the men’s competition, clearing the triple jump in 46’04”.

University of Arizona elected to send just a small group of athletes to the event, giving the majority of the team a bye week to prepare for the Mount Pacific Sports Federation Championships in Seattle.

The Wildcats finished with a fourth place in both the men’s and women’s competition.

Just prior to the Lumberjack Invite, the women jumped to No. 12 in the national standings, their highest mark in the history of the USTFCCCA computer rankings that debuted in the 2007-08 season.  The men also moved up, climbing to No. 15, their best since 2008.

LaTisha Holden came within two-hundreds of a second of setting a new school record when she was clocked at 8.20 in a preliminary round of the 60-meter hurdles.  She went on to win the finals in 8.30, with teammate, Dahlys Marshall coming in second at 8.46.

The results for Holden are expected to move her up from No. 18 in the country at her event to No. 13.

In the throws, Baillie Gibson set a new personal-best in the shot put (52’10.25″) to take second in that event, and Korion Morris took second place in the same event on the men’s side with a throw of 59’11.25″.

(Photo: NAU Athletics)