ASU track teams earn bragging rights at Double Dual Meet

Art Preuss

Arizona State‘s track teams literally swept up the competition over the weekend as it won the in-state competition at the Double Duals Meet in Tucson.

The Sun Devils swept the men’s and women’s steeplechase and high hurdle events, then the men came back and posted a 1-2 sweep of the top spots in the 400-meter dash and 100-meter dash.

And then more sweeps amid a domination by ASU in the field events capped off the victory over the University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University programs.

The ASU men beat Arizona, 110-86, and the women completed the sweep with a 101-96 win over the Cats.  Arizona’s men’s team beat NAU, 120.50 – 62.50, and the Wildcat women won over NAU, 125 – 53.

Both of Arizona State’s squads are nationally ranked, the men at No. 3 and the women at No. 10.  Arizona’s women are ranked No. 8 and the men entered the event at No. 13.  NAU is unranked on both sides.

The highlight of the meet for the Lumberjacks was the performance of the women’s 4×100 relay team on the second day of the event.  The foursome posted a 45.99 time that broke a school record that has stood for 18 years.

All four runners – Simone Holder, Darriel Banks, Jenne Childs, and Shamelle Pless – also contributed personal-best performances in at least one other event during the meet.

But the Jacks were no match for the Pac-12 schools.  They were there to help prepare for the Big Sky Conference Outdoor Championships, which will be the next event on their schedule, May 9-12.

And the coaches seemed pleased with what they saw.  “Everything’s just getting better and better for us,” said assistant coach, Ed Jacoby.  “This performance is a really good indicator for the conference meet coming up in a couple weeks, and is a great improvement from the indoor season.”

Arizona and Arizona State, however, were there to compete for in-state bragging rights.  It looks like that privilege will stay in Tempe.  The Sun Devils won the double dual last year – sweeping both the men’s and women’s events then, too.

This year’s Devil sweeps in the running events included the steeplechase, where Kauren Tarver won on the women’s side (10:38.52) and freshman Domenic D’Acquisto took the men’s event (9:05.73).  And Keia Pinnick won the women’s high hurdles (13.51) and Cameron Taylor won for the men in just his second-ever 110 hurdles race (14.34).  Pinnick had to upset Arizona’s top-seeded Dahlys Marshall to claim her win.

ASU’s men’s team put together consecutive 1-2 sweeps, first in the 400-meter dash, where Will Henry won in 46.48 and Kelsey Caesar finished in second, and then in the 100 meters, won by Ryan Milus (10.27) and Daniel Auberry.

In the field events, Jordan Clark won all three of his events: hammer throw (214’06”), discus (169’07”), and shot put (65’03.25″).  That hammer throw puts him at third on the all-time ASU list for the event and the shot put mark ties for the top throw in the nation.

Chris Benard swept the horizontal jumps, winning the men’s long jump (24’11”) and triple jump (52’03.75″), and Christabel Nettey posted another sweep on the women’s side, winning the long jump (20’10”) and the triple jump (30’05”).

Shaylah Simpson and Derick Hinch added one more sweep, with Simpson winning the women’s pole vault (13’05.75″) and Derick Hinch taking the men’s event (16’09.5″).

The Wildcats picked up their field-event points in the high jump, where they took their turn at a sweep, and the women’s hammer throw.

In the high jump, Brigetta Barrett, who holds the top women’s mark in the country, won with a leap of 6’4″, and Nick Ross beat teammate Edgar Rivera-Morales in a jump-off to win the men’s side at 7′ 5.75″.

Arizona also picked up one other sweep, in the 400-meter hurdles.  Junior Georganne Moline, who is the collegiate leader in the event and holds the second-best time in the world, won her side with a time of 55.37, and Clifton Leake clocked a personal-best time of 51.89 to take the men’s event.

And the Cats cleaned up in the distance events with a couple more sweeps, as Stephen Sambu won the men’s 1,500-meter race (3:49.23) and the 3k (18:13.69), while Elvin Kibet won the women’s 3k (9:45.35) and Elizabeth Apgar won the women’s 1,500m (4:29.75).

Germe Poston and Echos Blevins rounded out the Cats’ wins, with Poston winning the 100-yard dash in 11.54 – which ties for the third-best time in the Pac-12 this season – and Blevins taking the women’s 400 meters in a time of 53.63.

Arizona also had a couple of relay wins in the women’s 4×400 and the men’s 4×100.

“It is never a good day to not have more points than the Sun Devils,” Arizona’s head coach, Fred Harvey, said after the event.  “That’s just the way it works out.  But we need to make sure we have more points than them at the Pac-12 NCAA Championships.”

There’s not much time to make improvements.  The Championships, hosted by the University of Oregon, begin with the combined events this weekend

(Photo: ASU Athletics)