Friday night was big for Sun Devil track and field at the NAU Tune-Up in Flagstaff. ASU won six different events and had strong showings all around.
It was a major success for several Sun Devils, including men’s high jump national champion Bryan McBride who won the men’s high jump at the Tune-Up with a jump of 2.15 meters. McBride, a senior, competed with senior teammate Edmond Baker who finished fourth in the event with a height of 2.07m.
The triple jump was a good event for the Sun Devils, who picked up wins for the men and women. Sophomore Keyasia Tibbs had an excellent competition, winning the women’s triple jump with a distance of 12.35m while Josh Dixon won the men’s triple jump with a personal-best of 15.70m.
ASU dominated the weight throws on both the men’s and women’s side as well. In the women’s portion, freshman Maggie Ewen and sophomore Ashley Weber finished first and second with throws of 19.01m and 18.43m, respectively. Junior Ginger Jarchow threw a personal-best 16.31m and finished in seventh place.
For the men, Ryan Leslie won the men’s weight throw with a toss of 18.78m. In second place was Kyle Lillie with a 17.47m throw and Kyle Long, who finished fourth, with a throw of 16.11m.
In the women’s shot put, senior Alex Hartig won the event with a throw of 15.51m. Weber set a personal best with a 14.58m toss good enough for third place in the event. Ewen finished fourth with a respectable 13.64m.
The men’s shot put was a good event for ASU as Thomas Anderson, Ahmed Hassan, and Lillie finished second, third and fourth. Anderson’s 18.79m throw finished second, while junior Ahmed Hassan came in third with a personal-best of 18.14m.
On Saturday, the Sun Devils had great outings on the track across the board at the Alex Wilson Invitational in South Bend, Indiana, at Notre Dame.
The big winners of the day were seniors Brianna Tate and Cameron Taylor. Taylor set a personal-best and won the men’s 60m hurdles in a time of 7.80 seconds. Tate also captured a personal-best time of 52.70 as she won the women’s 400m dash.
Junior Ryan Herson also had a fantastic day in the men’s 3000m. His time of 8:03.75 was season-best and drove him to a third place finish in the event.
The women’s 4x400m relay team of Sara McDonald, Melese Crozier, Kiera Bulluck and Tate finished in third with a time of 3:38.48, their second-fastest this year.
In the men’s mile, junior Daniel Wong ran a season-best time of 4:13.17 on his way to a 12th place finish.
Next up for the Sun Devils is the MPSF Indoor Championships at Dempsey Indoor. The entire team will travel together for the competition being held at the University of Washington on Feb. 27-28.
Reach the reporter at tjwilkin@asu.edu or follow @Twilkins23 on Twitter.
Like State Press Sports on Facebook and follow @statepresssport on Twitter.
