The ASU track and field team will compete in a trio of meets this weekend.
Most members will stay at home to participate in the Sun Angel Track Classic, while others will travel to the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif., or the Mesa Classic.
The Sun Angel Track Classic is arguably the biggest outdoor meet of the season for the Sun Devils. It will be one of the last chances for members of the No. 1 women's team and No. 7 men's team to improve their marks before the Pac-10 Championships and the NCAA West Regionals.
"Sun Angel meet is our biggest home meet, and being that it's my senior year in the sprints, it's important to me," senior sprinter Domenik Peterson said. "I'm trying to get all the guys and myself motivated to do our best prior to the Pac-10 meet."
Highly ranked women's teams that will be competing in Tempe include No. 2 LSU, No. 8 Auburn, No. 19 Florida and No. 22 Colorado, while highly ranked men's teams include No. 2 Auburn and No. 10 LSU.
"It's kind of the big meet that we always look forward to every year," sophomore thrower Sarah Stevens said. "We have some really good teams coming this year so the competition will be great. Everyone's been training well and it should be nice weather, so I think we're going to do awesome."
One group that has high expectations this weekend is the women's throwers. Stevens, who won the indoor shot put national championship back in March, and junior indoor All-American Jessica Pressley will compete in the event for the first time this outdoor season.
"Regionally qualifying shouldn't be too big of a problem," Stevens said. "We just want to get a decent mark so everybody else around the country can see that too"
"I'm opening up in shot for the first time this year for outdoors, so I'm really excited about that," Pressley said. "I just want to qualify for regionals and maybe in discus and in shot just go up higher on the list."
The Sun Devils will also have many athletes competing in the Mt. Sac Relays this weekend.
Junior Jacquelyn Johnson stood in third place going into Thursday's portion of the heptathlon and numerous distance runners will be competing in various events tonight.
The Sun Angel Track Classic will begin Friday at 5:30 p.m., with the men's and women's hammer. The event will pick back up Saturday at 1 p.m., with the pole vault. Running events will start at 5 p.m. on Saturday.
Reach the reporter at: gina.mizell@asu.edu.
