Des Moines, Iowa, and Eugene, Ore., are two cities the ASU track and field team would like to become very familiar with in the upcoming months.
The NCAA Outdoor Championships will be held in Des Moines June 11 to 14, and Eugene will steal the spotlight a few weeks later to host the U.S. Olympic Team Trials. While the Sun Devils hope to be heavily represented at both meets, their focus for this weekend will be on the Drake Relays and the Oregon Relays as the team prepares for the Pac-10 Championships, which are two weeks away.
The distance runners will be in Oregon, while the rest of the team will compete in Iowa.
Sophomore Ryan Whiting will not participate this weekend; he's recovering from food poisoning.
This is the second-straight competition Whiting has missed. He was unable to throw in the Sun Angel Track Classic held April 11 and 12 in Tempe after suffering an ankle sprain, which has fully recovered, ASU coach Greg Kraft said.
The remainder of the team was also able to get some time to rest and recover since the Sun Devils took a week off from competition last week.
Senior Brad Roth and freshman Nectaly Barbosa were also unable to compete in the Sun Angel Track Classic because of minor injuries, but both will be back this weekend with Roth throwing the javelin in Iowa and Barbosa running in the 800 meters in Oregon.
"We just got a little extra training in," Kraft said. "People got a chance to get a little healthy. We won't have that luxury again."
With such a long and arduous season, a week off from competitive action is a bonus to maintaining the health of a team, something Kraft stressed as "critical" to a team's success.
That's a positive sign as the women's team aims to earn its third consecutive Pac-10 title and the men's team tries to capture the crown that eluded them by three points last year.
"Everybody's training like they're in the Pac-10 meet," Kraft said. "Our primary goal each and every year is to win the Pac-10."
Compared to the championship team of 2007, Kraft said this year's women's squad is similar, with the core remaining intact.
"It's generally recognizable that we're one of the players right now," he said.
The men's team, however, is "completely different," Kraft said, with confidence being the deviating factor.
"These guys believe in themselves," he said.
Reach the reporter at: sarah.mclellan@asu.edu.
