Very few challengers can compete with ASU senior thrower Sarah Stevens.
She won the weight throw for the third week in a row and shot put for the second time in three weeks at the Texas A&M Invitational in College Station, Texas.
Stevens’ wins over the weekend came in convincing fashion.
Her closest competitors failed to come within a meter of both throws in an event that is usually decided by centimeters.
“When she’s at her best, there’s only a few girls that can get close to her, let’s just put it that way,” assistant coach David Dumble said.
Both of Stevens’ throws met the automatic qualifying standards for this year’s championship.
With every competition, Stevens continues to separate herself from other throwers around the nation.
“I definitely feel that I can win every meet,” Stevens said. “At the same time, I still know that anybody can throw far [at any given meet], and I can’t control what they’re doing in practice all week, and I can’t control what they do at the meets. I just really have to focus on myself.”
Stevens’ efforts, coupled with the performances of her other teammates, ranked sixth among the teams that competed, as Texas tallied the most points on the day for first.
The Sun Devil women also received another record-setting performance from senior Charonda Williams.
Williams set the school record last week in the 60- meter dash and followed that with an ASU record in the 200-meters with a time of 23.49, which was good for fourth in the race.
The men’s throwers also had solid outings for ASU.
Juniors Jason Lewis and Ryan Whiting won the weight throw and shot put, respectively.
Both of their marks automatically qualified them for the national meet later this year.
Lewis’s toss in the weight throw was the second one this season that met the NCAA’s automatic standards, and he has already qualified for the shot put as well.
As a team, the men finished ninth, while the host team Texas A&M placed first.
The Sun Devils distance runners spent the weekend in Seattle, Wash., at the Husky Classic where they provisionally qualified senior Jenna Kingma and junior Ali Kielty in the 5,000-meter run. Also qualifying were freshman Mason McHenry and sophomore Nectaly Barbosa in the 800-meter run.
McHenry and Barbosa’s times were second and third all-time in ASU history, respectively.
The team will travel to Flagstaff next weekend for the Northern Arizona Tune-up.
Reach the reporter at emschimm@asu.edu.
