The ASU men’s track and field team talked all week about how everything needed to fall into place to win another NCAA Indoor Championship.
By the first night of competition, everything was already out of sync.
The Sun Devil men finished the meet in seventh place with a total of 21 points, well short of the 40 or 50 they were hoping to score.
It turns out that 50 wouldn’t have even been enough. Florida ended up taking home the title with 57 points, while Oregon and Texas A&M tied for second with 44 points.
ASU got off to a great start Friday morning, picking up 10 points as senior thrower Ryan Whiting won his third consecutive indoor national title in the shot put. Whiting’s toss of 21.52 meters (70-07.25 feet) equaled his best throw of the season and defeated his closest competitor by over seven feet.
Whiting, who is only the third man to win three straight indoor shot put titles, said he was pleased with his performance despite having some butterflies in his stomach before the meet.
“I came out and tied my best throw of the year, so I was happy,” Whiting said, according to the NCAA Web site. “I wanted to start off stronger than what I did. I started a little slow, but was able to pull it out. I was a little jittery to start. Even though I've been in this meet four times, I still get nervous. Overall, I'm happy with it.”
ASU senior thrower Jason Lewis finished seventh in the shot put with a throw of 18.64 meters (61-02.00 feet), earning two points for the Sun Devils.
Both Whiting and Lewis earned All-American honors with their performances.
Outside of the shot put circle, nothing else seemed to go right for the ASU men on Friday.
ASU senior sprinter Donald Sanford failed to qualify for the final heat of the men’s 400-meter dash by running a time of 47.84 seconds. The mark placed Sanford 15th among the qualifiers and was over a second off his personal best.
The struggles continued for the Sun Devils, as sophomore Mason McHenry didn’t advance in the men’s 800-meter race. McHenry placed 14th in the qualifying heat and finished with a time of 1:53.76, over five seconds off his season-best time.
Things only got worse as ASU’s distance medley relay team of McHenry, seniors Joel Phillip and Brandon Bethke and junior Nectaly Barbosa also failed to score in their event. The DMR team placed 11th in 9:44.98.
Instead of having close to 20 points and a variety of chances to add more on Saturday, the Sun Devils only had 12.
Their national title dreams had evaporated.
On Saturday, Lewis opened up the competition with another All-American performance, this time in the weight throw. He finished sixth with a throw of 21.15 meters (69-04.75 feet), earning ASU three points.
Bethke also had a strong showing in the men’s 3000-meter race, finishing fourth in 8:11.61 to grab All-American honors and five points for ASU, bringing its total to 20.
The men’s 4x400 relay team of Sanford, Phillip and seniors Justin Kremer and Ray Miller ended the meet with an eighth-place finish. They picked up the team’s final point with a race of 3:08.51, nearly three seconds off their season-best.
Freshmen long jumpers Constance Ezugha and Christabel Nettey also competed for the ASU women’s team, but neither placed in the top eight.
Ezugha finished 14th overall with a leap of 6.15 meters while Nettey finished in 17th with a mark of 6.04 meters.
Reach the reporter at eric.l.smith@asu.edu