The focus is coming to a singular point, the lights are starting to burn brightest and the stakes are almost to their greatest height. But it’s just another day at the stadium as the ASU track and field team prepares for the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Indoor Championships in Seattle starting Friday.
The No. 20 women’s team and the unranked men’s team will be going up against the top teams in the western United States, but none of the Sun Devils are changing their thinking.
“Honestly, the mindset doesn’t change too much,” redshirt sophomore thrower Jordan Clarke said. “It’s still working on the same stuff as we’ve been working on the past couple weeks. The only difference is that the meets are a little bigger.”
Even with both sides ranked fourth in the West and in contention for their respective MPSF titles, this weekend is still considered a season check-up.
“This is kind of like having a midterm exam,” ASU coach Greg Kraft said. “We’re built for the outdoor championships and the Pac-10s. The athletes know going into this that getting into the top 15 in the country in your individual events … your focus has to be on mentally.”
In the same way many would smartly prepare for a midterm, the track and field teams aren’t cramming and burning themselves out.
The Sun Devils have turned back the dial on their training to be fresh for the meet. Not too much is being thrown into this weekend.
“This is just a steppingstone,” Clarke said. “It’s not quite as big as the NCAA. It’s kind of a practice meet in the sense that it’s going to be a big meet, but not as big as nationals.”
This steppingstone leads into the NCAA Indoor Championships at Texas A&M on March 11 and 12 and then the full Pac-10 competition of the outdoor season.
“The Mountain-Pac meet, I don’t want to diminish it,” Kraft said, “but we just look at it as another competition. It does give us a chance to see more of the Pac-10 teams that we haven’t seen like Oregon or Stanford.”
Oregon is the defending indoor champion on the women’s side in the MPSF and NCAA. The Ducks’ strength is in their sprints, and they will be the biggest hurdle for ASU sprinting star redshirt senior Jasmine Chaney.
Chaney has put up impressive times over the past meets, but again this meet will be different.
“Jasmine (Chaney) will race some girls from Oregon that are talented,” Kraft said. “Jasmine (Chaney) has raced against some of the most talented in the country at the Texas A&M meet at the 200-meter banked track. Now she’s going to a 300-meter oversized track. So the racing is going to be different.”
Kraft is not looking for the actual results. He and the Sun Devil coaching staff will be looking at how the team responds to differences like the playing surface.
“It’s going to be a good way to evaluate our team, but it’s not the be-all end-all,” Kraft said. “You have to temper it. I’m more excited to see how we respond to the competition and assess it.”
Reach the reporter at zcavanag@asu.edu
