As the seasons change and it starts to warm up, athletes can get out of their gyms and practice facilities and take in the sunshine to continue on their marathon of a season.
While the indoor season was a successful one for several athletes, it only seems appropriate for the ASU track and field team to end the indoor season and go outside.
They are the Sun Devils after all, not the Lamp Devils.
As such, ASU opened the outdoor season with the first of five meets that will be hosted by the Sun Devils at Sun Angel Stadium with the Baldy Castillo Invitational this past weekend.
Besides the obvious weather change from controlled air conditioning to warm rays, the meet introduced some of the changes from the indoor to the outdoor season.
In the sprints, the 60-meter races are exchanged for the traditional 100-meter races. With the exchange comes the addition of another relay with the 4x100 meter relay to go along with the 4x400 meter. The longer races are also brought back into play with the 800-meter race and the 2000-meter steeplechase.
In the field events, the long jump is added along with the javelin and discus throws. One field exchange is the switch of the weight throw for the hammer throw.
These changes give the Sun Devils an advantage they did not have in the indoor season.
Where ASU was mostly limited to scoring high in the sprints and throws, it will be able to utilize the depth and versatility of the roster to try and participate and score in as many events as possible.
The larger range of events allows the Sun Devils to capitalize in middle-range and long distance runs, and the additional throwing events allows ASU to further exploit its advantage there.
Another advantage for ASU is the outdoor scheduling. With five of the season’s 11 meets in Tempe, any fatigue brought on by travel is eliminated.
Travel is also minimal for the first meet of the championship season as the Sun Devils will travel to Tucson for the Pac-10 Championships in early May.
As it was in the indoor season, ASU will get its biggest Pac-10 challenges from Oregon and Stanford. The Sun Devils will be able to close the gap between the Ducks and Cardinal with the aforementioned event advantages, but the challenge still remains.
There is plenty of time to build on the success of the indoor season and improve before that challenge needs to be met.
The road to that challenge resumes on Friday as ASU continues its hosting duties with the ASU Invitational starting on Friday, and another portion of the team will get a look at some of that challenge at the Stanford Invitational.
Reach the reporter at zcavanag@asu.edu
