The ASU indoor track and field team finished up competition this weekend at the Texas A&M Mondo Challenge, helping the Pac-12 Conference to a second-place men's finish and a third-place finish for the women in the tri-conference battle.
Overall, the Sun Devils had quite a few good performances this weekend, especially the men.
Senior Chris Benard posted his second-straight triple jump win, landing a jump of 15.97 meters. Coach Greg Kraft is extremely impressed with his performance so far this year.
“What he (Benard) has done in the first two meets speaks really well about how the season will go for him,” Kraft said.
In only the second race of his Sun Devil career, junior Chris Burrows finished with a time of 21.31 seconds in the 200-meter dash, the fastest time for the team since 2005.
Junior Nick Happe won the 3,000 meters, clocking a time of 8:00.66, good enough for a top ten national ranking and Happe's personal record.
Kraft talked earlier this week about the importance of redshirt sophomore Ryan Milus in the 60-meter dash.
He also talked about the importance of the 4x400-meter relay and the distance medley team to the success of the Sun Devils’ season.
Milus finished second overall in the 60-meter dash, with a time of 7
.76 seconds.
The 4x400-meter relay team finished fourth overall, but the result is somewhat deceiving. The Sun Devils finished less than a second behind the overall winner, Oregon.
“Chris Burrows did an excellent job taking us off the top,” Kraft said.
The distance medley team also took fourth-place, but finished with the fifth fastest time in ASU history at 9:42.84.
“The distance medley was really encouraging,” Kraft said.
Promising starts for Houlihan, Nettey
The Sun Devil women had only one individual winner over the weekend, but had other strong performances.
Junior Christabel Nettey won the women's long jump, with a jump of 5.87 meters.
The women's 4x400-meter relay team also had a strong showing. The group finished in third-place overall with a top 20 national time of 3:37.65.
“This was an extremely good time early in the season,” Kraft said. “We were pleased with that.”
Also stepping up for the women was freshman Shelby Houlihan, who went toe-to-toe with two All-Americans in the 800-meter. She finished in third-place and recorded the fastest time for ASU in the event since 1995.
“We haven't had someone of her presence since I have been here,” Kraft said. “She really fills a void for us and Oregon, and Tennessee are really strong in the middle distance, and she and Carly Paracholski really competed strongly.”
Reach the reporter at dsshapi1@asu.edu
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