ASU track and field only took 19 athletes to the Mountain T Invitational, limiting its potential for all-around success despite placing athletes in the top-three in several events.
The men finished in last place. The women got fifth place out of eight teams including Grand Canyon, University of Nevada, Las Vegas and Northern Arizona University.
The invite was spilt into two days. ASU didn't compete on the first day, giving up 10 running events and 11 field events. The next day, Jan. 30, ASU competed in most of them and had a lot of success in a short amount of time.
The first event was the women’s 60-meter dash. In the preliminaries, senior Jasmine Gibbs won (7.54 seconds) and junior Keyasia Tibbs finished in fifth place with a time of 7.78 seconds. Gibbs didn't let up in the finals, winning that too (7.46 seconds) and Tibbs improved to third place, taking .13 seconds off her time.
On the men’s side of the 60-meter, senior Isiah Underwood took second place in the prelims with a time of 6.75 seconds. He won the finals in 6.69 seconds.
In the 60-meter hurdle prelims, freshman Sydney Mosley continued ASU's success; she got first place (8.63 seconds) and won the final event as well with a time of 8.42 seconds.
ASU didn't let up in the 400-meter dash. Junior LaTroya Franklin won it all when she ran for 55.29 seconds. On the men’s side, freshman Brandon Hasson got third when he ran for 49.96 seconds.
In the field events, ASU started its day competing in the pole vault event. Four men Sun Devils placed in the top-five, and three women swept the top-three.
In men’s high jump, ASU placed three athletes in the top five, two of whom finished in the top two spots. Junior Tim White and freshman Mason Ford both jumped two meters, but a slip by Ford costed him the top position, allowing White to win. Freshman Reed Bussey got fifth place when he hit 1.95 meters.
For the final event, women pole vault, ASU swept everyone in the top three as sophomores Kristiana Warth got first with 3.81 meters, Haleigh Fritts also got 3.81 meters but made a mistake in her first jump so she ended up in second and Athena Masolini got third place when she hit 3.66 meters. ASU also had freshman Jenna Fitzgerald get sixth place at that event with 3.21 meters.
Though the team didn’t win the whole event, the team did ok with the talent they brought and one can only imagine what will happen when this team brings everyone to the meet.
Reach the reporter at osoussi@asu.edu or follow @omarksoussi on Twitter.
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