ASU track and field will be competing at the Indoor Mt. T's invitational in Flagstaff this weekend against universities including NAU, Cal State and Arizona.
The Sun Devils are coming off a tough loss at the Texas A&M Quadrangular as both the men's and women's team ended up in last place. Track and field redshirt freshman Ryan Normand is confident that his team can rebound from this defeat.
“I have really high hopes,” Normand said. “Looking at individual performances just on the distance side, we had the women sweep two events. … I think we’re happy with that.”
Though the team struggled, they did have some bright points; both sides consistently put athletes in the top-five. They had a lot of success in the field events, as the Sun Devils were in the top-three in seven of the 12 events. They have a lot of depth and experience and one of their best throwers, senior Ahmed Hassan is excited to go out, compete and fix some of his mistakes.
“I’ve been having a lot of technique problems lately,” Hassan said. “Coach Dumble and I have been working on that a lot in practice. I’m really looking forward to try and change my mindset to focusing on technique instead of other things like speed and power."
Despite his technique issues, he got third place in shot put with a throw of 17.26 meters.
Hassan believes that the throwers have such a strong impact because of how many of them are on the team.
“We’re one of the largest groups,” Hassan said. “If we all give our best and do well, we can have a big impact on the total points achieved.”
Hassan isn’t the only one that the team expects to perform well. Redshirt junior Kyle Long has also done well this season, and has been put into a leadership position. Long and the other leaders have given their inexperienced teammates helpful advice.
“The biggest thing that we can reinforce is that it’s important to just play how you practice, practice how you play,” Long said.
The team has done well in placing runners in a position to get in the top-five of most events; however, the team's lack of depth is an issue. Other teams' second or third runners often beat out ASU's second or third. Normand thinks it's too early to tell.
“Sometimes these early meets, some teams will race a larger portion of their squad, some teams will just travel with a small portion of their squad," he said. "We have people right now who are probably ready to compete but just didn’t go to Texas A&M.”
Related Links:
ASU track and field loses to three schools
ASU track and field to face off against Pac-12 rivals
Reach the reporter at osoussi@asu.edu or follow @omarksoussi on Twitter.
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