ASU track and field's outdoor season officially began at Baldy Castillo Invitational on Friday and continied to Saturday.
The team hosted the event, drawing schools like Kentucky, Utah, Texas A&M and more. Though it wasn’t a scoring meet, the event did give a lot of players a chance to get themselves used to running outdoors again after competing indoors since January under head coach Greg Kraft.
"It’s important to have those people coming here and so we’ve establish a reputation that it’s a great place to come, to throw, to jump, sprint and do some distance running," Kraft said. "Everyone walks away having a good evaluation of their team."
The meet started with almost five hours of field events, with discus and hammer throws until the 3000-meter race began. The team performed well in those events, placing three athletes in the top five in the hammer and discus throws.
In the 1500-meter, ASU experimented with one of the runners. Though junior Jenior Maack didn’t have the best time in the event (that goes to senior Jen Owens), Maack competed in the event for the first time in her life and she won her heat. Maack said she couldn’t let the big situation get a hold over her.
“I’m not really nervous going into this race,” Maack said. “I don’t put a lot of pressure on myself because when I do that I tend to do poorly. Going into it I was excited, it was my first 1500-meter I’ve ever run so I was just excited to compete at night in this great atmosphere.”
She wasn’t the only one who experimented in a different zone. Senior Jamol James was seen helping the Pac-12 stream video for their live stream on the 19th. Jamol said it was his idea as the injured senior, who has been out with a leg injury, wants the experience since he’s active in musical production.
“I wanted to get into the image aspect of the stuff,” James said. “For me it was about my interest, my special interest is sound and images together.”
On day two, there were several field events events: long, triple and high jump, shot put, and javelin. The Sun Devils looked well throughout the entire meet, placing 16 athletes in the top five, seven people in the top three and three of the Sun Devils won their race.
ASU seemed to face an uphill battle with Texas A&M in the running events, especially on the men’s side with A&M continually winning their respective heats and putting constant pressure on the Sun Devils to perform.
One of the strongest performers for ASU was redshirt sophomore Maggie Ewen, as she won the hammer throw and got third in the discus throw. Though she didn’t have a lot of time to practice, she didn’t let that hold her back.
“I just got back from indoor nationals last weekend and I haven’t had that much practice with the outdoor implements,” Ewen said. “So, I was kind of going into it, trying to be relaxed, just rely on my training throughout the year and it turned out to work out for me.”
As the season progresses, the team is expected to get used to the changes that come from competing in the great outdoors. The team will be at home for the next two weeks as they will host the Pac-12 vs Big 10 challenge, and in two weeks they’ll host the Sun Angels Challenge.
Reach the reporter at osoussi@asu.edu or follow @omarksoussi on Twitter.
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