The ASU track team competed in the Big-10 vs. Pac-12 invitational at Sun Angel Stadium over the last two days, competing against Nebraska, Penn State, Indiana and Michigan.
The Pac-12 (which consisted of California, Arizona and Washington) lost to the Big-10 both in women’s (391-298) and men’s (378.25-346.75) competitions. ASU men took third place overall behind Nebraska and California, and fifth place overall in the women’s behind Nebraska, Penn State, Michigan and California.
Though the results could’ve been better, head coach Greg Kraft said he isn’t reading too much into it.
“You don't want to read too much into it because everybody is entering, like we are, in different events,” Kraft said. "It's a little misleading, so for me, the team scores, I kind of have to disregard because I don't know how they enter and if kids were in maybe off races because it's still early in the season and we're still roughly 7 and a half weeks, 7 weeks out from the Pac-12 championship."
In the first day on March 25, there were only three events that took place: the hammer throws, the javelins and the 5k. In each of those events, a Sun Devil placed in the top ten, while two ASU were in second place in their respective match as redshirt sophomore Maggie Ewen took second place in the hammer throws and freshman Hudson Keffer got second in the men’s javelin. The day finished with the Pac-12 men holding a 62-55 lead and with the Pac-12 women losing 73-44.
On Saturday, more than 20 events outlined the meet.
The Sun Devils found individual success with 29 top-ten finishes. One of the top competitors for the Sun Devils was freshman Sierra Irvin, who earned top-five marks in both the 400 and the 4 x 400. Irvin said it was her base that helped her do well her first year in college and that she wasn’t expecting this amount of results.
“A lot of times when people come into college, their first freshman year is not as good as they hope, just because it's hard for your body to adapt to all the change," Irvin said. "So I'm really happy with how it's going so far and I just hope to keep getting better."
Though the team succeeded individually, the team’s depth was once again an issue. The Sun Devils weren’t completely healthy going into the meet and the competition brought a lot of their best to compete.
They just couldn’t outlast the Big-10.
The Sun Devils will have two weeks before their final home meet, the Sun Angel Classic, which will be held on April 7 in Tempe, Arizona. Ewen said she is ready to get back to work on Monday and prepare for the next challenge.
“It's going to be so important,” Ewen said. "Right away on Monday, got to start treating it like we have a big meet coming up that weekend because there's going to be so many big people there that you have to be ready for anything."
For Kraft, he said he wants to see his whole team healthy and ready to compete in their final home meet, not just to win the meet but to see where they are as a healthy team.
“It's always important (to win), but it's more important for us to get our entire team out because we need to assess where we are and where,” Kraft said. "And we're being very cautious because we don't have tremendous depth but we need to show up for sure."
Reach the reporter at osoussi@asu.edu or follow @omarksoussi on Twitter.
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