On Saturday, the ASU track team took on rival Arizona in its annual "Duel in the Desert" meet. This year, ASU hosted the meet in Sun Angel Stadium.
The Sun Devil women came away with a win by a score of 97.5 to 93.5, but the men were unable to complete the sweep as they fell to the Arizona, 102 to 94.
On Friday, ASU got off to a hot start by winning both the men’s and women’s hammer throw and jumping out to a 7-4 lead on the men’s side and a 8-3 lead on the women’s side.
Redshirt junior Maggie Ewen led the Sun Devils on Friday as she broke her own American collegiate record in the hammer throw by throwing for 72.81 meters – good enough for first place in that event .
Here's @MagdalynMaeEwen new American collegiate record throw of 72.81m (238-10.50)! #DuelintheDesert pic.twitter.com/yxL4VEoFIv
— SunDevilTFXC (@SunDevilTFXC) April 29, 2017
"Practice has been going better so I just tried to do what I know how to do," Ewen said.
In the men’s hammer throw, redshirt senior Kyle Long won the event for the Sun Devils with a throw of 67.27 meters which was also a new personal record for Long.
On Saturday, Ewen and Long continued to carry the Sun Devils with victories in the men’s and women’s discus throw.
Ewen threw for 57.31 meters, while Long threw for 58.38 – giving him his second PR in two days.
Both Long and Ewen also competed in the shot put. Long finished in fourth place with a throw of 17.80 meters meters, while Ewen continued her dominance with another first place finish and a throw of 17.39 meters.
"Doing three events you can’t be great at all times," throwing coach Brian Blutreich said. "So that’s what makes Kyle’s weekend unbelievable because he did three different events at such a high level.”
Redshirt sophomore Matthew Eckles and redshirt senior Jacob Flores picked up first and second place in the men's pole vault. Eckles cleared the bar at 5.13 meters, while Flores cleared the bar at 4.88 meters.
Another major contributor for the men's team was redshirt sophomore Joey Bryant, who started off the meet with a second place finish in the men's long jump.
Bryant followed that up with a first place finish in the in the high jump, jumping for 2.15 meters to tie his personal record.
Bryant wasn't done yet, he then jumped for 14.45 meters in the triple jump, earning his second first place finish of the day. This was the first time the Bryant jumped the triple jump for the Sun Devils all season.
On the track for the men, redshirt senior CJ Albertson finished in second place in the men's steeplechase with a time of 8:53.04 and also finished in first place in the men's 3000 meter run with a time of 8:31.29.
“Champions win championships," Kraft said. "You gotta have guys that can win and right now on the guys side when you look at people that can win obviously Garrett can win, Kyle Long I think can win, CJ Albertson, that steeple is very good, just you just don’t know.”
Reach the reporter at jzaklis@gmail.com and follow @JoshZaklis on Twitter.
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