It might have been the first weekend at home for the ASU track and field teams, but the most noise was made on the road by the Sun Devils.
The men's 4x400-meter relay team of Jason Barton, Steve Fitch, Seth Amoo and Domenik Peterson, regarded as one of the best in the country, set a new collegiate record of 3 minutes, 3.43 seconds to win the race and to automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships. The mark is just the second sub-3:04 mark this year.
Freshman Peterson, the team's anchor, recorded a school record in the 200-meter dash with a 20.84, breaking the previous record set by Amoo earlier in the year.
At home, the squad was able to enjoy the fresh air for their first outdoor meet of the season, the Bill Sawyer Invitational.
In the event, three regionals and one Pac-10 mark were earned with eight events having an ASU athlete recording a victory.
All of the athletes and coaching staff in attendance agreed that the Arizona sun was a welcome change compared to the bland conditions of running and jumping indoors.
"We're kind of lucky and fortunate in a sense that we really don't have to deal with a lot of the elements, outside of heat," assistant coach Louie Quintana said. "Right now, people are shoveling snow off of their tracks and we're running in 75-degree weather."
Among the winners were senior Travis Jones, who set two regional marks with throws of 56.61m in the hammer and 16.85m in the shot put, and freshman Stephen Dolk, who cleared 5.00m in the pole vault making him the first Sun Devil in the outdoor season to earn a spot in both the NCAA West Region and Pac-10 Championships.
In Washington, three members earned provisional marks and moved onto the ASU top-five all-time list. Freshman Jessica Pressley won the weight with a toss of 19.10m. Sophomore Roger Cahill took sixth in the 3,000-meter run with a time of 8:03.18.
Reach the reporter at jeffrey.hoodzow@asu.edu.
