The ASU track and field team put on a show and swept NAU and UA in the Double Dual at Sun Angel Stadium on Saturday, claiming state bragging rights in the Sun Devils’ final test against top Pac-10 competition before next weekend’s championships.
ASU pulled off two upsets against its principal rival as the No. 10 women’s team defeated the No. 7 Wildcats, 104.5-94.5, and the No. 25 men’s team upended No. 9 UA 113-79.
ASU completed its 14th consecutive sweep of NAU in the Double Dual with a 138-52 women’s win and a 127-60 win on the men’s side.
Battling state rivals and a conference foe in UA, redshirt freshman Ryan Milus and his teammates didn’t have to search for reasons to compete on Saturday.
“We were real motivated,” Milus said. “We know we’re going to see them in a couple weeks at Pac-10s. We wanted to show them that we’re here, we’re feeling good and we’re running good. We’re ready to beat them down at Pac-10s.”
Milus posted two individual victories for the Sun Devils by taking the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes and anchored the winning men’s 4x100 meter relay team.
Milus’ victories are the latest in a string of impressive performances that have put him in some serious talk for Pac-10 competition. This late winning surge is indicative of his running style: strong at the finish.
“These past couple weeks at practice, we’ve been working on some technical things,” Milus said. “In previous meets, I had a couple of lapses in my races. I just wanted to clean those up. I’ve been working on cleaning up the end of my races and finish strong.”
While Milus was the story for the men’s sprinters, redshirt senior Jasmine Chaney again was the star for the women’s sprinters.
Chaney collected four of the 12 women’s wins for the Sun Devils in the meet. In her final home meet for ASU, Chaney captured the 100-meter and 400-meter hurdle races and helped pull in the 4x100 meter and 4x400 meter relays.
The Sun Devils had four victories in the field, including a sweep of the pole vault by senior Corey Phallen and freshman Shaylah Simpson.
Redshirt sophomore Jordan Clarke scored a win in the shot put that could send a big message to the Pac-10. Clarke had a first-place toss of 18.65 meters to out throw UA’s two shot putters who figure to be his biggest competition at Pac-10s.
“It’s kind of like a mini Pac-10 meet,” Clarke said. “We’re gearing up. It’s going to be one of the three of us that wins it. We’re just trying to establish something before going into the meet.”
With the regular season wrapped up, the Sun Devils look forward to the Pac-10 Multis next weekend and the Pac-10 Championships the following weekend, both in Tucson, Ariz.
The performances over the last few weeks and in the Double Dual leave ASU with nothing but confidence heading into the championship season.
“After these past couple weeks, we’ve been competing really well against some of the best teams.” Milus said. “We’ve been posting some good times, and we hope we can get back into it.”
Reach the reporter at zcavanag@asu.edu
