Sophomore pole-vaulter Andrea Kremmerrer gets a running start before jumping over the bar during the Sun Angel Track Classic at Sun Angel Stadium on Saturday, April 12, 2014. (Photo by Becca Smouse)In the ASU track and field teams' season opener, the Sun Devils showed their exceptional talent and depth in the different indoor events.
ASU competed against host NAU, Grand Canyon University, Southern Utah, San Diego State and rival Arizona at the NAU Friday Night Duals in Flagstaff.
The meet began with the field events, with a couple of big wins from some of the younger players on the team. In her first event as a Sun Devil, sophomore Magdalyn Ewen won the women’s shot put with a throw of 15.52 meters. Senior Alex Hartig finished fourth in the shot put.
In the men’s shot put, redshirt sophomore Thomas Anderson won the event with a huge throw of 18.58 meters for the second win of his career.
The trend of underclassmen coming through continued with sophomore Keyasia Tibbs. Tibbs is a transfer from the University of North Carolina where she was a finalist in the triple jump at the ACC Championships. In her first event this year on the team, Tibbs won the women’s triple jump with a jump of 12.32 meters.
The upperclassmen were not completely outdone on the field; as junior Tanner Greeley reeled in his first win of the season in the men’s pole vault. Greeley won the event with a jump of 5.00 meters.
Senior Kyle Lillie also had an excellent showing, winning the men’s weight throw easily with a throw of 18.09 meters. Senior Ryan Leslie was behind him in second place with a throw of 17.45 meters.
In the track portion of the event, ASU dominated the short distance events
Redshirt senior Devan Spann continued on his successes from last year by winning the men’s 60-meter dash with a blazing fast time of 6.68 seconds. Following him up by winning the women’s 60-meter dash was junior Jasmine Gibbs. This was her first event at ASU after transferring from Kansas State and she won it in a very speedy 7.47 seconds, just .08 seconds off of her personal best time.
The short distance success continued in the men’s 60-meter hurdles where senior Cameron Taylor won with a time of 7.82 seconds.
In the women’s 200-meter dash, senior Brianna Tate won with a time of 24.39 seconds. Tate then helped the women’s 4x400 meter team win the final event of the Duals with a time of 3:44.29. While Tate was the anchor, freshman Melese Crozier, sophomore LaTroya Franklin, and senior Sara McDonald all ran legs to assist in the win.
The Sun Devils’ next meet is Saturday, Jan. 24 at Texas A&M for the Indoor Texas A&M Quadrangular.
Reach the reporter at tjwilkin@asu.edu or follow @Twilkins23 on Twitter.
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