UA track and field teams sweep state rivals in meet

Jon Pillow Arizona Daily Wildcat

The Arizona men's and women's track teams rolled over Arizona State and Northern Arizona in the three-team dual in Tempe this weekend despite Mother Nature's attempt to disrupt things.

Final scores saw the Wildcat men crush ASU, 114-62 and NAU, 102-84, while the women had a comparatively easy time, beating ASU, 94-80 and NAU, 106-66.

"We didn't have a lot of good performances, but with the weather, especially the wind, it threw us off," UA head coach Dave Murray said.

The men had one of their best showings of the season, with 10 first-place finishers.

Sophomore Jussi Autio tied his season-best height of 17 feet, 3/4 inches in the pole vault, while senior Jon Pillow captured two events, the 3,000 meter run (8 minutes, 29.42 seconds) and 3,000m steeplechase (9:28.59).

Other winners included senior Kyle Dorsey in the 400m hurdles (52.80), senior Akin Akinremi in the 100m (10.59), senior Dameon Ortiz in the 400m (47.30), junior Bob Keino in the 800m (1:52.92) and senior Luther Kopf in the 1,500m (3:51.53).

"It was very hard for us on the track," Murray said. "Dameon ran a very good race despite the wind."

Murray's stated goal coming into the meet was to have as many athletes as possible attain Pacific 10 Conference Championship qualifying marks. Autio, Dorsey, Akinremi, Ortiz and sophomore Tapio Kolunsarka in the hammer throw (208-5, 2nd place) all qualifi ed. Kolunsarka's mark was good enough for provisional NCAA qualifying. The provisional mark is good enough for the NCAA field unless it's outdone in remaining meets.

Sophomore Amy Skieresz won the 3,000m, posting a Pac-10 and NCAA-provisional qualifying time of 9:42.52.

Freshman Erin Aldrich won the high jump for the third time in four outdoor meets this season with a height of 6-2, an automatic NCAA qualifying mark.

Freshman Tara Flaming came in second at 5-10, good enough to qualify for both the Pac-10 and NCAA-provisional.

Junior Virginia Camacho was the other winner, taking the 800m in a time of 2:14.27. Senior Holly Montoya came in second in the hammer throw with a distance of 172-5, which was also good enough for Pac-10 and NCAA-provisional.

Others to receive Pac-10 qualifying marks included freshmen Shellei Guenther and Sarah Seronde in the hammer (3rd, 152-2 and 4th, 149-5) and senior Dee Dee Buzzi in the 400m hurdles (2nd, 1:02.26).