By Arlie Rahn
Arizona Daily Wildcat
While the UA track and field men continued their dominance, the women couldn't quite overcome a talented Arizona State team.
The men broke the century mark twice as they brought out the broom in victories over ASU (117-73) and Northern Arizona (136-53). The women beat up on NAU (101-54), but fell a little short against the Sun Devils (85-82).
"Both squads gave an excellent effort," said UA coach Dave Murray. "But the story of the meet was the effort we received from some of the players that haven't received much press."
Performers like Dominic Johnson and Eric Payner for the men, and Dee Dee Buzzi for the women stepped it up against their intrastate rivals. Johnson, a freshman, took the pole vaulting title with a distance of 16 feet, 4 3/4 inches. Payner qualified for the Pacific 10 Conference championships with his mark of 186-1 in the hammer throw.
Buzzi came in and, in her first performance in the event, placed in the triple jump and finished second in the 100-meter hurdles.
But the big guns came in and took care of business as well. The men were led by the Keino brothers in the 1,500 as they controlled the distance events. Martin Keino finished first with a time of 3:48.22 and brother Bob Keino finished right behind him at 3:50.41. Margo Casillas and Art Jimenez turned in a neck-and-neck performance as Casillas edged Jimenez 14:41.98 to 14:41.99 in the 5,000. The Wildcats also controlled the shot put
and hammer throw as Tyson Lingenfeter (56-2 3/4) and David Loshonkohl (222-8) won respectively.
The women were paced by Viola Schaffer, whose 9:41.72 mark in the 3,000 led the field. Wildcats' Michelle Johnson (13.96) and Rebecca Butt (5-7 1/4) controlled the 100 hurdles and high jump, respectively.
"I think that although we lost to ASU, we competed extremely well. Before the meet we had figured an 84-84 tie if we would run our best," Murray said. "It ended up coming down to our mile relay and we ran our best, but it was not good enough to win."
Now that the team is within four weeks of the Pac-10 championships, which will be held in Tucson, Murray feels they are ready for the big time.
"What has impressed me the most is that as the season has progressed, we have continued to show improvement," Murray said. "I think we're in pretty good shape."