Track & Field Wins Five Events, Sets Two ASU Records at MPSF Meet

Sun Devil women lead after day one while men are two points out of first

Feb. 29, 2008

Results

TEMPE, Ariz. - The Arizona State University track and field team opened competition at the 2008 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) Indoor Championships Friday by winning five individual events, setting two school records and recording 13 marks (three auto and 10 provisional) that qualify for the NCAA Championships. The meet is being held inside the Dempsey Indoor in Seattle on the Washington campus.

After the first day of action, the No. 2 Sun Devil women are halfway home to successfully defending the title it earned last year as they have scored 78 points while Stanford is in second with 64 points. The women's Top 5 is rounded out by Oregon (31), Washington (25.5) and California (23.5). On the men's side, the No. 1 Sun Devils trail defending champion and host UW by two points, 31-29, while Washington State (25), Oregon (23) and CS Northridge (17) complete the Top 5 in the men's team title race.

The men turned in a pair of top performances and were led by Jeff Helmer, who was running his first indoor collegiate race, won the 5,000m run in 14:01.83. His time earned him a place on the NCAA provisional qualifiers list while also moving into No. 2 on the all-time ASU Top 5. His teammates also earned a national berth as the distance medley relay team of Joey Heller, Jimmie Gordon, Nectaly Barbosa and Kyle Alcorn clocked in at 9:32.80 to place second overall behind Stanford (9:31.52) to earn an automatic berth into the national meet. Their time also ranks as the fastest in school history, surpassing the time of 9:39.14 turned in by Brandon Strong, LaVell Robinson-Blanchard, David Burke and Garrett Jensen in 2000.