Trio of Devils Set for USATF Trials
TEMPE - Three Sun Devils are chasing their Olympic dreams this week. Three-time national champion thrower Turner Washington, Pac-12 110m hurdle champion Jamar Marshall Jr., and indoor All-American Kentre Patterson will compete in the USATF Team Trials Thursday-Saturday at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon. Washington opens discus qualifying Thursday, while Marshall Jr. and Patterson both run Friday in round one of three 110H races. The top-three finishers in each event punch their tickets to Tokyo 2020.
Trials Links
USATF Team Trials Home
Sun Devil Olympic History
Schedule
Results
Sun Devil Schedule (all times local):
Thursday - Washington, discus qualifying - 7:05 p.m.
Friday - Marshall Jr./Patterson, 110H 1st round - 2:33 p.m.
Washington, discus final - 3:30 p.m.
Saturday - Marshall Jr./Patterson, 110H semi-finals - 6:03 p.m.
Marshall Jr./Patterson, 110H final - 7:51 p.m.
Washington and Marshall Jr. are coming off the NCAA Outdoor Championships where they each left their marks at the national level. Washington, a redshirt junior out of Tucson, Arizona, earned a pair of national titles with victories in the shot put (21.10m/69-2.75 ) and discus (63.42m/208-1). He joined Sun Devil great and former Olympian Ryan Whiting '09 as the only Sun Devils to win the indoor shot, outdoor shot, and discus all in the same seasons. That feat has only been accomplished three times in NCAA history, with John Godina also doing it in 1995 for UCLA.
Marshall Jr., a freshman out of Stockton, California, ran the 110H in 13.53, 0.28 off winner Robert Dunning of Alabama, to take fifth overall. The finish completed the first-year Sun Devils' record-breaking freshman campaign that featured him taking the Pac-12 110H crown, breaking the ASU 60m indoor and 110H records, and slotting his name into sixth all-time in the outdoor 400m hurdles.
Patterson's most recent competition was the NCAA West Prelims where he ran a wind-aided 13.73 in the prelims but was unable to advance to the championships after a false start in the final heat. The East Lansing, Michigan, native took bronze in the 110H at the Pac-12 Championships (13.56) and was a second-team All-American in the indoor 60m hurdles. Patterson's been neck-and-neck with Marshal Jr. all season and currently sits third all-time at ASU in the event thanks to his Pac-12 Championships time.
The three men look to add to ASU's long list of Olympic competitors. The Sun Devils cheered on five track and field alumni at the 2016 Rio Olympics, including: Chris Benard (TJ), Marcus Duncan (4x1), Shelby Houlihan (5K), Christabel Nettey (LJ), and Donald Sanford (400m).
A Sun Devil hasn't competed at the Olympics in the 110H since Seoul 1988 when Andrew Parker ran for Jamaica, and Washington could become the first male Sun Devil to ever join Team USA's discus swuad. Leslie Deniz and Ria Stalman both threw the platter at Los Angeles '84.