MEET NOTES
TEMPE – Cross country returns to The Valley this weekend as the Sun Devils' annual home meet will be the squads' regular-season finale and the final opportunity for individual Sun Devils to make their case for a place on ASU's postseason lineup.
The men's four-mile race will feature most of the Sun Devils, including J.P. Nelson, who will make his season debut after recovering from an injury over the summer and most of the season.
With ASU team captain John Reniewicki resting up for the conference championships, the Devils will be without their top-finisher in three of the last four meets.
"After last weekend and not being happy with the performance, almost everyone is racing, so it gives us an opportunity to make a good step forward and build some confidence and momentum as we head into the postseason," head coach Jeremy Rasmussen said.
Jackson Lewis and the rest of the Sun Devil lineup will look to right the ship at home after coming up short at Pre-Nationals a week ago in Louisville.
The small field will consist of big names in defending NCAA champion Northern Arizona and Pac-12 rival Arizona, among others.
The four-mile run is just under a mile short of what the Sun Devil men will have to run at next weekend's conference championships in Bend, Oregon, but ASU has run two 8K races in the past month in Minnesota and Louisville.
For the women, the Sun Devils' projected top-two at conference, Chelsey Albertson and Samantha Ortega, will sit out, but Courtney Lewis will seek to continue her late-season surge that started back in Minneapolis.
"You definitely want to put them in a situation so they can recover well after they all did a decent job at Pre-Nats," Rasmussen said. "Putting John, Sam and Chelsey in a position to get another quality workout in with their schedules is more important than having them race this late in the season."
Freshmen Emily Gallegos-Francksen and Anastasia Hancock return to the lineup, and Angela Saitta and Billie Jo Dytrt will make their team-leading fifth appearances of the season at the Karsten golf course.
Anna Pruter's scoring streak of four-straight meets will come to an end as she is not entered in the three-mile race, but she will likely be an important piece in the Sun Devil top-five come Pac-12s.
"On the ladies' side, our top-five is pretty much set," Rasmussen said. "Courtney Lewis has been our No. 3 since she's come back, Anna's been in the top-five, Daan's been there, but there's still that opportunity for Alexis to be there or for Billie Jo to step up like she did last year when she was second for us at the conference meet. We definitely have a group of women that could be scorers at the conference meet for us."
The 2017 ASU Cross Country Invitational is just a two-race meet featuring several local programs, including host Arizona State.
Karsten golf course will host this year's men's four-mile and women's three-mile runs that are scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. PT.
Fans hoping to attend the race can park in the Karsten parking lot.
The starting line will be on the fairway of the 10th hole and the runners will do either four or three mile-long loops of the course before crossing the finish line on the second cut near the tee box of the same hole.
Results will be posted to thesundevils.com following the completion of the meet, and a full recap for the Sun Devil men and women will be available online as well.
What to Watch For
With several key scorers expected to sit out for the Sun Devils, Friday's home meet is a prime opportunity for first-year coach Jeremy Rasmussen to get a look at some of his younger talent and for some of the Sun Devil veterans to make a case for the postseason roster.
The Sun Devil men are undoubtedly looking to bounce back after a tough outing in Kentucky a week ago. They will be without team captain John Reniewicki, but Nick Dale, Michael Renner and Jackson Lewis will each make their team-leading fifth appearances of the season. Lewis, a true freshman, is the only Sun Devil to have scored in each meet this season.
For the women, Courtney Lewis will likely lead the way with established duo Samantha Ortega and Chelsey Albertson taking on the roles as spectators this time.
The Devils will be without Cecile Lejeune for the third-straight week, but there is hope that she can return as early as the West Regionals in less than a month.
Four Sun Devil women will make their season debuts in Melese Crozier, Bianca Tinoco, Christine Williford and graduate transfer Alethia Marrero.
Marrero was a first-team All-American at Indiana State in the 800-meter run before electing to complete her eligibility at ASU.
ASU will match up with the Wildcats of Arizona for a third time this season, but the two rivals still have two more meetings scheduled this season at the Pac-12 and NCAA West Regional Championships within the next month.
Ortega, Albertson Carry ASU in Louisville
Samantha Ortega and Chelsey Albertson were ASU's top-finishers in the Derby City, with the pair taking 77th and 79th, respectively.
The tough section pitted ASU's women against 14 teams in the USTFCCCA top-30 or receiving votes, but the Sun Devils were up to the challenge as they topped a No. 24 Missouri team with the defending NCAA champion leading the Tigers' charge, and two programs receiving votes in the most recent ranking.
The wins may prove crucial for the Sun Devils in their quest for a berth at the NCAA Championships that will be held at Louisville's "Tom" Sawyer course in just over a month.
While only the top-two finishing teams at the Regional Championships are guaranteed places at the national meet, at-large bids are determined by resumes and head-to-head matchups.
Ortega and Albertson ran together for the entire race and only finished within two places of each other.
The 20:59.8 from Ortega was nearly two minutes better than her 6K time at the Roy Griak Invitational two weeks ago, and Albertson's 21:02.0 was a season's best as well.
Courtney Lewis (102) was ASU's No. 3 finisher, Anna Pruter took 153rd and Daan Haven finished 195th to wrap up the Sun Devil scoring. Alexis Nichols and Billie Jo Dytrt finished 213th and 215th, respectively, and in the second section of the women's 6K, true freshman Angela Saitta finished 172nd.
John Reniewicki highlighted a tough outing for the Sun Devil men.
He finished 88th in the 8K race in 24:25.4, just over 10 seconds off of his personal best.
The Sun Devil men took 41st overall with 1,096 points.
Sun Devil Entries – ASU XC Invitational
Men: Nick Dale, Erik Gonzalez, Jackson Lewis, J.P. Nelson, Michael Renner, Kyle Shinn, Alexander Stevens
Women: Melese Crozier, Billie Jo Dytrt, Emily Gallegos-Francksen, Lauren Gavulic, Anastasia Hancock, Courtney Lewis, Alethia Marrero, Angela Saitta, Bianca Tinoco, Christine Williford
Sun Devil Women Stay Put at No. 9 Out West
After a solid showing at the Pre-Nationals Invitational where the Sun Devil women took down No. 24 Missouri and two more teams receiving votes, ASU held onto its No. 9 spot while the rest of the region shifted.
Eight teams found themselves with a new ranking this week in the USTFCCCA's West Region poll with Stanford taking the biggest tumble from No. 2 to No. 5.
Nationally, Stanford dropped nine places, but the Pac-12 still owns two of the top-three rankings with new No. 1 Oregon and previous No. 1 Colorado slotting in at No. 3.
On the men's side, the Devils were left out of the West's top-15 for a second-straight week.
The national men's poll saw just three teams hold their places with Nos. 1 and 2 NAU and BYU, and No. 8 Oregon holding onto their rankings.
Portland and Arkansas effectively swapped spots with the Pilots rising 22 places to No. 3 overall and the Razorbacks falling 22 after a disappointing weekend at Pre-Nats.
Lewis Capitalizing as a Freshman
The jump from high school to college can be a challenging one and even more so when going from high school competition to the collegiate ranks.
Sun Devil freshman Jackson Lewis has accepted the challenge and has been the most consistent ASU runner this season, scoring in all four regular season events with just one to go.
He finished as the No. 4 runner in his first race, but has finished as high as ASU's No. 2 this season.
He's posted the third-fastest 8K time this season by a Sun Devil behind two redshirt-juniors John Reniewicki and Nick Dale at last weekend's Pre-Nationals Invitational.
With Reniewicki out for the ASU Invitational, Lewis has a chance to be ASU's top-finisher in just his first season with the Devils.