June 1, 2001
Click Here For Complete SDSU Results
EUGENE, Ore. - The heptathlon is all about consistency. And San Diego State senior Aja Frary was consistently good during the first day of the heptathlon at the 2001 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships Friday at Oregon's Hayward Field.
Frary, the 2001 Mountain West Conference champion, used two personal records and a season-best to put up a personal- and school-record first-day score of 3429 to finish third in the 22-athlete field through four of seven events. She is only 65 points behind Kansas State's Austra Skujyte, who leads heading into Saturday's final three events with 3494 points. UCLA's Michelle Perry is just one point ahead of Frary in second with 3430 points.
The Aztec senior got off to a huge start, turning in a personal-record 13.88 and finishing fourth in the 100-meter hurdles. She followed that up with season-bests of 5'-8" in the high jump -- the third-best performance of the day -- and 37'-01.75" in the shot put. Frary capped off her performance by taking fifth in the 200 meters with a time of 24.57.
Things could get even better on Saturday for Frary, who will be competing in two of her stronger events -- the long jump and 800 meters.
Should Frary maintain her position, she would become the first Aztec women's track and field All-American since Aimee Crabtree in 1999 (pole vault).
If Frary can overtake Skujyte and Perry tomorrow, she would be just the fourth San Diego State athlete to win an NCAA championship and the first since LaTanya Sheffield (400-meter hurdles) and Laura DeSnoo (discus) in 1985. SDSU has never had an NCAA heptathlon champion.
San Diego State's two other athletes competing at the NCAA's weren't as fortunate, as both junior Daveetta Shepherd and Crabtree, a senior, were eliminated from competition.
A repeat performance of Thursday's preliminaries in the 100-meter hurdles would have been good enough to put Shepherd into Saturday's finals. However the junior, who ran a season-best 13.13 Thursday, couldn't match that performance in the semifinals. Running into a stiff head-wind, Shepherd turned in a time of 13.56 and finished fifth in Heat 2 (the top-4 finishers advanced to Saturday's finals.)
In the pole vault, Crabtree was unable to make the opening height and was eliminated from the competition during the trials.