The Arizona Wildcats men and women’s track and field team heads north to compete in the Arizona State Invitational today and Saturday at Joe Selleh Track at Sun Angel Stadium in Tempe, Ariz.
The feature event for the No. 9 Arizona women’s team will be the discus, which will be held on Saturday.
Senior Julie Labonté is scheduled to compete at 9 a.m. in the event.
Labonté, a Canadian, took 23rd place in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London with a toss of 57-4.25.
In the Wildcats’ first outdoor meet of the season at the Willie Williams Classic last weekend, Labonté took first place when she posted a mark of 56-0 in the shot put. She also competed in the discus, where she finished in second place.
Labonté finish as the runner-up at the 2013 NCAA Outdoor championships in the discus and she took fifth place in the shot put. Labonté won the Pac-12 Championships in the shot put as well as a runner-up finish in the discus.
Also on Saturday, the women’s 1,500-meter race will take place at 11:30 a.m. Arizona senior Elvin Kibet will race with nine other Wildcats.
Kibet won the women’s 5K at the Willie Williams Classic.
The No. 16 Arizona men’s team will also compete in the invite this weekend.
Wildcat junior Mohammad Alhasan will race in the 100-meter sprint. Alhasan finished second in the Willie Williams Classic’s 100-meter and fourth in the 200-meter race.
This weekend’s event will also feature ASU, Adams State, Iowa, Nebraska, Manhattan and South Dakota State as well as Utah and Illinois’ women’s teams.
The cool down
Last week Arizona’s senior Lawi Lalang had another appearance in The Bowerman Watch List. He has now been named to the watch list 20 times. Lalang now is the all-time leader in career appearances for men in its Post-NCAA Indoor Championships edition.
The Wildcats aren’t the only Pac-12 school ranked in the Top-25. On the women’s side, seven other schools are ranked. No. 2 Oregon is the highest ranked Pac-12 school.
For the men, six other Pac-12 schools are ranked. The Ducks also have the highest ranking for Pac-12 men’s teams at No. 4.
—Follow Luke Della @LukeDella
