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Issue date: 4/17/09 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Kimberley Parker, Photographer

Media Credit: Courtesy of angelosports.com

Sophomore Aisha Adams spent one season at Barton County Community College in Great Bend, Kan. prior to joining the ASU Track & Field team.

Coach James Reid came across Adams during his typical recruiting process.

"We don't get too many out of state kids," Reid said. "The one's that we do go after have to be difference makers, and she is definitely one of those."

Already an exceptional athlete at Barton County, Adams was named Athlete of the Meet for the NJCAA Outdoor National Championships, and has twice this season been named Female Track Athlete of the Week.

Adams has set Personal Records in every event she competes in, except the long jump since becoming a Rambelle.

At the Tarleton State Invite on March 5, Adams was competing in the high jump in an attempt to qualify for the National Championships.

"I had only jumped 5'7 up to that point," Adams said. "All I wanted to do was qualify for nationals."

Adams took a different approach in her pre-jump routine.

"I started running a J (approach technique), and I got a mark that I had never had. I normally just picked a place and ran and jumped"

Adams successfully cleared the bar, which she learned was set at 5'10", breaking a 24-year old school record.

The previous ASU record of 5'8" in the high jump was set in 1985 by former Rambelle Donna McGill.

Adams has set the top marks for the school in six total events this season, picking up automatic qualifying marks for Nationals in four.

Besides the high jump, Adams recorded the school's best in the 100m and 400m hurdles, long jump, triple jump and the heptathalon.

In her first heptathlon for the Rambelles, she recorded the second-best point total in school history, picking up the automatic qualification for Nationals.

"The hep is my baby," Adams said. "It is my favorite event to compete in, I love the heptathalon."

Reid believes that if she continues to progress as she has all season, Adams will be selected as an All-American.

"She definitely has the talent and the ability to leave here as one of the best to ever come through here," he said. "Right now she is on the heels of one of the best that we have ever had, Adree Lakey, the only two-time National Champion for ASU."

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