ASU's Pinnick wins Pac-12 heptathlon title

LOS ANGELES -- Arizona State senior Keia Pinnick earned her first-ever Pac-12 championship on Sunday, winning the heptathlon competition at the Pac-12 multis.

Pinnick finished with a new career best of 5,801 points as she won two events on the final day of competition at Cromwell Field at Loker Stadium. The senior finished nearly 200 points ahead of runner-up Tatum Souza of UCLA (5,624 points) to win the first individual outdoor conference honor of her career.

With the victory, Pinnick became the third Sun Devil to win the conference heptathlon championships in the past decade, giving ASU five titles in the event since 2004 (Jacquelyn Johnson had three while Samantha Henderson earned the other one).

Pinnick opened Sunday with a winning mark of 5.92m (19-05.25) in the long jump to space out her lead over Souza.

That performance set Pinnick up to absolutely demolish her previous career best in the javelin throw by over two meters with a mark of 38.73m (127-01), far better than her previous career long of 36.19m (118-09), which was set earlier this year.

The throw was good for fourth place in the event and allowed Pinnick to cruise in the 800-meter run, where she held off Colorado's Brianne Beemer to win in 2:15.06 to lock up with conference title.

Pinnick won five events on the weekend and earned 10 points toward ASU's overall score as the women prepare for the remainder of the competition, which begins Saturday.