June 12, 2010
EUGENE, Ore. – The 2010 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships came to a close on Saturday at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., with the Arizona State University men’s program celebrating one of its more successful seasons as the team finished fourth overall in the national standings and saw Ryan Whiting capture his second national title of the week, this time the shot put, to lead the Sun Devils in their final competition of the season. Whiting, who won the discus on Wednesday, was one of three Sun Devils to place in the Top 7 of the shot put and propel the team to its best outdoor team finish since the 1981 season.
With 37 points scored in the Championships, the Sun Devils ended the meet in fourth place and captured a trophy finish for the first time since an identical placement in the 1981 outdoor meet. The trophy -- the first for the men’s side since winning the 2008 NCAA Indoor Championships -- is the fifth all-time outdoors for the men with the other Top 4 finishes coming in 1981 (4th), 1977 (1st), 1973 (t-3rd) and 1963 (4th). Overall, Texas A&M defended its title by edging Florida, 55-54, while host Oregon was third with 45 points. In the women’s standings, TAMU won the crown for the second year in a row with 72 points while Oregon (57), Florida (40) and Penn State (34) rounded out the Top 4. The Sun Devil women also scored in the meet with four points and ended the meet in a tie for 46th place.
While the men’s team scored 37 points overall in the meet, 16 off those points came in one event as the three men scored in the shot put, led by Whiting successfully defending his national crown with yet another impressive performance. For the eighth time this year and the 10th time in his career, Whiting recorded a toss of 70-feet or better and, for the first time, broke the 72-foot barrier as his final throw measured 21.97m (72-01.00), just three centimeters off the collegiate record. His mark ranks as the best in school history and stands as the second-best all-time in the history of collegiate shot put.
With the victory, Whiting now has six career national crowns, including three indoor shot put titles (2008, 2009, 2010), two outdoor shot put crowns (2009, 2010) and one discus title (2010). Based on his shot put success, Whiting’s five total shot put crowns ranks him tied for third all-time with Hans Hogland (UTEP) and Janus Robberts (SMU) while his two outdoor titles makes him one of just 19 men in the history of the NCAA to win two or more outdoor titles in a career. Whiting’s sweep of the shot put and discus this week marked the 11th time since the 1921 NCAA Championships (99 years) that the sweep has occurred and the first time since Janus Robberts (SMU) did so in 2002. Whiting is the 10th different man to accomplish the feat as Randy Matson (Texas) did so in 1966 and 1967.
Jordan Clarke and Jason Lewis also joined Whiting in a rarity as the trio finished fifth, seventh and first, respectively, to give ASU three in the finals (one-third of the finalists) and three All-Americans in the event. Heading into the finals, Lewis was ninth and Clarke eighth before both moved up in the fourth round, including Lewis, who went from not scoring (ninth) all the way to fifth with his season best toss of 18.77m (61-07.00), a mark that would eventually earn him seventh place. Clarke also moved up as his final mark of 19.21m (63-00.25) pushed him to fifth place and gave him not only a personal-best mark, but also the eighth-best toss in program history.
The shot put trio were not the only Sun Devils that competed on the day as ASU was represented in the final two events of the meet, the 5,00m run and the 4x400m relay. First up for the Sun Devils was the 5,000m run that saw Brandon Bethke and Zeke Van Patten place 11th (14:00.26) and 23rd overall (14:29.28), respectively. In the final race of the meet, the team of Justin Kremer, Allante Battle, Donald Sanford and Joel Phillip combined to run 3:05.65 and finished eighth to score one team point and collect All-America honors. With that honor, Sanford walked away from his final NCAA meet with a pair of All-America accolades after taking second in the 400m dash one day earlier.
Along with Whiting and Sanford, Lewis also was a two-time All-American this weekend as he finished seventh in the discus on the first day of the meet to collect the national honor. Kremer, Battle and Phillip joined women’s standout Jasmine Chaney as single All-America honorees this week as Chaney, who entered the meet ranked 17th overall, finished fifth in the final out of lane one in the 400m hurdles for her first individual All-America accolade.
Overall, the Sun Devil men earned six individual and one relay All-America honors with seven different Sun Devils contributing to that haul. Whiting and Lewis finished their careers with 11 and eight All-America honors, respectively, which stand as the most and second-most for a Sun Devil track & field male athlete in program history. Whiting also became just the second Sun Devil (Sarah Stevens was the first) to earn at least one All-America honor in eight-consecutive NCAA meets (four indoor, four outdoor). Several other Sun Devils could be added to the All-America haul once the USTFCCCA releases its listing next week.
2010 NCAA Championships - Eugene, Ore.
Day 4 Arizona State Results (Saturday)
Men’s 5,000m Run - Final
11. Brandon Bethke - 14:00.26
23. Zeke Van Patten - 14:29.28
Men’s 4x400m Relay - Final
8. Arizona State - 3:05.65 - All-Americans
J. Kremer, A. Battle, D. Sanford, J. Phillip
Men’s Shot Put - Final
1. Ryan Whiting - 21.97m (72-01.00) - NCAA Champion, All-American, Collegiate #2 All-Time, School Record
5. Jordan Clarke - 19,21m (63-00.25) - All-American, ASU #8 all-time mark
7. Jason Lewis - 18.77m (61-07.00) - All-American