This past season, Sun Devil senior Maggie Ewen etched her name in Arizona State and NCAA history when she broke the collegiate record and ran away with the hammer throw title at the NCAA Championships.
She did the unprecedented when she swept the discus, shot put and hammer throw at the Pac-12 Championships, and Ewen alone outscored 40 programs at the NCAA Championships in June when she put up 21 points in her three events.
2017 was the Year of Maggie Ewen.
But that dream season almost didn't happen.
"When coach Blutreich first got here, we had a conversation and we knew there was going to be a learning curve," Ewen said.
Former Olympian Brian Blutreich was entering his first year as the ASU throws coach, and it was a big change for Ewen and the program.
"We weren't expecting much," Ewen said. "I figured I wouldn't throw as far as I had been because we were going to have to change so much."
Ewen came to ASU in part because of the previous coach, David Dumble, who had been at ASU for nearly 16 years.
"When I first heard ASU was recruiting me, I thought, 'I'm not about that,'" Ewen said. "I hate the heat, and I didn't want to go too far from home, so I didn't even consider it.
"My dad told me that I should take at least one visit outside of my comfort zone," she said. "I told him I would take the visit to ASU and I knew I wasn't going to like it. But the second I got on campus, I fell in love with the team and the coach at the time."
The following autumn, Ewen found herself in maroon and gold, among the palm trees and on a campus with more than 10 times as many people as the town she had grown up in.
She was joining a storied throws program at ASU with a history of outstanding success. A program that had produced NCAA champions, American champions, Olympians and world medalists throughout its history.
Although everyone knew of Ewen's talent in the discus and shot put, there was still a question about the hammer throw when she arrived in Tempe.
Ewen comes from a family of athletes. Her mother and sister played collegiate volleyball, and her father was an All-American hammer thrower and a throws coach.
She followed in both parents' footsteps, playing volleyball for St. Francis high school back in Minnesota, and winning seven state titles in the discus and shot put during her time as a Fighting Saint.
She picked up the discus for the first time in third grade and the shot put shortly after. But she never even tried the hammer throw until her freshman year at ASU.
"All throughout high school my dad never really wanted me to pick it up," Ewen said. "He decided he was going to let my coach do all of the coaching and not send me to him with bad habits."
She redshirted her freshman season at ASU to learn the technique under Dumble, and in her first season of competition, Ewen earned All-Conference honors in the weight throw and shot put indoors, and the discus, shot put and hammer throw outdoors before advancing to the NCAA Championships in the discus and shot put.
She earned her first two first-team All-America honors the following year in the spring of 2016 when she scored in the discus and finished fifth in the hammer throw, while taking 19th in the shot put.
Ewen was quickly making a name for herself in the world of track and field. She was just a redshirt-sophomore, but had been to three NCAA Championships and had even won a Pac-12 title in the hammer throw. Everything was going to plan.
Then coach Dumble left.
"It was really stressful," Ewen said. "I had put a lot of my faith in Dumble. I was committing to him and not just the school, so when he left, I was really scared."
Ewen was going to have to start over. A new throws coach doesn't just mean a change in mentality. It's a change in approach; a change in technique; a change in philosophy.
"These are incredibly technical events," Ewen said. "Probably second to maybe pole vault, if not the most technical group.
"Each one has its own technique, and the difference between a really good throw and a terrible throw can be how your foot is turned just a couple of degrees difference, or how your body is bent just a little off-kilter," she said. "All of those tiny things matter when you're throwing."
With her future in the balance, Ewen requested a release from the Sun Devil program. And ASU director of track and field Greg Kraft granted it.
"Dumble had been with me for a while," Kraft said. "He's done some great things with the program and he really had some strong bonds with the student-athletes that he coached. I would say, to a large extent, a lot of those athletes chose ASU because of the relationship with that coach.
"When Maggie approached me, as did a number of throwers, I gave them all releases so they could transfer, but I asked them to be patient with us and wait and see who we would bring in to replace Dumble," Kraft said.
Ewen agreed, and later in the summer Blutreich arrived.
"To her credit, it's taken a lot on her end of having to believe in me," Blutreich said. "You have to earn that belief. You have to earn that respect. Going from one regime to the next can be very difficult, but she has really opened her mind and let me teach her."
When Blutreich took over, Ewen said the expectations were laid out clearly: This season was going to be a challenge.
"It was a huge change," Ewen said. "We both went into it with the expectation that this might be tough. We had to work on so many things."
Ewen was going to have to re-learn three different events in the six months before her junior season began.
Because she was adjusting to new techniques, Ewen trained all fall with a "rebuilding year" mentality.
"As time moved on, more toward indoor season and into January and February, things were starting to get better and you kind of know as an athlete and a coach when you're on the right path," Blutreich said.
That season turned out to be the most impressive indoor season of Ewen's ASU career, complete with an MPSF title and two more first-team All-America honors. It was then that the two thought it was time to reevaluate those previous expectations.
A week after taking All-America honors at the NCAA Indoor Championships, Ewen opened her outdoor season in Tempe at the Baldy Castillo Invitational.
Her first attempt of the day in the hammer throw travelled 68.12 meters, roughly 223 feet.
The throw was more than enough to secure first place, as the second-place finisher barely topped 200 feet. But Ewen kept throwing.
On her sixth and final attempt of the day, with the Baldy Castillo women's hammer throw crown all wrapped up, Ewen launched the hammer 72.21m/238-6 feet.
She had just broken the American collegiate record.
"I had one throw the day before that was right around the same distance and both of those were so out of nowhere," Ewen said. "We weren't expecting anything. I just really wanted to get out and throw hammer because I was really liking how it felt."
What was supposed to be a down year was turning into her best.
"Early outdoor season I said, 'you've got to start thinking about USAs because if you keep progressing the way you are, you'll have a chance to make the World Championship team,'" Blutreich said. "She looked at me like I was crazy."
The mark was just the beginning of what would become one of the best seasons in NCAA history.
Ewen went on to set the American collegiate record again later in the year, and at the Pac-12 Championships, she asserted her dominance and completed an unprecedented treble.
"I think in the back of our minds we thought that I had the potential to win all three," Ewen said. "It was one of those 'if the stars aligned' kind of things. We really just took every event one step at a time. The focus was on just making sure I did each one the way I knew how to do it, and not focus too much on the end goal. It just kind of worked out."
She scored 30 points for the Sun Devils at the Pac-12 Championships when she won the shot put, hammer throw and discus.
Two weeks after the historic sweep, Ewen headed to the Lone Star State to compete for a return trip to Eugene, Oregon, and the NCAA Championships in all three of her events.
"It's hard not to go into a meet without being a little nervous," Ewen said. "You never know what's going to happen, and I had just strained my back a week earlier, so there was some stress from that as well."
Even with a strained back, Ewen advanced in all three.
"The hammer was No. 1 for us, but by that time, having won all three at the conference meet, the goals were to score in all three at Nationals way before that," Blutreich said.
"It was never an idea of if I shouldn't or I can't, but there was a sense of maybe we should cut down on the number of events," Ewen said. "We really just played it by ear."
It only took her two attempts in each event to secure spots in all three.
At the NCAA Championships, it only took her three attempts to make history again.
She had the lead in the hammer throw competition after her second attempt. It was a good throw. One that would have been the third-best throw of the year in the NCAA had it come from any other woman. But her third attempt was one for the record books.
"I remember that throw so clearly and standing there thinking, 'that was all right,'" Ewen said. "It didn't seem like anything special."
The hammer sailed 73.32m/240-7 feet — a new collegiate record.
"I have really bad depth perception, so when it landed and everyone was cheering, I was like, 'guys, it wasn't anything huge,'" Ewen said. "Then I saw the number on the board and I was just baffled. I have no idea how it went that far."
The throw wrapped up the national title for Ewen, and she went on to score two more times in Eugene when she took sixth in the shot put and second in the discus throw. In total, Ewen's 21 points helped the Sun Devils finish 10th at the NCAA Championships.
In 2016, Ewen established herself as one of the best throwers in the country. In 2017, she was catapulted into the conversation of one of the best throwers in collegiate history.
Then just 22 years old, Ewen advanced to the World Championships in the hammer throw after she took second at the U.S. Championships.
"It was a very eye-opening experience, being surrounded by world-class athletes and people who I'd only ever followed on Instagram," Ewen said. "I was now throwing alongside them and it blew my mind."
The St. Francis native was among the world's best in London. No longer as a fan, but as their competition.
"Honestly, I still haven't wrapped my mind around the idea that I can compete with these women, that I am sixth in the world in the hammer," Ewen said.
Her exploits this year have thrust her into the spotlight and made her a finalist for the most prestigious award in collegiate track and field: The Bowerman.
"I kind of expected it," Blutreich said. "I'd have been shocked if she didn't make it after what she did. For her to win a title and set a collegiate record in one event, then finish second and sixth in two more events, all with extremely different techniques, and all in one weekend is pretty crazy."
Ewen is one of three Bowerman finalists on the women's side. It's an award that a field eventer has never won.
"If she wins the Bowerman – great – otherwise, it's tremendous to be nominated," Blutreich said. "Postseason awards recognize you for what you've done — it's not the end all. We're constantly trying to get better, trying to score, trying to win. It's really just a tremendous honor to be in the same category as the other two women."
Ewen's historic 2017 campaign could be capped off by another historic feat if she claims the Bowerman honor.
Ewen took a risk in 2016, but that risk paid off.
She's the NCAA record-holder. She's the only woman in collegiate history to record a throw of more than 240 feet. She's a national champion, an American silver medalist and a World Championship qualifier.
Even with the fanfare of the Bowerman, her newfound stardom and the prospects of defending her national title in her senior season, Blutreich said the small-town Ewen hasn't changed.
"She's never made herself bigger than the team," Blutreich said. "If you talked to her on the street, you would have no idea who she is or what she's accomplished."
The USTFCCCA will announce the Bowerman Award winner on Dec. 15 in ASU's backyard at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort of Phoenix.
She did the unprecedented when she swept the discus, shot put and hammer throw at the Pac-12 Championships, and Ewen alone outscored 40 programs at the NCAA Championships in June when she put up 21 points in her three events.
2017 was the Year of Maggie Ewen.
But that dream season almost didn't happen.
"When coach Blutreich first got here, we had a conversation and we knew there was going to be a learning curve," Ewen said.
Former Olympian Brian Blutreich was entering his first year as the ASU throws coach, and it was a big change for Ewen and the program.
"We weren't expecting much," Ewen said. "I figured I wouldn't throw as far as I had been because we were going to have to change so much."
Ewen came to ASU in part because of the previous coach, David Dumble, who had been at ASU for nearly 16 years.
"When I first heard ASU was recruiting me, I thought, 'I'm not about that,'" Ewen said. "I hate the heat, and I didn't want to go too far from home, so I didn't even consider it.
"My dad told me that I should take at least one visit outside of my comfort zone," she said. "I told him I would take the visit to ASU and I knew I wasn't going to like it. But the second I got on campus, I fell in love with the team and the coach at the time."
The following autumn, Ewen found herself in maroon and gold, among the palm trees and on a campus with more than 10 times as many people as the town she had grown up in.
She was joining a storied throws program at ASU with a history of outstanding success. A program that had produced NCAA champions, American champions, Olympians and world medalists throughout its history.
Although everyone knew of Ewen's talent in the discus and shot put, there was still a question about the hammer throw when she arrived in Tempe.
Ewen comes from a family of athletes. Her mother and sister played collegiate volleyball, and her father was an All-American hammer thrower and a throws coach.
She followed in both parents' footsteps, playing volleyball for St. Francis high school back in Minnesota, and winning seven state titles in the discus and shot put during her time as a Fighting Saint.
She picked up the discus for the first time in third grade and the shot put shortly after. But she never even tried the hammer throw until her freshman year at ASU.
"All throughout high school my dad never really wanted me to pick it up," Ewen said. "He decided he was going to let my coach do all of the coaching and not send me to him with bad habits."
She redshirted her freshman season at ASU to learn the technique under Dumble, and in her first season of competition, Ewen earned All-Conference honors in the weight throw and shot put indoors, and the discus, shot put and hammer throw outdoors before advancing to the NCAA Championships in the discus and shot put.
She earned her first two first-team All-America honors the following year in the spring of 2016 when she scored in the discus and finished fifth in the hammer throw, while taking 19th in the shot put.
Ewen was quickly making a name for herself in the world of track and field. She was just a redshirt-sophomore, but had been to three NCAA Championships and had even won a Pac-12 title in the hammer throw. Everything was going to plan.
Then coach Dumble left.
"It was really stressful," Ewen said. "I had put a lot of my faith in Dumble. I was committing to him and not just the school, so when he left, I was really scared."
Ewen was going to have to start over. A new throws coach doesn't just mean a change in mentality. It's a change in approach; a change in technique; a change in philosophy.
"These are incredibly technical events," Ewen said. "Probably second to maybe pole vault, if not the most technical group.
"Each one has its own technique, and the difference between a really good throw and a terrible throw can be how your foot is turned just a couple of degrees difference, or how your body is bent just a little off-kilter," she said. "All of those tiny things matter when you're throwing."
With her future in the balance, Ewen requested a release from the Sun Devil program. And ASU director of track and field Greg Kraft granted it.
"Dumble had been with me for a while," Kraft said. "He's done some great things with the program and he really had some strong bonds with the student-athletes that he coached. I would say, to a large extent, a lot of those athletes chose ASU because of the relationship with that coach.
"When Maggie approached me, as did a number of throwers, I gave them all releases so they could transfer, but I asked them to be patient with us and wait and see who we would bring in to replace Dumble," Kraft said.
Ewen agreed, and later in the summer Blutreich arrived.
"To her credit, it's taken a lot on her end of having to believe in me," Blutreich said. "You have to earn that belief. You have to earn that respect. Going from one regime to the next can be very difficult, but she has really opened her mind and let me teach her."
When Blutreich took over, Ewen said the expectations were laid out clearly: This season was going to be a challenge.
"It was a huge change," Ewen said. "We both went into it with the expectation that this might be tough. We had to work on so many things."
Ewen was going to have to re-learn three different events in the six months before her junior season began.
Because she was adjusting to new techniques, Ewen trained all fall with a "rebuilding year" mentality.
"As time moved on, more toward indoor season and into January and February, things were starting to get better and you kind of know as an athlete and a coach when you're on the right path," Blutreich said.
That season turned out to be the most impressive indoor season of Ewen's ASU career, complete with an MPSF title and two more first-team All-America honors. It was then that the two thought it was time to reevaluate those previous expectations.
A week after taking All-America honors at the NCAA Indoor Championships, Ewen opened her outdoor season in Tempe at the Baldy Castillo Invitational.
Her first attempt of the day in the hammer throw travelled 68.12 meters, roughly 223 feet.
The throw was more than enough to secure first place, as the second-place finisher barely topped 200 feet. But Ewen kept throwing.
On her sixth and final attempt of the day, with the Baldy Castillo women's hammer throw crown all wrapped up, Ewen launched the hammer 72.21m/238-6 feet.
She had just broken the American collegiate record.
"I had one throw the day before that was right around the same distance and both of those were so out of nowhere," Ewen said. "We weren't expecting anything. I just really wanted to get out and throw hammer because I was really liking how it felt."
What was supposed to be a down year was turning into her best.
"Early outdoor season I said, 'you've got to start thinking about USAs because if you keep progressing the way you are, you'll have a chance to make the World Championship team,'" Blutreich said. "She looked at me like I was crazy."
The mark was just the beginning of what would become one of the best seasons in NCAA history.
Ewen went on to set the American collegiate record again later in the year, and at the Pac-12 Championships, she asserted her dominance and completed an unprecedented treble.
"I think in the back of our minds we thought that I had the potential to win all three," Ewen said. "It was one of those 'if the stars aligned' kind of things. We really just took every event one step at a time. The focus was on just making sure I did each one the way I knew how to do it, and not focus too much on the end goal. It just kind of worked out."
She scored 30 points for the Sun Devils at the Pac-12 Championships when she won the shot put, hammer throw and discus.
Two weeks after the historic sweep, Ewen headed to the Lone Star State to compete for a return trip to Eugene, Oregon, and the NCAA Championships in all three of her events.
"It's hard not to go into a meet without being a little nervous," Ewen said. "You never know what's going to happen, and I had just strained my back a week earlier, so there was some stress from that as well."
Even with a strained back, Ewen advanced in all three.
"The hammer was No. 1 for us, but by that time, having won all three at the conference meet, the goals were to score in all three at Nationals way before that," Blutreich said.
"It was never an idea of if I shouldn't or I can't, but there was a sense of maybe we should cut down on the number of events," Ewen said. "We really just played it by ear."
It only took her two attempts in each event to secure spots in all three.
At the NCAA Championships, it only took her three attempts to make history again.
She had the lead in the hammer throw competition after her second attempt. It was a good throw. One that would have been the third-best throw of the year in the NCAA had it come from any other woman. But her third attempt was one for the record books.
"I remember that throw so clearly and standing there thinking, 'that was all right,'" Ewen said. "It didn't seem like anything special."
The hammer sailed 73.32m/240-7 feet — a new collegiate record.
"I have really bad depth perception, so when it landed and everyone was cheering, I was like, 'guys, it wasn't anything huge,'" Ewen said. "Then I saw the number on the board and I was just baffled. I have no idea how it went that far."
The throw wrapped up the national title for Ewen, and she went on to score two more times in Eugene when she took sixth in the shot put and second in the discus throw. In total, Ewen's 21 points helped the Sun Devils finish 10th at the NCAA Championships.
In 2016, Ewen established herself as one of the best throwers in the country. In 2017, she was catapulted into the conversation of one of the best throwers in collegiate history.
Then just 22 years old, Ewen advanced to the World Championships in the hammer throw after she took second at the U.S. Championships.
"It was a very eye-opening experience, being surrounded by world-class athletes and people who I'd only ever followed on Instagram," Ewen said. "I was now throwing alongside them and it blew my mind."
The St. Francis native was among the world's best in London. No longer as a fan, but as their competition.
"Honestly, I still haven't wrapped my mind around the idea that I can compete with these women, that I am sixth in the world in the hammer," Ewen said.
Her exploits this year have thrust her into the spotlight and made her a finalist for the most prestigious award in collegiate track and field: The Bowerman.
"I kind of expected it," Blutreich said. "I'd have been shocked if she didn't make it after what she did. For her to win a title and set a collegiate record in one event, then finish second and sixth in two more events, all with extremely different techniques, and all in one weekend is pretty crazy."
Ewen is one of three Bowerman finalists on the women's side. It's an award that a field eventer has never won.
"If she wins the Bowerman – great – otherwise, it's tremendous to be nominated," Blutreich said. "Postseason awards recognize you for what you've done — it's not the end all. We're constantly trying to get better, trying to score, trying to win. It's really just a tremendous honor to be in the same category as the other two women."
Ewen's historic 2017 campaign could be capped off by another historic feat if she claims the Bowerman honor.
Ewen took a risk in 2016, but that risk paid off.
She's the NCAA record-holder. She's the only woman in collegiate history to record a throw of more than 240 feet. She's a national champion, an American silver medalist and a World Championship qualifier.
Even with the fanfare of the Bowerman, her newfound stardom and the prospects of defending her national title in her senior season, Blutreich said the small-town Ewen hasn't changed.
"She's never made herself bigger than the team," Blutreich said. "If you talked to her on the street, you would have no idea who she is or what she's accomplished."
The USTFCCCA will announce the Bowerman Award winner on Dec. 15 in ASU's backyard at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort of Phoenix.