TEMPE, Ariz. – Sun Devil senior Maggie Ewen will join the elite athletes in the NCAA as they all convene on College Station, Texas, this weekend to compete for indoor supremacy.
The action at the Gilliam Indoor Facility gets started Friday on ESPN3, and Ewen will compete on both days of competition in the shot put and weight throw trials and finals.
Ewen enters the meet as the top-qualifier in the shot put with her school-record mark of 19.20m/63-0.00 feet. The throw leads the NCAA by four feet and led the world up until this past weekend's World Indoor Championships produced the two best throws this year.
By surpassing the 19 meters mark, Ewen lifted herself into the ranks of the NCAA's greatest as one of only four women to accomplish the feat in collegiate history. Her mark is third in collegiate history, and two of the other women who sit at the top with Ewen were also coached by Ewen's current coach Brian Blutreich.
Blutreich and Ewen were both honored by the USTFCCCA Monday as the West Region's Women's Assistant Coach and Women's Field Athlete of the Year.
The pair of honors were not handed out just for Ewen's production in the shot put, though, as she comes into the weight throw competition with the No. 6 mark in the nation.
She completed her three-peat in the event at the MPSF Championships two weeks ago, and set the school record in the event when she heaved the 20-pound instrument 22.26m/73-0.5 feet in Nebraska.
Even with just one entrant in the national championships, the Sun Devil women slotted in at No. 20 in the final USTFCCCA team indoor rankings. The ranking reflects how impressive Ewen has been this season, as she is the only ASU athlete eligible for the calculation. In short, Ewen alone will enter the championship meet as the 20-ranked team.
The position is not unfamiliar to Ewen, though. At last season's outdoor championships, she scored 21 points and lifted the Devils into the top-10 in the final standings alone when she won the hammer throw and took All-America honors in the shot put (sixth) and discus throw (second).
Last season was her only appearance in the weight throw and she finished sixth, where she enters the championships on the NCAA's descending order list this season.
The shot put competition begins at 4:15 p.m. MST Friday, and the weight throw is scheduled for 2018 3:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Ewen vs. The Field
Maggie Ewen comes into this year's NCAA Indoor Championships with a familiar target on her back.
She enters the meet in College Station with the lead in the NCAA in the indoor shot put for the first time in her third indoor championships appearance, but she has led the nation before in a different event less than a year ago.
Ewen's near five-foot lead on the rest of the field in the shot is nothing new for the Sun Devil. She led the NCAA by nearly 12 feet in the hammer throw going into last season's West Regional Championships, and went on to win the NCAA title in the event.
She is the only thrower in the field who is on the Bowerman Award watch list, and outside of leading the shot put, Ewen is sixth on the weight throw list.
While Ewen heads into the weekend as the favorite in the shot put, and a favorite to score in the weight throw, the senior Devil knows this pressure and has come through with titles and All-America honors before.
Ewen has scored in the weight throw and shot put once before, giving her nine points overall.
A Shot at History
With her throw of 19.20m/63-0.00 feet in the shot put, Maggie Ewen put herself into the top-three in NCAA history in the event, but she and her coaches think she has a chance to put up an even bigger mark this weekend in her last indoor meet as a Sun Devil.
While the NCAA record is not at the top of her to-do list, Ewen set the NCAA record in the hammer throw at last season's outdoor championships to clinch her first NCAA title, showing the two tasks are not mutually exclusive.
Although she comes into the championships with just nine points scored at indoor championships, Ewen has a chance to move into the top-10 in scoring in ASU history with a win in either of her events, and winning both would rocket the senior into the top-five.
Best in the West
Maggie Ewen was named as the West Region's top women's field athlete based on her record-setting performances throughout the winter months by the USTFCCCA.
The Minnesota native also earned the MPSF's highest honor of the season when she was named Women's Athlete of the Meet for her historic sweep of the weight throw and shot put at the conference championships. The shot put win also came with a meet and Dempsey Indoor Facility record.
With Ewen throwing herself into the top-three, she became one of just four women to record marks of 19 meters or more in collegiate history. Outside of current NCAA record-holder Raven Saunders, the other three women to have achieved the mark were all coached by Sun Devil throws coach and the region's Women's Assistant Coach of the year Brian Blutreich.
Blutreich's throwers were crucial to the Sun Devils' scoring at the MPSF Championships as they picked 25 of the women's team's 35 points at the conference meet.
Besides Ewen, who took gold in both events, Samantha Noennig and Kaylee Antill each scored in the shot put and weight throw, respectively.
The redshirt freshman Noennig nearly advanced to the NCAA Championships as she came into the final weekend of qualification just a few centimeters off the final qualifying mark, but she still managed to throw herself into the Sun Devil record books in her first season of competition.