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Former Arizona State University student-athlete Jenna Wrieden has returned to the Sun Devil program in 2008 and will serve as a graduate assistant coach for the cross country and track & field program that she competed for between 2002 and 2006. A member of both the cross country and track & field squads at ASU, Wrieden returns to the Valley of the Sun after two years at Appalachian State in Boone, N.C.
In her first season on the coaching staff, the Sun Devil women advanced to their 11th-conecutive NCAA Championships appearance and placed 14th overall after taking fourth in both the Pac-10 Conference and the NCAA West Region Championships. Following the season, Wrieden competed in the P.F. Chang's Rock-n-Roll Marathon in Phoenix and was the ninth woman to finish the 26.2-mile race, covering the course in 2:50.45.
As a Sun Devil, Wrieden competed for the harriers for three seasons and ran at the 2003 NCAA Cross Country Championships, where the team placed 14th overall. She also won her first career race, capturing the George Kyte Invitational in Flagstaff in 2005 while also finishing in the Top 15 in three other races that year. During her time with the team, the Sun Devils took runner-up honors in the Pac-10 four times and the NCAA West Region three times while continuing to climb higher in the national standings. On the track, Wrieden competed for three seasons and ran in a pair of Pac-10 races, placing among the Top 14 in both runs. Overall, she was honored by the Pac-10 on six occasions with academic awards, including three in both cross country and track & field.
After graduating from ASU in the spring of 2006 with a B.S. in Kinesiology, Wrieden completed her collegiate eligibility at another ASU, this time at Appalachian State. While competing with the Mountaineers, she was the 2006 Southern Conference (SoCon) cross country runner-up and was selected for all-conference and all-region honors in cross country. On the track, she helped the team to SoCon titles both indoors and outdoors while also earning academic honors.
Upon completing her eligibility, the 2006 cross country team's MVP remained on campus as a coach and worked with several of the SoCon's top runners. Wrieden coached the 2007 individual conference champion in cross country while the men's team took the crown. On the track, her athletes won five individual titles (three outdoor, two indoor) while the men won the 2008 SoCon outdoor crown and were indoor runners-up while the women earned runner-up finishes at both meets.
A local product of Mountain Ridge High School in Glendale, Wrieden graduated from Appalachian State in 2008 with her Master's in Exercise Physiology with an emphasis in Strength and Conditioning.
