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The 2012-13 season will mark the fourth at Arizona State University for Ronnie Williams, who take over as the head of the sprints program at Arizona State, adding the women's sporints, hurdles and relays to his work with the men. A former four-time All-American sprinter, Williams had a strong year with the ASU men in 2012 and will look to continue to build upon that into the coming season.
The ASU men's sprints team was a dominant force at the 2012 MPSF Indoor Championships as his student-athletes combined for 69 of ASU's total of 131.50 points - the highest tally at the MPSF Championships in the last decade. That performance included sweeps of the 60- and 200-meter dashes, that saw Sun Devils go 1-2-3 and 1-2-3-4, respectively, as Ryan Milus and Rashad Ross were crowned conference champions in the events.Milus would go on to earn second-team All-America honors at 60 meters.
Outdoors, Williams guided the men's sprint relays to a sweep of the conference championships in the 4x100m and the 4x400m. The trio of Ryan Milus, Daniel Auberry and Chris Burrows all scored for th Sun Devils at 100 meters before joining Rashad Ross to win the 4x100-meter crown. Burrows would also score at 200 meters and was a part of the 4x400-meter conference championship team alongside Will Henry, Kelsey Caesar and John Kline.
In 2011, Williams' athletes posted a trio of Top 3 finishes at the Pac-10 Championships, two more at the MPSF Indoor Championships and qualified five individuals and both relays to the NCAA Preliminary Round Meet. One of those athletes, Ryan Milus, qualified to the national semifinals in the 100m dash and, earlier in the season, clocked a time of 10.07 (+3.9). Milus would place second in the 100m dash at the Pac-10 level and anchored the 4x100m relay (Daniel Auberry, Allante Battle, Kelsey Caesar) to a runner-up showing in the same meet.
At the Pac-10 meet, Williams' sprinters accounted for 40 of the team's 99 points (t-3rd) after advancing three to the finals in the 100m dash (Milus, Battle, Auberry) and two each in the 200m (Milus, Auberry) and 400m (William Henry, Caesar) events. Of all the sprinters, Milus had a hand in 20 of the team's points.
Caesar, along with freshman Henry, helped the 4x400m relay to third-place finishes at both conference meets on the year while both men placed in the Top 6 of the 400m dash in both meets as well. Following the season, Henry took second in the 400m dash at the USATF Championships before placing fourth in the Pan Am Junior Championships in the same event for Team USA. Henry also won a gold medal with Team USA as the 4x400m relay won by over four seconds.
Indoors, the sprinters scored 27 of the team's 72.5 points (5th) at the MPSF meet with Auberry leading the way as the runner-up in the 60m dash. Rookie Justin Freeman also ran in the same race, placing fifth to add four more points.
The 2010 season was Williams' first with ASU when his sprinters collected a trio of All-America honors, including eighth-place finishes in the 4x400m relay at both the NCAA Indoor and NCAA Outdoor Championships. He also worked with Donald Sanford, who finished as the national outdoor runner-up at 400m where he ran 45.21, the ninth-best time in ASU history. During the summer of 2011, Sanford began running for Israel and qualified to compete in the IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Daegu, Korea.
At the conference level, both Sanford (400m) and the 4x400m relay took Pac-10 runner-up honors while Justin Kremer (fifth) and Joel Phillip (sixth) gave ASU three individuals in the Top 8 of the Pac-10 in the quarter. Indoors, Sanford was the MPSF Champion at 400m while Lawrence Trice captured the 60m dash title and the 4x400m relay also won gold.
On the record lists, Williams worked with several individuals that lowered their personal-best times while also ranking highly in the school's history. Indoors, his 4x400m relay teams turned in the fourth and eighth-best times in ASU history. Individually, Trice (6.68) and Milus (6.58) both recorded Top 8 marks in school history at 60m and Milus, Burrows, Auberry and Ross all record marks in to the top-10 in school history in the indoor 200m. Sanford ran 46.19 to turn in the fifth-best time indoors in the 400m dash and Milus scored the fourth-fastest time at 100 meters (10.21). Following the 2010 season, Williams helped Sanford continue his training and land a sponsorship deal with Saucony. Sanford competed in Europe throughout the summer.
Williams' position with the Sun Devils brings him back to the Valley of the Sun where his coaching career began as an assistant at Mesa Community College (2006-07). Since his time at MCC, Williams served as an assistant coach at Iowa State (2008) and Texas Christian (2009) where he also worked with the sprints, hurdles and relays.
In his one year with TCU, Williams worked with several standout sprinters on both the men's and women's rosters with those athletes collecting All-America honors in a pair of relays and two individual events. At the 2009 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships, the women's 4x400m relay placed fourth overall, which was the highest placement for that relay at a national meet in program history. He also worked with Jessica Young, who took fourth nationally in the 60m dash. At the outdoor meet, the men's 4x100m relay grabbed All-America honors by finishing eighth overall while Young finished as the national runner-up in the 100m dash.
Williams' sprinters also put on a show at the Mountain West Conference Championships. On the men's side, the TCU sprinters swept the Top 5 places in the 100m dash and added the Top 3 finishes in the 200m dash while recording eight NCAA regional qualifying marks. Young also fared well for the women by sweeping the 100m and 200m titles.
Prior to TCU, Williams worked with the Cyclones' sprinters and coached one athlete to All-America honors in the 800m run at the 2008 NCAA Indoor Championships. His athletes collected several regional qualifying marks during the outdoor season, which led to six Cyclones competing at the NCAA Midwest Region Championships.
In his first coaching position, Williams worked with the athletes at MCC for two seasons and left after his sprinters recorded seven NJCAA Top 8 finishes and four men's indoor school records (60m, 200m, 400m and 4x400m). During the 2007 season, Williams coached athletes to 11 marks good enough to qualify for the NJCAA meets (seven outdoor and four indoor) while posting four Top 8 finishes that year. One year earlier, 13 marks qualified for the NJCAA meets, including six indoors and seven outdoors. His athletes posted three Top 8 finishes at the national meets, including a third-place showing in the 100m dash at the outdoor championships.
As an athlete, Williams competed for two years at the University of Kentucky and collected four All-America honors and one Southeastern Conference title. In his first year in Lexington, Williams helped the 4x100m relay team to the SEC title before that same team earned All-America honors at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. In his senior campaign, he collected All-America honors in the 200m dash and the 4x400m relay at the NCAA Indoor meet before heading outdoors and helping the 4x400m relay to All-America honors as well. Williams later graduated from UK with his B.A. in Social Work (1997).
A native of California, Williams began his collegiate career by competing for two seasons at Long Beach City College. During his time at LBCC, Williams captured the 400m dash title at the 1994 Southern California Community College Championships while helping LBCC to a pair of team titles at the California Community College State Championships (1993 and 1994). Before departing to UK, Williams earned his Associates degree in Physical Education (1994).
Williams has attained three certifications from USA Track and Field in recent years, including a Level I Coaching Certification in 2006, a Level II Coaching Certification in 2007 and a Level II Jumps Certification in 2008.