June 16, 2010
TEMPE – Ryan Whiting, a winner of three individual national titles during the 2010 track & field season for Arizona State University, has been selected as the Pac-10 Scholar-Athlete of the Year, presented by Toyo Tires for men’s track & field, the Conference announced today. Whiting, one of the top collegiate competitors in the nation this year, maintained a 3.42 grade-point average in civil engineering while collecting those three titles, including a sweep of the shot put and discus crowns at the 2010 NCAA Outdoor Championships, to help the men’s team to a fourth-place national showing.
A native of Harrisburg, Pa., Whiting capped an already stellar career with another academic honor this season. The 2008 USTFCCCA Men’s Division I Indoor Scholar-Athlete of the Year and a two-time ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American, Whiting has been honored by the Pac-10 as an all-academic honoree four times in his career while also garnering accolades from the MPSF during the indoor season on four occasions. A three-time ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District VIII First Team honoree, Whiting is currently up for Academic All-America honors.
A three-time national champion in the shot put heading into the season (2008 and 2009 indoor shot put and 2009 outdoor shot put), Whiting doubled his golden haul by winning all three national events he entered in his senior season. Indoors, he captured his third-consecutive shot put crown before heading outdoors where he swept the shot put and the discus, making him just the 11th man since 1921 to sweep both throws in the same NCAA meet. The Pac-10 and NCAA West Preliminary Site champion in the shot put, Whiting threw 21.97m (72-01.00) on this final attempt at the NCAA Championships to post the second-best mark all-time among collegiate competitors and was just three centimeters off the collegiate record of 22.00m. That mark also stands as the second-best in the world this year.
Whiting is one of three Sun Devil student-athletes to be honored this spring as he joins Knut Borsheim from men’s golf and Juliana Murcia of women’s golf as the recipients of their respective sport awards. That trio gives ASU five total honorees for the 2009-10 academic year with Brandon Bethke (men’s cross country) and Mike Nixon (football) also being honored during the fall season. Overall, ASU’s five honorees were the second-most among all Pac-10 institutions with only Stanford (seven) having more than the Sun Devils.
In order to be eligible for the Pac-10 Scholar-Athlete of the Year award, student-athletes must be a senior (in athletics eligibility) on track to receive a degree, have a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or higher, participate in at least 50% of the scheduled contests in the sport and have a minimum of one year in residence at the institution. Each Pac-10 institution nominates one individual per sport, and the winners are selected by a committee of Pac-10 staff members at the conclusion of each sport’s regular season. The athletic accomplishments of the nominees are a consideration in the voting for the award. Scholar-Athletes of the Year in each sport will receive a commemorative award. Toyo Tires will donate $1,000 to the scholarship funds of the institution’s athletic department of each winner in recognition of their accomplishments.
2010 Pac-10 Scholar-Athletes of the Year, presented by Toyo Tires (Spring)
Baseball - Matt Fanelli (Washington State)
Softball - K’Lee Arredondo (Arizona)
Men’s Golf - Knut Borsheim (Arizona State)
Women’s Golf - Juliana Murcia (Arizona State)
Men’s Tennis - Robert Farah (USC)
Women’s Tennis - Lindsay Burdette (Stanford)
Men’s Rowing - Simon Taylor (Washington)
Women’s Rowing - Christina Sprouse (UCLA)
Men’s Track & Field - Ryan Whiting (Arizona State)
Women’s Track & Field - Keisha Baker (Oregon)