FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -APRIL 3, 2013 SUN DEVIL TRACK & FIELD SID Contact: Jeremy Hawkes | [email protected] | (480) 965-9544 | thesundevils.com SEASON WEEK 12 • OUTDOOR WEEK 4 ASU T&F Set for 34th Annual Sun Angel Classic This year’s event welcomes over 20 colleges and universities and over a thousand Meet #12 (Outdoor #4) entries in one of the largest Sun Angel competitions to date. 34th Sun Angel Classic April 5-6 Sun Angel Stadium - Tempe, Ariz. TEMPE -The Arizona State University track and field teams return from their bye hosted by Arizona State University week this weekend as the squad gets set to host one of the largest meets in the nation in the form of the 34th Annual Sun Angel Classic in Tempe, Ariz. This year’s 2013 INDOOR SEASON SCHEDULE event welcomes over 20 colleges and universities and over a thousand entries in Date Meet Location J 12 at Lumberjack Invite Flagstaff, AZ one of the largest Sun Angel competitions to date. The event also serves as the 25-26 at Texas A&M Invite College Station, TX third-largest high school track and field competition yearly in Arizona and this year F 2 at NAU Open Flagstaff, AZ welcomes over 50 teams and 3,000 entries in the largest high school competition to 8-9 at Kirby Invite Albuquerque, NM date as well. Friday’s collegiate competition will consist of the men’s and women’s 8-9 at Husky Invite Seattle, WA hammer throw and 5,000-meter runs, with the hammer throw getting underway 16 at NAU Tune-Up Flagstaff, AZ at Noon PT and the running events beginning at 7:30 p.m. the ‘C’ section of the at MPSF Championships Seattle, WA 22-23 1,500-meter run and followed by the 5k events beginning at 8:40 p.m. Saturday’s M 1 at Last Chance Meets TBD 8-9 at NCAA Champs. Fayetteville, AR events will begin with the open field competitions set to start at 10 a.m. PT, followed by running events at 2:15 p.m. The “premiere’ section of the competition, featuring 2013 OUTDOOR SEASON SCHEDULE numerous exceptional competitors, will get underway at 6 p.m. PT. Date Meet Location M 15-16 Baldy Castillo Invite Tempe OUT OF THE BLOCKS 22-23 ASU Invitational Tempe • The Sun Devil track team returns four first-team outdoor All-Americans (Jordan at Jim Click Multis Tucson, AZ A 4-5 Clarke, Derick Hinch, Anna Jelmini, Christabel Nettey) and two second-team All- 5-6 at Stanford Invitational Palo Alto, CA 5-6 Sun Angel Track Classic Tempe Americans (Clarke and Bryan McBride) 13 LSU Baton Rouge, La • Jordan Clarke remains on the Bowerman Watch List (track and field’s version of 19-20 at Mt. SAC Relays Walnut, CA the Heisman) and has won four consecutive NCAA Championships in the shot put, 27 Double Dual (UA-NAU) Tempe including the 2013 indoor title M 4-5 at Pac-12 Multis Las Angeles, CA • The ASU women finished in the top 10 at the indoor championships for the first 11-12 at Pac-12 Champs. Las Angeles, CA time since 2009 while the men posted a top-25 finish for the eighth time in the last 16-19 at Tucson Elite Tucson, AZ 10 years 23-25 at NCAA Prelims - West Austin, TX 5-8 at NCAA Champs. Eugene, OR • The men became the sixth team in the history of the MPSF to defend their confer- 19-23 at USATF Champs. Des Moines, IA ence crown indoors this season • Clarke and Nettey swept the MPSF Athlete of the Meet awards on the men’s and All dates and sites subject to change; home meets in maroon women’s sides while Greg Kraft was named the MPSF Men’s Coach of the year for Check host team web sites for meet schedules for each event the second consecutive season • Chelsea Cassulo was named the USTFCCCA National Field Athlete of the Week following her school-record setting performance in the hammer throw at the ASU Invite two weekend’s ago • Cassulo and redshirt freshman Ryan Herson (5k) were named the Pac-12 Ath- letes of the Week following their performances at the ASU Invite. FOLLOW LIVE! The Sun Devil media relations staff will be bringing you live updates on Saturday starting at 1 p.m. PT through a live blog. Fans are encouraged to tune-in for up- dates and “live results” while interacting with other fans and our staff. A link to the blog and live results is available here: http://www.thesundevils.com/sports/c-track/ spec-rel/031413aaa.html FOLLOW THE SUN DEVILS ONLINE FACEBOOK • https://www.facebook.com/sundeviltfxc A LOOK BACK: ASU INVITE Chelsea Cassulo set a new school record in the hammer throw with a mark of 69.80m (229-00). The mark surpassed the former school record previously held TWITTER • @SunDevilTFXC by Jessica Pressley of 68.31m (224-01) set back in 2008. The throw is the top col- legiate mark this season and was better than any mark by a collegian in 2012. As if ARIZONA STATE NCAA that weren’t all enough, the throw was the eighth-best individual throw in NCAA his- • TheSunDevils.com • NCAA.com tory and the 15th-best throw ever at the NCAA Division I level. The Sun Devils won 10 events over the course of the weekend at the ASU Invite with Cassulo, Shelby PACIFIC-12 MPSF Houlihan (800m) and Ryan Herson (5,000m) all setting then-national leading marks • Pac-12.org • MPSports.org in their respective events. 2013 ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY TRACK & FIELD 1 Coach Kraft / Notes HEAD COACH GREG KRAFT PREVIEWING THE FIELD Saturday’s competition is bound to be an exciting one as the Sun Devils welcome Greg Kraft is in his 17th year with the Sun Devil program and has built it into a national power. During the 2008 season, his the nation’s current No. 1, Kansas, on the women’s side. The field also features the men and women captured the NCAA Indoor Championships, No. 11 Arkansas women, the No. 16 Illinois women, the No. 23 Oklahoma women only the second time in the history of the event that the same and the No. 24 Colorado women in addition to the eighth-ranked ASU women. The school swept both titles. The title was the second in a row for the women and their third overall (2007 outdoor) and the first men’s side will have squads from No. 15 Oklahoma and the 18th-ranked Sun Devils for the men. Dating back to the 2006 seasons, the Sun Devil in addition to solid teams out of Illinois, BYU and Iowa State. In addition, the field women have won the Pac-10 three times, the MPSF twice, the features numerous post-collegiate standouts and will feature eight Olympians over NCAA indoor twice, the NCAA outdoor once and the NCAA West Region outdoor once. The men have added one NCAA the course of Friday and Saturday. indoor and one NCAA West Region outdoor crown to that col- lection as well. The ASU men took the 2012 Indoor MPSF title THROWING THEIR WEIGHT en route to a fourth-place finish at the NCAA Championships. Individually, athletes have excelled under the 2008 Men’s Over the past 11 years, David Dumble has continued to bring in top talent and build and Women’s USTFCCCA National Indoor Coach of the Year, the throws program at Arizona State, which has collected 15 total national titles. including seven-time NCAA multi-event champion Jacquelyn ASU continues to build on that legacy as Jordan Clarke successfully defending his Johnson, who also advanced to the Olympic Games in the heptathlon after winning her fourth NCAA heptathlon title. In indoor title in the shot put and has now won four straight NCAA Championships in 2009, two men captured three NCAA titles, including Ryan the event. During the 2013 indoor season, Arizona State was the only program at Whiting sweeping in the indoor and outdoor shot put crown the Division I level to have four athletes ranked in the top-26 nationally in all four dif- and Jason Lewis won the indoor weight throw. In 2010, Whiting swept the shot put once again and added a discus ferent throwing events. The outdoor season has gotten off to a strong start for ASU crown before being name a finalist for the Bowerman Award. as well with Chelsea Cassulo the current NCAA leader in the ahmmer throw, Clarke Jordan Clarke followed Whiting’s footsteps in 2011, winning ranked seventh in the hammer throw and redshirt senior Joe Riccio ranked 13th in the NCAA outdoor shot put crown himself and continuing the trend in sweeping the 2012 indoor and outdoor titles. the hammer and 18th in the shot put. At the conference level, the Sun Devils have dominated on the women’s side with three titles in a row (2006-08) while the men have finished as the meet runner-up three straight years THROWING MORE WEIGHT from 2008-10. His athletes have collected 71 individual titles Jordan Clarke is primed to make history this season and could do some that not and added another 16 relay crowns in the Pac-12 and 57 indi- even ASU legend Ryan Whiting could do. Clarke has a chance to win five consecu- vidual and 11 relay titles at the MPSF level before going on to collect 181 All-America honors individually and another 26 in tive NCAA shot put titles by the conclusion of his senior year.