| Terry Winston |
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In his four years working with the men's sprints, hurdles and relays, Terry Winston's Sun Devils have continued to improve and contribute to the program's overall success. Despite injuries that hampered his sprinters, his 2008 squad played a pivotal role in the men's team capturing the NCAA Indoor Championship and making a run at the Pac-10 title.
In his fourth season in Tempe, Winston had four of his quarter-milers display their talents at the NCAA Indoor Championships and make tremendous strides. Individually, both Joel Phillip and Jimmie Gordon were All-Americans in the 400m dash with Phillip, a 2008 Olympian for Grenada, taking national runner-up honors. Justin Kremer, who has continued to grow as an elite sprinter, ran the 400m leg of the distance medley relay that eventually finished second in the nation. But, when it counted the most, those three joined Darryl Elston to finish third overall in the 4x400m relay and lock up the team title for the Sun Devils.
Outdoor, his sprinters also put on impressive displays. At the Pac-10 meet, Elston moved down to 200m and won the conference title. And, for the second time in his tenure, Winston's 4x400m relay capped off the meet with another victory. Although injuries hit the sprinters at the NCAA West Regional meet, Winston advanced several individuals to the national meet with Phillip again earning All-America honors in the 400m event.
In his third year with the team, Winston saw improvements in many of his athletes, including such feats as Gordon reaching the semifinals of the 400m dash a the NCAA Outdoor Championships; Marquis Profit record two of the top times in Sun Devil history in the hurdles; and another All-America honor earned as Joshua Kinnaman finished eighth in the indoor heptathlon.
During the 2006 campaign, Winston worked with two athletes that advanced to the NCAA Outdoor Championships with Kinnaman earning All-America honors after finishing sixth in the decathlon. In the sprints, sophomore Kelvin Love Jr., rebounded from an eighth-place showing in the 200m dash at the Pac-10 meet to finish fifth in the region before taking 17th at the NCAA meet.
In his first NCAA Outdoor Championships (2005), Winston's men finished second in the 4x400m relay as the quartet of Rich Allen, Seth Amoo, Lewis Banda and Domenik Peterson clocked a 3:00.57 in the finals of the meet, being edged by LSU. At the same meet, he also saw Amoo finish sixth in the 200m dash to earn All-America honors, making him just the seventh Sun Devil ever and just the second since 1981 to finish among the Top 8. Indoors, he coached Peterson to a fourth-place finish at 200m in a school-record time of 20.43.
On the outdoor track, his team of Steven Koehnemann, Amoo, Peterson and Love Jr., turned in the fastest 4x100m relay time in school history at 38.71, breaking the 26-year-old record of 38.78 (the old mark was set in 1979 by Ron Brown, LaMonte King, Greg Moore and Dwayne Evans). The same four men also captured the 4x100m title at the Pac-10 Championships before winning the same race at the NCAA West Championships. Following their record, the relay was selected as the Pac-10 Co-Athletes of the Week (May 2) marking the first time in conference history a relay was honored with the weekly award.
Winston helped continue the long-standing tradition of success in the 4x400m relay at the conference level as Amoo, Banda, Jason Barton and Peterson won the Pac-10 title. Their victory gave ASU the event crown for the fifth year in a row and helped the Sun Devils sweep the relays for the second year in a row.
Prior to his hire in Tempe, Winston oversaw the men's and women's sprinters, hurdlers and jumpers at Virginia Tech. During his tenure, three individual Big East titles were won, including Jason Fludd in the triple jump in 2004. Winston also mentored his student-athletes to seven school indoor and outdoor records.
Outside the collegiate ranks, Winston also guided a pair of hurdlers to Top 5 finishes at the 2002 U.S. Championships, including Brandi Smith, the fourth-place finisher in the 400m hurdles that year. Her finish was considered one of the best turnarounds in her event after not qualifying for the US event one year earlier.
Before Winston made his way to Blacksburg, Va., he spent four seasons mentoring the men's and women's sprinters at Missouri State. During that time (1997-2001), Winston saw his women bring home three indoor and one outdoor conference championship crown while also securing All-America honors in the 4x400m relay during the 1999 campaign. He also coached several athletes during the off-season as the women secured three medals at the 1999 Central American and Caribbean Championships.
Prior to his stay at SMS, Winston spent two seasons with the Thundering Herd of Marshall (1996-97), again working with both the men's and women's teams. In his final season with MU, the men won the Southern Conference Championship with one of the sprinters being Randy Moss, a standout for the Herd's football team as well as a Pro Bowl selection for the NFL's New England Patriots.
Winston, a native of Alton, Ill., competed as a student-athlete for Coach Kraft at South Carolina, running for the Gamecocks from 1992-94. In his final year, he finished as the runner-up in the indoor 55m hurdles and the outdoor 110m hurdles at the 1995 SEC Championships. Winston completed his undergraduate studies at South Carolina where he earned a B.S. in criminal justice.
