June 18, 2010
TEMPE – Following a pair of national titles and another highly successful outdoor campaign, Arizona State University track & field standout Ryan Whiting was named the U.S. Track & Field, Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Co-National Male Field Athlete of the Year for Outdoor Track & Field in Division I, the Association announced today. Whiting shared the honor with fellow Pac-10 competitor Ashton Eaton of Oregon.
Selected for the award through a vote of the nation’s coaches, Whiting closed out his career on top of the collegiate podium by winning national titles in both the shot put and the discus at the 2010 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Eugene, Ore. (June 9-12). With his wins in the shot put and discus, Whiting became the 10th different man to sweep both throws at the NCAA Championships since it was first held in 1921. Whiting’s sweep was the first since Janus Robberts (SMU) in 2002 and the 11th time overall as one individual swept both throws on two occasions.
On the final day of the meet, Whiting showed why he is one of the top up-and-coming talents in the world in the shot put as he captured his second-consecutive outdoor title in the event and his fifth overall (three-consecutive indoor as well) with a huge personal-best toss of 21.97m (72-01.00) to go over 72-feet for the first time in his career. Although that toss left him just three centimeters shy of equaling the collegiate record of 22.00m, it did give him his 10th-career meet with a toss of 70-feet or better, the most of any collegiate thrower in NCAA history, and also moved him into second on the current world lists. By winning the title, Whiting also remained undefeated by collegiate competitors this season in the shot put.
On the first day of the Championships, he won his first national title in the discus with a throw of 59.06m (193-9). Winning the NCAA title marked just his second win of the season in the discus as the only other victory came at the Pac-10 Championships. The win at the national meet was the first discus title won by a Sun Devil man while his conference crown was the first in Pac-10 history for a Sun Devil and just the seventh all-time in any conference ASU has competed. The last time a Sun Devil won a conference discus crown before Whiting was at the 1968 Western Athletic Conference Championships where Jesus Ortiz did as Whiting did by sweeping the shot put and discus titles.
Overall in his career, Whiting will walk away from Tempe with school records in the indoor shot put (21.73m/71-03.50), the outdoor shot put (21.97m/72-01.00) and the discus (62.08m/203-08). He also will conclude his collegiate career ranked second all-time in the shot put on both the NCAA and Pac-10 lists.
The honor for Whiting is the second of his career as he also was named the 2008 National Male Field Athlete of the Year for Indoor Track & Field in Division I after setting the collegiate indoor record in the shot put to claim his first of what would be six national titles by heaving the shot 21.73m. Overall, a Sun Devil has earned national athlete of the year honors two other times when Jacquelyn Johnson was the 2006 (outdoor) and 2008 (indoor) Women’s National Field Athlete of the Year.