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ASU Legend Ryan Whiting Named Throws Coach

by thesundevils.com
Aug 12, 2022

TEMPE - The legend is coming home! Six time national champion and soon-to-be Sun Devil Hall of Fame Inductee Ryan Whiting '10 is returning to Arizona State as the head throws coach. The 2010 ASU graduate was a finalist for The Bowerman, earned 2008 USTFCCCA Men's Indoor National Field Athlete of the Year, earned four gold medals with Team USA, and is a nine-time All-American. Whiting replaces Brian Blutreich who took over throws at Oregon.
 
"We're extremely excited for Ryan to come back home to Arizona State," head coach Dion Miller said. "It's always wonderful when you have the opportunity to hire one of your own. Ryan comes in with a bevy of experience between being a tremendous athlete here and helping to develop some of the best throwers in the world in recent years, so we're very excited to have him."
 
"Walking around the building now, it feels pretty cool to be back at ASU and have this opportunity to take our student-athletes through an upgraded version of the experience I had as an athlete here," Whiting said. "I'm extremely excited for this opportunity - I'm definitely ready for this. My wife was a swimmer here, I was a thrower, and now my kids are in the area and I get to show them what being a Sun Devil is all about. Excitement was the overriding feeling throughout the process and I'm looking forward to taking the program to a new level."
 
Over the course of his four years competing for ASU, Whiting earned nine NCAA All-American honors, six NCAA titles, and three Pac-12 individual titles. The USTFCCCA selected him as the American indoor performer of the year in 2008, and in 2010 he was one of three finalists for The Bowerman - the highest honor in collegiate track and field. Whiting won his first national title in 2008 with an NCAA Championship meet-record 21.73m/73-01.50 in the indoor shot. The mark stood as the program and collegiate indoor records until 2021 when ASU's own Turner Washington bested it. Whiting's contributions that year helped ASU win the 2008 NCAA Indoor title. Outdoors, Whiting's 21.97m/72-1 shot throw remains ASU's program record and sits second all-time in NCAA history.

 
In the classroom, Whiting earned ESPN Second-Team Academic All-America honors on two occasions and was selected the 2008 USTFCCCA Men's Division I Indoor Field Scholar-Athlete of the Year. In 2010, Whiting was awarded the Tom Hansen Conference Medal, presented annually to each member institution's outstanding senior male and female student-athletes based on performance and achievement in scholarship, athletics and leadership.
 
In 2011 at 24 years old, Whiting briefly held the world lead in the men's indoor shot at 21.52m. He took the top spot again in March 2012 when he went 22.00m. As of July 1, 2022, Whiting's PRs sit at 22.28m (outdoor shot), 62.08m (discus), and 22.23 (indoor shot), and his biggest international senior successes to date are first-place finishes at the 2012 and 2014 World Indoor Championships. He represented the United States at six World Championships in Athletics including Moscow 2013 (silver) and Sopot 2014 (gold), along with the 2012 London Olympics.
 

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Athletic Resumé
with Arizona State

  • The Bowerman finalist in 2010
  • Held NCAA indoor and NCAA Championship Meet records in the shot (21.73m/71-3.50)
  • Holds the program outdoor shot record (21.97m/72-1) and held the program discus (62.08m/203-08).
  • 2008 USTFCCCA Men's Indoor National Field Athlete of the Year
  • NCAA Titles: Three indoor shot put ('08, '09, '10), two outdoor shot put ('09, '10) and one discus ('08).
  • One of three men to win the indoor shot, outdoor shot and discus titles all in the same season (John Godina '95, Turner Washington '21)
  • Pac-12 individual titles: Shot Put (2009) and Shot Put/Discus (2010)
  • Two-time ESPN Second-Team Academic All-American
  • 2008 USTFCCCA Men's Division I Indoor Field Scholar-Athlete of the Year
  • 2010 Tom Hansen Conference Medal recipient - Given annually to each member institution's outstanding senior male and female student-athlete

 
with Team USA
London 2012 Olympics
Junior Pan American Championships

  • 2005 shot put - champion
  • 2005 discus - champion

 
World Indoor Championships

  • Istanbul 2012, shot put - champion
  • Sopot 2014, shot put - champion
  • Birmingham 2018, shot put

 
World Outdoor Championships

  • Daegu 2011, shot put
  • Moscow 2013, shot put - silver
  • London 2017, shot put

 
Coaching Resumé

  • Since 2018, founder and director of Desert High Performance LLC, a high-quality coaching and mentorship business for Arizona-local high school athletes and recent college graduates.
  • Since 2019, throws coach and head strength and conditioning coach at Mesa Community College - 15 NJCAA All-Americans & one decathlon national champion
  • Mentored 2016 Diamond League Champion Darrell Hill
  • Mentored ASU greats Maggie Ewen and Sam Noennig
  • Penn State Ability Athletics/ Wounded Warrior Throws Coach - 2011-15

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