NCAA Champion Jordan Clarke named Pac-10 Field Athlete of the Year

Jordan Clarke, the 2011 NCAA Outdoor Shot Put Champion for Arizona State University, was named the 2011 Pac-10 Men’s Field Athlete of the Year, the Conference announced. The Anchorage, Alaska, native, who recently completed his sophomore season with the Sun Devil track and field squad, earned the honor in a vote of the Conference’s coaches following the 2011 NCAA Outdoor Championships in Des Moines, Iowa, earlier this month.

The 2011 Pac-10 Champion in the shot put and the team’s high-point scorer at the Conference meet with 20 points (10 for first place in shot put, eight for second place in discus and two for seventh place in hammer), Clarke capped his second competitive season for ASU by winning the NCAA title in Des Moines, hitting a personal-best mark of 19.75m (64-09.75) in the fifth round of throws to capture the win and give ASU the outdoor shot put crown for the third year in a row after former teammate Ryan Whiting won in 2009 and 2010. With the fifth-best mark in school history, Clarke earned his third career All-America honor and his second of the year after he finished among the Top 8 indoors in March.

With the honor, ASU now has collected 14 total awards from the Pac-10, including five on the men’s side and nine on the women’s. Clarke and Whiting (co-winner) earned the field honor for the men over the past two seasons while Marcus Brunson (2001) and LaMonte King (1981) were both named the Athletes of the Year. Len Miller earned the other award for the men as he was selected as the Coach of the Year in 1981.

Clarke is the third different thrower under assistant coach David Dumble to earn a conference award as Sarah Stevens earned the women’s field honor in both 2009 and 2007. Other women to be honored included Charonda Williams, the 2009 Track Athlete of the Year and 2008 Newcomer of the Year; Jacquelyn Johnson, the 2008 Field Athlete of the Year and the 2004 Newcomer of the Year; and current head coach Greg Kraft, who was named the women’s Coach of the Year in 2006, 2007 and 2008.

Arizona State’s All-Time Pac-10 Award Winners
Men
2011 - Jordan Clarke - Field Athlete of the Year
2010 - Ryan Whiting - Field Athlete of the Year (co-winner)
2001 - Marcus Brunson - Athlete of the Year *
1981 - LaMonte King - Athlete of the Year *
1981 - Len Miller - Coach of the Year

Women
2009 - Charonda Williams - Track Athlete of the Year
2009 - Sarah Stevens - Field Athlete of the Year
2008 - Jacquelyn Johnson - Field Athlete of the Year
2008 - Charonda Williams - Newcomer of the Year
2008 - Greg Kraft - Coach of the Year
2007 - Sarah Stevens - Field Athlete of the Year
2007 - Greg Kraft - Coach of the Year
2006 - Greg Kraft - Coach of the Year
2004 - Jacquelyn Johnson - Newcomer of the Year

* split of track and field athletes of the year did not occur until 2005... prior to that, one individual was selected as the athlete of the year along with one newcomer and one coach