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Under the direction of Greg Kraft, who is entering his 13th year as the Director of Track & Field at Arizona State University in 2009, the Sun Devil program has continued to reach new heights. In 2006, his women captured their first Pac-10 Championship in what would be the first of three in a row. In 2007, his women won the indoor and outdoor NCAA Championships, the first titles for the women's program. Last year, that success poured over into the men's program as the men and women both won the NCAA Indoor Championships to become only the second program in NCAA history to sweep both crowns at the same meet. The Pac-10 Women's Coach of the Year the last three years running and a four-time honoree as the USTFCCCA National Coach of the Year, including both for men's and women's indoor in 2008, Kraft has built a program that not only features talented individuals, but a deep and balanced program that continues to be among the top programs in the nation. With numerous individual national champions and several Olympians, Kraft's student-athletes have placed Sun Devil track & field on the map both nationally and internationally. In his time in Tempe, the Sun Devils have won four NCAA team championships, 17 individual national titles and earned 157 All-America honors, including 123 in track & field individual events, 19 in track & field relays and 15 in cross country. His athletes have found success on the conference level as well having won three women's Pac-10 titles and two women's indoor MPSF crowns. Individually, the Sun Devils have combined to collect 111 conference championships, including 54 individual Pac-10 crowns and 13 relay titles outdoors while adding 36 MPSF individual wins and another eight relay crowns. Student-athletes also have become multiple champions under Kraft, including the conference's first four-time steeplechase champion in Aaron Aguayo and it's first three-time long jump champion in Tiffany Greer. Other notable Pac-10 performers include two-time steeplechase winner Lisa Aguilera, two-time 5,000m run champion Kelly MacDonald and two-time high jump champion Fiona Daly for the women and men's athletes Marcus Brunson, who won the 100m and 200m in the same year, and two-time long jump champions Dwight Phillips and Matt Turner. Speaking of Phillips, Kraft's Sun Devils also have had great success internationally, including the 2004 Olympic Long Jump Gold Medalist, Phillips. In 2008, two of Kraft's pupils competed for the United States at the Olympic Games in Beijing, including Johnson in the heptathlon and Trevell Quinley in the long jump after finishing second and first, respectively, at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials. Current Devil Joel Phillip (Grenada) was one of three internationals that competed at the games as he ran in the 400m dash. Phillips' Gold Medal was the 10th in program history for the Sun Devils. Outside of athletic competition, his student-athletes have been just as successful. As a team, the his women have twice been named the USTFCCCA All-Academic Team of the Year for track & field while continually placing multiple individuals on several academic teams. Ryan Whiting and Sarah Stevens were both named the USTFCCCA Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2008 (Whiting men's indoor field and Stevens women's outdoor field), marking the third and fourth national honor the program has received. Eight individuals have been selected Academic All-Americans by CoSIDA while 58 have earned National All-Academic honors from the USTFCCCA. In the Pac-10, 124 individuals have earned first or second team honors in track & field while 56 have been selected to the same teams in cross country. Success followed the Sun Devils once again in 2008 as the men and women won the NCAA Indoor Championships and earned another trophy at the outdoor meet as the women were national runners-up. Seven individual national titles were won as well, including Jacquelyn Johnson claiming the indoor pentathlon for the third time in her career before becoming the first, four-time heptathlon champion outdoors. Her indoor score set an NCAA collegiate indoor and meet record and was the second record of the meet as Whiting won the men's shot put with a collegiate indoor record as well. Kyle Alcorn played a huge role in the men's success as he won the 3,000m race and anchored the distance medley to runner-up honors. And, in the end, it was the 4x400m relay that locked up the title for the men while individual point scorers like Stevens, Jessica Pressley, April Kubishta, Stephanie Garnett and the 4x400m relay team secured the women's second crown. Outdoors, the women nearly made it two-for-two for the second year in a row, finishing second to LSU for the national title while the men took sixth. While Johnson wrapped up her fourth heptathlon crown, Stevens won the discus and Pressley the shot put (for the second year in a row) while both women earned All-America honors in three throwing events (hammer, discus and shot put). Alcorn won the 3,000m steeplechase for the men's lone crown while Whiting took a close second in the shot put. The men also saw Joel Phillip earn All-America honors in the 400m dash and true-freshman Nectaly Barbosa earn the same honor in the 800m. On the conference level, the women scored 186.5 points to capture their third Pac-10 title in a row and were just 3.0 points from equaling the Pac-10 record for points scored in a meet. The men, for the second year in a row, were edged out for the team title, placing second overall. Charonda Williams (100m/200m), Alcorn (3,000m SC/5,000m), Pressley (shot put/discus) and Matt Turner (long jump/triple jump) each won a pair of titles at the conference meet held in Tempe with Turner (21 points) and Johnson (33.5 points) were named the Athletes of the Meet. The 2007 season was certainly one for the record books as well as four women combined to win five individual national titles to carry the Sun Devils to both the 2007 NCAA Indoor and 2007 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, the first national crowns in program history for the women. Kraft's women coupled that success with a pair of conference titles, winning the indoor MPSF and outdoor Pac-10 Championships, while also winning the NCAA West Region for the first time. The women's Pac-10 title was their second in a row and it was almost a sweep as the men fell three points shy of their first crown since 1981. Johnson defended her national titles in the indoor pentathlon and outdoor heptathlon while the shot put was swept by Sun Devils with Stevens and Pressley winning the indoor and outdoor crowns, respectively. Kubishta won the outdoor pole vault, giving ASU it's first title in the event since 1994, when Olympic champion Hysong took gold. All-told, 10 different women combined to secure 18 All-America honors in 2007, including three by senior Amy Hastings, who tied Maicel Malone for the most all-time in ASU history (10). That record has since been tied by Stevens and Pressley with Stevens still having one year left to collect more honors (2009 season). The men also turned in solid performances throughout the year, including Aguayo, who captured the 3,000m steeplechase at the Pac-10 Championships, becoming only the 11th athlete in Pac-10 history to win the same event four times. The third-place finisher at the national meet, Aguayo was one of five men that earned All-America honors in 2007, including Turner, the 2007 Pac-10 champion, in the indoor long jump and Whiting, a redshirt freshman, in the indoor and outdoor shot put. In recent years, Kraft's teams, especially on the women's side, have developed into national powers. The Sun Devil women captured the 2006 Pac-10 Championship while also becoming just the second program in the history of the NCAA to earn a trophy at each of the three NCAA events in the same academic year (fourth in 2005 cross country, third indoors and tied for fourth outdoors). For his efforts, Kraft was selected as the 2006 USTFCCCA Women's West District Coach of the Year and the 2006 Pac-10 Conference Women's Coach of the Year, his second conference coaching honor (1996 SEC Coach of the Year). Individually in 2006, Kraft saw Johnson sweep the national titles in the multi-events for the first time in her career, winning the indoor pentathlon and the outdoor heptathlon. Indoors, Hastings won the 5,000m national crown before teammate Jackson secured the outdoor 10,000m title. All told, 15 All-America accolades were earned by the Sun Devils. The men also have enjoyed success during Kraft's tenure, including Aguayo, who finished ninth in the nation at the 2006 NCAA Cross Country Championships before capturing his fourth steeplechase crown. Kraft also helped with the efforts put forth by Joshua Kinnaman, a two-time All-American in the multi-events during the 2006 season who also earned the distinction indoors during the 2007 season in the heptathlon. Kraft's influence on the success of the program also was honored as two of his assistants earned recognition in 2006. David Dumble (women's throws) and Louis Quintana (women's distances) were both selected as the USTFCCCA West District Assistant Coach of the Year before being tabbed as the USTFCCCA National Assistant Coach of the Year for their respective areas. Dumble also was selected for the 2007 and 2008 honors in the women's throws. The 2004 season was a jumping point for the program as Johnson, then a true-freshman, won the heptathlon at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, giving ASU its first national title since the 1996 season. Johnson also finished as the national runner-up in the indoor pentathlon, the first year the event was contested at the NCAA meet. Kraft was introduced as ASU's head coach July 28, 1996, after spending seven years guiding the track and field and cross country programs at the University of South Carolina where he was the 1996 SEC Coach of the Year. During Kraft's tenure at South Carolina, he rebuilt the men's program into a league power and constructed the women's program from scratch. Kraft also headed up the men's program transition from the Metro Conference to the Southeastern. The result of Kraft's work was both quick and remarkable. The Gamecock men's squad took just three years to climb from 22 points and a 10th-place finish to 74 points and a fourth-place finish at the 12-team conference meet. The three teams ahead of South Carolina were recent NCAA champions Arkansas, Tennessee and LSU. On the women's side, the South Carolina climb was as impressive as it was quick. In four years, the Gamecocks went from a basic walk-on program that finished 10th in the SEC (13 points) to a second-place finish (103) behind eventual national champion LSU. The USC women then went on to score 26 points at the NCAA Outdoor Championships to tie UCLA for ninth place. And the Gamecocks were to return 102 of their 103 conference points, plus all 26 of their NCAA points. What made the building of the women's program even more astounding was it had yet to be funded to the NCAA scholarship limits. Kraft, who is now entering his 29th year of Division I coaching and 20th as a head coach, has long been associated with successful track and field and cross country programs. As an assistant, Kraft tutored 26 All-Americans and 36 individual conference champions while helping guide his schools to four conference titles and three NCAA Top 10 finishes. He started his coaching career in 1979 as a graduate assistant coach at his Alma mater, Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo. During Kraft's one-year stint at Cal Poly, the Mustangs won the NCAA Division II titles in both track and field and cross country. Kraft's next stop was a one-year stint as the field events coach at Indiana State. In 1981, he moved on to a highly successful stint as an assistant at Kansas State University. During his four years at KSU, Kraft tutored 14 Big Eight champions and 16 NCAA All-Americans. One of the Wildcat pupils was 1996 Olympic triple jump champion Kenny Harrison. During his stint in Manhattan, KSU won a Big Eight championship in cross country and posted two Top 10 NCAA finishes in track, as well as four other Top 20 finishes. Kraft then headed to the University of Virginia in 1985, where his initial responsibilities included all field events. His duties were later expanded to include the sprints and hurdles. During his four-year stint in Charlottesville, his student-athletes won 20 individual Atlantic Coast Conference titles and earned seven All-America honors while capturing three ACC team championships. After 10 years as an assistant coach, Kraft was ready for a head coaching job and he was named South Carolina's head coach in 1989. At South Carolina, Kraft's cross country teams were twice named Academic All-America squads. Overall, 38 student-athletes were honored as Academic All-SEC selections and 11 student-athletes would earn All-America honors. Gamecock student-athletes won individual titles in the Metro Conference, SEC, NCAA Indoors, NCAA Outdoors, USA Indoors, USA Outdoors, the Olympic Festival, the Pan American Juniors and the 1996 USA Olympic Trials. He also mentored current ASU men's sprints/hurdles/relays coach Terry Winston, a two-time All-American and SEC runner-up in the hurdles for South Carolina. Kraft is married to the former Maggie Keyes of Mill Valley, Calif. Maggie is a former collegiate record-setting miler who won AIAW, TAC and Millrose Games titles. She was also a member of the USA's first-ever World Championship team in 1983. The Krafts have two sons, Kyle, a fourth-year engineering student in ASU's Barretts College, and Cory, currently a freshman on the Sun Devil team (pole vault).
Kraft's Olympians ======================================================================= 2008 Beijing Games (Bejing, China) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Seth Amoo GHA 200m dash 29th place Lewis Banda ZIM 400m dash 47th place Jacquelyn Johnson USA Heptathlon DNF Joel Phillip GRN 400m dash 39th place Trevell Quinley USA Long Jump 19th place |
 
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