(Birmingham, AL) #ThrowsU earned a pair of NCAA shot put titles Saturday thanks to Herculean efforts from Turner Washington and Jorinde van Klinken. Jamar Marshall Jr.continued to improve on the track and earned his first NCAA medal, a bronze in the 60m hurdles (7.64). Washington defended his shot put title (21.65m/71-1/2 mark), while van Klinken earned her first indoor shot crown (19.08m/62-7.25 ) after taking bronze last year. Van Klinken’s mark is a personal best and broke the Birmingham CrossPlex facility record (Raven Saunders, Ole Miss 18.56m (60-10¾ ).
“I’m so proud of all three of our student-athletes and for the work they’ve done this indoor season so I’m really excited to see what we do outdoors,” head coach Dion Miller said.
NCAA Indoor Championships Results
ASU indoor champions
ASU indoor record books
This is the second time multiple ASU T&F athletes have won NCAA titles in the same season. In 2008, three claimed gold: Kyle Alcorn, 3,000 Meters (8:00.62) Ryan Whiting, Shot Put (21.73m/71-3.50) Jacquelyn Johnson, Pentathlon (4,496 points). The Sun Devils now have 11 total indoor shot put crowns – seven for the men, four for the women. Washington has four NCAA titles (two indoor shot, one outdoor shot, one discus) and van Klinken has two (indoor shot, discus).
Second-year Jamar Marshall Jr. earned bronze in the 60m hurdles. He ran in the prelims of the event last year but tripped over one of the first hurdles and didn’t finish. He followed that with a fifth-place finish in the outdoor 100m dash.
“For Jamar to be a freshman and get third – you immediately see what kind of talent he has,” Miller said. “For him having the experience that he did last year, I think that paid dividends coming into this year. Last year he was new but this year I think he really understood what the meet is all about and he was ready to compete. I think he did a really good job at handling composure and obviously he’s a super competitor so I’m really proud of him.”
“Seeing him get on the podium is pretty much all that you as a coach want to do – it’s that progression toward number one and he’s certainly moving in that direction,” sprints coach Javonie Small said. “His mentality today was great this weekend – he actually woke up this morning and sent a text to myself and Coach Miller saying ‘Hey I feel great’ and ‘Today is the day,’ so he had complete confidence in his race and in his training going into the meet. It’s the national championship and anything can happen and I believe he was prepared for a lot of things. He tripped coming off the last hurdle and fell but he still ended up getting third.”
Washington continues to be one of if not THE MOST dominant thrower ASU and the NCAA has ever seen. After becoming one of three finalists for The Bowerman after his three NCAA titles and NCAA indoor shot put collegiate record, Washington went on a tear in 2022 and won 11-straight shot put events prior to coming to the indoor championships. He won Saturday by almost three inches to push that streak to 12.
“It feels real great to get this title today. This one’s really special and sweet,” Washington said. “I didn’t really have the indoor season that I wanted leading into this but I came in when it mattered and got the job done to add to the collection of trophies so it feels great. My focus today was to stay in the zone and focus on what I can do. I came here to win and I knew it was going to be a tight competition so you have to go into each throw with that mindset.”
“Turner competed really well,” throwing coach Brian Blutreich said. “This indoor season hasn’t been as consistent as we had hoped from a technical perspective but these last few weeks his technique has gotten a lot better and he’s carried that over into meets so I think where he was going into today he did a great job of competing well. There was big time competition and alot of throwers so now we’re on to the outdoor season.”
Van Klinken was a semifinalist for The Bowerman last year and claimed bronze in the indoor shot put – a finish she wasn’t particularly proud of at the time. She showed up today and won by four feet, shattering her personal record by over four feet and coming a quarter-inch away from tying the ASU program record (19.20m/63-0 Magdalyn Ewen ’18).
“It feels really good to have both the discus and shot put titles right now,” van Klinken said. “For Turner and I to win it on the same day is a really cool accomplishment. Honestly my training hasn’t been going well until this past week and then I started throwing absolute bombs in practice, so I knew I was ready. I was excited to hopefully throw a national record here but we knew the 19-meter throw was possible, and even the 20-meter, so hopefully we’ll see that outdoors.”
Van Klinken has focused heavily on technique in the off season, and that all come together today.
“My technique is finally getting a little better. There were a few things that still went very wrong in January and February and to be honest we just figured it out this past few weeks. As everyone could tell, those adjustments had a big difference on the impact and results of the throw so it’s just really cool to see that once you get your technique better you can throw further.”
“This was an absolutely unbelievable feat for her,” Bluetreich said. “We started figuring some things out with her technique over the last couple of weeks and she definitely implemented them this weekend and competed like the champion she is and I couldn’t be happier for her. We’ll obviously enjoy this this weekend – two NCAAs champs in the second event which is almost unheard of.”
Blutreich previously coached a trio of athletes to national titles in the same week, but he’s never had two do it in the same event in the same week.
“We knew we were capable of this but that’s a lot easier said than done. A lot of things have to go right, and we may have a crack at it next year too since both Turner and Jorinde are back for their senior seasons. It’s a very unique situation and I’m not sure the last time this happened.”
Press Release courtesy of Sun Devil Athletics – Will Edmonds
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