Men's cross country heads to UCLA

The Arizona State University men’s cross country team will give most of its top runners their first taste of action in 2012 as the team heads west to take part in the Pac-12 Preview, hosted by UCLA at the Robinson Ranch Golf Course in Santa Clarita, Calif.  The venue will be the location of the Pac-12 Championships, set to take place on October 27.  The Sun Devil men will see season debuts from Darius Terry, Nick Happe and CJ Albertson.  The event is schedule to kickoff at 6:20 p.m. PST.  The women’s team is not slated to compete.

MEET HISTORY:

Since this is a special event based on the circumstances of hosting the Pac-12 history, this will be the first time the team competes in this particular meet.

MEET PREVIEW

The meet this weekend will give the Sun Devil men their first look at the course that will be used for the Pac-12 Championships in October.  The race will be 8,000 meters in length and the ASU men will be competing in the Invite section at 6:20 p.m. PST.  Among the other teams that will be in action are No. 18 NAU, Cal Poly (who receive votes in this week’s poll), UC Davis, Sacremento State, Long Beach State and Clemson. In addition to those mentioned above, ASU will also see action from Ryan Herson, Steven Schnieders, Garrett Baker-Slama, Daniel Wong, Josh Walker and Jeff Bickert.

IN THE RANKINGS

Neither the ASU men nor the women are receving any votes in the current USTFCCCA national coaches’ poll.  In the USTFCCCA West Regional rankings, the men currently find themselves ranked eighth while the women are also slated in eighth.

OH, HAPPE DAY

Nick Happe was a pleasant surprise for the Sun Devils in 2011 and the senior will be looked upon as a leader this season.  Happe was the team’s top runner through most of last season and saw that come to fruition with an All-West Region finish at the NCAA West Region Championships.  That momentum carried to the track for Happe as he set personal records indoors in the mile, 3000m and 5000m and moved up the ASU all-time top-10 list in all three events.  He was a second-team All-American in the mile and looks primed for a solid senior campain.

SHELBY GT

There was no more dynamic freshman in the conference last year that Shelby Houlihan, and the sophomore was honored in 2011 as the Pac-12 Cross Country Newcomer of the Year before following that up with the 2012 Track and Field Newcomer Award as Well - becoming the first student-athlete in conference history to complete the sweep  Houlihan was the top freshman finisher at the Pac-12 Championships (8th) and the NCAA West Regional (12th) and led the women to their 13th NCAA Championships appearance in the last 14 years.  Houlihan kickstarted the 2012 campaign by winning the George Kyte Invitational in Flagstaff for her first career collegiate victory as she nearly set the course record with a time of 16:52.4.

TOP FROSH

Last season, Shelby Houlihan made history by being the first person in conference history to sweep the Pac-12 Newcomer of the Year Award for both the cross country and track and field seasons.  So who are ASU’s candidates to challenge for that honor this season?  CJ Albertson is a young man that men’s coach Louie Quintana is very excited about. A freshman out of Buchanan High School in Clovis, Calif. (the same school as former ASU great and Olympian Kyle Alcorn and current teammate Macy Bricks) was among the top high school cross country runners in the season last year, qualifying for the Footlocker Nationals despite battling injury through the season. Adriana Olivas is a freshman out of Corona, Calif. (Centennial HS) who is the gritty, hard-working sort of runner that women’s coach Ryan Cole says represents what the program is all about and could make a splash early as well.  Other notable newcomers include Zach Zarda, a 2012 NCAA West Preliminary Qualifier on the track, and Garrett Seawell, the 2012 California State Junior College Cross Country champion.

THEY NEVER LEFT

After advancing to 12 consecutive NCAA Championship apperances from 1998-2009, the Sun Devil women’s cross country team had one of the longest active streaks in the nation before missing out in 2010.  Some might have thought it was an end to the dynasty, but the women regrouped last season to advanced to their 13th championship meet in 14 years and will look to restart the streak with another appearance in 2012.

LOUIE LOUIE

Coming into his ninth season as a head coach for Arizona State cross country, Louie Quintana has put together quite the program since taking over in August 2004.  During his seven years leading the distance group, Quintana has worked with seven individuals that earned 10 total All-America honors in cross country, including the program’s only three-time honoree Amy Hastings and Brandon Bethke who placed seventh nationally at the 2009 NCAA Championships. On the track, his athletes have been instrumental in helping the Sun Devils capture four national titles and three Pac-10 crowns. He has worked with four individuals that have collected five NCAA titles, including Kyle Alcorn, who won the indoor 3,000-meter run and the outdoor 3,000-meter steeplechase in 2008 and more recently, Mason McHenry, who was the 2012 NCAA Indoor 800m champion.

NO LUMP OF COLE

Ryan Cole has built up a reputation as one of the most promising and exciting up-and-coming young coaches in the nation and was named as the head coach for the women’s cross country team for the 2011 campaign as a testament to that.  Now in his second year as head women’s cross country coach, Cole began working with the Arizona State program during the 2007-08 campaign and had served as an assistant ever since.  In that time, Cole worked with the ASU women’s distance teams serving under Coach Louie Quintana while also handling many of the daily administrative aspects of the Arizona State program and working with the management of home meets.  Cole led the ASU women back to the NCAA Championships in 2011 for the 13th time in the last 14 years.

WELCOME TO THE SHOW

The Arizona State cross country rosters feature a total of 33 student-athletes (16 men, 17 women).  Of that total, there will be 12 brand new faces gracing the Sun Devil uniform.  The women’s squad features five true freshmen in Marcelle Cartledge (Scottsdale, Ariz.), Tory Haberman (Gilbert, Ariz.), Kaitlin Kaluzny (Yakima, Wash.), Adiana Olivas (Corona, Calif.) and Alexia Velarde (Rancho Mirage, Calif.).  Dalanne Bartlette will join the Sun Devils with three years of eligibility after transferring from Shata Community College while Christen Collins will come on as a transfer out of the University of San Diego. On the men’s side, CJ Albertson and Connor Vigil represent the line true freshmen while transfers Jeff Bickert (RS-Fr./Pleasant Hill, Calif/Cal Poly SLO), Garrett Seawell (Jr./Sacremento, Calif./American River JC) and Zach Zarda (Sr./Shawnee, Kan./Kansas) will debut for ASU this year.  In addition to the new faces, redshirt freshmen Ryan Herson, Daniel Wong and Heyden Wooff could all contribute for the men this year in their first action with the Sun Devils.

SENIOR LEADERSHIP

Both the men’s and women’s rosters are loaded with underclassmen but both squads will look to the seniors to help lead the way.  Coming into the year, Darius Terry and Nick Happe are far and away the top returning runners on the roster and among the top returners in the conference with Doug Smith expected to make contributions as well.  For the women, two local products in Hailey Hanna and Natasa Vulic are the lone seniors, both walk-on’s who have been priased by Cole for doing everything necessary to get to this point and providing the model work ethic for the younger women to follow.

A LOCAL AFFAIR

One of the keys to building one of the top running programs in nation is the ability to recruit well from the areas around you.  The Sun Devil teams have taken that task seriously and will field eight Arizona natives on the 2012 roster, several of whom will be expected to play a large role on this year’s team.  Mention as already been made of Hailey Hanna (Mesa, Ariz.) and Natasa Vulic (Phoenix, Ariz.) for the women.  But the team also welcomes freshmen Marcella Cartledge (Scottsdale, Ariz.) and Tory Haberman (Gilbert, Ariz.) this season in addition to junior transfer Christen Collins (Phoenix, Ariz.). Redshirt freshman Daniel Wong (Tucson, Ariz.), redhsirt sophomore Garrett Baker-Slama (Tempe, Ariz.) and redshirt senior Josh Walker (Chandler, Ariz.) are some others that could play a pivotal part as the season progresses for the men.

TOP HONORS

Not only is the ASU cross country team looking to get things accomplished on the athletic side of things in 2012, but they have also started to put in work in the classroom as well.  Four members of the Sun Devil women’s squad and three men will take classes as part of Barrett, The Honors College, during the 2012-13 academic calendar.  Barrett, which has been named among the top honors colleges in the nation, enrolls nearly 40 Sun Devil student-athletes in its highly selective program with almost a quarter coming from the cross country programs.  The members representing the cross country team in the honors college consist of Natasa Vulic (Sr.), Marcella Cartledge (Fr.), Karlee Owens (Jr.) and Kayla Springford (So.) on the women’s team and Garrett Baker-Slama (So.), Daniel Wong (Rs-Fr.) and Nick Happe (Sr.) for the men.