Arizona State Digest: Ding named Pac-12 Golfer, Freshman of the Year
Arizona State dominated the final Pac-12 men's golf tournament this spring. So it's no surprise the Sun Devils are taking home a majority of the post-season honors.
Freshman sensation Wenyi Ding has been named both Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year, becoming just the third player in conference history to win both honors the same season, joining UCLA's Patrick Cantlay (2011) and USC's Jamie Lovemark (2007).
Ding finished top 10 in six of seven tournaments this season, including four top five spots and a record-shattering victory at the Amer Ari Invitational in just his second event. Ding carded a 27-under-par 189 (63-64-62) at the Amer Ari, obliterating the NCAA Division I 54-hole scoring records and becoming the first collegiate golfer to break 190.
The nation's top ranked player by Scoreboard/Clippd, Ding currently leads the Pac-12 with a 69.00 scoring average, which is on pace to equal Collin Morikawa (2018-19) for the third-lowest in league history. He is a semifinalists for the Ben Hogan Award and a candidate for the Fred Haskins Award.
Ding becomes the 11th different Sun Devil to earn Conference Golfer of the Year, but the first since Niklas Lemke was co-recipient with Lovemark in 2007. However, he is the fifth consecutive and seventh all-time ASU recipient of the league's Freshman of the Year honor.
ASU's Matt Thurmond has been named Coach of the Year for the fourth time, tied with Stanford's Conrad Ray for second-most all-time to legendary ASU and USC mentor Randy Lein who has seven. Graduate student Ryggs Johnston and junior Preston Summerhays earned first team honors while junior Josele Ballester was named to the second team. Connor Williams was honorable mention All-Freshman team.
Campos earns Pac-12 weekly honor
Arizona State catcher Ryan Campos earned Pac-12 Player of the Week honors after he helped lead ASU to a big series victory over USC.
Campos batted .667 on 10-of-15 hitting with two homers, a double, and six runs batted in for a 1.133 slugging percentage in the three-game series. Campos is the first Sun Devil to be named Pac-12 Player of the Week multiple times in the same season since Ethan Long took it home 3 times in 2021.
He scored a team-best eight runs as ASU (22-22, 12-12 in Pac-12) remains eighth in the conference. At one point he had seven hits in a row over the course of the 3 games, tied for the ninth longest streak in ASU history.
The Sun Devils will continue their next six games at home, including a midweek two-game series against UC San Diego starting on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.
Hockey unveils home schedule, including visit from Michigan
Arizona State hockey is set for its first season in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference and there will be some big programs coming to Mullett Arena next season.
ASU will play 18 home games, including seven two-game series, in addition to the Desert Hockey Classic and an exhibition series against the U.S. National Team Development Program.
One of the biggest games will come in the home opener when ASU welcomes non-conference and blue blood program, the Michigan Wolverines on Oct. 11-12.
Seven teams on the Sun Devils' schedule played in the 2024 NCAA Tournament, three competed in the Elite Eight, and two, Michigan and Denver, battled in the national championship game.
The NCHC adopted a new schedule model rotation with three, three-team pods based on geography with teams guaranteed to play home and away series against the other two teams in their pod every season (eight games). ASU is in a pod with Denver and Colorado College. ASU will be on the road less from its days as an independent program and will be on the road for 18 games in 2024-25.
The remaining 16 conference games will be played against the six 'non-pod' teams, with four opponents only being played in one series (eight games), home or away, and two 'non-pod' opponents being played in both home and away series (eight games). The 'non-pod' teams that are played either once or twice in a series will rotate over three seasons.
On March 14-15, the best-of-three NCHC quarterfinals begin on campus sites. The final year of the NCHC's Frozen Faceoff in St. Paul is set for March 21-22 at Xcel Energy Center.
The NCAA tournament begins on March 28 with the culmination of the season staged in St. Louis, Missouri for the 2025 Frozen Four.
Don Mullett, namesake of Mullett Arena, dead at 81
Don “Donze” Mullett, the namesake of Arizona State’s Mullett Arena in Tempe, died on April 8 just two days before his 82nd birthday.
Mullett had a huge impact on ASU’s hockey program and was a big supporter since its club days in 2000, when his youngest son, Chris, played for the team.
Mullett, CEO of Bradley Corporation, a Wisconsin-based company that makes commercial plumbing products, was the prime donor of $32 million for the program in 2014 that elevated it to Division I. It was said to be the largest donation in ASU athletic history.
For his contributions, ASU named its new multipurpose arena, which has also served as temporary home for the Arizona Coyotes, in honor of his family in 2022.
He is survived by his wife of 55 years, Barbara, and three sons: Bryan, Erik and Chris.
Former New England Patriots wide receivers coach Troy Brown in contention for ASU opening
After Ra'Shaad Samples left Arizona State’s coaching staff, former New England Patriots wide receivers coach Troy Brown is a candidate to replace him as the wide receivers coach.
Samples left ASU for Oregon on Sunday to become its new running backs coach and assistant head coach.
New Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo did not keep Brown as his receivers coach, but a report by ESPN's Mike Reiss less than two weeks ago said that Brown was expected to work in "skill development" as an aid to all offensive skill-position players.
Brown was on ASU campus Monday.
Swim head coach Bob Bowman to leave for Texas after winning title
Just two days after leading Arizona State to its first NCAA Championship title, head coach Bob Bowman is exiting the program following nine years at the helm.
Bowman was named the new Director of Swimming & Diving and the head coach of the men’s team at the University of Texas on Monday. He will be taking over head coaching duties from Eddie Reese, who will officially retire upon the conclusion of the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials after a 46-year career in Austin.
ASU quickly elevated associate head coach Herbie Behm to head coach. He had served as the associate head coach since 2022. Behm, a former ASU swimmer from 2010-13, has specialized in coaching the team's sprint groups since joining the staff in 2018.
With Behm's direction, ASU has made substantial progress over recent seasons, especially in the relays. ASU broke the NCAA record in the 400 free relay with Leon Marchand, Jack Dolan, Patrick Sammon and Jonny Kulow setting a time of 2:43.40 at the NCAA Championships.
Bowman will take on the third NCAA head coaching role of his illustrious career, having also served as the head coach of the men’s team at the University of Michigan from 2004 to 2008 in addition to his time at Arizona State.
Sun Devils win NCAA men's swimming and diving title
Arizona State won the 2024 Division I men's swimming and diving championships in Indianapolis on Saturday. The Sun Devils posted a score of 523.5, beating California, which finished with 444.5. It's ASU's first title in program history.
"I'm so incredibly grateful for all of the people who just believed when there was nothing to believe in," head coach Bob Bowman told the Sun Devil Athletics website. "For me telling them one day we could do it, a lot of mistakes made, a lot of good times, a lot of sad times and frustration. Through it all, everybody just kept on growing, the program kept on growing."
The Sun Devils won seven events during the four-day competition to capture to the championship. Nine school records and three NCAA marks fell, and 14 Sun Devils received All-American honors.
Leon Marchand won the 200 breast title for the third year in a row, taking the event at a time of 1:46.35, breaking the NCAA record he set at last year's championships. Marchand now leads all Sun Devils athletes in any sport with eight individual NCAA titles. Along with the 200 breast he won the 500 free and was part of the 400 IM along with Jack Dolan, Patrick Sammon and Jonny Kulow, with the team breaking the NCAA record with a time of 2:43.40 to close out the meet.
Other ASU champions were Ilya Kharun (200 butterfly), Zalan Sarkany (1650 free) and the 400 medley relay team of Marchand, Kharun, Kulow and Hubert Kos.
Sun Devils earning first-team All-America were Marchand, Dolan, Kulow, Kharun, Sarkany, Kos, Sammon, Julian Hill, David Schlicht, Owen McDonald and Cam Peel.
—Staff report
ASU gymnastics headed back to NCAA regionals
For the sixth straight year, Arizona State has advanced to the NCAA gymnastics postseason and will be in the California Regional, competing in the first session of the second round on April 5 along with No. 6 seed Denver, No. 11 seed UCLA and Washington. The Berkeley regional also has a second session with No. 3 seed California, No. 14 seed Auburn and Stanford, as well as the winner of a first-round matchup on April 4 between Southern Utah and San Jose State. The top two teams from each session of the second round will move on to the regional finals on April 7.
Sun Devils clinch baseball series over UA with Saturday shutout
Arizona State earned its first Pac-12 series win this weekend by taking the first two games at Arizona. The Sun Devils (9-9, 3-2 Pac-12) clinched the series by blanking the Wildcats 4-0 on a combined one-hitter Saturday night, the first shutout victory over Arizona (7-10, 2-3) since 2014.
Connor Markl (6 innings, one hit, 8 strikeouts) and Ryan Shiefer (3 hitless innings, 4 strikeouts) combined on the shutout. It was the first time UA had been one-hit by an opponent since 2015 vs. UCLA, and it was ASU’s first one-hitter since doing so against Sacramento State in 2021.
In Friday's opener, ASU mounted a two-out ninth-inning rally to win 3-2. The Sun Devils gave up the lead on a failed pickoff that led to a 2-1 lead for the Wildcats. But in the ninth, down to their final out, Jacob Tobias, Josiah Cromwick and Ethan Mendoza strung together three consecutive hits to give ASU a 3-2 lead. Ben Jacobs bounced back from his throwing blunder and stranded the tying run in scoring position in the ninth to secure his first collegiate victory.
ASU wrestling wins 24th Pac-12 championship
In the final year in the Pac-12 Conference, Arizona State wrestling won its 24th Pac-12 Championship title on Sunday evening at Oregon State's Gill Coliseum.
It was ASU’s fourth title in the past five seasons and the sixth under head coach Zeke Jones. The Sun Devils won both the first conference tournament in 1963 and the last.
ASU had five individual champions and scored 137.5 team points against runner-up Little Rock (114.5).
The Sun Devils had a fast start when they won four of the first five bouts of the final session, with Richard Figueroa (125), Jesse Vasquez (141), Kyle Parco (149) and Jacori Teemer (157) all taking individual titles.
Cohlton Schultz (285) pinned Oregon State's Boone McDermott at 1:01 in his championship match to end the night. Teemer and Schultz became the sixth and seventh wrestlers in conference history to win four conference championship titles.
ASU will compete at the NCAA Championships at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City from March 21-23 with more than half of their starting roster qualified.
Men's swim and dive repeats as Pac-12 champions
The Arizona State men's swim and dive team repeated as Pac-12 champions on Saturday in Washington. ASU won 16 times this week and broke 11 school and three NCAA records to deliver an outstanding margin of victory of over 303 points over Stanford with 1,036 total points. Their total points marked the second-highest in conference history since California in 1995.
Léon Marchand was named the Pac-12 Swimmer of the Meet for the third year in a row. Marchand won his ninth individual event in the 200 breast, clocking in a time of 1:48.60. He also set an NCAA record in the 500 free and the 400 IM.
ASU's relay team of Jack Dolan, Marchand, Ilya Kharun and Jonny Kulow set an NCAA record in the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:20.55.
Sophomore Hubert Kós swam a historic performance in the 200 back, winning the event at 1:35.69, the fastest time ever. He won three individual events, including the 100 back and 200 individual medley.
ASU will compete at the NCAA Men's Swimming Championships on March 27-30 in Indianapolis.
ASU wins national championship for men's indoor 4x400 relay team
Arizona State’s 4x400 men’s relay team won the 11th NCAA national indoor track championship in program history on Saturday at The Track at New Balance in Boston.
The team — Justin Robinson, Kaleb Simpson, Jayden Davis and Gamali Felix — won ASU’s first Indoor relay title in a program and venue record time of 3:02.35, outlasting outlasting Florida (3:02.53) and Texas A&M (3:03.35).
Hockey suspends Ness following fight at Alaska Fairbanks
Arizona State coach Greg Powers suspended defenseman Tucker Ness from all team activities for the rest of the season after his fight in Friday's game against Alaska.
Ness and Alaska's Dawson Bruneski left the penalty box to fight each other with 11 seconds left in the game. They each received two-game disqualifications, which carry an automatic three-game suspension. Both teams have four games remaining in their season.
The fight garnered a lot of attention on social media with the original video gaining over 1 million views and posing the question of whether fighting should be allowed in NCAA hockey. As of now, fighting is penalized with a five-minute major and a game disqualification.
Due to Ness’ fight on Friday, ASU competed with only four true defensemen in Saturday’s 4-3 overtime win.
—Jenna Ortiz
ASU's Tammaro to be honored by writers’ group
Doug Tammaro, senior associate athletic director for Sun Devils Athletics Media Relations, was named the 2024 recipient of the Katha Quinn Award by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association. Since 1988, the award has recognized sports information directors and administrators that have excelled at servicing the media or provide an inspiration to those in the sports journalism profession. Tammaro, who has worked in the Arizona State media relations office since June 1993, will receive the award on April 8 in Glendale before the NCAA men’s basketball championship game.
More transfer-portal help for ASU football
Arizona State’s football program got a major boost from the transfer portal, with the addition of two offensive and two defensive players confirmed on Saturday.
Most prominent among them is Raleek Brown, 5-8, 185-pound sophomore running back from USC who was a former four-star recruit out of national power Santa Ana Mater Dei when he signed with USC. He was ranked as the No. 69 overall prospect, No. 3 running back and No. 7 player in California, according to 247Sports.
Other incoming transfers are:
Freshman Joey Su'a a 6-4, 346-pounds offensive lineman from Arkansas who did not play in any games for the Razorbacks and has has four years of eligibility. He was born in Phoenix and grew up in the Valley until 2015, when his family moved to Southern California.
Kamari Wilson, a 6-0, 200-pound sophomore safety from Florida who played in all 13 games in 2022 as a true freshman with two starts. Finished with 39 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, one pass deflection and a forced fumble.
Zyrus Fiaseu, 6-0, 220-pound linebacker from San Diego State, who led the Aztecs in tackles (66), tackles for loss (11.5), sacks (5.5) and also had five quarterback hurries, five breakups, three forced fumbles and three recovered fumbles.
Sun Devils get commitment from four-star running back Jason Brown
The Arizona State football program landed its highest-ranked recruit so far for the 2024 cycle with four-star running back Jason Brown out of O'Dea High School in Seattle making his commitment Tuesday night.
Brown (5-10, 205) had 23 offers with the most notable ones from Alabama, Florida State, Georgia, Oregon, Washington, USC, Texas and Miami among those. He visited ASU the past weekend and also traveled to Michigan State in June.
Brown was ranked as the No. 13 running back in the country by 247 Sports which also pegs him the No. 3 prospect out of Washington. Brown comes off a junior campaign in which he rushed for 1,600-plus yards and scored 21 touchdowns for a team that went 10-2.
Brown gives ASU 17 pledges for the 2024 class. ASU has recruits from seven different states, with six of those from Texas and four from Arizona. The only pledge from Oregon is its No. 1 overall player in the state in tight end Jayden Fortier out of Tualatin High School.
Brown is the only running back in the class, which isn't necessarily a problem because none of the athletes in ASU's current position group are seniors.
ASU's recruiting efforts have picked up some steam. Brown's announcement came after coach Kenny Dillingham landed another in offensive lineman Filiva'a Saluni out of Kahuku High School in Hawaii.
Another recruit expected to announce a decision soon is edge rusher Salesi Manu out of Bishop Manogue High School in Reno, Nevada. He made Tempe his last stop after also taking trips to BYU, California, Oregon State and Washington State.
Van Niel earns another lofty coaching accolade
Volleyball head coach JJ Van Niel continues to earn recognition for ASU’s regular season. Van Niel was named the AVCA Pacific South Region Coach of the Year, the first such honor in program history.
Along with Van Niel’s award, Sun Devil players Claire Jeter, Marta Levinska, Shannon Shields and Mary Shroll were named AVCA Pacific South All-Region. ASU never has had more than one player on the all-region team. These honors are the first since Whitney Follette in 2015, the last time ASU went to the NCAA Tournament prior to this season.
Van Niel led a quick turnaround in his first season at ASU and has led the Sun Devils to the Sweet 16. Following sweeps of Georgia and BYU last week, ASU extended its record to 28-6, its best mark this century and the second-highest win total in program history.
Volleyball coach J.J. Van Niel named Pac-12 Coach of the Year
Arizona State's vast improvement on the volleyball court has been recognized. First-year coach J.J. Van Niel has been named Pac-12 Coach of the Year, and senior Marta Levinska has earned first-team Pac-12 honors.
Four Sun Devils earned an honorable mention: Geli Cyr, Claire Jeter, Shannon Shields and Mary Shroll.
Van Niel is the fourth coach of the year in Arizona State volleyball history, the first since Patti Snyder-Park in 1992. He is the fourth coach in Sun Devil Athletics to be named coach of the year in their first season.
He made history in his first season as a head coach by leading Arizona State to an incredible turnaround to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2015. The Sun Devils finished the regular season 26-6, which is the best record this century at ASU and the third-highest win total in program history. They were just 13-19 a year ago.
This was the 11th season that the program has reached 20 wins. Additionally, Arizona State had a 14-6 Pac-12 record, which is the most conference wins in team history. The Sun Devils finished in a tie for third in the Pac-12, the best conference finish since tying for second in 1993.
Levinska has led the team on offense this season with the best season in her career. She is top 10 in the nation in kills, kills per set, points and points per set. She has earned four Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week awards, the most in a single season in ASU history. She also was the AVCA National Player of the Week on October 31 following the win over Stanford. In all but two matches, she's had double-digit kills and she has had 20 or more kills nine times. In the ASU record book, she is currently in sixth for career kills with 1,536.
Offensive lineman Isaiah Glass quits team, intends to transfer
Junior offensive lineman Isaia Glass is no longer part of the football program, putting out on social media he intends to seek a transfer and will use his redshirt this season, leaving him with two years of eligibility at another school.
Glass, a local out of Queen Creek High School, has played in only three games, injuring an ankle after the first game. He returned for games against Washington and Washington State but then did not make the trip for the game at Utah on Saturday, with his absence leaving the injury-decimated unit down to six scholarship linemen.
Glass has 15 career starts for the Sun Devils, having drawn significant playing time in 2021 as a true freshman.
He becomes the second player to quit over the course of the season and seek a transfer, the other being linebacker Will Shaffer.
His departure leaves head coach Kenny Dillingham and position coach Saga Tuitele in a bind with two linemen out for the year already in Ben Coleman and Emmit Bohle. In addition, Bram Walden, Sione Finau, Kyle Scott and Max Iheanachor were not available last week due to injury and it looks like they might get one of those players back this week at the most.
ASU hires wrestling recruiting coordinator
The Arizona State wrestling program has brought in Vincenzo "Cenzo" Joseph as recruiting coordinator. He will manage and direct all recruitment for Sun Devil Wrestling, including targeting the nation's best high school prospects, and scheduling potential student-athlete visits. Joseph was a two-time NCAA champion and three-time NCAA finalist with Penn State.
Joseph's career at Penn State was of course highlighted by his two NCAA titles at 165 lbs (2017, 2018). The four-time All-American went 99-9 with 28 pins, and he had a career-best 14 pins in the 2018-19 season. Following his time in State College, Joseph spent the 2021-22 season with Stanford's wrestling program as an assistant coach where he wrote practice plans and led technique sessions before moving to Tempe, Arizona, during the summer of 2022.
ASU hockey to join National Collegiate Hockey Conference
Since Arizona State hockey was elevated to Division I status in 2015, the Sun Devils have roamed around as an independent program.
Now, the Sun Devils will finally find a home in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference starting in the 2024-25 season.
The NCHC announced that ASU will become the ninth member of the conference that includes Colorado College, the University of Denver, Miami University, the University of Minnesota Duluth, the University of Nebraska Omaha, the University of North Dakota, St. Cloud State University and Western Michigan University.