Arizona State University

ASU and the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism mix journalists and experts in the business world. The result of this combination is interactive learning experiences that produce informed and better-prepared journalists in Arizona and the rest of the world.

“The workshops give you the opportunity to stay current with the economy and discover new search options for your stories,” says Angela Gonzales, senior reporter with the Phoenix Business Journal. “It is extremely important to understand how the economy works because you can’t explain to your readers something that you don’t understand.”

The center offers free, specialized daylong business journalism workshops and a series of business journalism online seminars. These workshops are open not only to business reporters, but reporters in other beats seeking to improve their skills in business.

The Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism chose ASU and the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication as their permanent home after building an extensive and successful track record of training thousands of reporters around the country in effective business coverage.

Andrew Leckey, director of the Reynolds Center, says journalists who come to the seminars are not only business reporters, but other media professionals as well who are passionate about their work and want to keep preparing themselves to bring the best and most accurate information to their readers.

Since the center moved its headquarters to ASU in mid-2006 after considering several other universities, it has trained more than 2,000 journalists nationwide and several hundred journalists in Arizona.

The Reynolds Center provides curriculum, handout materials, trainers and online registration, while a variety of statewide journalism associations, publications and universities serve as hosts for the workshops. It also offers weeklong online courses and runs the Barlett & Steele Awards for Investigative Business Journalism.

For more information on the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism, visit the Web site www.business journalism.org.

ASU and the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism mix journalists and experts in the business world. The result of this combination is interactive learning experiences that produce informed and better-prepared journalists in Arizona and the rest of the world.

“The workshops give you the opportunity to stay current with the economy and discover new search options for your stories,” says Angela Gonzales, senior reporter with the Phoenix Business Journal. “It is extremely important to understand how the economy works because you can’t explain to your readers something that you don’t understand.”

The center offers free, specialized daylong business journalism workshops and a series of business journalism online seminars. These workshops are open not only to business reporters, but reporters in other beats seeking to improve their skills in business.

The Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism chose ASU and the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication as their permanent home after building an extensive and successful track record of training thousands of reporters around the country in effective business coverage.

Andrew Leckey, director of the Reynolds Center, says journalists who come to the seminars are not only business reporters, but other media professionals as well who are passionate about their work and want to keep preparing themselves to bring the best and most accurate information to their readers.

Since the center moved its headquarters to ASU in mid-2006 after considering several other universities, it has trained more than 2,000 journalists nationwide and several hundred journalists in Arizona.

The Reynolds Center provides curriculum, handout materials, trainers and online registration, while a variety of statewide journalism associations, publications and universities serve as hosts for the workshops. It also offers weeklong online courses and runs the Barlett & Steele Awards for Investigative Business Journalism.

For more information on the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism, visit the Web site www.business journalism.org.

On March 29, ASU’s University Center building at the Downtown Phoenix campus will go completely dark for one hour. The voluntary blackout is a symbol of ASU’s commitment to Earth Hour 2008 – a global effort to build awareness around the need for action on climate change.

ASU’s University Center and the entire downtown Phoenix area will join Chicago, Atlanta and San Francisco, as well as a host of other selected cities around the globe, in turning off all nonessential lighting from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.

The worldwide blackout is meant to demonstrate how global collaborative efforts can inspire positive change for the environment. In 2007, the first Earth Hour in Sydney, Australia, succeeded in causing more than 2.2 million people and more than 2,100 businesses to turn off their lights.

According to Earth Hour 2008 sponsor World Wildlife Fund, the amount of greenhouse gases reduced during Earth Hour 2007, if sustained for one year, would have been equal to removing almost 50,000 cars from the road during that same period.

Jonathan Fink, the Julie A. Wrigley director of the Global Institute of Sustainability (GIOS) and university sustainability officer, arranged for ASU to participate in Earth Hour 2008.

“At ASU, we recognize that our efforts are part of a global movement toward a more sustainable future,” Fink says. “We are honored to partner with World Wildlife Fund and the city of Phoenix in support of Earth Hour 2008.”

The University and GIOS are encouraging individuals in the ASU community, and especially those living in residence halls, to participate as well.

Since Phoenix is one of just four cities in the United States chosen as national Earth Hour focal points, ASU is joined by many other key organizations in working to make the Valley’s Earth Hour a success. Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, Arizona Public Service, Salt River Project and the Downtown Phoenix Partnership are among several stakeholders leading the Earth Hour 2008 effort in Phoenix.

According to organizers, Earth Hour is about more than just an hour without lights; it’s about how small lifestyle changes can create huge environmental impacts when they are part of a larger, coordinated effort. The intent is to encourage everyone to be more conscious about their environmental impacts and to take daily action – for example, switching to compact fluorescent light bulbs and remembering to turn off unused lights.

Earth Hour will provide the ASU community with an opportunity to observe its local neighbors and other major cities in action.

“Earth Hour is a great way to highlight the huge part individuals have to play in sustainability efforts, both here at ASU and on a global scale,” says Bonny Bentzin, manager of University Sustainability Business Practices at GIOS. “We’ve made great progress on campus, but achieving sustainability at ASU will require active engagement at every level of the university.”

Bentzin played a key role in bringing multiple areas of campus together for Earth Hour.

All ASU faculty, staff and students are encouraged to join thousands of people in Phoenix, surrounding cities and millions of people around the world in this effort. The Residential Life and Facilities Management departments are at the center of ASU’s efforts, working closely with students in residence halls to promote Earth Hour across ASU’s four campuses.

“For everyone who feels overwhelmed by the issues of sustainability and global warming, participating in Earth Hour is a great place to start,” says Jessica Katz, a student in ASU’s civil and environmental engineering program. “The only way we’re going to sustain our society is by taking it one step at a time.”

For more information and to sign up for Earth Hour 2008, visit the Web site http://EarthHour.org.

For more information about the Global Institute of Sustainability, visit the Web site http://sustainability.asu.edu.

Arianne Peterson, arianne.peterson@asu.edu
(480) 727-8596
Global Institute of Sustainability 

Colin Gardner, colin.gardner@asu.edu
Global Institute of Sustainability 

On March 29, ASU’s University Center building at the Downtown Phoenix campus will go completely dark for one hour. The voluntary blackout is a symbol of ASU’s commitment to Earth Hour 2008 – a global effort to build awareness around the need for action on climate change.

ASU’s University Center and the entire downtown Phoenix area will join Chicago, Atlanta and San Francisco, as well as a host of other selected cities around the globe, in turning off all nonessential lighting from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.

The worldwide blackout is meant to demonstrate how global collaborative efforts can inspire positive change for the environment. In 2007, the first Earth Hour in Sydney, Australia, succeeded in causing more than 2.2 million people and more than 2,100 businesses to turn off their lights.

According to Earth Hour 2008 sponsor World Wildlife Fund, the amount of greenhouse gases reduced during Earth Hour 2007, if sustained for one year, would have been equal to removing almost 50,000 cars from the road during that same period.

Jonathan Fink, the Julie A. Wrigley director of the Global Institute of Sustainability (GIOS) and university sustainability officer, arranged for ASU to participate in Earth Hour 2008.

“At ASU, we recognize that our efforts are part of a global movement toward a more sustainable future,” Fink says. “We are honored to partner with World Wildlife Fund and the city of Phoenix in support of Earth Hour 2008.”

The University and GIOS are encouraging individuals in the ASU community, and especially those living in residence halls, to participate as well.

Since Phoenix is one of just four cities in the United States chosen as national Earth Hour focal points, ASU is joined by many other key organizations in working to make the Valley’s Earth Hour a success. Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, Arizona Public Service, Salt River Project and the Downtown Phoenix Partnership are among several stakeholders leading the Earth Hour 2008 effort in Phoenix.

According to organizers, Earth Hour is about more than just an hour without lights; it’s about how small lifestyle changes can create huge environmental impacts when they are part of a larger, coordinated effort. The intent is to encourage everyone to be more conscious about their environmental impacts and to take daily action – for example, switching to compact fluorescent light bulbs and remembering to turn off unused lights.

Earth Hour will provide the ASU community with an opportunity to observe its local neighbors and other major cities in action.

“Earth Hour is a great way to highlight the huge part individuals have to play in sustainability efforts, both here at ASU and on a global scale,” says Bonny Bentzin, manager of University Sustainability Business Practices at GIOS. “We’ve made great progress on campus, but achieving sustainability at ASU will require active engagement at every level of the university.”

Bentzin played a key role in bringing multiple areas of campus together for Earth Hour.

All ASU faculty, staff and students are encouraged to join thousands of people in Phoenix, surrounding cities and millions of people around the world in this effort. The Residential Life and Facilities Management departments are at the center of ASU’s efforts, working closely with students in residence halls to promote Earth Hour across ASU’s four campuses.

“For everyone who feels overwhelmed by the issues of sustainability and global warming, participating in Earth Hour is a great place to start,” says Jessica Katz, a student in ASU’s civil and environmental engineering program. “The only way we’re going to sustain our society is by taking it one step at a time.”

For more information and to sign up for Earth Hour 2008, visit the Web site http://EarthHour.org.

For more information about the Global Institute of Sustainability, visit the Web site http://sustainability.asu.edu.

Arianne Peterson, arianne.peterson@asu.edu
(480) 727-8596
Global Institute of Sustainability 

Colin Gardner, colin.gardner@asu.edu
Global Institute of Sustainability 

Scientists from around the world have reconstructed changes in Earth’s ancient ocean chemistry during a broad sweep of geological time, from about 2.5 to 0.5 billion years ago. They have discovered that a deficiency of oxygen and the heavy metal molybdenum in the ancient deep ocean may have delayed the evolution of animal life on Earth for nearly 2 billion years.

The findings, which appear in the March 27 issue of Nature, come as no surprise to Ariel Anbar, one of the authors of the study and an associate professor at Arizona State University with joint appointments in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the School of Earth and Space Exploration in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The study was led by Clint Scott, a graduate student at University of California Riverside. Scott works with Timothy Lyons, a professor of biogeochemistry at UCR who is a long-time collaborator of Anbar’s and also an author of the paper.

“Clint’s data are an important new piece in a puzzle we’ve been trying to solve for many years,” says Anbar. “Tim and I have suspected for a while that if the oceans at that time were oxygen deficient they should also have been deficient in molybdenum. We’ve found evidence of that deficiency before, at a couple of particular points in time. The new data are important because they confirm that those points were typical for their era.”

Molybdenum is of interest to Anbar and others because it is used by some bacteria to convert the element nitrogen from a gas in the atmosphere to a form useful for living things – a process known as “nitrogen fixation.” Bacteria cannot fix nitrogen efficiently when they are deprived of molybdenum. And if bacteria can’t fix nitrogen fast enough then eukaryotes – a kind of organism that includes plants, pachyderms and people – are in trouble because eukaryotes cannot fix nitrogen themselves at all.

“If molybdenum was scarce, bacteria would have had the upper hand,” continues Anbar. “Eukaryotes depend on bacteria having an easy enough time fixing nitrogen that there’s enough to go around. So if bacteria were struggling to get enough molybdenum, there probably wouldn’t have been enough fixed nitrogen for eukaryotes to flourish.”

“These molybdenum depletions may have retarded the development of complex life such as animals for almost two billion years of Earth history,” says Lyons. “The amount of molybdenum in the ocean probably played a major role in the development of early life.”

This research was motivated by a review article published in Science in 2002 by Anbar and Andy Knoll, a colleague at Harvard University. Knoll was perplexed by the fact that eukaryotes didn’t dominate the world until around 0.7 billion years ago, even though they seemed to have evolved before 2.7 billion years ago. Together, Anbar and Knoll postulated that molybdenum deficiency was the key, arguing that the metal should have been scarce in ancient oceans because there was so little oxygen in the atmosphere in those times.

In today’s high-oxygen world, molybdenum is the most abundant transition metal in the oceans. That is because the primary source of molybdenum to the ocean is the reaction of oxygen with molybdenum-bearing minerals in rocks. So the hypotheses rode on the idea that the amount of molybdenum in the oceans should track the amount of oxygen. To test that idea, Scott, Lyons and Anbar examined rock samples from ancient seafloors by dissolving them in a cocktail of acids and analyzing the rock for molybdenum content using a mass spectrometer. Many of these analyses were carried out using state-of-the art instrumentation in the W. M. Keck Foundation Laboratory for Environmental Biogeochemistry at Arizona State University. The scientists found significant evidence for a molybdenum-depleted ocean relative to the high levels measured in modern, oxygen-rich seawater.

By studying Earth’s ancient oceans, atmosphere and biology we can test how well we understand the modern environment, according to Anbar. “Our molybdenum hypothesis was inspired by the theory that biology in the oceans today is often starved for a different metal – iron – and that the lack of iron in parts of the oceans affects the transfer of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to the ocean” he says. “The idea that metal deficiency in the oceans can affect the entire planet is very powerful. Here, we are exploring the limits of that idea by seeing if it can solve ancient puzzles. These new findings strengthen our confidence that it can.”

Anbar, Lyons and Scott were joined in the research by A. Bekker of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, D.C.; Y. Shen of the University du Quebec a Montreal; S.W. Poulton of Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom; and X. Chu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. The research was supported by grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation Division of Earth Sciences and the NASA Astrobiology Program.

This new publication in Nature follows on the heels of two related papers published in Science last September by Anbar, Lyons, Scott and other colleagues: http://clas.asu.edu/newsevents/newsreleases/2007/oxygenwhiff_09272007.htm.

ASU MEDIA CONTACTS:
Jenny Green, jenny.green@asu.edu
480-965-1430

Nikki Staab, nstaab@asu.edu
480-965-8122

Scientists from around the world have reconstructed changes in Earth’s ancient ocean chemistry during a broad sweep of geological time, from about 2.5 to 0.5 billion years ago. They have discovered that a deficiency of oxygen and the heavy metal molybdenum in the ancient deep ocean may have delayed the evolution of animal life on Earth for nearly 2 billion years.

The findings, which appear in the March 27 issue of Nature, come as no surprise to Ariel Anbar, one of the authors of the study and an associate professor at Arizona State University with joint appointments in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the School of Earth and Space Exploration in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The study was led by Clint Scott, a graduate student at University of California Riverside. Scott works with Timothy Lyons, a professor of biogeochemistry at UCR who is a long-time collaborator of Anbar’s and also an author of the paper.

“Clint’s data are an important new piece in a puzzle we’ve been trying to solve for many years,” says Anbar. “Tim and I have suspected for a while that if the oceans at that time were oxygen deficient they should also have been deficient in molybdenum. We’ve found evidence of that deficiency before, at a couple of particular points in time. The new data are important because they confirm that those points were typical for their era.”

Molybdenum is of interest to Anbar and others because it is used by some bacteria to convert the element nitrogen from a gas in the atmosphere to a form useful for living things – a process known as “nitrogen fixation.” Bacteria cannot fix nitrogen efficiently when they are deprived of molybdenum. And if bacteria can’t fix nitrogen fast enough then eukaryotes – a kind of organism that includes plants, pachyderms and people – are in trouble because eukaryotes cannot fix nitrogen themselves at all.

“If molybdenum was scarce, bacteria would have had the upper hand,” continues Anbar. “Eukaryotes depend on bacteria having an easy enough time fixing nitrogen that there’s enough to go around. So if bacteria were struggling to get enough molybdenum, there probably wouldn’t have been enough fixed nitrogen for eukaryotes to flourish.”

“These molybdenum depletions may have retarded the development of complex life such as animals for almost two billion years of Earth history,” says Lyons. “The amount of molybdenum in the ocean probably played a major role in the development of early life.”

This research was motivated by a review article published in Science in 2002 by Anbar and Andy Knoll, a colleague at Harvard University. Knoll was perplexed by the fact that eukaryotes didn’t dominate the world until around 0.7 billion years ago, even though they seemed to have evolved before 2.7 billion years ago. Together, Anbar and Knoll postulated that molybdenum deficiency was the key, arguing that the metal should have been scarce in ancient oceans because there was so little oxygen in the atmosphere in those times.

In today’s high-oxygen world, molybdenum is the most abundant transition metal in the oceans. That is because the primary source of molybdenum to the ocean is the reaction of oxygen with molybdenum-bearing minerals in rocks. So the hypotheses rode on the idea that the amount of molybdenum in the oceans should track the amount of oxygen. To test that idea, Scott, Lyons and Anbar examined rock samples from ancient seafloors by dissolving them in a cocktail of acids and analyzing the rock for molybdenum content using a mass spectrometer. Many of these analyses were carried out using state-of-the art instrumentation in the W. M. Keck Foundation Laboratory for Environmental Biogeochemistry at Arizona State University. The scientists found significant evidence for a molybdenum-depleted ocean relative to the high levels measured in modern, oxygen-rich seawater.

By studying Earth’s ancient oceans, atmosphere and biology we can test how well we understand the modern environment, according to Anbar. “Our molybdenum hypothesis was inspired by the theory that biology in the oceans today is often starved for a different metal – iron – and that the lack of iron in parts of the oceans affects the transfer of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to the ocean” he says. “The idea that metal deficiency in the oceans can affect the entire planet is very powerful. Here, we are exploring the limits of that idea by seeing if it can solve ancient puzzles. These new findings strengthen our confidence that it can.”

Anbar, Lyons and Scott were joined in the research by A. Bekker of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, D.C.; Y. Shen of the University du Quebec a Montreal; S.W. Poulton of Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom; and X. Chu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. The research was supported by grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation Division of Earth Sciences and the NASA Astrobiology Program.

This new publication in Nature follows on the heels of two related papers published in Science last September by Anbar, Lyons, Scott and other colleagues: http://clas.asu.edu/newsevents/newsreleases/2007/oxygenwhiff_09272007.htm.

ASU MEDIA CONTACTS:
Jenny Green, jenny.green@asu.edu
480-965-1430

Nikki Staab, nstaab@asu.edu
480-965-8122

Students at Canyon State Academy normally would have a limited chance to learn how to fly an airplane. However, through a special program that ASU’s Department of Aeronautical Management Technology in the College of Technology and Innovation is offering, they are experiencing what it’s like to be a pilot.

Canyon State Academy, a school for at-risk boys and young men in Queen Creek, offers programs that provide character and skill development opportunities and direction in their lives.

“As pilots and air traffic controllers retire, we need to interest younger generations in filling their shoes,” says Rick Charles, chair and professor of the aeronautical department. “We see Canyon State Academy as a great opportunity to give back to the community and engage with potentially future aviation professionals.”

AMT donated two personal computer-based aviation flight training devices (PCATDs) that were scheduled for salvage after upgrading its Instrument Flight Training Laboratory with the purchase of seven PCATDs. These devices are used in the department’s flight and air traffic controller programs.

In addition, it recently completed its first “Introduction to Aviation” course with five students from Canyon State Academy. The 10-week course teaches students the basic concepts of flying and shows them career opportunities in aviation. The course, developed by Jim Anderson,

ASU lecturer in aviation and former Southwest Airlines employee, was adapted from Southwest’s Adopt-A-Pilot program.

“Our program incorporates the FLIGHT values or traits from Southwest’s program, so students learn to be fearless when overcoming challenges, and they learn about leadership skills, imagination, gratitude, honesty and tenacity,” says Alan Kamper, an ASU alumnus and a flight instructor for Mesa Pilot Development.

The first course was so successful that the department made plans to refine the curriculum for the next class, which started March 17.

“In the next session, we will include a visit to the Gateway Tower and visit aircraft maintenance training facilities,” Kamper says.

The department also donated three PCATDs to the Mesa Public School System’s Flight Center at Salk Elementary School and hopes to expand the aviation course to more schools.

“Our goal is to introduce younger generations to the aviation industry and to encourage them to ultimately pursue careers in aviation as pilots, air traffic controllers or managers,” Charles says.

Students at Canyon State Academy normally would have a limited chance to learn how to fly an airplane. However, through a special program that ASU’s Department of Aeronautical Management Technology in the College of Technology and Innovation is offering, they are experiencing what it’s like to be a pilot.

Canyon State Academy, a school for at-risk boys and young men in Queen Creek, offers programs that provide character and skill development opportunities and direction in their lives.

“As pilots and air traffic controllers retire, we need to interest younger generations in filling their shoes,” says Rick Charles, chair and professor of the aeronautical department. “We see Canyon State Academy as a great opportunity to give back to the community and engage with potentially future aviation professionals.”

AMT donated two personal computer-based aviation flight training devices (PCATDs) that were scheduled for salvage after upgrading its Instrument Flight Training Laboratory with the purchase of seven PCATDs. These devices are used in the department’s flight and air traffic controller programs.

In addition, it recently completed its first “Introduction to Aviation” course with five students from Canyon State Academy. The 10-week course teaches students the basic concepts of flying and shows them career opportunities in aviation. The course, developed by Jim Anderson,

ASU lecturer in aviation and former Southwest Airlines employee, was adapted from Southwest’s Adopt-A-Pilot program.

“Our program incorporates the FLIGHT values or traits from Southwest’s program, so students learn to be fearless when overcoming challenges, and they learn about leadership skills, imagination, gratitude, honesty and tenacity,” says Alan Kamper, an ASU alumnus and a flight instructor for Mesa Pilot Development.

The first course was so successful that the department made plans to refine the curriculum for the next class, which started March 17.

“In the next session, we will include a visit to the Gateway Tower and visit aircraft maintenance training facilities,” Kamper says.

The department also donated three PCATDs to the Mesa Public School System’s Flight Center at Salk Elementary School and hopes to expand the aviation course to more schools.

“Our goal is to introduce younger generations to the aviation industry and to encourage them to ultimately pursue careers in aviation as pilots, air traffic controllers or managers,” Charles says.

For the second weekend in a row, the Arizona State University track and field team will play host to a meet, this weekend hosting several teams and individuals to the ASU Invitational on Friday and Saturday on Joe Selleh Track at Sun Angel Stadium. Similar to last weekend, the hammer will be held Friday night with Saturday leading off with the women’s discus at 10 a.m. and the running events starting at 5:30 p.m. with the women’s 100m hurdles.

WELCOME!
Several university teams will have athletes on hand to compete this weekend, including: Air Force, Arizona, Augustana (S.D.), BYU, CS Fullerton, Loyola Marymount, Northern Arizona, Notre Dame, Purdue, Southern Utah, Wayne State (Neb.) and Western State (Colo.).

NATIONALLY KNOWN
The preseason team rankings were released by the USTFCCCA on March 26 with the rankings based upon points earned for an athlete’s position on the NCAA descending order list (the final list of 2007 was used for the first ranking of the year). The men open the season ranked No. 8 with 172.36 points with Florida State leading the way with 259.63 points. LSU (247.33), Tennessee (209.00), Florida (195.32) and USC (188.89) round out the Top 5 men’s teams. The women, winners of the last three NCAA championships, enters the year ranked No. 2 with 312.98 points while LSU leads with 324.05 points. Virginia Tech (238.37), Texas A&M (237.34) and USC (210.94) round out the Top 5 in the women’s rankings.

TOMAS’ TRIPLE
Last weekend, the Sun Devils opened the outdoor season by playing host to the Baldy Castillo Invitational. At the meet, Tomas Navarro competed in three throwing events and regionally qualified in all three. Navarro hit marks of 60.74m (the fourth-best in ASU history) in the hammer, 54.11m in the discus and 17.13m in the shot put to punch his ticket to the regional meet in Northridge, Calif., May 30-31.

ONE FOR ONE
April Kubishta opened her outdoor season last weekend by winning the pole vault with a clearance of 4.15m (13-07.25), qualifying for the NCAA West Region meet in the process. After the weekend, Kubsihta, the defending NCAA Outdoor Champion and the 2008 NCAA Indoor runner-up two weeks ago, has taken the national lead, five centimeters ahead of the next three athletes on the list.

FIELD DAY
At the Baldy Castillo Invitational, the field events produced seven of the program’s eight region qualifiers. For the women, Kubishta was joined by Alana Waterford (3.85m) in the pole vault while Addison McGrath (see next note) qualified in the javelin (44.34m). On the men’s side, Navarro was joined by Brad Roth in the javelin (69.52m).

JUST REMOVE WATER
In the women’s javelin, Addison McGrath qualified for the regional meet and finished fifth in the meet with her toss of 44.34m (145-06), the fourth-best throw in school history. The mark, which came on her second attempt, also came on her second attempt ever as she joined the team this season to give the event a try. McGrath was already a student-athlete at Arizona State before joining the team as she is a member of the No. 7-ranked water polo team, leading the team in scoring with 55 goals (seventh in the nation).

RELAY RUNNING WELL
Despite running at the indoor national meet one week earlier, four All-American men got together and qualified the 4×400m relay for the regional meet as the team of Justin Kremer, Darryl Elston, Nectaly Barbosa and Jimmie Gordon ran 3:09.16, the fourth-best time in the nation so far this season.

IN THE STANDINGS
So far this outdoor season, the Sun Devils have a small amount of regional qualifying marks, but several of those marks rank highly on the national lists. April Kubishta is the lone woman in the Top 8 as she ranks first in the pole vault (4.15m) while the men have two marks in the Top 8, including the 4×400m relay (3:09.16) and Brad Roth in the javelin (69.52m), who ranks third overall right now.

AND THE WINNER IS…
At the Baldy Castillo Invitational last weekend, the Sun Devils won five events, including three men’s and two women’s. On the men’s side, the 4×400m relay of Justin Kremer, Darryl Elston, Nectaly Barbosa and Jimmie Gordon was victorious at 3:09.16 while the two other wins came in the field with Tomas Navarro winning the shot put (17.13m) and Brad Roth taking the javelin (69.52m). For the women, April Kubishta won the pole vault (4.15m) while Kari Hardt won the 800m dash in 2:09.86, just 0.06 off of a regional qualifier.

TWICE AS NICE
On March 14-15, the Sun Devils traveled 21 student-athletes to the 2008 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships and returned with both the men’s and women’s national team titles, accomplishing the feat for just the second time in NCAA history (LSU did so in 2004). The women scored 51 points with LSU finishing second with 43 points in the women’s race while the men edged out favorite Florida State, 44-41, for their first indoor team crown.

BY THE NUMBERS
The titles earned by the Sun Devil men and women are the 134th and 135th national titles captured by Arizona State in school history. The wins are the 39th and 66th national titles for the men and women, respectively, while 30 other titles were won in coed events (20 in mixed archery and 10 in mixed badminton).

REPEAT
With the team victory, the Sun Devil women successfully defended their first national tittle won last year when the team captured the 2007 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships in Fayetteville, Ark. The Sun Devils, ranked No. 1 last year, edged No. 2 LSU, 38-33, to win their first indoor crown. This year, the rankings were reversed, but the Sun Devils still won.

STREAKING
Arizona State’s women have been dominant over the course of the past year as the Sun Devils have won seven championship meets in a row. Those meets include the 2007 MPSF Indoor Championships, the 2007 NCAA Indoor Championships, the 2007 Pac-10 Championships, the 2007 NCAA West Region Championships, the 2007 NCAA Outdoor Championships, the 2008 MPSF Indoor Championships and the 2008 NCAA Indoor Championships.

FIRST AND SECOND TIMES
With 44 points, the Sun Devil men won their first indoor championship and became the 14th different men’s program to capture the indoor crown since the NCAA began sponsoring an indoor meet in 1965. The title is the second in program history for the men as the 1977 team captured the outdoor championship, the first team title in ASU track & field history.

NOT SINCE…
The men’s team victory at the NCAA Indoor Championships marked the first men’s team title earned for the Sun Devil athletic department since 1996 when the men’s golf team captured their second championship (also won in 1990). Prior to the women winning last year and this year, the previous Sun Devil national champions were the 1998 women’s golf team.

ELITE COMPANY
The women’s team, which is one of only seven programs to win an NCAA indoor title since the association began sponsoring the event in 1983, repeated as national champions, marking just the fifth time in NCAA history that a team has won back-to-back titles. The last to do so was LSU (2002-2003-2004). The other schools to do so were UCLA (2000-2001), LSU (1993-1994-1995-1996-1997) and Nebraska (1983-1984).

THREE-PEAT
The women’s team was not the only repeat winners on the weekend for the Sun Devils as Jacquelyn Johnson secured her third indoor pentathlon crown in a row, scoring a collegiate and meet record 4,496 points. In her career, Johnson has three titles and one runner-up finish (took second as a true freshman in 2004).

MORE ON JOHNSON’S TRIPLE
When Jacquelyn Johnson successfully defended her indoor pentathlon crowns she won at the 2006 and 2007 NCAA meets, she became just the ninth woman to win the same event three times in a career at the indoor championships and the second Sun Devil, joining Maicel Malone, who won the 400m dash in 1990, 1991 and 1992. Other three-time champions include Regina Cavanaugh of Rice (shot put, 1984-85-86), Suzy Favor of Wisconsin (mile, 1987-89-90), Vicki Huber of Villanova (3,000m, 1987-88-89), Carlette Guidry of Texas (55m, 1988-90-91), Amy Wickus of Wisconsin (800m, 1993-94-95), Amy Acuff of UCLA (high jump, 1994-95-96) and Trecia Smith of Pittsburgh (long jump, 1997-98-99).

MORE CHAMPIONS
The teams and Johnson were not the only champions over the weekend as two men captured individual titles in remarkable fashion. Ryan Whiting led off by winning the shot put with a huge toss of 71-03.50 (21.73m) to set the collegiate record in the event. In the second-to-last event of the meet, Kyle Alcorn stormed to the front of the pack late in the 3,000m race to capture the national crown and put the Sun Devils in a position to win the team title.

FOR THE RECORD - JOHNSON
Jacquelyn Johnson and Ryan Whiting both set collegiate records in winning their national crowns over the weekend. Johnson, who entered the meet with a best of 4,312 points in the pentathlon, ended the meet with 4,496 points, breaking the collegiate record of 4,439 points set in 2002 by Austra Skuyte (Kansas State) and bettering the meet mark of 4,412 points scored by Hyleas Fountain (Georgia) in 2004 when she defeated Johnson for the first NCAA pentathlon crown.

FOR THE RECORD - WHITING
While Johnson broke a record that was set a few years ago, Whiting broke the 31 year-old mark of Terry Albritton (Stanford), who threw 70-06.50 (21.50m) in 1977. Whiting, who recorded a toss of 71-03.50 (21.73m) on his final throw of the competition, is now the collegiate, meet and Pac-10 indoor record holder while ranking third all-time on the Pac-10 lists as two marks recorded outdoors are ahead of Whiting.

LATE HEROICS
Needing some big points in the 3,000m run at the end of the meet, Kyle Alcorn stepped onto the track as the 14th-ranked runner in the race. Alcorn surged ahead mid-way through the race and took the lead before relinquishing it. Sitting in fifth place with two laps to go, Alcorn again surged ahead and captured the lead that he held onto for the remainder of the race, crossing the line in 8:00.82 to not only win his first national title, but giving ASU 10 team points and tying it with Florida State at 38 points heading into the 4×400m relay.

SEALING THE DEAL
With the team race down to ASU and FSU and only the 4×400m relay remaining, all the Sun Devils had to do was finish ahead of the Seminoles in the standings of the race to secure a team crown. In the three-heat race, FSU ran first and clocked a time of 3:07.47, meaning ASU had to finish faster, which it did as Jimmie Gordon, Darryl Elston, Justin Kremer and Joel Phillip clocked in at 3:06.34 to win the third heat and place third overall, pushing FSU to sixth in the race and giving ASU the team title.

NATIONAL HONORS
The United States Track & Field, Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) announced its national award winners following the NCAA Indoor Championships with four Sun Devils garnering five of the eight national accolades available. Greg Kraft was selected as the Women’s National and Men’s National Coach of the Year; David Dumble was voted the Women’s National Assistant Coach of the Year; Jacquelyn Johnson was named the Women’s National Field Athlete of the Year; and Ryan Whiting was selected as the Men’s National Field Athlete of the Year.

CLOSE TO THE TOP
The women had three runner-up finishes and the men added a pair to help both teams to victory in Fayetteville. On the men’s side, second-place finishes were recorded by April Kubishta (pole vault), Sarah Stevens (shot put) and Jessica Pressley (weight throw) while the men’s second-place finishers included Joel Phillip (400m dash) and the distance medley relay of Joey Heller, Justin Kremer, Nectaly BarbosaKyle Alcorn. and

MORE RECORDS
From the results recorded at the NCAA Indoor Championships, five women’s marks and three men’s rank among the Top 5 all-time in ASU history, including three women’s and two men’s school records. On the women’s side, school-records went to April Kubishta in the pole vault (4.30m), Jessica Pressley in the weight throw (22.04m) and Jacquelyn Johnson in the pentathlon (4,496 points) while the men’s records included Ryan Whiting in the shot put (21.73m) and the distance medley relay of Joey Heller, Justin Kremer, Nectaly Barbosa and Kyle Alcorn. Both 4×400m relays rank among the Top 3, including the second-best time of 3:33.53 by the women (Dominique’ Maloy, Shauntel Elcock, Jordan Durham, Jeavon Benjamin) and the third-best time of 3:06.34 by the men (Jimmie Gordon, Darryl Elston, Kremer, Joel Phillip). The final Top 3 mark came from Johnson in the 60m hurdles (8.23).

ALL-AMERICANS
Overall, nine women and nine men each earned All-America honors from the USTFCCCA, including two women and four men that earned two honors each. Multiple honors were earned by Jacquelyn Johnson (pentathlon & long jump) and Jessica Pressley (shot put & weight throw) for the women and men’s competitors Kyle Alcorn (3,000m & DMR), Jimmie Gordon (400m & 4×400m), Justin Kremer (4×400m & DMR) and Joel Phillip (400m & 4×400m). Other women’s All-Americans included Jeavon Benjamin (4×400m), Jordan Durham (4×400m), Shauntel ElcockStephanie Garnett (long jump), April Kubishta (pole vault), Dominique’ Maloy (4×400m) and Sarah Stevens (shot put) while the men included Nectaly Barbosa (DMR), Darryl Elston (4×400m), Joey Heller (DMR), Matt Turner (long jump) and Ryan Whiting (shot put). (4×400m),

WORLD COMPETITION
On March 30, former Sun Devil Amy Hastings will represent the United States as a member of the 2008 Team USA World Cross Country squad that will head to Edinburgh, Great Britain, for the 36th IAAF World Cross Country Championships. Hastings, a 10-time All-American at Arizona State, will be running for Team USA for the first time in her career.

WHERE IN THE WORLD
Following the NCAA Indoor Championships last weekend, two men and three women ended the indoor season with marks ranking in the Top 20 on the world lists. For the men, Ryan Whiting ranks third in the shot put with a toss of 21.73m while Joel Phillip stands 10th in the 400m dash at 46.27. On the women’s side, Jessica Pressley and Sarah Stevens both are Top 15 in the weight throw with Pressley ranking fourth at 22.04m and Stevens in 13th at 20.94m. Jacquelyn Johnson is 16th in the pentathlon with 4,496 points.

REGIONAL HONORS
Heading into the national meet, a trio of Sun Devils were honored with awards for their performances so far this indoor season. The United States Track & Field/Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) selected Jacquelyn Johnson as the Women’s West Region Field Athlete of the Year, picked head coach Greg Kraft as the Women’s West Region Coach of the Year and chose throws coach David Dumble as the Women’s West Region Assistant Coach of the Year. All three are now eligible for the national honor that will be announced following the NCAA Indoor Championships this weekend.

WAIT, THERE IS MORE…
The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) announced its annual awards Tuesday with the Sun Devils taking three of the four honors. Greg Kraft was selected as the MPSF Women’s Coach of the Year while Jacquelyn Johnson was named the MPSF Women’s Athlete of the Year and Ryan Whiting was named the MPSF Men’s Athlete of the Year. The honor is the first for Whiting and Johnson and the second in a row for Kraft. Sarah Stevens won the women’s athlete honor last year.

THEY HAVE A SHOT (PUT)
The shot put event has been good to the Sun Devils in recent years and this year looks to be no different this year under coach David Dumble. Last season, six All-America honors were earned with Sarah Stevens, Jessica Pressley and Ryan Whiting each earning the accolade at both the NCAA Indoor and NCAA Outdoor meets. During the indoor season, Ryan Whiting led the nation and set a collegiate record with the third-best throw in the world so far this year at 21.73m while Sarah Stevens (second) and Jessica Pressley (fifth) also finished well at the NCAA Indoor Championships.

ON TOP AGAIN
With 154.5 points and seven individual champions, the Sun Devil women won their second MPSF Championships in a row, beating out runner Stanford, who scored 141 points. The win also was the sixth team title in a row for ASU, building off the five they won in 2007.

ANOTHER REPEAT
While the women’s team captured its second MPSF Championships title in a row, Sarah Stevens did a repeat performance of her own as she won the shot put and the weight throw for the second year in a row.

MORE CHAMPIONS
Stevens was joined by Jacquelyn Johnson as the only multiple victors for the Sun Devils. Johnson won the 60m hurdles and the long jump individually before joining Jeavon Benjamin, Shauntel Elcock and Dominique’ Maloy in taking the 4×400m. Other champions for the team included April Kubishta (pole vault) and Charonda Williams (200m).

VICTORIOUS MEN
Three men’s titles were won as well, including Ryan Whiting (shot put), Jeff Helmer (5,000m) and the 4×400m of Jimmie Gordon, Joel Phillip, Darryl Elston and Justin Kremer.

STRONG DEBUT
Jeff Helmer made his first collegiate race a memorable one as he clocked a time of 14:01.83 to win the MPSF Championship in the 5,000m run and provisionally qualify for the NCAA Championships. Currently, he ranks 18th in the nation.

KRAFT’S KIDS
The shot put is not the only field event that has been producing lately. Under coach Greg Kraft, the long jump has been a strong event for ASU and that trend looks to continue this year. Currently, Matt Turner is ranked fourth in the NCAA (7.85m) while Jacquelyn Johnson (6.50m) and Stephanie Garnett (6.42m) are fifth and ninth, respectively. Outside the NCAA, Kraft has worked with 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist Dwight Phillips and, most recently, former Sun Devil Trevell Quinley won the 2008 USATF Indoor Championships before placing 13th at the IAAF World Championships in Valencia.

KREMER GETTING GRAND
Justin Kremer came to Tempe from a small school in Grand Canyon, Ariz., and has blossomed into one of the top quarter-milers in the nation this year. Kremer played a role in helping the 4×400m relay qualify for the NCAA Championships, and when he arrived at the meet, helped both the 4×400m and distance medley relays place among the Top 3 nationally, earning his first two All-America honors. On the first day, Kremer ran the sprint leg of the DMR, helping the Sun Devils to a school-record time of 9:32.49 and a national runner-up placement before running the third leg of the third-place 4×400m relay that secured the team title for the Sun Devils.

MORE OF THE BEST
The United States Track & Field, Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) announced their cross country academic honorees this week with the Sun Devil women garnering accolades. Individually, Ali Kielty and Jenna Kingma were two of the 91 women to earn USTFCCCA All-Academic honors and joined their teammates as one of 35 teams nationally to earn team distinctions with a 3.50 grade point average or higher.

ALCORN GOES SUB-FOUR
At the Washington Invite (Feb. 2), Sun Devil senior Kyle Alcorn clocked a time of 3:59.82 in the mile to become only the third Sun Devil runner to break the four-minute mark in the event and just the second indoors. Alcorn is second on the ASU indoor lists behind Brandon Strong, who ran 3:59.59 in 2002, and is third overall in ASU history behind the 3:56.4 turned in by Chuck LaBenz in 1970.

NEW LOOK
Joe Selleh Track at Sun Angel Stadium went under the knife recently as the home of Arizona State University track and field was resurfaced with the latest product from Mondo, Mondotrack FTX. ASU’s home venue is the first in the world to be surfaced with the product, which also will be installed at Beijing’s Olympic Stadium in time for the 2008 Summer Games. Along with the new surface came an expanded shot put area and the addition of a second ‘D’ zone (at the north end of the infield). The majority of the surface will be maroon/red in color with the only exceptions being the three exchange zones on the track and the non-runway areas of both ‘D’ zones, which will be gold. The project was complete Jan. 29.

IT’S ACADEMIC
Athletic honors were not the only awards attained during the year as the Sun Devils placed 20 women and 10 men on the Pac-10 All-Academic lists while seven women and two men earned MPSF All-Academic recognition for the indoor season. A total of 13 student-athletes (10 women and three men) were selected for USTFCCCA National All-Academic honors while three women — Brooke Bennett, April Kubishta and Sarah Stevens — earned ESPN The Magazine All-District VIII honors. The USTFCCCA also bestowed three more prestigious academic honors on the Sun Devils following the 2007 season as the women’s team earned USTFCCCA Women’s Division I All-Academic Team honors before being selected as the 2007 USTFCCCA Women’ Indoor and Outdoor All-Academic Team of the Year. Individually, Stevens was selected as the USTFCCCA Women’s Indoor Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

MORE TROPHIES
Several of the team’s newcomers have already made an impact this year as members of a cross country program that qualified both a women’s and men’s team to the 2007 NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Ind. At the meet, the women finished fourth overall to earn their second trophy (Top 4 finishers) in three years while the men, who entered the meet ranked 30th, finished 26th overall. Dating back to the 2005 cross country national meet (three cross country seasons, two indoor track & field seasons and two outdoor track & field seasons), the Sun Devil women have accumulated six trophies, including two national titles (2007 indoor and 2007 outdoor), one third-place finish (2006 indoor) and three fourth-place showings (2005 and 2007 cross country and 2006 outdoor).

2008 PAC-10 HOSTS
The 2008 Pac-10 Championships will be held at Joe Selleh Track at Sun Angel Stadium this year with events being contested on two separate weekends. The women’s heptathlon and men’s decathlon will take place on May 9-10 with the remainder of the events being held one week later, May 16-17.

IN THE BLOCKS
The Sun Devils hit the road next weekend for a pair of meets as many of the team’s members will head to Tucson for the Jim Click Multis (April 3-4) and the Jim Click Invitaitonal (April 5) while a handful of athletes will travel to Palo Alto, Calif., for the Stanford Invitational (April 4-5).

For the second weekend in a row, the Arizona State University track and field team will play host to a meet, this weekend hosting several teams and individuals to the ASU Invitational on Friday and Saturday on Joe Selleh Track at Sun Angel Stadium. Similar to last weekend, the hammer will be held Friday night with Saturday leading off with the women’s discus at 10 a.m. and the running events starting at 5:30 p.m. with the women’s 100m hurdles.

WELCOME!
Several university teams will have athletes on hand to compete this weekend, including: Air Force, Arizona, Augustana (S.D.), BYU, CS Fullerton, Loyola Marymount, Northern Arizona, Notre Dame, Purdue, Southern Utah, Wayne State (Neb.) and Western State (Colo.).

NATIONALLY KNOWN
The preseason team rankings were released by the USTFCCCA on March 26 with the rankings based upon points earned for an athlete’s position on the NCAA descending order list (the final list of 2007 was used for the first ranking of the year). The men open the season ranked No. 8 with 172.36 points with Florida State leading the way with 259.63 points. LSU (247.33), Tennessee (209.00), Florida (195.32) and USC (188.89) round out the Top 5 men’s teams. The women, winners of the last three NCAA championships, enters the year ranked No. 2 with 312.98 points while LSU leads with 324.05 points. Virginia Tech (238.37), Texas A&M (237.34) and USC (210.94) round out the Top 5 in the women’s rankings.

TOMAS’ TRIPLE
Last weekend, the Sun Devils opened the outdoor season by playing host to the Baldy Castillo Invitational. At the meet, Tomas Navarro competed in three throwing events and regionally qualified in all three. Navarro hit marks of 60.74m (the fourth-best in ASU history) in the hammer, 54.11m in the discus and 17.13m in the shot put to punch his ticket to the regional meet in Northridge, Calif., May 30-31.

ONE FOR ONE
April Kubishta opened her outdoor season last weekend by winning the pole vault with a clearance of 4.15m (13-07.25), qualifying for the NCAA West Region meet in the process. After the weekend, Kubsihta, the defending NCAA Outdoor Champion and the 2008 NCAA Indoor runner-up two weeks ago, has taken the national lead, five centimeters ahead of the next three athletes on the list.

FIELD DAY
At the Baldy Castillo Invitational, the field events produced seven of the program’s eight region qualifiers. For the women, Kubishta was joined by Alana Waterford (3.85m) in the pole vault while Addison McGrath (see next note) qualified in the javelin (44.34m). On the men’s side, Navarro was joined by Brad Roth in the javelin (69.52m).

JUST REMOVE WATER
In the women’s javelin, Addison McGrath qualified for the regional meet and finished fifth in the meet with her toss of 44.34m (145-06), the fourth-best throw in school history. The mark, which came on her second attempt, also came on her second attempt ever as she joined the team this season to give the event a try. McGrath was already a student-athlete at Arizona State before joining the team as she is a member of the No. 7-ranked water polo team, leading the team in scoring with 55 goals (seventh in the nation).

RELAY RUNNING WELL
Despite running at the indoor national meet one week earlier, four All-American men got together and qualified the 4×400m relay for the regional meet as the team of Justin Kremer, Darryl Elston, Nectaly Barbosa and Jimmie Gordon ran 3:09.16, the fourth-best time in the nation so far this season.

IN THE STANDINGS
So far this outdoor season, the Sun Devils have a small amount of regional qualifying marks, but several of those marks rank highly on the national lists. April Kubishta is the lone woman in the Top 8 as she ranks first in the pole vault (4.15m) while the men have two marks in the Top 8, including the 4×400m relay (3:09.16) and Brad Roth in the javelin (69.52m), who ranks third overall right now.

AND THE WINNER IS…
At the Baldy Castillo Invitational last weekend, the Sun Devils won five events, including three men’s and two women’s. On the men’s side, the 4×400m relay of Justin Kremer, Darryl Elston, Nectaly Barbosa and Jimmie Gordon was victorious at 3:09.16 while the two other wins came in the field with Tomas Navarro winning the shot put (17.13m) and Brad Roth taking the javelin (69.52m). For the women, April Kubishta won the pole vault (4.15m) while Kari Hardt won the 800m dash in 2:09.86, just 0.06 off of a regional qualifier.

TWICE AS NICE
On March 14-15, the Sun Devils traveled 21 student-athletes to the 2008 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships and returned with both the men’s and women’s national team titles, accomplishing the feat for just the second time in NCAA history (LSU did so in 2004). The women scored 51 points with LSU finishing second with 43 points in the women’s race while the men edged out favorite Florida State, 44-41, for their first indoor team crown.

BY THE NUMBERS
The titles earned by the Sun Devil men and women are the 134th and 135th national titles captured by Arizona State in school history. The wins are the 39th and 66th national titles for the men and women, respectively, while 30 other titles were won in coed events (20 in mixed archery and 10 in mixed badminton).

REPEAT
With the team victory, the Sun Devil women successfully defended their first national tittle won last year when the team captured the 2007 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships in Fayetteville, Ark. The Sun Devils, ranked No. 1 last year, edged No. 2 LSU, 38-33, to win their first indoor crown. This year, the rankings were reversed, but the Sun Devils still won.

STREAKING
Arizona State’s women have been dominant over the course of the past year as the Sun Devils have won seven championship meets in a row. Those meets include the 2007 MPSF Indoor Championships, the 2007 NCAA Indoor Championships, the 2007 Pac-10 Championships, the 2007 NCAA West Region Championships, the 2007 NCAA Outdoor Championships, the 2008 MPSF Indoor Championships and the 2008 NCAA Indoor Championships.

FIRST AND SECOND TIMES
With 44 points, the Sun Devil men won their first indoor championship and became the 14th different men’s program to capture the indoor crown since the NCAA began sponsoring an indoor meet in 1965. The title is the second in program history for the men as the 1977 team captured the outdoor championship, the first team title in ASU track & field history.

NOT SINCE…
The men’s team victory at the NCAA Indoor Championships marked the first men’s team title earned for the Sun Devil athletic department since 1996 when the men’s golf team captured their second championship (also won in 1990). Prior to the women winning last year and this year, the previous Sun Devil national champions were the 1998 women’s golf team.

ELITE COMPANY
The women’s team, which is one of only seven programs to win an NCAA indoor title since the association began sponsoring the event in 1983, repeated as national champions, marking just the fifth time in NCAA history that a team has won back-to-back titles. The last to do so was LSU (2002-2003-2004). The other schools to do so were UCLA (2000-2001), LSU (1993-1994-1995-1996-1997) and Nebraska (1983-1984).

THREE-PEAT
The women’s team was not the only repeat winners on the weekend for the Sun Devils as Jacquelyn Johnson secured her third indoor pentathlon crown in a row, scoring a collegiate and meet record 4,496 points. In her career, Johnson has three titles and one runner-up finish (took second as a true freshman in 2004).

MORE ON JOHNSON’S TRIPLE
When Jacquelyn Johnson successfully defended her indoor pentathlon crowns she won at the 2006 and 2007 NCAA meets, she became just the ninth woman to win the same event three times in a career at the indoor championships and the second Sun Devil, joining Maicel Malone, who won the 400m dash in 1990, 1991 and 1992. Other three-time champions include Regina Cavanaugh of Rice (shot put, 1984-85-86), Suzy Favor of Wisconsin (mile, 1987-89-90), Vicki Huber of Villanova (3,000m, 1987-88-89), Carlette Guidry of Texas (55m, 1988-90-91), Amy Wickus of Wisconsin (800m, 1993-94-95), Amy Acuff of UCLA (high jump, 1994-95-96) and Trecia Smith of Pittsburgh (long jump, 1997-98-99).

MORE CHAMPIONS
The teams and Johnson were not the only champions over the weekend as two men captured individual titles in remarkable fashion. Ryan Whiting led off by winning the shot put with a huge toss of 71-03.50 (21.73m) to set the collegiate record in the event. In the second-to-last event of the meet, Kyle Alcorn stormed to the front of the pack late in the 3,000m race to capture the national crown and put the Sun Devils in a position to win the team title.

FOR THE RECORD - JOHNSON
Jacquelyn Johnson and Ryan Whiting both set collegiate records in winning their national crowns over the weekend. Johnson, who entered the meet with a best of 4,312 points in the pentathlon, ended the meet with 4,496 points, breaking the collegiate record of 4,439 points set in 2002 by Austra Skuyte (Kansas State) and bettering the meet mark of 4,412 points scored by Hyleas Fountain (Georgia) in 2004 when she defeated Johnson for the first NCAA pentathlon crown.

FOR THE RECORD - WHITING
While Johnson broke a record that was set a few years ago, Whiting broke the 31 year-old mark of Terry Albritton (Stanford), who threw 70-06.50 (21.50m) in 1977. Whiting, who recorded a toss of 71-03.50 (21.73m) on his final throw of the competition, is now the collegiate, meet and Pac-10 indoor record holder while ranking third all-time on the Pac-10 lists as two marks recorded outdoors are ahead of Whiting.

LATE HEROICS
Needing some big points in the 3,000m run at the end of the meet, Kyle Alcorn stepped onto the track as the 14th-ranked runner in the race. Alcorn surged ahead mid-way through the race and took the lead before relinquishing it. Sitting in fifth place with two laps to go, Alcorn again surged ahead and captured the lead that he held onto for the remainder of the race, crossing the line in 8:00.82 to not only win his first national title, but giving ASU 10 team points and tying it with Florida State at 38 points heading into the 4×400m relay.

SEALING THE DEAL
With the team race down to ASU and FSU and only the 4×400m relay remaining, all the Sun Devils had to do was finish ahead of the Seminoles in the standings of the race to secure a team crown. In the three-heat race, FSU ran first and clocked a time of 3:07.47, meaning ASU had to finish faster, which it did as Jimmie Gordon, Darryl Elston, Justin Kremer and Joel Phillip clocked in at 3:06.34 to win the third heat and place third overall, pushing FSU to sixth in the race and giving ASU the team title.

NATIONAL HONORS
The United States Track & Field, Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) announced its national award winners following the NCAA Indoor Championships with four Sun Devils garnering five of the eight national accolades available. Greg Kraft was selected as the Women’s National and Men’s National Coach of the Year; David Dumble was voted the Women’s National Assistant Coach of the Year; Jacquelyn Johnson was named the Women’s National Field Athlete of the Year; and Ryan Whiting was selected as the Men’s National Field Athlete of the Year.

CLOSE TO THE TOP
The women had three runner-up finishes and the men added a pair to help both teams to victory in Fayetteville. On the men’s side, second-place finishes were recorded by April Kubishta (pole vault), Sarah Stevens (shot put) and Jessica Pressley (weight throw) while the men’s second-place finishers included Joel Phillip (400m dash) and the distance medley relay of Joey Heller, Justin Kremer, Nectaly BarbosaKyle Alcorn. and

MORE RECORDS
From the results recorded at the NCAA Indoor Championships, five women’s marks and three men’s rank among the Top 5 all-time in ASU history, including three women’s and two men’s school records. On the women’s side, school-records went to April Kubishta in the pole vault (4.30m), Jessica Pressley in the weight throw (22.04m) and Jacquelyn Johnson in the pentathlon (4,496 points) while the men’s records included Ryan Whiting in the shot put (21.73m) and the distance medley relay of Joey Heller, Justin Kremer, Nectaly Barbosa and Kyle Alcorn. Both 4×400m relays rank among the Top 3, including the second-best time of 3:33.53 by the women (Dominique’ Maloy, Shauntel Elcock, Jordan Durham, Jeavon Benjamin) and the third-best time of 3:06.34 by the men (Jimmie Gordon, Darryl Elston, Kremer, Joel Phillip). The final Top 3 mark came from Johnson in the 60m hurdles (8.23).

ALL-AMERICANS
Overall, nine women and nine men each earned All-America honors from the USTFCCCA, including two women and four men that earned two honors each. Multiple honors were earned by Jacquelyn Johnson (pentathlon & long jump) and Jessica Pressley (shot put & weight throw) for the women and men’s competitors Kyle Alcorn (3,000m & DMR), Jimmie Gordon (400m & 4×400m), Justin Kremer (4×400m & DMR) and Joel Phillip (400m & 4×400m). Other women’s All-Americans included Jeavon Benjamin (4×400m), Jordan Durham (4×400m), Shauntel ElcockStephanie Garnett (long jump), April Kubishta (pole vault), Dominique’ Maloy (4×400m) and Sarah Stevens (shot put) while the men included Nectaly Barbosa (DMR), Darryl Elston (4×400m), Joey Heller (DMR), Matt Turner (long jump) and Ryan Whiting (shot put). (4×400m),

WORLD COMPETITION
On March 30, former Sun Devil Amy Hastings will represent the United States as a member of the 2008 Team USA World Cross Country squad that will head to Edinburgh, Great Britain, for the 36th IAAF World Cross Country Championships. Hastings, a 10-time All-American at Arizona State, will be running for Team USA for the first time in her career.

WHERE IN THE WORLD
Following the NCAA Indoor Championships last weekend, two men and three women ended the indoor season with marks ranking in the Top 20 on the world lists. For the men, Ryan Whiting ranks third in the shot put with a toss of 21.73m while Joel Phillip stands 10th in the 400m dash at 46.27. On the women’s side, Jessica Pressley and Sarah Stevens both are Top 15 in the weight throw with Pressley ranking fourth at 22.04m and Stevens in 13th at 20.94m. Jacquelyn Johnson is 16th in the pentathlon with 4,496 points.

REGIONAL HONORS
Heading into the national meet, a trio of Sun Devils were honored with awards for their performances so far this indoor season. The United States Track & Field/Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) selected Jacquelyn Johnson as the Women’s West Region Field Athlete of the Year, picked head coach Greg Kraft as the Women’s West Region Coach of the Year and chose throws coach David Dumble as the Women’s West Region Assistant Coach of the Year. All three are now eligible for the national honor that will be announced following the NCAA Indoor Championships this weekend.

WAIT, THERE IS MORE…
The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) announced its annual awards Tuesday with the Sun Devils taking three of the four honors. Greg Kraft was selected as the MPSF Women’s Coach of the Year while Jacquelyn Johnson was named the MPSF Women’s Athlete of the Year and Ryan Whiting was named the MPSF Men’s Athlete of the Year. The honor is the first for Whiting and Johnson and the second in a row for Kraft. Sarah Stevens won the women’s athlete honor last year.

THEY HAVE A SHOT (PUT)
The shot put event has been good to the Sun Devils in recent years and this year looks to be no different this year under coach David Dumble. Last season, six All-America honors were earned with Sarah Stevens, Jessica Pressley and Ryan Whiting each earning the accolade at both the NCAA Indoor and NCAA Outdoor meets. During the indoor season, Ryan Whiting led the nation and set a collegiate record with the third-best throw in the world so far this year at 21.73m while Sarah Stevens (second) and Jessica Pressley (fifth) also finished well at the NCAA Indoor Championships.

ON TOP AGAIN
With 154.5 points and seven individual champions, the Sun Devil women won their second MPSF Championships in a row, beating out runner Stanford, who scored 141 points. The win also was the sixth team title in a row for ASU, building off the five they won in 2007.

ANOTHER REPEAT
While the women’s team captured its second MPSF Championships title in a row, Sarah Stevens did a repeat performance of her own as she won the shot put and the weight throw for the second year in a row.

MORE CHAMPIONS
Stevens was joined by Jacquelyn Johnson as the only multiple victors for the Sun Devils. Johnson won the 60m hurdles and the long jump individually before joining Jeavon Benjamin, Shauntel Elcock and Dominique’ Maloy in taking the 4×400m. Other champions for the team included April Kubishta (pole vault) and Charonda Williams (200m).

VICTORIOUS MEN
Three men’s titles were won as well, including Ryan Whiting (shot put), Jeff Helmer (5,000m) and the 4×400m of Jimmie Gordon, Joel Phillip, Darryl Elston and Justin Kremer.

STRONG DEBUT
Jeff Helmer made his first collegiate race a memorable one as he clocked a time of 14:01.83 to win the MPSF Championship in the 5,000m run and provisionally qualify for the NCAA Championships. Currently, he ranks 18th in the nation.

KRAFT’S KIDS
The shot put is not the only field event that has been producing lately. Under coach Greg Kraft, the long jump has been a strong event for ASU and that trend looks to continue this year. Currently, Matt Turner is ranked fourth in the NCAA (7.85m) while Jacquelyn Johnson (6.50m) and Stephanie Garnett (6.42m) are fifth and ninth, respectively. Outside the NCAA, Kraft has worked with 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist Dwight Phillips and, most recently, former Sun Devil Trevell Quinley won the 2008 USATF Indoor Championships before placing 13th at the IAAF World Championships in Valencia.

KREMER GETTING GRAND
Justin Kremer came to Tempe from a small school in Grand Canyon, Ariz., and has blossomed into one of the top quarter-milers in the nation this year. Kremer played a role in helping the 4×400m relay qualify for the NCAA Championships, and when he arrived at the meet, helped both the 4×400m and distance medley relays place among the Top 3 nationally, earning his first two All-America honors. On the first day, Kremer ran the sprint leg of the DMR, helping the Sun Devils to a school-record time of 9:32.49 and a national runner-up placement before running the third leg of the third-place 4×400m relay that secured the team title for the Sun Devils.

MORE OF THE BEST
The United States Track & Field, Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) announced their cross country academic honorees this week with the Sun Devil women garnering accolades. Individually, Ali Kielty and Jenna Kingma were two of the 91 women to earn USTFCCCA All-Academic honors and joined their teammates as one of 35 teams nationally to earn team distinctions with a 3.50 grade point average or higher.

ALCORN GOES SUB-FOUR
At the Washington Invite (Feb. 2), Sun Devil senior Kyle Alcorn clocked a time of 3:59.82 in the mile to become only the third Sun Devil runner to break the four-minute mark in the event and just the second indoors. Alcorn is second on the ASU indoor lists behind Brandon Strong, who ran 3:59.59 in 2002, and is third overall in ASU history behind the 3:56.4 turned in by Chuck LaBenz in 1970.

NEW LOOK
Joe Selleh Track at Sun Angel Stadium went under the knife recently as the home of Arizona State University track and field was resurfaced with the latest product from Mondo, Mondotrack FTX. ASU’s home venue is the first in the world to be surfaced with the product, which also will be installed at Beijing’s Olympic Stadium in time for the 2008 Summer Games. Along with the new surface came an expanded shot put area and the addition of a second ‘D’ zone (at the north end of the infield). The majority of the surface will be maroon/red in color with the only exceptions being the three exchange zones on the track and the non-runway areas of both ‘D’ zones, which will be gold. The project was complete Jan. 29.

IT’S ACADEMIC
Athletic honors were not the only awards attained during the year as the Sun Devils placed 20 women and 10 men on the Pac-10 All-Academic lists while seven women and two men earned MPSF All-Academic recognition for the indoor season. A total of 13 student-athletes (10 women and three men) were selected for USTFCCCA National All-Academic honors while three women — Brooke Bennett, April Kubishta and Sarah Stevens — earned ESPN The Magazine All-District VIII honors. The USTFCCCA also bestowed three more prestigious academic honors on the Sun Devils following the 2007 season as the women’s team earned USTFCCCA Women’s Division I All-Academic Team honors before being selected as the 2007 USTFCCCA Women’ Indoor and Outdoor All-Academic Team of the Year. Individually, Stevens was selected as the USTFCCCA Women’s Indoor Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

MORE TROPHIES
Several of the team’s newcomers have already made an impact this year as members of a cross country program that qualified both a women’s and men’s team to the 2007 NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Ind. At the meet, the women finished fourth overall to earn their second trophy (Top 4 finishers) in three years while the men, who entered the meet ranked 30th, finished 26th overall. Dating back to the 2005 cross country national meet (three cross country seasons, two indoor track & field seasons and two outdoor track & field seasons), the Sun Devil women have accumulated six trophies, including two national titles (2007 indoor and 2007 outdoor), one third-place finish (2006 indoor) and three fourth-place showings (2005 and 2007 cross country and 2006 outdoor).

2008 PAC-10 HOSTS
The 2008 Pac-10 Championships will be held at Joe Selleh Track at Sun Angel Stadium this year with events being contested on two separate weekends. The women’s heptathlon and men’s decathlon will take place on May 9-10 with the remainder of the events being held one week later, May 16-17.

IN THE BLOCKS
The Sun Devils hit the road next weekend for a pair of meets as many of the team’s members will head to Tucson for the Jim Click Multis (April 3-4) and the Jim Click Invitaitonal (April 5) while a handful of athletes will travel to Palo Alto, Calif., for the Stanford Invitational (April 4-5).

Eighth-graders in three Phoenix elementary schools are focusing on college, thanks to a partnership with ASU that has introduced a college prep course to their classrooms this year.

They’re exploring careers, learning about scholarships and financial aid and discovering the kinds of high school classes that will prepare them for college. The elective courses at Magnet Traditional, Herrera and Kenilworth Elementary are tailored for their students’ needs, says Natalie Nailor, executive coordinator for Access ASU.

“Early planning can spark children’s interest in higher education, encourage them to set goals and develop plans to reach those goals,” Nailor says. “This is a great opportunity for the schools and for ASU. The principals have been very enthusiastic, and some teachers have given up prep time to teach the classes.”

Nailor helped develop the curriculum and co-taught some of the classes, bringing in ASU experts to talk to the students about admissions and financial aid, and ASU students to talk about their college experience. Magnet Traditional ordered specially designed workbooks from the College Board.

More than 80 students are taking the courses at the three schools. Students seem to enjoy the interaction with the university.

“The partnership with ASU gives us access to a lot of resources,” says Anthony Perkins, principal at Magnet Traditional, which has a student population that is 70 percent Hispanic. “I appreciate the help in exposing students to the college world.

“We believe more students do want to attend college because of it. The program has increased students’ awareness of what is needed, and helped them make a long-term commitment for a better future. We plan to continue this program forever.”

Eighth-graders from Magnet Traditional also attended ASU’s December graduation ceremonies, had lunch and toured the Tempe campus to get a taste of college life.

At Kenilworth, there are 22 students who are applying to competitive high school programs, including Brophy and Xavier College Preparatories, and the International Baccalaureate program at North High School. Nailor and teacher Judy Parker created lesson plans based around the schools’ placement tests and admissions processes, in addition to college and career planning.

Chris Helms of ASU Career Services came in to help the students with their interview preparation, and Irene Bradley of admissions helped them refine their personal statement drafts. Several students have since been admitted to the IB program, and others are awaiting admissions decisions at Brophy and Xavier.

“This shows the level of trust that schools have in ASU,” says Nailor, who also works with Phoenix Prep Academy and Lowell Elementary School. “We’re there establishing relationships with the principals, teachers and students. ASU resources and programs have helped facilitate all of these elective courses. It’s worked so well, I’m trying to make this replicable to other schools.”

Five other ASU coordinators work with additional school districts in Access ASU partnerships, to offer resources and meet specific needs.

Eighth-graders in three Phoenix elementary schools are focusing on college, thanks to a partnership with ASU that has introduced a college prep course to their classrooms this year.

They’re exploring careers, learning about scholarships and financial aid and discovering the kinds of high school classes that will prepare them for college. The elective courses at Magnet Traditional, Herrera and Kenilworth Elementary are tailored for their students’ needs, says Natalie Nailor, executive coordinator for Access ASU.

“Early planning can spark children’s interest in higher education, encourage them to set goals and develop plans to reach those goals,” Nailor says. “This is a great opportunity for the schools and for ASU. The principals have been very enthusiastic, and some teachers have given up prep time to teach the classes.”

Nailor helped develop the curriculum and co-taught some of the classes, bringing in ASU experts to talk to the students about admissions and financial aid, and ASU students to talk about their college experience. Magnet Traditional ordered specially designed workbooks from the College Board.

More than 80 students are taking the courses at the three schools. Students seem to enjoy the interaction with the university.

“The partnership with ASU gives us access to a lot of resources,” says Anthony Perkins, principal at Magnet Traditional, which has a student population that is 70 percent Hispanic. “I appreciate the help in exposing students to the college world.

“We believe more students do want to attend college because of it. The program has increased students’ awareness of what is needed, and helped them make a long-term commitment for a better future. We plan to continue this program forever.”

Eighth-graders from Magnet Traditional also attended ASU’s December graduation ceremonies, had lunch and toured the Tempe campus to get a taste of college life.

At Kenilworth, there are 22 students who are applying to competitive high school programs, including Brophy and Xavier College Preparatories, and the International Baccalaureate program at North High School. Nailor and teacher Judy Parker created lesson plans based around the schools’ placement tests and admissions processes, in addition to college and career planning.

Chris Helms of ASU Career Services came in to help the students with their interview preparation, and Irene Bradley of admissions helped them refine their personal statement drafts. Several students have since been admitted to the IB program, and others are awaiting admissions decisions at Brophy and Xavier.

“This shows the level of trust that schools have in ASU,” says Nailor, who also works with Phoenix Prep Academy and Lowell Elementary School. “We’re there establishing relationships with the principals, teachers and students. ASU resources and programs have helped facilitate all of these elective courses. It’s worked so well, I’m trying to make this replicable to other schools.”

Five other ASU coordinators work with additional school districts in Access ASU partnerships, to offer resources and meet specific needs.

The plight of the world’s oceans is dire, according to recent studies, through insults from human-derived activities depopulating and damaging reefs, altering coastlines, and creating pollutants, such as nitrogen runoff from terrestrial watersheds.

A study by 31 aquatic biologists involving 72 stream sites in the United States and Puerto Rico has found that one critical buffer to excess nitrogen run off from agricultural and urban areas turns out to be small streams and rivers. The findings are published March 12 in the journal Nature.

“We found that nitrate was filtered from stream water by tiny organisms such as algae, fungi and bacteria,” says Patrick Mulholland, lead author of the study and a member of Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Environmental Sciences Division, with a joint appointment at the University of Tennessee. “Further, our model showed that the entire stream network is important in removing pollution from stream water.”

The study used a rare nitrogen isotope to examine the effects of nitrogen loading in streams. The researchers analyzed its removal relative to the amount of nitrogen present in the stream overall. The results showed that much of the nitrogen was removed by bacteria, in a process called denitrification that releases harmless nitrogen gas to the atmosphere. However, the study also demonstrated that as nitrate loads increase, the efficiency of removal was reduced.

“Our study shows that nitrogen loading compromises the ability of streams to retain or transform nitrate, a major pollutant that has been associated with lake and stream eutrophication, groundwater pollution, and coastal dead zones,” says Nancy Grimm, an ecologist at Arizona State University who has been involved with the project since the 1980s.

Presently it’s believed that small streams and rivers remove three-quarters of the excess nitrogen contamination before it reaches the oceans by acting as “sinks.” However, the researchers’ findings published in Nature suggest that as land use changes, and shifts to increasing nitrogen loads occur, that this buffering capacity could be overwhelmed. Nitrogen pollution could generate algal blooms, oxygen depletion (dead zones) and death to coral, fish and shellfish in coastal zones.

Grimm believes that the long-term, collaborative nature of the project supporting this study, which has incorporated two separate experiments each conducted in a range of ecosystems, was key to “advancing understanding of stream nitrogen dynamics far beyond what could be accomplished with a single-investigator grant focused on one region.”

As a professor in ASU’s School of Life Sciences, Grimm is no stranger to long-term collaborative efforts. For the last 10 years she has led the Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-term Ecological Research (CAP-LTER) project centered on the analysis of urban-semi-arid ecosystem relationships. The co-director of CAP-LTER is anthropologist Charles Redman, director of ASU’s School of Sustainability.

With her collaborators, Grimm has established a conceptual basis for including human choice and action in theory of urban ecosystem dynamics. Grimm and her counterparts’ empirical work on biogeochemistry, species distribution and abundance, and designed aquatic ecosystems in cities have revealed that many ecological features are best explained by combinations of social and biophysical drivers. Grimm was also the first to describe nitrogen cycling in desert streams, work that led directly to the long-term collaboration and the experiments described in the Nature article.

The findings published in Nature underscore the critical interplay that exists between human action and ecosystems dynamics and capacity, and emphasizes “the management imperative of controlling nitrogen loading to streams and protecting or restoring stream ecosystems to maintain or enhance their nitrogen removal functions.”

Along with Mulholland and Grimm, other collaborators on this study include scientists from the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratories, University of Georgia, Athens; Eco-Metrics; University of Wyoming, Laramie; Michigan State University; University of Notre Dame; Oregon State University; University of New Mexico; Kansas State University; Institute of Ecosystem Studies; U.S. Forest Service; University of New Hampshire; Virginia Tech; and Ball State University.

The plight of the world’s oceans is dire, according to recent studies, through insults from human-derived activities depopulating and damaging reefs, altering coastlines, and creating pollutants, such as nitrogen runoff from terrestrial watersheds.

A study by 31 aquatic biologists involving 72 stream sites in the United States and Puerto Rico has found that one critical buffer to excess nitrogen run off from agricultural and urban areas turns out to be small streams and rivers. The findings are published March 12 in the journal Nature.

“We found that nitrate was filtered from stream water by tiny organisms such as algae, fungi and bacteria,” says Patrick Mulholland, lead author of the study and a member of Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Environmental Sciences Division, with a joint appointment at the University of Tennessee. “Further, our model showed that the entire stream network is important in removing pollution from stream water.”

The study used a rare nitrogen isotope to examine the effects of nitrogen loading in streams. The researchers analyzed its removal relative to the amount of nitrogen present in the stream overall. The results showed that much of the nitrogen was removed by bacteria, in a process called denitrification that releases harmless nitrogen gas to the atmosphere. However, the study also demonstrated that as nitrate loads increase, the efficiency of removal was reduced.

“Our study shows that nitrogen loading compromises the ability of streams to retain or transform nitrate, a major pollutant that has been associated with lake and stream eutrophication, groundwater pollution, and coastal dead zones,” says Nancy Grimm, an ecologist at Arizona State University who has been involved with the project since the 1980s.

Presently it’s believed that small streams and rivers remove three-quarters of the excess nitrogen contamination before it reaches the oceans by acting as “sinks.” However, the researchers’ findings published in Nature suggest that as land use changes, and shifts to increasing nitrogen loads occur, that this buffering capacity could be overwhelmed. Nitrogen pollution could generate algal blooms, oxygen depletion (dead zones) and death to coral, fish and shellfish in coastal zones.

Grimm believes that the long-term, collaborative nature of the project supporting this study, which has incorporated two separate experiments each conducted in a range of ecosystems, was key to “advancing understanding of stream nitrogen dynamics far beyond what could be accomplished with a single-investigator grant focused on one region.”

As a professor in ASU’s School of Life Sciences, Grimm is no stranger to long-term collaborative efforts. For the last 10 years she has led the Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-term Ecological Research (CAP-LTER) project centered on the analysis of urban-semi-arid ecosystem relationships. The co-director of CAP-LTER is anthropologist Charles Redman, director of ASU’s School of Sustainability.

With her collaborators, Grimm has established a conceptual basis for including human choice and action in theory of urban ecosystem dynamics. Grimm and her counterparts’ empirical work on biogeochemistry, species distribution and abundance, and designed aquatic ecosystems in cities have revealed that many ecological features are best explained by combinations of social and biophysical drivers. Grimm was also the first to describe nitrogen cycling in desert streams, work that led directly to the long-term collaboration and the experiments described in the Nature article.

The findings published in Nature underscore the critical interplay that exists between human action and ecosystems dynamics and capacity, and emphasizes “the management imperative of controlling nitrogen loading to streams and protecting or restoring stream ecosystems to maintain or enhance their nitrogen removal functions.”

Along with Mulholland and Grimm, other collaborators on this study include scientists from the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratories, University of Georgia, Athens; Eco-Metrics; University of Wyoming, Laramie; Michigan State University; University of Notre Dame; Oregon State University; University of New Mexico; Kansas State University; Institute of Ecosystem Studies; U.S. Forest Service; University of New Hampshire; Virginia Tech; and Ball State University.

Cranes are still soaring over Downtown Phoenix, but the end is in sight for key ASU construction projects.

The new Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication building on Central Avenue and Taylor Street is nearing completion, with work expected to wrap up in June. Workers are focusing on outside windows, exterior panels, interior walls and painting.

“Move-in will be in July through August,” says Patrick Panetta, the assistant director of University Real Estate Development.

The new home of Eight/KAET-TV in the building probably will be occupied later than Cronkite faculty, staff and students.

“They’re not really semester-dependent,” Panetta says.

Students who take classes in the new, 223,000-square-foot building can enjoy features such a two-story atrium called the “Forum,” with a stage and seating on the ground floor, and a surrounding overlook on the second floor. Television studios on the sixth floor will broadcast

Eight programs, while students can gain real-world experience in their own newsrooms and television studios. The project also brings 23 new classrooms to the campus.

Taylor Place opens this August on the Downtown Phoenix campus, with 744 beds for students in Tower One. Students are reserving spaces in the new student housing complex, with rooms on the top floor with floor-to-ceiling windows selling quickly.

“I believe the top floor is sold out,” Panetta says.

Crews are finishing the outside by installing windows, and they’re working on interior features such as raising walls. Students who move into Taylor Place this fall can take advantage of a fitness center, study areas, socializing areas with flat-screen televisions, vending rooms and laundry areas. Ground-floor retail includes dining services, a convenience store and possible coffee shop thus far. First-floor retail services in Tower Two will open this fall, as well with a UPS Store that also will handle student mail. Tower Two will open to students in August 2009.

Both towers cover 366,500 combined square feet at the site between First and Second streets on Taylor Street.

ASU’s lease for Residential Commons at First and Polk streets ends in May. ASU and Phoenix have an option until 2012 to develop one-third of the parcel.

“There are several potential uses for that property,” Panetta says.

Students and the public can enjoy a new green space in the Civic Space park when it opens in the spring of 2009. Crews are working on grading and drainage at the site just south of the post office on Central Avenue.

“The park is almost completely designed,” Panetta says.

Park features include several large grassy areas, spaces with game tables, public seating and hardscape where student organizations can network, much like they do outside the Memorial Union in Tempe. A large public art installation by Janet Echelman will be similar to a wind sculpture she created in Portugal.

The sculpture, suspended above the ground, will be about 60 feet tall.

A garden plaza below street level is planned for the north side of the historic A.E. England building on the Civic Space site. A restaurant also is planned for the lower level, and a great hall within the building can accommodate about 350 students. It also will be available to the public for gatherings. A shade structure on the west side of the A.E. England building will provide welcome relief from the summer sun, and photovoltaic cells in the same area will provide power. First steps in renovating the historic building are shoring up the core and shell with work on the exterior walls and roof trusses.

“The design is being worked on,” Panetta says.

The College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation will expand to a second building as soon as construction gets under way at Third and Fillmore streets. Groundbreaking for the new five-story, 84,000-square-foot building is slated for April 1, following changes to the design that were made based on public input. A canopy was enlarged to make the entrance more prominent, and more glass was added along the Third Street façade. The fourth and fifth floors will be occupied by non-nursing ASU units and Phoenix offices. A third building is planned for the northwest corner of the lot in the future.

A proposed use plan for student union space at the post office at Central Avenue and Fillmore Street is currently at the University Architects office. Plans for the union include conference rooms, recreation space, retail outlets, study areas and food service providers. The post office will continue front-counter services and offer post office boxes when the union opens. Renovation is scheduled to start in 2009.