June 20, 2011
OFFICIAL USTFCCCA RELEASE
TUCSON – University of Arizona track and field assistant coach Craig Carter was named as the National Women’s Assistant Coach of the Year for the outdoor season, as announced by the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) on Monday morning.
Carter, in his fifth year at the UA, earned the national recognition thanks to putting together what was easily the greatest throwing team in Arizona’s prestigious history in the events. Carter’s student-athletes were responsible for 14 of the team’s 35 points in a fifth-place showing at the NCAA Outdoor Championships two weekends ago in Des Moines, Iowa. Carter’s crew also put up 63 of the Wildcats’ 150 points at the Pac-10 Conference Championships in Tucson in May as the team finished as the runner-up to Oregon.
Carter led Canadian native Julie Labonte to the indoor and outdoor national title in the shot put as she capped off an unbeaten season in Iowa with a new Canadian record of 18.31m (60-1). The throw was among the ten best outdoor throws in collegiate history and helped the sophomore inch closer towards Meg Ritchie’s 28-year-old school and collegiate record of 18.99m (62-3 ¼).
Carter also coached freshman Baillie Gibson and sophomore Alyssa Hasslen to the berths in the shot put final in Des Moines, with Gibson earning second-team All-America honors. Gibson also took home a fifth-place All-America finish in the discus throw with a new career best of 56.46m (185-3) and the fourth-best mark in Arizona history in addition to setting the school freshman record in the shot put earlier this season with her career-best toss of 17.07m (56-0).
At the Pac-10 Championships, Carter coached the Wildcat throwers to an unprecedented 1-2-3-5-6 finish in the shot put and a 2-3-4-6 showing in the discus event. In all, the UA throwing team combined for 13 All-Conference awards in the competition. On the season, six members of women’s throwing roster set marks within or improved upon already held positions in the school’s top-10 lists a total of 11 times.
Carter became the first assistant coach in the award’s four-year history to win outside of Texas A&M’s Vince Anderson, who had earned the accolade from the USTFCCCA the previous three seasons.
Carter is set to coach Hasslen and American indoor record-holder Jill Camarena-Williams in the shot put event this weekend at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Eugene, Ore.
