| ||||||||||||||
06/09/2007
NCAA CHAMPIONS!
The Sun Devil women have won the NCAA Championship, their second title of the year.
Coach Barela's Full Bio (pdf)
Since Ron Barela began working with the Arizona State University track and field pole vault athletes in 2004, his event group continues to show improvement, especially during the 2011 season. Heading into his ninth season as a volunteer assistant coach at his Alma Mater, Barela has a strong core of returning athletes, including two women that have cleared 4-meters in competition and several men that have raised their personal-bests several times in their ASU careers.
Last year (2011), rookie Shaylah Simpson and junior Cara Carpenter both cleared the 4-meter mark during the indoor season, becoming the third and fourth ASU women to do so. Outdoors, Simpson also cleared the 4-meter height, joining Carpenter (2009) as one of five women in the club. Simpson just missed reaching the NCAA Indoor Championship meet, but did qualify for the NCAA Preliminary Round meet in Oregon during the outdoor season after placing fifth at the Pac-10 Championships.
Simpson's Pac-10 showing, coupled with Corey Phallen (third) and Jeremy Marcinko (fifth) also placing in the Top 8, gave ASU three scorers in the Pac-10 pole vault for the first time in Barlea's tenure. The closest to that came both in 2007 and 2005 with two. With at least one man and one woman scoring, it marked just the second time ASU has had that had happen in Barela's tenure with the program (2005).
Indoors, Simpson cleared 4.20m (13-09.50) to move into the No. 2 position on the school's all-time Top 10 while Carpenter cleared 4.01m (13-01.75) for the No. 4 spot. On the men's side, Phallen hit a huge personal-best clearance as he went over at 5.22m (17-01.50) to move up to No. 4 and become just the fourth Sun Devil to clear 17-feet indoors. On the outdoor runways, Simpson cleared 4.02m (13-02.25) to take over the No. 3 spot for the lone addition to the Top 10 lists. Following the 2011 season's results, nine of the 10 marks on the women's indoor list and all 10 on the outdoor list belong to athletes that have been coached by Barela with six on each list having cleared at least 12-06.00 to make the Top 10 ledger.
During the 2010 season, both Carpenter and Austin Prince qualified for the NCAA Preliminary Round meet after both just missed out on scoring a the Pac-10 meet. Indoors, Carpenter scored for the women at the MPSF Championships by tying for seventh place. Marcinko also scored at the MPSF event as he added one point in the heptathlon by finishing eighth overall. In that heptathlon, he cleared 5.00m (16-04.75) in the pole vault to set the school's all-time heptathlon pole vault record.
In 2009, Barela's work helped several Sun Devils record personal bests and rank highly among the program's all-time top clearances, including freshman Carpenter becoming just the fourth woman in ASU history to clear 4.00m or better in outdoor competition. Carpenter, who ranks third all-time outdoors, moved into fifth on the indoor charts in her rookie campaign to lead the women's group while Phallen was the first man to add his name to the list since 2005 as he cleared 5.15m (16-10.75), just edging past Barela for ninth all-time.
Barela also has set out to help the men's decathlon competitors and during the 2009 indoor season, that work paid off as two men, Duggan Grant and Alexander Wentz, cleared 4.55m (14-11.00) to set the school's heptathlon pole vault record.
Barela's career with the program has seen great improvements, from school-records set and broken in the women's event to April Kubishta's national outdoor title at the 2007 NCAA Championships. In her senior season, Kubishta cleared a school-record 14-01.25 (4.30m) to finish as the national runner-up indoors before placing fourth outdoors. During the outdoor season, she also cleared 14-02.00 to better her school record. That mark also stands as the sixth-best in the history of the Pac-10 Conference. Also in 2008, Barela worked with Alana Waterford, who became on the third woman to clear 4.00m in competition (13-01.50) and qualified and participated in the regional meet.
Along with Kubishta's national crown in 2007 came All-America honors, the first of her career and the fifth for an athlete working under Barela. Kubishta, who was a standout in the classroom and was selected as the 2008 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American of the Year for women's track and field, finished her career with three All-America honors and three Top 4 finishes nationally.
His first All-American was Brandon Glenn, who finished seventh at the 2005 NCAA Indoor Championships, before he worked with multi-event athlete Joshua Kinnaman, who earned honors in the indoor heptathlon (2006, 2007) and outdoor decathlon (2006).
Barela has been a part of the Arizona State track and field program in the past as a student-athlete. Following one year at New Mexico Junior College in Hobbs, N.M., Barela came to Tempe where he competed in pole vault and decathlon events for the Sun Devils. A member of ASU's 1977 NCAA Championship team, Barela still ranks among the best in pole vault at ASU. He is tied for ninth on the outdoor lists with a mark of 16-8 achieved in 1980 and is tied for fourth indoors with a mark of 16-6.
In 1997, Barela returned to the coaching ranks and began overseeing the pole vaulters of Desert Vista High School in Phoenix. In his seven years with DVHS, he guided six vaulters to state runner-up crowns. He also assisted in leading the team to state tram titles. In 1999, the girls won the Arizona 5A title before finishing as runners-up each of the last three seasons.
Barela also coached two vaulters to Junior Olympic national titles in 2003 as Kubishta and Glenn each brought home gold medals. Barela also coached Kubishta to back-to-back 4A state titles. She also still holds the state record of 13-0.25. One year prior to his national success, Barela took on more coaching duties as he began to guide the pole vaulters at Mesa Community College in 2002. In his two years at MCC, his vaulters finished as national runners-up six times total in men's and women's indoor and outdoor pole vault while also earning All-America accolades.
Barela continues to compete following his return to the track in 1998. That year, he competed in the USA Masters Championships in Orono, Maine, in the 40+ age division. He won the national tournament with a vault of 15-1 and earned a berth into the Nike World Masters Games in Eugene, Ore. Competing in two events, Barela finished as the runner-up in both the pole vault and the pentathlon. He is still in training as his goal is to break the world record for pole vaulting in the 50-59 age division.
Ron and his wife Christine reside in Phoenix with their three children, Chris, Patricia and Cynthia. All three of his children enjoy competing in track and field events with Chris and Cynthia both participating in pole vault and Patricia in distance running.
