Feb. 14, 2013

TEMPE – The Arizona State University track and field program scored an impressive addition to the men’s sprint team next year in the form of Jamarius McTear (Ferndale, Mich./Ferndale HS/Central Arizona CC), who has signed a National Letter of Intent to compete for the Sun Devils, head coach Greg Kraft announced.

McTear may be the nation’s best combo sprinters and is a student-athlete that can compete competitively at any distance from 400 meters on down.

Competing for Central Arizona College last season, McTear was third at the NJCAA National Championships at 400 meters with a time of 46.59. He also advanced to the final at the events in the 200-meter dash, clocking a career best 21.27 in the prelims before finishing seventh overall in the finals. 

In addition, he helped his team to a fourth-place run in the 4x400-meter relay in a time of 3:10.62.

CAC would go on to take second at the competition with 74.50 points with McTear playing a role in 13 of those.

McTear swept the 100 and 200 at the NJCAA Region I Championships, clocking a career best 10.44 in the 100 and 21.12 in the 200 in the process.  

McTear was a three-sport standout at Ferndale High School in Ferndale, Mich., also competing in football and basketball.

ASU Men’s Sprints Coach Ronnie Williams on McTear:

“Jamarius is a guy with tremendous range and he can run anything from the 400 on down.  He has tremendous foot speed.  I believe he will be an exceptional quarter-miler. “

(On success of JuCo transfers at ASU) “In our program, we’ve shown an ability to put together solid training to get people to perform at their potential in a short time span and we believe that Jamarius can have an immediate impact on our team.”