Track & Field
    Lange Named West Region Women's Assistant Coach Of The Year
    Will be coaching six athletes at NCAA Championships
    Dan Lange
    Dan Lange

    June 4, 2012

    DES MOINES, IA. - USC track and field throws coach Dan Lange was named the Women's Assistant Coach of the Year for the West Region today (June 4) by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).

    Lange will have little time to rest on his laurels as five of his female throwers and one of his male throwers have qualified for the NCAA Championships which begin on June 6. On the first day of competition, redshirt senior Kristine Busa will be competing in the women's javelin competition and freshman Alexandra Collatz in the women's discus throw. On June 7, Lange has sophomore Jenny Ozorai and redshirt seniors Marissa Minderler and Jade Niemeyer qualified in the women's hammer throw. Coming out of the Regionals, those three athletes all posted one of the top nine throws in the country. Finally, on Friday, June 8 Lange will be coaching freshman Daniel Szabo in the men's hammer throw competition.

    At the 2012 Pac-12 Track & Field Championships, Lange's women's throwers took first, second and fifth in the hammer, fourth in the javelin, sixth in the discus and sixth in the shot put.

    If you want to measure Lange's impact on the USC throws program, you have to go no fafther than the Trojan top 10 lists as all but one of the top 10 male and female hammer throwers in school history have been coached by Lange in his 21 seasons. Also, all but one of the USC record-holders in the men's and women's hammer, discus, javelin and shot put have been coached by Lange.

     

     

    Of his athletes in action here in Des Moines, Ia. at the NCAA Championships, Ozorai ranks second all-time by a Trojan in the hammer throw, Minderler third and Niemeyer sixth. Busa ranks second all-time by a Trojan in the women's javelin throw and Collatz second all-time in the women's discus throw. Minderler is only competing in the hammer throw, but also ranks among the Trojan top 10 in the shot put (6th) and javelin throw (5th). Szabo, the only Trojan male thrower to reached the NCAA Championships, ranks eighth all-time in the men's hammer throw by a Trojan.

    Lange has coached 26 individual All-Americans, four NCAA Champions, five Olympians and will likely have some of his former athletes competing this summer at the 2012 London Olympic Games.