Dan Lange - Track & Field Coach

Dan Lange

Title:
Assistant Coach, Throws
Email:
dlange@usc.edu
Phone:
(213) 740-3836

Dan Lange has coached the USC throwers for 32 seasons and is one of the nation's most respected teachers, having guided his athletes to All-American honors 70 times. He also has coached Trojan throwers to 13 school records and 29 individual Pac-12 titles.

If you want to measure his impact on the Trojan throws program, you have to go no farther than the USC top 10 lists as all but one of the top 10 male and female hammer throwers in school history have been coached by Lange and 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. For 21 consecutive seasons (1993- 2013) he guided at least one Trojan hammer thrower to All-America honors.

During the 2021 season Matthew Katnik and McKay Johnson earned second-team All-America honors in the shot put as did Nathan Bultman in the hammer throw. Bultman also won his second Pac-12 hammer throw title, while Katnik was second and Johnson third in the shot put at the conference meet. Katnik set the USC shot put record with a mark of 68-1.50 (20.76m) in winning the USC-UCLA Dual Meet title in the event. Joy McArthur finished sixth in the women’s hammer throw at the Pac-12 Championships and advanced to the NCAA semifinal in the event. All four of these athletes posted USC all-time top five marks during the season. In the 2021 indoor season, Johnson set the USC indoor shot put record with a mark of 70-4.50 (21.45m) and Trey Knight set the Trojan freshman weight throw record with a mark of 64-8.50 (19.72m).

Nathan Bultman was named a 2020 NCAA indoor All-American in the weight throw, and in 2019 he guided Matthew Katnik to All-America honors in the shot put in both the indoor and outdoor seasons. In 2018, he guided Bultman to the Pac-12 men’s hammer throw title and to No. 10 on USC’s all-time list in the event. Bultman also scored in the discus throw, Nick Ponzio scored in the discus and shot put, Breana Jemison scored in the shot put and Joy McArthur in the hammer throw at the conference meet. Ponzio and Jemison advanced to the NCAA semifinals in the shot put to earn second-team All-America honors. Jemison set the USC women’s shot put record with a mark of 57-7.75 (17.57m).

In 2017, he guided Nick Ponzio and Brittany Mann to All-America honors in the shot put, and Mann and Matthew Katnik posted Trojan all-time top 10 marks in the shot put. During the indoor season, Mann broke the USC women’s weight throw and shot put records and became an indoor shot put All-American, while Katnik had the second-farthest shot put mark in school history and the men’s team posted four Trojan top 10 marks.

In 2016, he coached Tera Novy to All-America honors in the discus throw and she set the school discus throw record with a mark of 200-5. The season before, he coached Conor McCullough to the 2015 NCAA men's hammer throw title and Alexanda Collatz, Novy and Nick Ponzio to AllAmerican honors. McCullough represented the USA in the hammer throw at the 2016 Olympics.

In 2014, Collatz was an All-American and Collatz and Remington Conatster won Pac-12 titles, while his athletes scored seven times at the conference meet. In 2013, Conatser (2nd, hammer), Jenny Ozorai (4th, hammer) and Collatz (5th, discus) all earned All-America honors. In addition, Conatser won a Pac-12 title and Ozorai placed second and Collatz fourth in their events at the Pac-12 Championships.

In 2012, Lange coached Ozorai and Marissa Minderler in the hammer and Kristine Busa in the javelin to fi rst team All-America honors. Minderler won her second-straight Pac-12 hammer title, but more impressive is that USC had 4 of the top 8 finishers, with Orozai second, Jade Niemeyer fi fth and Lauren Chambers eighth to earn USC 23 points in the conference meet.

In 2011, he coached Trey Henderson and Ozorai in the hammer to All-America honors, with Henderson, Minderler (hammer) and Cooper Thompson (javelin) winning Pac-10 titles.

In 2010, Henderson in the hammer and Aaron Dan in the discus earned All-American honors with fi fth-place finishes at the NCAAs. In 2008, Lange helped guide Eva Orban to the NCAA title in the women's hammer, while Corey White took second
in the men's javelin. In 2009, they both were NCAA runners up and Kristine Busa placed 8th in the women's javelin.

In 2008, Corey White came up just short of an NCAA title in the javelin, but during the course of the season set a new school standard in the event with a throw of 267-10, more than 23 feet farther than the previous school record. In 2009, he again finished second at the NCAAs and pushed his school record in the javelin to 272-2. On the women’s side, Lange helped Eva Orban reach new heights as she became the fi rst Trojan female to win an NCAA title in the hammer and broke her own school record with a throw of 230-3.

The 2007 season could have been Lange's finest work with the men's throwers as Noah Bryant set the school record in the shot, a record that had stood for 35 years, and won the NCAA indoor and outdoor shot titles. In addition, Adam Midles was an All-American and had the then fourth-best hammer throw in school history, Bryant had the eighth best hammer mark, William Denbo the sixth best shot put and Stenn Parton the ninth farthest javelin throw by a Trojan. Lange was honored after the season by being named the West Region top assistant coach in men's throws for the second consecutive season. He also guided Orban to All-American honors in the hammer again (3rd place), a NCAA West hammer title and a second-place fi nish at the Pac-10 Championships.

Lange coached three USC record-setters in 2006 as Eva Orban set the school record in the hammer with a Pac-10 and West Regional record-throw of 226-8, Kate Hutchinson set the then-USC record in the discus with a toss of 189-5 and Karen Freberg set the shot put standard with a mark of 57-7.50. Orban won the hammer at the Pac-10s and the NCAA West Regional and place second in the event at the NCAAs. Hutchinson placed second at the Pac-10 Championships and won the discus competition at the NCAA West Regional which gave Troy a share of the women's title. He also guided two male Trojans to All-American honors as Bryant placed seventh in the shot and Midles seventh in the men's hammer.

In 2005 Midles placed sixth in the hammer throw at the NCAA Championships and in 2004 Michael Murray earned All-America honors in the hammer throw, L’Orangerie Crawford was an All-American in the women’s shot put and Inga Stasiulionyte took second at the NCAAs in the women’s javelin throw. Stasiulionyte also threw 204-3 (62.27m) to win the Lithuanian Championship and qualify for the Olympics. In 2003, Stasiulionyte placed second in the javelin throw and Julianna Tudja was second in the hammer throw at the NCAA Championships. In 2002 Stasiulionyte again was second in the javelin
and Crawford was sixth in the hammer throw at the NCAAs.

His throwers helped the USC women’s team earn its first NCAA women’s team title as Stasiulionyte won the javelin throw as a freshman, Tudja was third in the hammer throw and Cynthia Ademiluyi was third in the shot put. Norbert Horvath placed fifth in the men’s hammer throw to make it a nine-year run by the USC men with a hammer throw All-American. It was Horvath’s third-straight time scoring in the event at NCAAs and he also won the Pac-12 title for the third straight season.

At the 2000 Pac-10 Championships, USC’s men continued its men's hammer domination, sweeping the top four spots to key the Trojans' title run. Horvath went on to place fifth at the NCAA Championships and Jennifer Vail placed sixth in the women’s hammer throw.

From 1993-1999, Lange men's throwers were especially domineering in the hammer throw as they captured five NCAA titles and finished second three times. First he guided former Trojan and 1996 Olympic gold medalist Balazs Kiss to four consecutive NCAA hammer throw championships from 1993-96 (and a collegiate record) and aided USC throwers across the board with his vast knowledge in the sport. In 1997, despite the departure of Kiss, Lange made it five in a row, coaching Bengt Johansson to the 1997 NCAA hammer title. Johansson was runner up in the hammer in 1998, as was Horvath in 1999.

From 1992-99 at the NCAA Championships, he guided Allison Franke to a seventh-place finish in the discus throw in 1992, Leslie Coons to a third-place finish in the hammer throw in 1996, Ashley Selman to a second-place finish in the javelin throw and Vail to a sixth-place finish in the hammer throw in 1999.

He also was instrumental in guiding Nia Ali to a fourth-place finish in the heptathlon at the 2009 NCAA Championships.

Outside of USC, Lange coached hammer thrower Lisa Misipeka to the American Samoa record in that event and to the Olympics. He also worked with Tudja after she left USC and guided her to the Olympics. He was the coach for No. 1-ranked discus thrower Adam Setliff , three-time U.S. discus champion and two-time U.S. Olympian.

A four-year letterman at Cal State Northridge and three-time NCAA Division II championship meet qualifier, Lange also earned All-American honors in the hammer. Lange studied exercise physiology at Cal State Northridge and also works as a sports fitness consultant and as a human performance consultant for business professionals.

Lange resides in Valencia, Calif. and has two sons, Dylan and Dalton. His son Dylan is a redshirt sophomore on the USC track and field team