The Cal Poly runners knew something was happening. In the middle of their summer altitude training, the team was asked to gather for a Zoom call. It included the athletic board.
That was when the news broke. Ryan Vanhoy, their director of track and field and cross country, was leaving for ASU for the same role.
For distance runners and seniors Chris Caudillo and Kelli Gaffney, it placed a seemingly secure future into limbo.
"Hearing that news so soon to reporting back (to campus) was definitely a shocker, not anything that anyone was really expecting that late in the summer," Gaffney said. "It was really hard for me, especially, because my mind was in so many different places."
While the news was jarring, the subsequent decision was surprisingly simple. They knew they would follow their coach, their leader, to the desert.
Vanhoy and the other coaches were crucial to their success on the track. More so, their relationship went beyond simply athlete-coach. They felt like they could trust him, that he had their best interests at heart.
"Obviously, it wasn't easy," Caudillo said. "I think I knew in the back of my mind (that I was) ultimately I'm going to follow someone who is as good of a coach as he is, and someone who knows me as a runner and as a person, who has committed himself to me."
On July 27, Vanhoy was announced as Arizona State's new director of track and field and cross country. He arrived in Tempe after building Cal Poly into one of the Big West's strongest programs.
His impact went beyond simply developing his athletes. Along with it, he built connections that expanded far wider than the track.
Those relationships followed him to the desert. Multiple Cal Poly coaches and runners made the decision to join him at ASU — including women's cross country head coach Michelle Chewens, distance and recruiting coach Brandon Lawrence, senior distance runner Ashlyn Leath and sophomore distance runner Liam Miller — turning a coaching change into more of a migration.
Under Vanhoy, Cal Poly turned into a family affair. It is a group connected beyond the reaches of the track, and one that is now set to begin a new era for the Sun Devils.
"It speaks to program culture and how we do things, from recruiting, developing, coaching," Vanhoy said about the number of Cal Poly athletes and coaches that followed him to ASU. "It says we were building a program at our previous institution in a good way, where athletes felt connected, liked the coaching, liked the development and wanted to continue on that same pathway with the coaches that had recruited them initially."
Caudillo and Gaffney give the Sun Devils two top-tier runners. Last season, Caudillo finished seventh nationally in the 1,500-meter, earning First-Team All-American honors. The runner has since led the pack in his first all-out race of the season at the Meadows Challenge, finishing the 8k with a time of 23:30.9.
Meanwhile, Gaffney became the first Cal Poly woman to compete in a cross country event at the NCAA Championships since 2018. She became the second Sun Devil since 2016 to win in her debut, notching a time of 13:47.3 in the women's 4k.
Their performances will not be the main way they will impact the program — having experienced the culture built by Vanhoy and his staff, it is their job to set the example.
"Having those athletes that know the process and people that you can lean on and go to for any questions or support, it makes a huge difference," Gaffney said. "That's something that I think is really great about being here, is that I can help free them from some of that stress or anxiety that they feel about having a new coaching staff."
This belief in Vanhoy and the other coaching staff is not solely for the benefit of those Mustangs that followed him from Cal Poly.
Caudillo described Vanhoy as fundamental to his development as a runner throughout their years working together, representing a core tenet of Vanhoy's coaching appeal that ASU runners can undoubtedly gain from.
"There was another instance where my running was not at a level where he and I both thought that I should be at," Caudillo said. "He was able to talk and walk me through about why this is happening. There was never a point of hate or blame."
ASU cannot quite consider itself a powerhouse in running, with no qualifying individuals for the NCAA championships during the distance season in 2025 and only two individual runners and one relay qualifying for the track and field NCAA championships in 2026.
Vanhoy does not just hope to change that — he knows he will. His Cal Poly transfers do, too.
Gaffney shared that, in just a few short months with the program, Vanhoy has already shown these runners their "potential as a team." On the athletes' side, "everyone is trusting the process more and more every week."
Vanhoy's ability to not only elevate ASU track and field and cross country beyond what it has been, but also effectively transfer his proven coaching strategies to a new team will certainly be tested as the season progresses. The Sun Devils have only competed in two races thus far and will soon face the Big 12 Championships at the end of October.
However, Vanhoy has a vision for what this Sun Devil program can be, and he has the talent running behind him that will take the team to the finish line.
"We have a pretty high-level way of doing business, where our standards are going to be high, accountability is going to be really high," Vanhoy said. "We want this to be a really successful program across all six sports… That's not going to happen by accident or luck."
Edited by Char O'Neil, Alan Deutschendorf III and Sophia Keeling.
Reach the reporters at bcsmit41@asu.edu and jakobarnarsson@gmail.com and follow @JakobA2004 on X.
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Brooklyn Smith is a reporter for the Sports desk at The State Press. She is majoring in English Literature and Economics. This is her third semester with The State Press.
