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04/28/2012
Elise McVicar sets PR in the 400m hurldes.
04/26/2012
Vozarova sets five personal records at Robison Invitational.
E-mail Assistant Coach Tapio Kuusela
Tapio Kuusela enters his eleventh season as the throws coach for the Utah track and field program.
During the 2011 season, Kuusela coached Anneli Stahl to the NCAA Western Regional Championships and an outdoor All-Mountain West Conference performance in the hammer throw. He also saw great success during the indoor season with three of his athletes competing in the final round of the shot put, finishing fourth, seventh, and eighth places at the MWC Indoor Championships.
In 2010, he guided Sarah Grimm in the hammer throw to a second place finish at the MWC Outdoor Championships and third in the conference at the weight throw. Under Tapio's direction, Grimm set a new school record in the hammer throw with 207-1.75 at the Robison Invitational. With that mark she was ranked second in the West Region and fourth in the nation at the time. He also coached Nikkie Rudder to a fifth place finish in the shot put at the MWC Outdoors Championships. Rudder's mark of 47-7 is third best in school history. Under his guidance Grimm, Rudder, and Anneli Stahl qualified for the West Region Championship meet.
In 2009, Tapio coached Grimm to a title in the hammer throw at the MWC Outdoor Championships. Grimm had a 197-7 effort to take the event, winning by a distance of over three feet teammate Josefin Berg. Both throwers qualified for the NCAA West Regional Championships. Grimm went on to qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Nationals after hitting a mark of 183-0. At nationals, Grimm finished 13th overall after a 187-8 distance and missing All-American accolades by four inches.
At the 2009 MWC Indoor Championships, Berg and Grimm placed second and fourth, respectively, in the weight throw.
In 2008, he oversaw Berg at the MWC Championship where she had a third-place finish in the hammer with a toss of 182-3. Berg also went on to qualify for the regional and national meets in the hammer. Kuusela also coached Chasity Toilolo to a sixth-place finish in both the shot put (45-6.5) and the discus (145-7) at the MWC Outdoor Championships.
In 2006, he mentored AJ Roby and Vanessa Mortensen as they both set school records in the discus and hammer, respectively. Mortensen set the school and Danish national record with a 205-0 toss, the winning throw in the MWC Championships. Both Roby (shot, discus) and Mortensen (hammer) qualified for the NCAA West Region Championships. Mortensen eventually qualified for the NCAA Championships, just missing All-American accolades by placing 10th overall. Mortensen also represented her native country of Denmark in the European Championships in August 2006.
During the 2005 season, he served as the interim head coach when the team finished a school-best fourth place at the MWC Indoor Championships, and eighth at the MWC Outdoor Championship meet. He coached three regional qualifiers (Mortensen, Roby and Candice Workman-Ekberg) to the 2005 NCAA Western Regional Championships and one (Mortensen) to the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
In his first nine seasons, Kuusela produced six national and 11 regional qualifiers, along with three MWC Champions. His throwers have set 16 school records under his direction.
While coaching at his alma mater, Brigham Young, Kuusela guided several athletes to All-America honors. One of his throwers, Amy Palmer, notched an eighth-place finish in the hammer throw at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. Palmer was inducted into the Utah Sports Hall of Fame as its first-ever female track athlete in 2005.
The Oripaa, Finland native is involved with the Utah Olympic Weightlifting Development Program. In 1999, he served as the team leader and coach of the women's national throwing team that competed in several meets in Australia.
In 1980, he won the Collegiate Powerlifting Championships and in 1982, he became the first man in Utah to total over 2,000 pounds. Kuusela won four Finnish and Nordic Championships titles in weightlifting and was ranked 10th in the world in 1986. His best single performance was a snatch of 385 pounds.
Kuusela graduated from BYU in 1982 with a degree in economics. He is married to the former Heather Wood and has two children: Timo and Toni.
