Track and Field Signing Thread for 2022-2023

WBB will sign 4 next week. I hate to say this but Wernli, Mayes, Troxell and Hull could be really special if they stay together. Hope I haven’t jinxed them.
Expect a transfer or two as well and, of course, we’ll likely have one or two players leave.

I thought I would weigh in on T&F recruiting -- I also changed the thread name to make it more T&F-centric.

The T&F signing process is much more drawn out than football or basketball. But, I thought it might be a good time to mention some of the recent signees since a lot of Wildcat fans will be on the board today due to football signing day. Plus, several T&F athletes will be announced today along with their football friends.

WOMEN -- I am particularly impressed with the women's signing class thus far. I have already mentioned a couple of women in this class in the thread previously - Hanalee Banks from Conroe Grand Oaks and Kyla Melancon, from The Woodlands College Park. Here are several more:

-Lydia Szabo - Snowflake, AZ - one of the top sprinters out of Arizona. At the AZ Division 3 meet last year (D-3 in AZ is roughly equivalent to TX 3A/4A), she won the 200 and 400 and was 7th in the 100, plus running on 2 relays. Her PR's are 12.43 in the 100, 25.03 in the 200 and 56.68 in the 400 -- that 400 time in particular is strong. She should contribute immediately in the 400 and possibly run on both the 4x1 and 4x4.

-Sterling Glenn - Rio Rancho, NM - one of the top 2-3 female throwers out of NM this year. At the NM 5A state meet, she won the SP and DT and finished 4th in the javelin. Later, at the Great Southwest -- a all-star meet in ABQ that draws lots of athletes from TX, AZ, OK and UT -- she placed 2nd in the SP and 4th in the hammer throw. PR's of 44-4 in the SP (#66 in the U.S. last year), 131-4 in the DT and 117-10 in the javelin. Would score right now in the SP and javelin. Unusual that she already has experience in all 4 throwing events outdoors while still in HS.

-Chesni Scott - Cedar Park Vista Ridge - 3rd in the 6A DT last year and interestingly she made finals in the 400 at her district meet and has run a 1:04 quarter, a sign of good athleticism. Her PR of 149-7 in the discus was ranked #40 in the U.S. last year. Only drawback is that she only has a lot of experience in 1 throwing event, but Coach Cook will be able to help her learn the shot and possibly the hammer.

-Autumn Smith - Wink - at the 2A state meet, she ran the difficult distance trio of races, placing 7th in the 800 and 3200 and 9th in the 1600 -- she won all three events at her district meet a few weeks prior to state. During her sophomore year, she placed 3rd in the 3200 and 6th in the 1600. I admire her attempting all three distance events last year -- it is a difficult task. Her PR's are solid -- 2:22.83 in the 800; 5:35.58 in the 1600, and 11:38.78 in the 3200. ACU has had a lot of success bringing in runners from smaller classifications and developing them into solid college runners and hopefully Autumn Smith is another.

-Alayshia Paul - Smithson Valley - probably a walk-on or small scholarship kid. Ran on the Smithson Valley (the same schools that gave ACU Jack Gibbens) team that almost made state in the 4x200. I did not find much on her in individual events.

MEN - I have already written above about the hurdling duo of Kenan Reil, from Justin Northwest, and Miguel Hall, from Klein Collins. Both are really good prospects. On the T&F thread, I already talked about Sean Cooksey from Breckenridge -- I am really high on this kid because I have seen him run each year at his regional meet. Here are a few more additions:

-Hayden Norwich - Fort Worth Chisholm Trail - placed 7th in the 6A shot put last year and 6th in the Region I-6A discus and has a realistic chance of making it to state in both throwing events. Was ranked #138 in the U.S. in the shot. He placed 2nd in the Texas Tech HS Classic SP 1.5 weeks ago and is ranked in the indoor SP nationally right now. PR's of 57-10.5 in the shot and 153-0 in the discus. Would love to see him throw over 60 feet in the shot this year.

-Zach Martin - McKinney Boyd - placed 5th in the District 5-6A 1600 and 3200 in a district that includes good distance running programs like Prosper, Little Elm and Denton Guyer, plus the McKinnedy ISD schools. PR times are okay -- 4:27 in the 1600 and 9:42 in the 3200. He ran his PR in the 3200 a couple of weeks running in the big Southlake Carroll Winter Distance Festival.

Still lots of offers out there. I hope that ACU gets a new distance coach soon, to prevent any kind of exodus of distance runners after the season ends. Current distance coach Jarvis Jelen announced right after the start of the semester that he will leave after the indoor season to take the head coaching job at NAIA Jamestown University in North Dakota. I hate to see Jarv leave ACU, he has won a good job at ACU. I hope that ACU can find a good distance coach by the time that outdoor season kicks off in mid-March. I have heard that there has been a lot of coaches apply for the spot.

I posted earlier this week with a rundown of the athletes that already knew had signed with ACU. I have been trying to track down as many additional names as possible on those who had signed later in the cycle and I really like some of these signings -- a lot of instant impact people.

WOMEN - I know new distance coach Nathan Meeuwenberg has been burning up the phone lines chasing athletes with a huge emphasis on transfers (instant help) - particularly for the ACU women. But, I have not found any evidence of any distance runners who have signed. The signing window for T&F stays open until August 1 and I would imagine the XC team will be reporting about a week prior to the opening of school. I am also know JJ Ply (who has been been officially hired as an assistant coach) is after 3-4 transfers -- both multis and jumpers.

Here are athletes I am almost certain have signed a letter:

-Shiean Walters - transfer from Angelo -- really excited about Shiean signing. She was the 3A state champ back in 2019 for Coleman and has gone to Angelo and turned into a very good college sprinter. Shiean was the D2 indoor 400 runnerup this year -- she has been 4-time D2 All-America. She has a PR of 53 in the 400 and I saw her run a 52 split indoors in the 4x4. She will be challenged as she is entering the rigorous MS in Occupational Therapy program -- I have not seen anyone continuing to compete collegiately while in that program, but if anyone can do it, Shiean can. ACU has all 4 members of the WAC runnerup 4x400 relay returning, but none of them have run a split like Shiean. Competition for that relay will be fierce.

-Brianna Brand - Kennedale HS, transfer from HCU/HBU -- another strong add. Brianna is a jumper/sprinter -- 4th in the Southland LJ this year and 7th in the Southland 100 in 2022. She will have 2 years left. ACU already has a Kennedale runner (Gracyn Reed) and I suspect she might have helped in Brianna's recruiting. Brianna's PR of 11.90 in the 100 would have been the fastest time for ACU in 2023 and her PR of 20-5 in the LJ would have won the WAC LJ. Another quality addition who should impact immediately. And, she went to state in the TJ back in her HS days -- maybe she will help in the TJ as well if she is training beside Ella Anttila.

-Ayanna Johnson - Rosenberg Lamar HS - 6th in the Reg III-6A 200, with a PR of 24.87 -- a small scholarship kid who adds some depth to a sprint corps that ended up thin last year after Amy Ambelang was injured indoors.

MEN - this group is split half-and-half between transfers (instant help) and HS recruits.

-Ethnie Stubbs -- a bit of a gamble who could be a huge addition if the gamble pays off. Ethnie had a solid career at Fort Scott CC in KS (at the JC national meet in 2022, he was 13th in the 200 and 18th in the 100), with good PR's of 10.33 in the 100 and 21.13 in the 200. Plus, he had some great times with the wind well over the allowable -- 10.20 in the 100 and 20.79 in the 200. The gamble comes from Ethnie going to Emmanuel, a NAIA school on GA, running 2 indoor meets in early 2023 and disappearing off the radar. Injury? Something else? I simply don't know, but that makes it a gamble.

-ACU is getting 2 throwers from McMurry. Sutton Welch (a Wylie grad), who won the American Southwest Conf in the hammer throw -- his PR throw of 183-1 would have been top-3 in the WAC this year. And, Coach Cook has had great success with hammer throwers. He will have 2 years of eligibility left. Christian Morales redshirted last year at McM, but in his freshman year (after graduating from Azle HS), he was 2nd in the Javelin and 5th in the SP. His best javelin throw in 2022 of 183-4 would place at the WAC meet and that was his first year to ever throw the javelin. He will have three years of eligibility left. The throws is already an area of strength for ACU and between these 2 and the throwers mentioned above, the ACU throws squad should be one of the better throws squads in the country -- male and female.

-The high schoolers are a trio of sprinters from the same HS -- Leader Glenn HS (the newest HS in Leander). ACU was recruiting Ethan Krause heavily most of the year -- he ended up 5th in the 5A 200 at the state meet and his PR of 21.16 is #81 in the U.S. Spending time recruiting Ethan, ACU saw William (Sky) Mendez -- a 52 second 400 runner who suddenly dropped down under 50 toward the end of his senior year, including a 48.29 in the district prelims. Sky would finish 3rd in the district finals, but would still run under 50. Then, these 2 will bring their HS teammate to ACU, Ethan Sledge, who was 7th in the Reg IV-5A 100 and has run a 10.75 in that race -- a solid time for a walkon. Ethan has been mentioned on the board after he announced his commitment. These three were 3/4ths of the Leander Glenn 4x200 relay that got 6th at the 5A state meet.

From what I have able to gather, virtually all of the kids who entered the transfer portal from ACU have removed themselves from the portal and are returning. One who is not returning is Gabe Trevino -- who primarily had made his impact at ACU in XC. Gabe will be headed to Jamestown University to re-unite with Coach Jelen, where he will be a grad assistant, having already graduated from ACU with his undergrad. In the NAIA, he can be a grad assistant AND still compete collegiately, a pretty cool opportunity for Gabe.

Another good batch of recruits. I am "guardedly" very excited about the prospects for next year.