Top-Recruiting Men's Teams
1. Oregon
The best Duck recruiting drive in years netted no fewer than four High
School All-Americas, and the power came across the board: hurdler
Jake Garlick (13.71/51.47), javelin thrower Adam Jenkins (229-2), distanceman
Eric Logsdon (4:09.90+/8:47.88) and vaulter Trevor Woods (16-83/4).
Coach Martin Smith also got
more distance power from Chris Clancy (4:11.43+) and Noel Paulson (4:07.14)
while the JC ranks provided hurdle (Micah Harris 13.96w) and mid-distance
(Symon Kimata 1:47.02) help.
2. Arkansas
The always-powerful Razorbacks also made major acquisitions in the prep
All-Am department, nabbing three: vaulter P.J. Brown (16-9), triple
jumper Maurice Robinson (24-8/52-33/4) and hurdler Michael Thomas (13.51/36.60).
Canada (Westley Aiken 3:50.22)
and Britain (Chris Mulvaney 1:50.80) provided middle-distance backup.
John McDonnell also did well in the transfer department with 1500 runner
Frans Schimper (3:45.39) and triple jumper Greg Yeldell (55-2w).
3. Stanford
Not surprisingly, Vin Lananna's Cardinal scored big in the middle-distance
department, headed by No. 1 prep miler Donald Sage (4:00.29/8:42.89).
He'll be well accompanied by the likes of Ian Dobson (4:12.18+), Chris
Emme (4:12.49+) and Evan Fox (4:10.89+).
4. UCLA
Vaulter Shane Hackett (16-4) was the only All-Am catch for the Bruins,
but Art Venegas added a lot of depth elsewhere. The sprint corps will
be bolstered by Warren Rogers (10.34/20.88), the hurdles by Anthony
Goldston (36.98) and Trevor Jones (13.99/36.45), and the jumps by Juane
Armon (23-10), Oliver Jackson (24-53/4) and Tony Ortiz (23-83/4).
5. Princeton
Fred Samara came up with one of the best recruiting classes for a Northeast
school in many a year, headed by a pair of All-Americas, hammer thrower
Josh McCaughey (236-4hs) and decathlete Tyler Bengston (6725hs). The
Tigers also got notable mid-distance help from Tristan Colangelo (4:09.75),
Peter Cioni (4:14.67+) and Josh Kauke (1:50.19).
Honorable Mention
Just outside the top 5 (alphabetically) were Clemson, Nebraska, TCU,
Texas A&M and Wisconsin. Our ratings are for NCAA Div. I schools
only, but if we included JCs in our compilation, Barton County would
have rated very high.