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The Other Race: Recruiting Winners

Laura Stanley and Natasha Roetter will be teammates next year at Duke.
(Photo: Victah@Photo Run)
Bobby Lockhart will head to Wisconsin, Tim Moore to Notre Dame.
(Alison Wade/New York Road Runners)
Erika Odlaug will join a talented team at Colorado.
(Alison Wade/New York Road Runners)

By Parker Morse

You'd think that the Foot Locker Nationals only has two races, and that they're all about high school. But after a look around at the collection of college coaches in Orlando, you might notice that there's an entirely different race going on, and it's about colleges.

A Foot Locker Finalist is a big prize for an NCAA team. Not only can a proven front-runner boost the team's prospects, but the prospect of running with the best can draw other, lower-profile recruits who may be just as valuable in the long run. Successfully recruiting a champion can bring along several undecided runners, and when you're a coach with a short list of scholarships to spread around, that can help them go as far as possible. At least one Foot Locker Finalist said that Laura and Jackie Zeigle's college decision might influence their own, since they were considering some of the same schools.

As a result, the finalists in Orlando are courted more heavily than any other high school runners in the country. Colorado's 2001 NCAA champion men's team featured at least five former Foot Locker finalists and two champions. Stanford's women's team, a perennial NCAA contender, was topheavy with Finalists, including all but two of the champions for the past six years.

So if you keep your eyes open, you'll spot the coaches from Colorado, Georgetown, Dartmouth, N.C. State and BYU (to name just a few) wandering around in Orlando, showing support to their prospects and ready to pitch their case to the undecided.

If you pore over enough websites, you can dig up exhaustive (and exhausting) lists of who's going where. Here's our thumbnail outline of who's looking up in the NCAA over the next four (or five) years.

Duke wins big: Three of the women's finalists, third-place Natasha Roetter, fifth-placer Laura Stanley, and twelfth-place Sally Meyerhoff, are headed to Duke. The Blue Devils are already a young team, led by three first-years this fall, and next year will bring past Finalist Sheela Agrawal back from a redshirt season. Add in two more strong recruits who weren't in Orlando - Clara Horowitz and Shannon Rowbury - and you're looking at a team with potential.

For once, Stanford isn't getting everybody: In past years, Vin Lananna looked like the unbeatable recruiting machine. He had Palo Alto climate, national champion teams, and was offering scholarship "discounts" to one of the best universities in the country. This year, none of the finalists we've talked to have mentioned Stanford. (Editor's Note: We didn't talk to Finalist Carl Dambkowski, who has indeed committed to Stanford.) That doesn't mean Lananna has struck out, but certainly he isn't getting the embarassment of riches he's enjoyed before.

Champion in, champion out: Like Jorge Torres replacing Adam Goucher at Colorado, boys champion Tim Moore will head to Notre Dame, home of defending NCAA 10,000m champion Ryan Shay, who graduates this spring.

Young team part two: Wisconsin, a frosh-powered team behind Matt Tegenkamp and Josh Spiker in 2001, will get boys runner-up Bobby Lockhart. "I hate the heat," says Lockhart, "and I love running on a muddy course." Wisconsin should be perfect.

Opt out: Probably the most surprising college decision doesn't involve a single scholarship. Girls champion Amber Trotter's first choice is Division III Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont. Trotter says she wants to go to college for more than running - "I could break a leg" - but Middlebury's women are the defending Division III champions, and regularly compete in the all-division New England Open at Boston's Franklin Park. Middlebury's early-decision acceptances are "binding," which means that if accepted, Trotter's commitment to Middlebury can only be broken by the financial aid office. But more than one Division I coach observed that since Division III athletes don't have to sign letters of intent, Trotter will probably be heavily recruited even with her deposit sent to Middlebury.

Dominos: Utah twins Jackie and Laura Zeigle, both Finalists from different years, haven't committed to a college. When quizzed, they mention powerhouses BYU and Colorado as possibilities, but one thing's for sure: like the Hausers at Stanford, the Torres at Colorado, the Guineys at Boston College and the O'Neills at Yale, they'll keep running for the same team after high school.

 

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