Griz sign eight to National Letters of Intent
5/11/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track and Field
University of Montana track and field program director Brian Schweyen announced Tuesday that eight high school seniors have recently signed National Letters of Intent and will be joining the Grizzlies as freshmen in the fall. The group of eight features four Montana prep standouts, including two from Missoula.
Signing were Cullen Bachman of San Antonio, Texas; Taylor Corney of Brockville, Ontario; Keli Dennehy of Butte, Mont.; Kellee Glaus of Whitehall, Mont.; McKenzie Luth of Woodinville, Wash.; Brian Maus of Missoula; Annie Moore of Bellingham, Wash.; and Drew Owens of Missoula.
Bachman, a senior at Lady Bird Johnson High, competes in the 110- and 300-meter hurdles for the Jaguars. His career best in the 110 hurdles, set in mid April, is 14.02.
In comparison, the Montana all-time, all-class state record is 14.21, which 2007 Big Sky Conference 110-meter champion Matt Larson, who competed for the Grizzlies, set while running for Helena Capital High in 2002.
???Last year, with a season-best time of 14.09, Cullen was the 32nd-fastest hurdler in Texas. That might not sound like much, but you take that 14.09 and it would be the fastest high school time ever ran in Montana,??? Schweyen said.
???Cullen feels like he can go 13.8 by the time the state meet rolls around next month. For us to get a hurdler of that quality is just fantastic.
???If you can run a 14.4, you???re going to win in the Big Sky or be in the top two or three. If Cullen can come in and make the transition from the 39-inch hurdles (used in high school) to the 42-inch hurdles (used collegiately), he???ll be right there.???
Corney, a senior at Thousand Islands High, will make an immediate impact for the Grizzlies in the javelin, an event in which he???s already approached 200 feet this year. Corney is also a sub-15-second 110-meter hurdler and a 6-6 high jumper, making him the ideal candidate to join Montana???s strong cast of multi-event athletes.
???From the first time I saw him on his recruiting visit, I could tell he had the classic decathlon body type. Tall and very athletic,??? UM multi-events coach Adam Bork said.
???You can tell by the questions kids ask how serious they are going to be when they get here. Taylor came across as really passionate about the decathlon, and it???s something he???s been interested in for a long time. He???s got some big goals.
???I got a really good feeling about him when he was on his recruiting trip.???
Dennehy, a senior at Butte High, and Moore, a senior at Sehome High, are two of the region???s better distance runners and will only add to UM distance coach Courtney Babcock???s already formidable women???s distance lineup.
Dennehy has career bests of 2:13.04 in the 800 meters, 5:01.85 in the 1,600 meters and 10:46.20 in the 3,200 meters. She currently ranks first in the state this spring among all classes by over 45 seconds with her career-best 1,600-meter time.
Moore has times of 2:13.98 in the 800, 5:01.93 in the 1,600 and 10:56.37 in the 3,200.
Dennehy was the 2009 Class AA state champion in the 3,200 meters and the runner-up in the 800 and 1,600 meters. She finished third in all three events as a sophomore in 2008.
She also has three top-eight Class AA cross country championship finishes on her resume, placing eighth as a freshman in 2006 and third as both a junior and senior in 2008 and ???09.
Moore had a pair of third-place finishes last spring at Washington???s Class 2A state meet in the 800 and 1,600 meters. She was fourth in the 800 and sixth in the 3,200 meters in 2008.
Moore, who has a 57.5 400-meter relay split to her credit, was also an important factor in Sehome High winning the last four Class 2A state cross country championships, with four top-nine individual finishes. She placed third as a freshman, second as a sophomore, ninth as a junior and fourth as a senior.
???Part of what I love about Keli and Annie coming in together is that it???s always nice to have someone in your class who is at the same level as you are so you can push each other. They???ll have each other their entire careers,??? Babcock said.
???They have about the same times in the 800 and mile, but Keli is a little stronger in the two mile and Annie is a bit stronger in the 400, so they???ll really complement each other.
???We???ll have everyone back on our (third-place) cross country team with the exception of Kim Tritz, so adding athletes of Keli and Annie???s caliber, who both run times that are pretty much as fast as a lot of the girls we have on the team right now, I feel like our team has a really good shot at going for the Big Sky title in the fall.???
Glaus, a senior at Whitehall High, has won the last two Class B state triple jump titles, going 37-0.5 last spring at Kalispell to win the event by over two feet. Glaus also won the 2009 long jump title with a distance of 17 feet.
This spring Glaus has a personal-best jump of 39-7, which is the best mark in the state among all classes by three feet and would rank fourth on the current Big Sky Conference performance list.
The Montana all-class state-meet record is 37-10.75, which Ryegate High???s Kelsey Kirkpatrick jumped in 2003.
???Kellee has a lot of natural talent and ability,??? Bork said. ???She???s a quiet, shy, hard-working ranch girl. If we can tap into her competitive, aggressive spirit, it???ll be fun and exciting to see how far she can go.
???Coming into a college program and getting six months of training behind her going into next season, who knows what she could do.
???I???d like to think that getting in better shape with more explosion and more speed, all of that should combine to hopefully get her six or eight inches right off the bat, with hopefully more to come after that.???
Luth, a senior at Woodinville High, has run all the sprints for the Falcons, though her best event is the 400 meters.
She was the Class 4A runner-up in that event last spring, running a personal-best 57.19. She was also a member of WHS???s fifth-place 4x400-meter relay team.
This spring she has gone 12.64 in the 100 meters, 25.77 in the 200 meters and 57.84 in the 400 meters.
???McKenzie made an unofficial visit last summer, and she really liked what she saw,??? Schweyen said. ???She has the ability to come in and be pretty darn good. She???s got a light frame, but she???s a strong runner, and she???s got a little bit of fire in her, which is always good.
???With the group we???ve got in the 400 right now, McKenzie is going to be a nice complement and put some more competition into those practices.???
Maus, a senior at Missoula???s Sentinel High, was the 2008 (157-9) and ???09 (158-2) Class AA discus champion and currently holds the seventh-best Class AA throw in Montana this spring at 157-0.
He was an all-state football selection at outside linebacker in the fall for the Spartans.
???Brian is a great kid, a hard-working kid,??? Schweyen said. ???He had his mind set on playing college football somewhere, but some things kind of went awry and he ended up getting a raw deal. Now he???s straight track, which is fortunate for us.
???I think he???s going to be a great discus thrower for us, but he???s also been throwing some weight and hammer, so that???s going to be a big advantage coming in. I think he has the potential to be really, really good in the hammer.???
Owens, a senior at Missoula???s Big Sky High, has three top-six Class AA 300-meter hurdles finishes in his career, including a state championship as a junior in 2009 in a time of 38.01. Owens was third in the hurdles in 2008 and sixth in 2007. He also added a fifth-place finish in the 400 meters last spring.
A first-team all-state wide receiver for the Eagles last fall, Owens has the top 300-meter hurdles time in the state this spring of 38.52. He also ranks seventh in the 200 meters (22.6) and 12th in the 110-meter hurdles (15.21).
???Drew is a hard-working kid who comes from a great family,??? Schweyen said. ???Drew is a little bit raw, but he???s got the talent and the strength to be a really good hurdler for us.
???I see him running both the 110s and the 400s, but I think the 400 hurdles will be his stronger event. And with his size and strength, if he gets it in his head right, he could be a great open 400 meter runner.???
Schweyen expects to add additional athletes to this year???s recruiting class in the coming weeks.
???This is a really strong start to our recruiting. I???m extremely happy with the job done by all the coaches on this staff,??? he said.
???Every year you hear about this being the best recruiting class we???ve had, and I think this one has as much potential as any we???ve brought in, possibly more.
???Of course we won???t know that for sure until they get here and we start working with them.
???We???re still recruiting pretty hard right now. I???m hopeful we can make some more offers to some kids we have on the line.???
