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Recruiting News - Olympic Sports

The roster on cubuffs.com has not been updated nor has the coaches. The Malones are still shown as assistant coaches and I hope it stays that way,
I have a feeling they will unless they want to move on. Lindsay had a picture of her moving into a new office at CU. Cross country and Track and field have their own pages and CU always takes a while to update.
 
A late addition to the tennis team for this coming academic year - OFFICIAL welcome and congrats to student- athlete Rixt van der Werff (who hails from Groningen, Netherlands)!




Article - https://cubuffs.com/news/2024/8/19/tennis-buffs-add-van-der-werff-from-the-netherlands

"
By: Aiden Tank

BOULDER -
Rixt van der Werff, a freshman from Groningen, Netherlands, has signed her national letter of intent to play tennis at the University of Colorado, head coach Anthony Pham announced Monday.

Van der Werff comes to Boulder as an older freshman, she has plenty of high level tennis experience to fall back on. Currently she ranks No. 20 in the Netherland's. Working up the tennis scene she also saw early success winning the Dutch 16u doubles championship and finishing as the runner up in the singles championships. After thriving she held the nation's top spot as the No. 1 player under 16.

As time as gone on she has accumulated more and more honors with multiple International Tennis Federation (ITF) junior titles as well as finding herself in many senior national rankings.

"We are very excited about Rixt joining our Buff tennis family," Pham said on the signing. "She possesses strong character, is an incredibly hard worker and loves tennis. She is equally thrilled about being a Buff and continuing to help push our program to new heights. We are confident she will have a major impact on our squad on and off the court and represent us well in the community. Buff fans will really enjoy watching her compete!"

She will find herself joining a veteran team that finished the 2023-24 season ranked No. 71 in final ITA poll. After a second-place finish in the NIT the Buffs lose three players from last years squad. Van der Werff is set to join Lera Alexin for the Buffs freshman class this fall.

Van der Werff is only the third player from the Netherlands in program history after Julyette Steur in 2015 and Fleur Eggink 2021.
"
 
Scotty Vinest he high jumper from De Buque on the western slope who made the olympic trial finals for the U.S. decomitted from CU and is going to Arkansas according to his instagram
 
Per the below Instagram posts by a running website, looks like the men's track and field and cross country teams have picked up a couple distance running commits for the frosh class of 2025. (Both were formerly committed to new Buff coach Carlson's former school, Tennessee.) They are:

  • Trey Caldwell, who attends and competes at De La Salle HS in Concord California.
  • Jack Graffeo, who attends and competes at Westfield Academy in Westfield Massachusetts.
Welcome and congrats to both!








Their HS results:

Mr, Caldwell:
Cross country - https://www.athletic.net/athlete/18865070/cross-country/all
Track and field - https://www.athletic.net/athlete/18865070/track-and-field/all

Mr. Graffeo:
Cross country - https://www.athletic.net/athlete/19090264/cross-country/all
Track and field - https://www.athletic.net/athlete/19090264/track-and-field/all
 
Thanks to the ECNL recruiting Twitter account (https://x.com/ImYouthSoccer), found out. soccer has been VERY busy, as it now has 4 commitments for the frosh class of 2026. In addition to Sloane Phillips (who I already noted in post #748), the other 3 are:

  • Midfielder Lindsey George, who attends and competes with Grandview HS in Aurora, Colorado, as well as competing with the Real Colorado Club program.
  • Midfielder Sienna McAthey, who attends and competes with Huntington Beach HS in the city of the same name, as well as playing club ball with the Slammers Football Club.
  • Defender Jaiden Sidhu, who currently attends and competes with Mission Vista High School in Oceanside, California, as well as playing club ball with City Soccer Club.
Welcome and congrats to them!!!

Re Ms. George:





Prep stats - https://www.maxpreps.com/co/aurora/...ge/soccer/girls/stats/?careerid=ppdmca4cr9rbb

Topdrawersoccer page - https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/club-player-profile/lindsey-george/pid-152838

HUDL page - https://www.hudl.com/profile/14881453/Lindsey-George


Re Ms. McAthey:




Prep stats (not sure if complete?) - https://www.maxpreps.com/ca/hunting...hy/soccer/girls/stats/?careerid=43combj4hoscc

HUDL page - https://www.hudl.com/profile/18908057/Sienna-McAthy


Re Ms. Sidhu:




Prep stats - https://www.maxpreps.com/ca/oceansi...hu/soccer/girls/stats/?careerid=q8fr5vujgfn99

Topdrawersoccer page - http://volleytalk.proboards.com/board/5

HUDL page - https://www.hudl.com/profile/17837815/Jaiden-Sidhu
 
I don't know who at this point, but looks like volleyball has picked up its 1st verbal commitment for the frosh class of 2026.


Thanks to 1st my usual source for volleyball commits (https://www.richkern.com/vb/recruits/indexsub.asp?Div=DI&VBYear=2026), and confirmed in the below Instagram post, the new vball verbal commitment, the 1st for the frosh class of 2026, is now known. She is outside hitter / middle blocker Dumebi Okoye, who looks to hail from Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, and competes with the Academy Volleyball Club and All Canadian .

Welcome and congrats to her!




A Youtube page with some highlights - https://www.youtube.com/@DumebiOkoye
 
Per the below post, which looks to be from her club team, the soccer team continues to fill up its 2026 frosh class. This time, it is forward Kaia Santomarco-King, who attends and competes with Harvard Westlake in Studio City (L.A.), California, while also playing club ball with the L.A. Breakers FC program.

Welcome and congrats to her!



HUDL page - https://www.hudl.com/profile/18858216/Kaia-SantomarcoKing

Per the below tweet from looks to be her high school, looks like she was already named her conference's offensive player of the year last season, which I assume was only her sophomore year.

 
LA Breakers are a legit girls club, and Harvard-Westlake plays in a legit conference. I don't know anything about her but looks like a good pick up
 
Per the below social media post (and also listed at https://www.milesplit.com/signings?year=2025&sortBy=college&collegeSearch=university+of+colorado ), the women's cross country and track and field teams have received their 1st 2025 verbal commitment (at least known to me), and she's from Colorado. Namely, it's distance runner Ella Hagen, who attends and competes at Summit HS in Frisco (4A) level in a few sports***.
(***Per the article linked to below, she is a state champion in 3 different sports - cross country running, track and field and Nordic skiing.

She is also the highest profile Colorado prep I can remember the Buffs getting a commitment from in MANY years, although to be fair to the prior coaches they got HUGE contributions from some lower ranked preps who became key members of many Buff cross country National Championship and Championship contending teams through the years.)

Welcome and congrats to her!




Her results as a prep (As I like to occasionally mention, limited results are viewable unless you set up an account with athletic.net, but it is free.):
Cross country - https://www.athletic.net/athlete/18889549/cross-country/all
Track and field - https://www.athletic.net/athlete/18889549/track-and-field/all

An article after she received a NIL (from HOKA) to help support her trail running - https://trailrunner.com/trail-news/meet-ella-hagen-multisport-champion-athlete/

An article from the beginning of April after she won a state championship in the Nordic skate championship (it says she was also the runner up in the Nordic Classic race) - https://chsaanow.com/news/2024/4/1/Ella-Hagen.aspx
_________________________________________________________________________________

Also related to track and field 2025 commits, I did want to briefly note that, as far as I can see (his Instagram post is still up), it looks like the 1st 2025 commit, men's team's Keegan Smith (see post #743). is still a Buff commit. I wasn't sure since he committed in early June, so was offered by the prior coaching staff. (He was the only 2025 (or later) commit I knew about for track and field who committed to the old staff. A little interesting to me that he is from Tennessee, which is where of course new Coach Carlson coached at (the U. of Tennessee), so I'd GUESS he may have also recruited him some to come to Knoxville.)
 
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Per my main source for tennis commitments (https://www.tennisrecruiting.net/team.asp?id=840 and the below tweet), looks like the tennis team in late August picked up its 1st commitment for the 2025/26 frosh class. She is Lani Brotman, who looks to be from Carrollton Texas, and currently competes and trains with/ at the Brookhaven Tennis Academy in Farmers Branch.

Welcome and congrats to her!


Her tennisrecruiting.net page - https://www.tennisrecruiting.net/player.asp?id=939646

A couple other pages for her in various tennis-related websites:
 
In what may be the earliest commitment I can remember for the sport, looks like women's golf has picked up a verbal commit for the frosh class in 2026/27. She is Isabella Piazza, who in addition to playing a lot of golf as an individual, also looks to attend and compete with Xavier high school (College Preparatory) in Phoenix.

Welcome and congrats to her!




A few pages with results and junior rankings for her:







Last season's Arizona High School Championships leaderboard - https://highschoolgolf.org/app/golf...e-player-leaderboard/180?tournament_type_id=5
 
Per one of my main sources for track and field and cross country teams' commitments ( ), looks like the women's teams have picked up a 2nd verbal commit for the 2025/26 frosh class. She is distance runner Alyson Johnson, who currently attends and competes with Creekside HS in St. Johns, Florida.

Per the Athletic.net links below, looks like she won 3 Florida 4A state championships last academic year, winning the cross country championship fall 2023 and both the 1600M and 3200M track championships this past spring. (She also won the state 1600M and 3200M championships her sophomore season.)

Welcome and congrats to her!







Prep (both high school and individual) results:
Cross country - https://www.athletic.net/athlete/21235619/cross-country/all
Track and field - https://www.athletic.net/athlete/21235619/track-and-field/all

Per https://www.news4jax.com/sports/202...ide-star-alyson-johnson-keeps-getting-better/ and https://www.news4jax.com/sports/202...uccess-growing-for-creeksides-alyson-johnson/ , she was a Jacksonville (FL) local TV station's cross country athlete of the year last season and is their 2 time defending track and field athlete of the year.
 
Per Coach Carlson including the below post in his Instagram stories, looks like the women's cross country and track and field teams have gone across the pond to pick up its 3rd women's verbal commitment for the frosh class of 2025/26. She is Georgia Bell, who has represented Great Britain in some international races and looks to possibly****. be from Cumbria, a county in Northwestern England (right below western Scotland), and trains with the Leven Valley Athletic Club.

Welcome and congrats to her!

(***Note - I won't be ale to provide much info on her, as there's also an elite (Olympic bronze medalist) British runner with the same name, and most Google searches go to results and stories on her.)



An Athletics page that lists some basic info on her (a few results, birthdate, etc.) - https://worldathletics.org/athletes/great-britain-ni/georgia-bell-15038423

A couple other pages with a lot of results for her (I'm not even 100% sure this is for the right Georgia Hall, but I'm HOPING these are for the right one based on a few races she posted about on Instagram.):

Results from the Under 20 "European Athletics Off-Road Running Championships" held this past spring in France where she finished 8th - https://my.raceresult.com/287980/#9_B754F5
 
The women's cross country and track and field teams continue to pick up verbal commits for the 2025/26 frosh class, at least their 3td I've heard about in the past week or so. It's another distance runner, Holly Barker, who currently attends and competes with Trabuco Hill HS in Mission Viejo, California.

Welcome and congrats to her!




Her prep results:
Cross country - https://www.athletic.net/athlete/23639250/cross-country/all
Track and field - https://www.athletic.net/athlete/23639250/track-and-field/all
 
Per the below, soccer has picked up another 2026 verbal commitment. She is Bianca Willis, a 5'9" central defender from Scottsdale AZ who currently competes with and attends Xavier College Prep in Phoenix, while also playing with the Slammers FC and/ or Royals Soccer club program.

Welcome and congrats to her!







A couple recruiting pages for her:
 
Yesterday, volleyball's Coach Mahoney posted the below tweet indicating a new 2026 verbal commitment. Per my main source for volleyball commits ( https://www.richkern.com/vb/recruits/indexsub.asp?Div=DI&VBYear=2026 ***), it looks like the team, for the 3rd year straight, has gone to Eastern Europe looking for talent, this time ~6'2"-6'3" Middle blocker Barbora Rakauskaite, who hails from Lithuania.
(*** As I like to mention, the free portion of this website I'm linking to above only shows new commitments from the last 3 days, so her being listed as a Buff commit will vanish soon. From her Instagram account, it does list the Coach, as well as an assistant and the team's account, are now all following her.)

Welcome and congrats to her!


As often occurs, it's hard to find much much of anything on international commits. A few things I found:

A page that summarizes her stats with 3 different Lithuanian Age group national teams she's been a part of over the last 2 years, as well as her birth year, height and a couple jump measurables - https://www.cev.eu/match-centres/ce...57-lithuania/player/94257-rakauskaite-barbora

Another page that lists various teams she's been on - https://lvf-web.dataproject.com/PlayerDetails.aspx?TeamID=733&PlayerID=3347&ID=68

A (shorter) highlight video from earlier this year:

 
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A few days ago, I saw the below Instagram post saying that men's golf had picked up a new 2026 verbal commit. He is Colorado's Gavin Amella, who in addition to competing individually, recently won the individual 5A State Championship as a member of the Castle View HS team out of Castle Rock.

Welcome and congrats to him!




Article from earlier this month after his State Championship win - https://chsaanow.com/news/2024/10/8/5a-boys-golf-2024-state-championship.aspx

A couple websites that list some of his results while competing as an individual:

A Youtube page he maintains - https://www.youtube.com/@21gamella/videos
 
While double checking my sources to make sure I have reported in this thread all the 2025 verbal commitments in front of tomorrow's 1st signing day for that class, I noticed one of my sources for track and field and cross country (https://www.runnerspace.com/gprofile.php?mgroup_id=44531&do=news&news_id=669830 ) had a couple listed for the men's team I hadn't known about before this:

  • Jaden Merrick, a distance runner currently attending and competing with Cedar Falls HS in the town of the same name in Iowa.
  • TJ Hansen, another distance runner currently attending and competing with Freeland HS in the town of the same name in Michigan. (Per the below post, he was originally committed to Coach Carlson's old school, Tennessee.)
Welcome and congrats to them!

More on Mr. Merrick:


His commitment post -


Prep results:
Cross Country - https://www.athletic.net/athlete/21174064/cross-country/all
Track and field - https://www.athletic.net/athlete/21174064/track-and-field/all

More on Mr. Hansen:

A post after his commitment -



Prep results:
Cross Country - https://www.athletic.net/athlete/14012006/cross-country/all
Track and field - https://www.athletic.net/athlete/14012006/track-and-field/all
 
Per the 1st tweet below, Coach Mahoney indicated that volleyball has joined soccer in snagging its 1st 2025 freshman class verbal commitment. And, per my main source for finding volleyball commitments (https://www.richkern.com/vb/recruits/indexsub.asp?Div=DI&VBYear=2025), and then confirmed by the below student-athlete tweet, she is 6'1" middle hitter (and per HUDL maybe also right-side hitter) Olivia Grenadier, who currently attends and competes at Detroit Country Day High School in Beverly Hills, Michigan, while also playing club ball with the Legacy Volleyball Club in Novi, Michigan.

Welcome and congrats to her!








Some links I could quickly find for her:

High school stats per Maxpreps - https://www.maxpreps.com/mi/beverly...dier/volleyball/stats/?careerid=gpmi7lgctud99

Per the below, she was named to a "USA Volleyball National Team Development Program" last summer -




HUDL page -


A recruiting page which also contains some video highlights -


Congrats to incoming volleyball Buff Olivia Grenadier for being named (a prep) All-American!

 
A couple updates on some of the incoming distance runners for the men's and women's cross country and track and field teams:

1st, the last couple weekends were the BIG finales to the prep 2024 cross country seasons, with the 2 big national races (both of which require regional qualifying to advance to the finals and both having separate boys and girls races) being competed, with Nike's races held in Oregon a couple weekends ago, while this past weekend was the Footlocker Championships in San Diego.

There was some GREAT racing by MANY of the incoming Buffs, with 6 of them finishing in the top 14 between the 2 boys and girls races competed. (One of them, Keegan Smith, finished high in both the Nike and Footlocker races, finishing 6th and 5th, respectively, in the 2 boys' races.)

Congrats to them all, and hope their track and field seasons, and final high school semesters in general, are nothing but the best!


________________________________________________________________________________

Also, it was announced earlier this month that 3 of the incoming Buffs, Jack Graffeo and Keegan Smith on the boys' side and Ella Hagen on the girls', were signed to NIL deals, all with Hoka.

 
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