Men’s Track and Field Announces 2007 Recruiting Class

15 Freshmen to Join the Tribe

08/24/07 5:33PM

WILLIAMSBURG - Director of Track and Field Dan Stimson and head men’s coach Alex Gibby announced the 15-member Tribe recruiting class of 2007 today. Eight will start their careers this fall on the cross country trails, and seven will first don the Green and Gold in December with the start of the indoor track season.

The eight cross country runners are all highly-accomplished athletes, and come from all around the nation. Pete Asaro (Gloucester, Mass.) finished third individually to lead the Gloucester High Fishermen to a fifth-place showing at the All-State cross country championships last fall. Also a standout on the track, he took third in the mile at the indoor All-State championships and fifth outdoors, running 4:21.85 at the latter race. Tom Burke (Edina, Minn.) was all-state in both track and cross country in each of his final two years of high school, including an eighth-place finish at the state cross country championships as a senior. He has run 4:15 for 1,600m and 9:10 for 3,200m while racking up six all-conference citations.

Andrew Mearns (Williamsburg, Va.) is no stranger to the College, starring for four years at nearby Jamestown High and earning six all-state honors in the process. A two-time runner-up in the 2,000m steeplechase at the AAU National Championships, Mearns won the 3,000m race at the Colonial Relays this past spring in 8:39.42 and was named the Runner of the Year by the Virginia Gazette. The man he edged out in that 3,000m race was Chris Tyson (Arlington, Va.), who ran under the late Bill Findler ’70 at Washington-Lee High. Tyson won the Virginia AAA state title at 1,000m indoors in 2:31.05, and earned All-American honors in the mile at the National Scholastic Indoor Championships with a fifth-place showing. Outdoors, he ran 4:13.64 in the mile at the Penn Relay Carnival, and finished eighth at the Virginia AAA Championships for all-state accolades.

Brian Sklodowski (Newark, Del.) won seven Delaware state titles during his career at The Tatnall School, and added a pair of titles at the Meet of Champions for good measure. Named the Delaware Runner of the Year three times in cross country and twice in track, Sklodowski holds all-division records at 1,600m (4:11.93) and 3,200m (9:16.80). Sean Sewell (Raleigh, N.C.) won six state independent schools’ titles for Cardinal Gibbons, and was named the Performer of the Meet at the 2007 Outdoor Championships. He has posted times of 4:15 in the mile and 9:25 for 3,200m during his career.

Paul Norland (Falls Church, Va.) comes to the Tribe from Thomas Jefferson Science and Technology in Virginia, the same prep program as two-time All-American Christo Landry (Falls Church, Va.) and 2007 Academic All-American Keith Bechtol ’07. As a senior, Norland earned four all-state honors in Virginia’s highest classification, including 11th at the state cross country championships, fourth in the indoor 3,200m, second in the indoor 4x800m, and third in the outdoor 3,200m. He has a career-best mark of 9:20.11 for 3,200m. Axel Stanovsky (Everett, Wash.) earned district titles as a senior in cross country and in the 1,600m and 3,200m races on the track. An all-state performer in cross country, Stanovsky has run 4:18 for 1,600m and 9:28 for 3,200m.

The track and field-only athletes come from far and very near, especially in the case of Florian Cords (Williamsburg, Va.). A standout at Walsingham Academy, Cords has multiple Virginia Independent Schools and Virginia Catholic Schools state titles. As a senior, he helped the Trojans to an upset victory at the conference championships, earning titles at 400m and in the 4x400m relay. He enters the College having run 22.70 for 200m and 49.91 for 400m. Chris McIntosh (Owings Mill, Md.) was a prep All-American in the 400m hurdles at the 2005 USAT&F Junior Nationals, and was undefeated in the 300m hurdles in 2006 for Franklin High, claiming the state title. He also earned all-state honors in the 110m hurdles that season, placing third at the state meet after sweeping the two hurdles titles at the county, regional, and divisional championships. He enters with best-times of 14.54 (converted) for the 110m hurdles and 54.90 for the 400m hurdles.

Tyler Blanchard (Gray, Maine) gives the College a legitimate sub-11 second threat in the 100m dash, and could threaten to break onto the all-time top-10 in the event, something that hasn’t been done since 1992. The senior class president at Gray New Gloucester High, Blanchard is an all-conference runner at 55m and 400m, and has run 11 seconds in the 100m dash and 6.82 in the 55m dash. David Blitzer (Haworth, N.J.) helped lead Northern Valley Regional to back-to-back league championships and earned all-league honors in the 400m dash each of his last two years. He also earned All-New Jersey honors as part of the sixth-place 4x400m relay at the 2007 Meet of Champions, and has run 50.10 for 400m and 22.78 for 200m.

The throwing corps will be well stocked for years to come with the addition of three athletes this year. Dan Klatzkin (Gaithersburg, Md.) switches over to the track team this year after redshirting for the football team last fall. In high school, he was the only freshman in the state of Maryland to qualify for the 4A state championships in 2003, and made a return trip as a sophomore. After transferring to Randolph-Macon Academy in Virginia, he proved an instant success, winning the Virginia Independent Schools discus title as a junior. Klatzkin began throwing with standard collegiate-size implements in the summer of 2007, and registered marks of 45’ 1” in the shot put and 138’ in the discus.

Zachary Jordan (Dublin, Ohio) earned a pair of bronze medals in the discus at the league championships for St. Charles Prep as a junior and senior, registering a best-throw of 150’. A second-generation Stimson trainee (his father threw under Coach Stimson at Miami (OH) from 1978-82), Jordan has also thrown the 16-lbs hammer (Olympic-standard) 128’. Tim Latham (Lynchburg, Va.) was the district champion in the discus as a senior for E.C. Glass High, after earning the silver medal as a junior. A two-time all-region honoree, Latham has a personal-best mark of 147’ 8” in the discus and 148’ 8” in the 12-lbs hammer.