ABILENE – ACU head track and field coach Roosevelt Lofton announced Friday that he has added 21 athletes to the 2011 roster.
On the men's side, the Wildcats two transfers in sprinter Paris Robertson (Southwest Mississippi College) and distance runner James Grantham (Rend Lake Community College).
ACU also signed eight high school athletes to binding national letters-of-intent: hurdler Brandon Wilson (Pickering High School of Canada), quarter-miler Desmond Brown (Lamar Consolidated HS), thrower Aaron Bynum (Pflugerville Connally HS), thrower Ezra Robertson (Forney HS), distance runner Joshua Taylor (Forney HS), distance runner Erik Forrester (Llano HS), distance runner Will Mack (Boerne Champion HS), and distance runner Gary Duncan (Longview Spring Hill HS).
On the women's side, the Wildcats have added three transfers in sprinter / quarter-miler Karla Hope (Central Arizona College), half-miler Denise Smith (Highland Community College), and distance runner Alyse Goldsmith (Oklahoma State).
Wilson led his high school team to back-to-back Ontario Federation of School Athletics Association championships and has a personal-best of 13.90 in the 110 hurdles. Brown is a quarter-miler who finished third at the Region III-4A meet last spring with a personal-best 48.63.
Robertson finished 14th at the NJCAA national championship meet in the 200 meters and has a personal-best in the event of 21.3. The four distance athletes will also compete on the ACU cross country team this fall, helping re-stock that unit.
Duncan finished eighth in the 3200 meters at the Class 3A state championship meet last spring and has a career-best of 9:44.92 in that event.
In the throws, Roberson finished sixth in the Class 4A shot put last spring with a mark of 52 feet, 2 inches, and he has a career-best of 57-8.
On the women's side, Hope red-shirted last year, but the native of Trinidad and Tobago has career-best marks of 23.57 in the 200 meters and 53.43 in the 400 meters. Young won the Class 3A state championship in the 100 hurdles last spring with a time of 14.89.
Goldsmith – a native of Katy – transfers back to her home state where she will likely run the 1500 meters, 3000 and 5000 meters for the Wildcats.
