ABILENE – ACU head track and field coach Roosevelt Lofton announced Tuesday that the Wildcats have added five athletes for the 2012 season.
Lofton announced the middle distance runner Banjo Jaiyesimi will join the men's team, while junior college transfers Shenae Steele and Ayesha Rumble and high school standouts Emily Hill and Karolyn Palmer will join the women's team. Lofton also said the team will have additional signings to announce later in the summer.
Jaiyesimi joins a men's team that will be trying to replace three program pillars from the last four years in sprinter
Desmond Jackson, jumper
Ramon Sparks and hurdler
Andrew McDowell. All three won national championships in their career, and they were part of the ACU men's track team that won both the NCAA Division II indoor and outdoor national championships in 2011.
Jaiyesimi is a junior college all-America transferring to ACU from Iowa Western Community College where he was fifth in the 800 meters at the NJCAA national indoor championship meet last spring. He also ran on the IWCC 4x400 relay team, which finished seventh indoors.
He has personal best times of 49.68 in the 400 meters, 1:53.54 in the 800 meters and 18:15.56 in the 5000 meters.
"After watching Banjo at the junior college indoor championship meet, I believe he will be a great asset for our program," Lofton said. "He has a tough, aggressive attitude on the track, and that will make him a high-caliber competitor and scorer at the national meet for us."
Steele is transferring to ACU from Iowa Western Community College she is the school record-holder in both the 100 meters (11.72) and 200 meters (24.05).
"Shannae is an extremely talented athlete with multiple all-America certificates to her credit," Lofton said. "She will be a huge asset to our women's sprint group. Shannae will bring leadership and experience to a young women's team and has a chance to be a top scorer at the national championship meet."
Rumble is transferring to ACU from Iowa Central Community College where she won the NJCAA 1000-meter national championship last winter. Rumble won the title in a school-record time of 2:58.14, helping her team to a third-place finish in the team standings.
Rumble now holds school records in the indoor and outdoor 800 meters, the 1000 meters, and as part of both the 4x400 and 4x800 relay teams.
Palmer is a sprinter from Duncanville High School with career bests of 12.20 in the 100 meters and 25.93 in the 200 meters. She'll compete in the 100, 200 and 400 and on both relays for the Wildcats.
Hill is a middle-distance standout from Magnolia High School, which is where former ACU pole vaulter Seth Westmoreland is now the boys' head track coach.
Hill qualified for the Region III-4A finals in the 800 meters three times, reaching the state track met as a junior. She was a two-time district champion in the 800 meters in high school. She also helped her cross country team advance to the state meet for the first time last fall.
