Four Prep Standouts Sign with WSU Track & Field
Three Washington prep competitors and a Canadian runner join WSU 2006-07 track team.
May 4, 2006
PULLMAN, Wash. - Four high school seniors have signed National Letters of Intent to compete for Washington State University track and field next year, Cougar Head Coach Rick Sloan announced Thursday.
The newest Cougar signees include sprinter/hurdler/long jumper Kyle Schauble from Kennewick, Wash., and middle distance runners Lisa Egami from Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada, Luke Lemenager from Maple Valley, Wash., and Chelsea VanDeBrake from Yakima, Wash.
Schauble is a senior at Kamiakin High where he played football for Craig Beverlin and is the captain for track and field coach Keith Duncan this year. Schauble\'s mother, Cheryl Byers Schauble, was a sprinter/long jumper on the WSU women\'s track and field teams in the late 1970s and early `80s who is the girls\' track team and sprint coach Kamiakin High. At the USATF regional meet last summer, he won the 110m hurdles and finished second in the 400m dash. Last month he was named the Pasco Invitational Athlete of the Meet after he won both hurdles races, was on the winning 1600m relay team and placed second in the long jump. Schauble currently holds the top mark in the state\'s 110m hurdles at 14.46 seconds, and 300m hurdles with a time of 37.81 seconds. His marks and state rankings in other events are: 100m dash - 10.97 (4th), 200m - dash 22.20 (3rd), and long jump - 22-feet, 9 inches (3rd). He\'s also run a lead leg time of 49.8 seconds on a 4x400m relay.
\"We have a long history with Kyle Schauble. He\'s been at our summer camp for the past five years and his mom, having been an athlete at Washington State, has also worked at camp,\" Sloan said. \"We\'re thrilled to get Kyle into our program. We\'ve looked at him as a hurdler, and he\'s doing a great job leading the state in both the highs and intermediates, and he is among the top five in the state in three other events. We think he\'ll be a great decathlete for Washington State.\"
Egami attends Centennial School in Coquitlam and has competed for coach Brit Townsend. She has won the British Columbia high school championships 800m race for the past three years and for the past two years won the B.C. Juvenile Championships 1500m. Egami finished 18th in the 800m at the 2005 Youth World Championships and 27th at the Canadian Junior Cross Country Nationals. She\'s been named the grade level Female Athlete of the Year for the past three years and was nominated for the BC Athletics Juvenile Athlete of the Year in 2005.
\"We are very fortunate to have attracted Lisa Egami to Washington State,\" Sloan said. \"She has run 2:08 in the 800m and is a person who can come in and have an immediate impact on our program and on the Pac-10 level.\"
Lemenager is a senior at Tahoma High in Covington, Wash., where he competes for coach Gary Conner. He\'s run an 800m time of 1:51.3 this spring which is second-fastest in the state and among the top five nationally. Lemenager has lettered in both cross country and track the past four years. He\'s earned all-state cross country honors, competed in the Border Clash race (top distance runners in Washington and Oregon high schools), and was named to the Nike All-Bowerman Team this year.
\"We\'ve had our eye on Luke since last year and thought because of his 400m speed and his cross country ability that he was going to be an outstanding 800m runner and he\'s showing that now. He\'s very high on the national list and we are excited about attracting an athlete of his talent to our program and in an area where we need to get better so he\'s going to be very helpful to us right away,\" Sloan said.
VanDeBrake is a senior at Eisenhower High in Yakima, Wash., and competes for former Cougar steeplechaser Phil English, the Cadet\'s cross country and track coach. Her mother, Jacki, ran on the cross country and track teams at Eastern Washington University. Her 3200m time of 11:03.10 this season is ranked fifth-fastest in the state and her 1600m time of 5:05.66 is ranked sixth. VanDeBrake has run in the Border Clash the past three years and was named the Big Nine League\'s 2005 Cross Country Runner of the Year. She was named to the 4A all-state cross country team after earning 3A all-state honors as a junior at West Valley High in Yakima. VanDeBrake\'s 3.999 grad point average earned her Eisenhower\'s Class of 2006 salutatorian honor.
\"Chelsea VanDeBrake comes from an outstanding program at Eisenhower High,\" Sloan said. \"She\'s going to be a welcome addition to our distance program. She\'s in the range of 800m to 3000m with the mile probably her best event right now. She\'s a developing athlete and going to be an outstanding runner for us during her tenure here.\"
These four signees join four previously announced signed recruits: sprinter Princess Joy Griffey from Federal Way, Wash., who is leading the state in the 100m (11.4) and 200m (24.5), 800m runner Bob Hewitt-Gaffney from Gillette, Wyoming, and distance runners Dan Geib from Reno, Nevada, and Anna Layman from Spokane Valley, Wash.
Washington State Cougars Track & Field