By Brice Cherry

Tribune-Herald staff writer

Football isn’t the only sport replenishing its roster on national signing day.

Baylor’s track team added four athletes into the fold Wednesday, while the soccer program picked up 11 new players for the fall.

Baylor track coach Todd Harbour said the recruiting process is still ongoing for his program, which is in hot pursuit of five or six more athletes. Harbour had only two men’s scholarships available, but fortunately for the coach, the one addition to the men’s team announced Wednesday didn’t even count against his total.

Chance Casey of Crosby signed with Baylor’s football program, meaning he’ll count against that sport’s scholarships rather than track. But like Robert Griffin, who won the Big 12 title in the 400 hurdles for Baylor last spring as a dual-sport star, Casey should make a big splash on the oval, too. The No. 2 returning 110-meter hurdler in the nation, Casey won Class 4A state titles in both the high and intermediate hurdles last spring.

Harbour said Griffin’s two-stadium success may have aided in landing Casey.

“I think that was a big deal,” Harbour said. “A lot of athletes are going to watch and see that it is possible to do both, because a lot of them love to do both.”

Harbour also inked three women’s standouts — Stephanie Morgan of Barnesville, Ohio, Skylar White of DeSoto and Elizabeth “Lizzy” Whitney of Montgomery.

Morgan recorded the No. 1 mile time in the U.S. as a junior at 4:41.22 and also set a new Penn Relays record in that event. Harbour said Morgan was partially drawn to Baylor because of the school’s Christian reputation.

Whitney won the Class 4A state title in the 800 as a junior, but with personal bests of 5-6 in the high jump, 18-2 in the long jump and 55.38 in the 400, she projects as a heptathlete in college.

White, meanwhile, won Class 5A titles in both the discus (154-6) and shot put (46-5 1/2) last year and “may be the best dual field-event person we’ve ever had,” Harbour said.

Baylor won a hotly contested recruiting battle with Texas Tech for White, who switched her commitment “about six times,” Harbour said.

Second-year Baylor soccer coach Marci Jobson said her primary goal was to get more athletic, and she believes her 11-player class met that goal.

“They’re going to add to the core of what we’ve already got,” Jobson said. “They’re going to add speed, they’re going to add athleticism and they’re going to add the ability to score more goals.”

Baylor’s class includes two players who have won club national championships and five more who won state titles. Up front, it consists of four forwards — Hanna Gilmore of Klein Collins, Dana Larsen of Mequon, Wis., Amanda Mauk of Smithson Valley and Michelle Hagen of Belton, a 2007 Super Centex player who has 47 goals and 47 assists in her high school career.

Midfielder signees include Emily Bush of Coppell, Larissa Campos of Centennial, Colo., Caitlin Fennegan of Harlingen South, Chelsea Geller of Frisco and Andrea Mauk of Smithson Valley, who is Amanda’s twin sister.

On defense, Baylor added Carlie Davis of Lake Highlands and Lisa Silwinski of Plano East, an academic All-American.

In Jobson’s debut season in 2008, Baylor went 5-10-3 and finished the year with a double-overtime scoreless tie with eighth-ranked Texas.

bcherry@wacotrib.com

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