Minnesota Recruit Stars on Track

It's easy to underestimate what's left of the visiting stands. Before you do, check out the size of the stands in relation to the dump truck in a picture shot Monday. (Click on photo to enlarge)

---

Incoming recruit Tony Pastoors of Minnesota helped Totino-Grace to its first Class 2A state track title by winning the 400 meters and anchoring the 4x400 relay. He's quoted in this Minneapolis Star Tribune story. The defensive back/quarterback/athlete has been named to the roster for the "Metro" team in the 2006 Minnesota High School All-Star Football Game to be played June 24 at St. Cloud State University.

The New York Giants' interest in Jay Fiedler is apparently quite real. This New York Post story (with a nice photo) includes this quote: "When the time comes, we'll work him out," GM Ernie Accorsi said yesterday. "We're interested in him."

The Any Given Saturday Division I-AA poll, which "has been the first released national poll each year since it's inception in 2004" has UNH second and Colgate, Harvard, Penn and Brown all receiving votes.

Any Given Saturday Poll Preseason Top 25
(First place votes in parenthesis; Dartmouth opponents boldfaced)
1. Appalachian State (45)
2. New Hampshire (31)
3. Northern Iowa (7)
4. Montana (2)
5. Furman (2)
6. Cal Poly
7. Youngstown State
8. James Madison (2)
9. Illinois State
10. Delaware
11. McNeese State
12. North Dakota State (1)
13. Georgia Southern
14. Massachusetts
15. Eastern Illinois
16. Hampton
17. Southern Illinois
18. Coastal Carolina
19. Montana State
20. UC Davis
21. Texas State
22. Nicholls State
23. Eastern Washington
24. Eastern Kentucky
25. Richmond

Others receiving votes (minimum of 5 votes): Lafayette (56), Western Kentucky (47), Colgate (46), Lehigh (45), Grambling (44), Idaho State (43), South Carolina State (43), Harvard (29), Portland State (24), Northwestern State (22), William & Mary (21), Hofstra (17), Jacksonville State (17), Weber State (17), Western Carolina (14), Maine (10), Sam Houston State (10), Brown (9), Southern University (9), South Dakota State (8), Wofford (7), Penn (6), Missouri State (5), Towson (5), Villanova (5)

Dartmouth has released its list of men's basketball recruits and notable among them is a junior college transfer, 6-foot-9 center Kurt Graeber of Fullerton College. Graeber walked on at Arizona State but left for Fullerton when he realized he'd made a mistake. A top prep student and player, he was an Ivy League recruiting target coming out of high school. While junior college transfers aren't unheard of in the Ivy League (Cornell has had a number in basketball, Columbia in football and I even remember one at Harvard) they are extremely rare at Dartmouth. The last I can remember was a quarterback who started his career at Colorado State, transferred to a California juco and then made his way to Dartmouth. It's doubtful Graeber's admission signals any kind of admissions shift in Hanover, but he's an interesting story -- and pretty good player from what I hear.