Most of Seattle Pacific University’s sports teams have celebrated their seniors and are now looking forward to next season. Part of looking forward to next season includes looking at athletes who will become Falcons for the first time next year. Most of the recruiting classes are not complete, but here is what is known so far.
The women’s soccer team will bring in seven recruits for next year.
“We graduated nine players this year, and we knew we would need to replace a ton with their exodus,” said Arby Busey, head coach of the women’s soccer team.
The list includes midfielders Marissa Bankey, whose Central Valley team took third place in state, and Chloe Gellhaus from East Valley High School in Spokane.
The Falcons will also add another goalkeeper to the team in Kaitlynn Knocke from Marysville. Additionally, forward A.J. Depinto from Portland, Oregon, and Ellie Gentry from 2nd place in Oregon Clackamas High School will also be on the team next year.
Busey expressed his excitement at having a recruiting class of high quality soccer players, high quality students and high quality people.
The men’s soccer team has two high profile goal scorers joining the team next season in Skylor Rose and Jake Williams. Rose, from Volcano Vista High School in New Mexico, scored 24 goals and had 12 assists in his final season, which finished with a loss in the state semifinals. Williams and his Jackson High School team from Mill Creek are still playing out their season, and have earned a place in the state semifinals. Williams leads the team with 13 goals.
The other three members joining the team are Tyler Speer, a midfielder from Colorado, Jordan Marwood, a goalie from Canada, and Tyler Collings from Seattle.
Hitting the court next year with the volleyball team will be eight new members, playing in five different positions.
Ashley Antoniak, an outside hitter, comes to Seattle from Millennium High School in Arizona. Antoniak’s team ended the year ranked fourth in the nation, as she led her team in kills, and to a state championship.
Lindsay Rosenthal is an outside hitter from Richland. Rosenthal was second on her team in kills, and her team finished second in state this year.
Austin Ibale, a setter for Kentridge High School, lost to Rosenthal’s team in the semifinals, but rebounded to finish in third.
Paige Dawson is a libero from Northwest Christian School in Colbert. Dawson led her team in both kills and digs and it was good enough for a seventh-place finish at state this year.
Maddie Pruden, an opposite from North Kitsap High School, helped her team to a ninth-place finish at state.
The final three recruits are middle blockers Delaney Dunham, from Coronado, California, Maya Holmen from Redmond, Washington, and setter Lindsey Lambert from Beaverton, Oregon.
Moving into the winter quarter, the men’s and women’s basketball teams will be next to see the action. Head coach Grant Leep says that the Falcons will bring six new players to the court and are still looking for a seventh.
Shaw Anderson is a wing player from Kelso. He averaged 28.4 points per game on the season, including averaging 30 points per game in the state tournament this year, where his team finished in sixth place.
Next up is forward Clayton Whitman, who led Lynden High School to two straight championships, scoring 19 points and grabbing nine rebounds in this year’s championship game.
Zack Paulsen, a guard from Curtis High School in University Place led his team to an upset of the number one seed in the second round of the state tournament, scoring 22 points, averaging 21.4 points per game for the season.
The next athlete the Falcons will welcome to the court will be Chris Penner, a guard from Capital High School in Olympia. Penner averaged 17.4 points per game this last season and set a school record for most three pointers made in a season with 87.
The other two players joining the team will be Center Filip Fullerton, a transfer from Portland State University, and Eddy Hochsprung from Sehome High School in Bellingham.
The women’s basketball team will bring at least three new players to the court next season. Grace Sterk, a post player from Lynden Christian High School, led her team in scoring with 14.3 points per game and to a second-place finish at state this year.
The other two players the Falcons will bring in are transfers from other colleges. Forward Ashlynn Burgess will be coming to the Falcons from Wenatchee Valley College, where she broke a 40-year-old scoring record to become the school’s all-time leading scorer.
Abril Rexach Roure, originally from Spain, will come to the Falcons from Eastern Wyoming College. Roure, a guard, averaged 12.5 points per game and 7.4 assists per game for the team last year.
There will be at least 7 new track and cross-country athletes joining the team next year. The Men bring in 3 athletes from Washington: Sheamus Mahoney from Cheney, Reed Adjibly from Shoreline and Rory McClelland from Issaquah.
They also bring in two athletes from California, Kyle Morrison from Dublin, and Bailey Rockholt from Live Oak, and also bring in Jacob Allmaras from White City, Oregon, the state champion in the 800 meters. Meanwhile, the Women’s track team is bringing in one new athlete in Libby Michael from Nine Mile Falls.
All these athletes will have big shoes to fill in helping replace graduating seniors, but it seems that the Falcons will be in good hands with the class of athletes they have coming in.
