According to the respected US publication TRACK AND FIELD NEWS, five Jamaicans are among the top recruits to US colleges for the upcoming year. On the men’s side, they are 2021 World Under 20 medal winners Vashaun Vascianna, Devontie Archer and Kavion Kerr and Apalos Edwards, a 2018 Youth Olympic triple jump finalist.

TRACK AND FIELD NEWS lists Ackelia Smith, the Edwin Allen High jumps ace now at the University of Texas, as the top female recruit in the triple.

Vascianna is listed as the number 1 recruit in the 110m hurdles. The winner of the silver medal at the World Under 20 in Nairobi, Kenya, the former St Jago High and Kingston College standout is now at Texas Tech University. In his last season traversing the under 20 hurdles height of 39 inches, Vascianna clocked a personal best of 13.22 seconds.

Vashaun Vascianna

Edwards, a product of the fruitful Jamaica College jumps programme, will spend the next four years at Louisiana State University. He was a Pan-American Under 20 Championships finalist in 2019 and, like Vascianna, he is the number one recruit in his event.

Archer, the Excelsior High School star, and St Jago High School ace Kerr took bronze medals at the World Under 20 meet and are on top of the recruits list for the 400m hurdles and the long jump respectively. Archer was recruited by Auburn University and Kerr is already at Kansas State University. Both set personal bests in Nairobi, 49.78 seconds for the hurdler and 7.90 metres for the jumper.

Kavion Kerr

Speedy on the runway, Smith secured a triple jump victory at the 2019 Penn Relays and boomed out a 13.42m winner at Champs this year. At the National Championships, she stretched out to 13.47 metres, a Jamaica under 20 record and she has a long jump personal best of 6.22 metres as well.

Smith is also listed amongst the top long jump recruits. Notably, Hydel’s 2021 400 metre hurdles champion Garriel White is the number 3 recruit in both the hurdles and the flat 400. White now attends LSU.

Archer and Edwards appear more than once on the list posted on the TRACK AND FIELD NEWS website on November 23. Archer and his Excelsior teammate Antonio Hanson, formerly of Herbert Morrison High, are listed at 5th and 8th respectively on the 400m list while Edwards appears at number 4 on the list of long jumpers headed by Kerr with Calabar High School’s Luke Brown, the 2021 Boys and Girls Championships class 1 triple jump winner, at 12.

Devontie Archer

Hanson and Brown will attend Kansas State and the University of Kentucky respectively.

Other Jamaicans listed include World Under 20 runner-up Ralford Mullings, formerly of Kingston College and now at Arizona State. Mullings had a distinguished season with throws taped at 66.61 and 66.68 metres, just short of the national under 20 record of 66.88 and held by Traves Smikle.