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Future Buffalo Bulls Sign Letters of Intent on National Signing Day

Today was the Fall Signing Day for future collegiate athletes, and a number of UB teams inked future Bulls on the day.

By Matt Gritzmacher
Matt Gritzmacher

This will be a roundup-style post, but as today was the beginning of the fall early signing for basketball and all sports other than football, soccer, and men's water polo. Right now I know of the full Men's and Women's Basketball classes, as well as a few others for other sports. When I find out more, I will update this post.

Of course, huge thanks go out to those who got in touch on Twitter to report signings that were new to me, or to confirm ones I had already dug up.

Men's Basketball

There were no surprises today from men's basketball, as Chicago-area shooter Nate Navigato and Detroit-area post player Nick Perkins both signed as expected. Rather than reinvent the wheel, I'll point you to a Bull Run piece from a few weeks ago on the pair:

Buffalo Bulls Men's Basketball Recruiting: Navigato, Perkins, on their way to Amherst - Bull Run
UB Men's Basketball has just two seniors on the roster this year, and Bobby Hurley has already garnered the commitments of two high school seniors to step in and fill their place next fall.

Women's Basketball

Women's basketball announced four recruits, one of whom I knew about, one I had heard about but couldn't find because I had her name wrong, and two more Aussies who will join the team midway through this season and will be immediately eligible.

Brittany Morrison is apparently thought of as 'undersized' by some coaches, but was good for ten points and twelve rebounds a game her junior season and accepted a scholarship offer from Coach Jack on the spot.

I wasted a lot of time three weeks ago looking for news on Gabi Bade as it turned out I had her named wrong. Bade, who hails from Milpitas in the Bay Area of Northern California, is going to remind Bulls fans of the team's previous Californian, point guard Margeaux Gupilan. She attends the same high school as Jeremy Lin did, and led her team to the CIF Division 5 State Championship in California.

In men's basketball we have the #NateOatsPipeline, and it might be time to acknowledge the #CherieCordobaPipeline out of Australia: By January the addition of Stephanie Reid and Courtney Wilkins will bring the Aussie count to four on the team. Reid is a 5'8" guard who can shoot the three, while Wilkins will join Mariah Suchan, Kristen Sharkey, and Christa Baccas to give the Bulls a full four post players over six foot.

Reid:

Wilkins:

UPDATE: Baseball

The baseball team got in touch to let us know about two of their signees: Andrew White, a pitcher from Williamsville North right around the corner, and Connor Regan, a catcher from Walsh Jesuit in Ohio.

Regan committed to the Bulls over the summer, after a junior season in which he pitched to a 0.00 ERA and hit .438. The website prepbaseballreport.com rates Regan as the #21 player in the state of Ohio.

I cannot find an article on White, but the same website rates him #9 in New York and notes his commitment. The righthander touches the high-80s with his fastball while taking 6-10 mph off for his slider.

UPDATE: 19 November: This piece from the Amherst Bee reports a baseball signee, Billy Hartford, from Williamsville South

Five South seniors sign letters of intent | www.amherstbee.com | The Amherst Bee

Women's Swimming and Diving

I don't know how much there is to analyze in swimming and diving recruits: They have times, and they are generally fast. But UB got two recruits onto the women's team in Mallory Buha from Michigan and Julia Box from Colorado:

SWIMDIVE: Buffalo Gains Program Changing Verbal Commitment From Backstroker Mallory Buha - Bull Run

Buffalo Picks up Butterflier/Backstroker Julia Box - Bull Run

Men's Swimming and Diving

Men's Swimming and Diving also picked up a commitment from Mason Miller, a high school senior who's not yet 17 from Ohio:

16 Year-Old Mason Miller Verbally Commits to Buffalo

Rowing

UPDATE: 11 AM Friday -

Softball

Per her club coach, Ally Power, the 2013-14 Gatorade Softball Player of the Year for Colorado, committed today to come to Buffalo and play for coach Trena Peel. I found a bit on her performance in a summer tournament, but things will really pick up with the high school season in the spring. Goodness knows that Peel, a former All-American at LSU, is going to attract some recruits after running to the MAC final in her first season.

UPDATE - THURSDAY, 4 PM: Just found news of a second softball commit: Courtney Gilbert from Delhi, ON near Brantford. In this article from the Simcoe Reformer, Gilbert talks about Buffalo as feeling 'just like home,' and notes that she never even considered downsides of the school in her visits. Gilbert is primarily a shortstop who lead her U-16 team to a Provincial Championship last year and has been working towards NCAA Division 1 Softball since the beginning of high school.

UDPATE - THURSDAY, 5PM: UB Softball has tweetedd out a few more commits:

Taylor Light, of Brockport

A mysterious "Ms. Warren" and "Lace":

UPDATE - THURSDAY 9:30 PM: 'Ms. Warren' from just above is Shaila Warren of the Tampa Mustangs 18U team, and Mulberry high school. One of the Mustangs recently won a national club title.

UPDATe: Brianna Baker of Oneonta also committed this weekend:

Yellow Jacket Softball Star Bound for Bulls - Time Warner Cable News
Oneonta softball standout Brianna Baker will play softball for the University at Buffalo after signing her national letter of intent Friday.

UPDATE: The Softball class is now complete, and I'm delighted to say we had them all here first. Read more at this link.

Track and Field

The Track and field account is touting Jillian Decker out of Cornwall, NY as a middle distance runner, but it looks like she has experience in sprints for the Green Dragons, as well. Jillian set a PR of 2:14.77 in the 800 last spring and has run in the 57s in the 400.

UPDATE: Late Saturday news broke of Chardae Henry's commitment. Unfortunately she's not related to UB All-American Asia Henry, but is the fastest distance runner ever recruited to Buffalo: her PRs in the 1500 and 3000 are 4:37 and 9:58, respectively.

Brittany Fuller is also a distance runner, coming to UB from Port Jervis, NY.

Fuller, Henry, and Decker constitute the full recruiting class for Track and Field.

UPDATE: MAYBE NOT. Observe:

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<div class="fb-post" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/buffalotrackxc/posts/826387970757915" data-width="466"><div class="fb-xfbml-parse-ignore"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/buffalotrackxc/posts/826387970757915">Post</a> by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/buffalotrackxc">Buffalo Track &amp; Cross Country</a>.</div></div>

Jibb is very, very good, and from NYS. I like that.

Volleyball

I know of one volleyball commitment for next year - Jessi Holly of Upper Sandusky, Ohio - but it also looks like I found one for this year, as well. I am not sure if Hannah Watson officially committed today, but she gave Coach Sunahara a verbal commitment this past June at the end of her junior season. She is the first ever student-athlete from her high school to earn a D1 volleyball scholarship.

GlenOak's Watson plays with an edge - Sports - The CantonRep - Canton, OH
GlenOak junior Hannah Watson is keeping her edge after verbally committing to play volleyball for the University of Buffalo.

UPDATE: Not five minutes after publishing, I find another one: Gabriela Maciagowski, who's from Ontario, and has represented the province a number of times in national competitions, and just missed out on a chance to represent Canada in the U23 Beach Volleyball World Championships.

It's official! UB Volleyball! #gobulls #hornsup

A photo posted by Gabi Maciagowski (@maciagowski) on

UPDATE: 19 November: Looks like Hannah Watson is out, as that same Amherst Bee article reports a commit from the State Champion Billies

Five South seniors sign letters of intent | www.amherstbee.com | The Amherst Bee

UPDATE: Wrestling

Got this one in just now at 10:30 AM, Friday: Wrestler Tommy Forte of Mishikawa in Indiana. Forte

Indiana Wrestling News had Forte rated as the #2 junior in the state last May. Forte has won a state title in Indiana and finished top-three twice more.

UPDATE: The wrestling class is complete. In addition to Forte, Stutzman pulled in Justin Patrick from Pennsylvania. Most recently he placed at 120 pounds in the National Prep Tournament and has twice placed in the PIAA tournament.

UPDATE: Women's Tennis

Caught news Sunday that Puerto Rican Chantel Martinez-Blanco will be joining the Bulls in 2015. The San Juan native israted a four-star recruit by the website tennisrecruiting.net, and will be the only new Bull next year as only Laura Fernandez graduates.

***

I am both going to keep digging and expect more names to filter through over the course of the week here, as the signing period extends for a few days. If you find anyone in any sport - remember only football and soccer aren't happening right now - please leave them in the comments and I'll research and get them up here.

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