The Super Six, my choices as the six leading freshmen recruits at Arizona for the 2016-17 season:
1. Dejah Mulipola, softball. Flo Softball ranks the catcher from Pacifica High School near Los Angeles as the No. 5 overall player in the Class of 2016. This summer she was selected to the Louisville Slugger Hit Club, as one of the 10 leading players in America. Mulipola was a four-time AAU national champion in summer ball dating to 2012.
2. Lauri Markkanen, men’s basketball. On paper, the 7-footer from Finland probably ranks with Chris Mills, Eric Money, Mike Bibby, Brian Williams and Gilbert Arenas as the most game-ready newcomer in UA basketball history. I ranked Mulipola over Markkanen because she’s likely to play four college seasons to Markkanen’s one.
3. Kirsten Jacobsen, swimming. Most recruiting services list the freestyle sensation from Barrington, Illinois, as the No. 1 or No. 2 incoming freshman in that specialty. She is part of the school’s No. 1 freshman recruiting class packaged by swimming coach Rick DeMont. It includes prep All-Americans Kennedy Lohman of Prospect, Kentucky; Hannah Cox of Hartland, Vermont; and Mallory Korenwinder of Tulare, California.
4. Justice Summerset, high jump. The Mountain View High School product compares favorably to UA All-American and national champion Nick Ross, who entered school in the fall of 2009 with a career best of 7 feet 3 inches. Summerset won the national junior Olympics title a month ago with a leap of 7-2½ and set the state record in April at 7-1½. Like Ross, a basketball player in high school, Summerset was known mostly for another sport (football) at Mountain View. Now he’ll concentrate on improving in the high jump the way Ross did, clearing a UA record 7-7, and finishing third at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials.
5. Nick Quintana, baseball. Few expected the shortstop from Las Vegas to bypass the MLB draft, including the Boston Red Sox, who flew Quintana to Fenway Park on July 8 and introduced him around the Red Sox clubhouse, where he posed for photos with, among others, David Ortiz. But Quintana, who initially committed to USC, bought what UA coach Jay Johnson was selling after hitting 15 homers, hitting .438 and driving in 58 runs in the high school season. Quintana was named a MaxPreps All-American and made the 2016 Rawlings Perfect Game All-American team.
6. Liz Shelton, volleyball. When UA coach Dave Rubio told me Shelton “has a chance to be one of the top players ever to put on a UA volleyball uniform,” I bought it. She is a 6-2 outside hitter from Edwards Air Force Base in California who is only now concentrating fully on volleyball; she also played basketball and was a track standout in high school. Rubio is hoping to redshirt Shelton this year so that he will have her through 2021. Shelton is a 4.0 student.
As for the top recruiting prospects in Southern Arizona this year, it’s a two-way race for No. 1. Tucson High diver Delaney Schnell, who finished sixth in the U.S. Olympic Trials and has already committed to Arizona, and Rio Rico middle distance runner Allie Schadler, who has already won eight state championships, are elite recruits on the national level.
