Harvard Picks Up Two Prep Stars

The rich are getting richer. Two of Harvard's stronger teams, men's lightweight crew and women's soccer, will welcome top recruits to campus next fall—a C.R.A.S.H.-B. champion and a Central Florida Player of the Year, respectively.

JONATHAN YOUNG, MEN’S LIGHTWEIGHT CREW

Ladue High School’s Jonathan Young seems to have made a habit of winning.

This past fall, the Crimson commit raced for a cross country team that won the Missouri state championships. But the title was just the warm-up for Young. He has since earned the coveted C.R.A.S.H.-B. hammer by winning the junior lightweight event in a time of 6:25.4 while representing the St. Louis Rowing Club.

Young won’t be the first star rower to come to Harvard from Missouri. Christine Baugh ’10 was recruited from the Show Me State despite not having rowed in high school. Baugh spent her junior and senior years in the Radcliffe heavyweight first varsity eight and served as team co-captain in the 2009-10 season along with classmate Laura Huppert.

MEG CASSCELLS-HAMBY, WOMEN'S SOCCER

With 31 goals, 16 assists, and a team trip to the state finals, Trinity Prep's Casscells-Hamby earned Central Florida’s Player of the Year honors. Ranked sixth among her state's soccer stars by topdrawersoccer.com, the forward has also distinguished herself off the field, most notably by helping to establish the “Hearts for Haiti” concert that raises money for relief efforts in the area.

But according to her high school coach, the Crimson will benefit from her team-first attitude.

“Meg could have scored 50 goals [this season], but instead she chose to be a team player,” said high school coach Joe Raymond to the Orlando Sentinel. “She put any personal accolades to the side for the greater good of the team.”

Casscells-Hamby will join a team looking to reassert itself in the competitive Ivy League. The women's soccer team won the Ancient Eight crown in the falls of 2008 and 2009 but fell off the mark in 2010.