How Ethan Sledge used Streamline Athletes to make the leap from Texas high school track to sprinting in the NCAA Division I

Ethan Sledge, now a freshman at Abilene Christian University (ACU), used the Streamline Athletes Plus platform extensively during his recruiting journey to the Division I school. Hailing from Leander, Texas, Ethan specializes in the short sprints on the track and is studying engineering in the classroom.

Ethan holds personal bests of 10.75 in the 100 meters, his primary event, and 22.70 in the 200 meter dash. During his junior year of high school, he was inspired to compete at the collegiate level after watching the Texas Relays in person. He said, "It made me want to work to be one of them and compete at a higher level."

Starting out his college search, Ethan had several major criteria in mind: a strong engineering program, a supportive team environment with experienced athletes and coaches, a location close to home, and an affordable cost. Using Streamline Athletes, Ethan connected with a number of schools, including Colorado State University, Houston Baptist University, and Indiana Tech. The platform helped facilitate connections with coaches around the country by offering an easy route for communication and a way to display his personal bests.

Eventually, Ethan chose ACU, pointing to its convenient location, scenic campus, and "the other athletes I met who were honest and genuine when talking to them about the school and the team." ACU's position in the challenging Western Athletic Conference also aligns with Ethan's ambitious goals in the sport. In the near future, Ethan is targeting a 10.3 in the 100 and a 20.8 in the 200, and hopes to earn spots on team relays and travel to meets such as Texas Relays. Long term, he wants to make the WAC Championship meet and eventually compete at the NCAA Championships.

Off the track, Ethan will be spending plenty of time studying for his engineering degree, especially with his goal of maintaining a 3.0 GPA. He reports that the transition to college has been going well so far, but that he's adjusting to sharing a room as well as the greater, detail-oriented demands of training at the NCAA Division I level. Hopefully he still manages to find some time for his other interests, including fishing and cooking!

Overall, Ethan would recommend Streamline Athletes to any younger student-athlete looking to be recruited. The transparency of the platform was useful, he explained: "You can pick the colleges you are interested in and see if you have a chance of being recruited." Streamline Athletes offers athletes of all levels the opportunity to further their athletic and academic goals at the collegiate level, whether it's competing in the NAIA or a Power Five (ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12, SEC) school.

Interested in getting recruited like Ethan? Sign up for Streamline Athletes Plus.