Grant duo going D-I

The balloons in Grant's athletic office were apropos, for it was a day to celebrate, particularly for the Wagner family.

On her first birthday Thursday, Becca Wagner sat in her mother's arms and watched her big sister Bailey sign a national letter of intent with Georgia Tech University.

Wagner's entire family -- dad Craig, mom Michelle, and sisters Brianna and Becca -- were on hand as both she and fellow Grant senior track-and-field star Tori Ziegler made their college intentions official.

Ziegler, who will compete for Illinois State University, was joined by her parents, Bruce and Kim.

That makes it six Division I female throwers in six years that Grant has produced. The others are Cassie Howard (Eastern Illinois), Kari Richards (Western Michigan), Danielle Eiler (East Carolina) and Cora Caulfield (Northern Illinois).

"We just follow a pattern," said Jim Cramer, Grant's head girls track coach. "We try to do the same thing every year and it's been working. It's good kids who listen. They got to believe in what they're doing."

They do, apparently.

This spring the 6-foot-1 Wagner will seek her third straight state championship in the shot put. She also finished second in the discus at state last year and was third in 2006.

In her first appearance at state last May, the 5-11 Ziegler won a sixth-place medal in the shot put and took 11th in the discus.

When it comes to their successes and Grant's amazing history of producing Division I throwers this decade, both Wagner and Ziegler credit Cramer.

"He's just an amazing coach," said Wagner, who planned to play softball her freshman year before being recruited by Cramer during the basketball season. "We've had our ups and downs, but he's just competitive and drills it into us and believes in us. He really (believes) that we can achieve what we need to achieve by hard work and dedication."

"He puts so much time into everything and makes his athletes work really hard," Ziegler said. "He really knows what he's doing."

Wagner basically could have picked where she wanted to go to college. She said last summer she and her mother went on an eight-day trip to about 10 colleges in the southeastern part of the country. Among the schools they checked out were Georgia Tech, South Carolina, Clemson, North Carolina, Duke, Austin Peay and Virginia.

"I knew I wanted to go somewhere in the ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference) because I really like it down south and I have family down there," Wagner said.

She went on an official visit to Georgia Tech late last September and had such a good vibe about the Atlanta school that she canceled a scheduled visit to Virginia. She then made a verbal commitment to the Yellow Jackets.

"I had everyone in the nation offering me," Wagner said. "I had USC, LSU. I had everyone in the ACC basically telling me I could get a full ride from anyone there. But really it was going on the campus and having that gut feeling that I needed to go there was what I was really looking for."

Before committing to Illinois State, Ziegler was also considering Wisconsin, DePaul and Oklahoma State.

She chose to become a Redbird in part because of assistant coach Jeff Chakouian, a former six-time All-American at Kentucky.

Ziegler has been throwing the shot and discus since she was a seventh-grader at Gavin South Junior High in Ingleside.

"It's really nice down there and the coach is really young and he's a thrower," Ziegler said of ISU and Chakouian. "I could learn a lot from him."