BREAKING: Flagstaff's Yohannes Van Meerten commits to the University of Oregon
Yohannes Van Meerten of Flagstaff High School announced his commitment to the University of Oregon on Monday, April 6th via his personal Instagram. The Nike Cross Nationals runner-up chose Oregon over North Carolina, BYU, Oklahoma State, Wake Forrest, and Florida.
Van Meerten adds a valuable piece to Oregon’s domestic cross country recruiting, picking up the #1 ranked junior in the country. Van Meerten is the first signee of Oregon’s distance class from the 2027 high school graduating class.
The pinpoint of Van Meerten’s dominant cross country season was his second place finish at Nike Cross Nationals, falling just behind BYU commit Jackson Spencer. Van Meerten later finished 4th at the Brooks Cross Country National Championships a week after. He also set the Cave Creek Golf Course state meet record at the AIA DII Cross Country state championships in 14:56.2, taking down the legendary Billy Orman’s 15 year old course record of 15:03.32.
Other highlights from his historic cross country season included winning the Mt. SAC Cross Country Invitational, runner-up the Desert Twilight XC Festival, as well as wins at the Western Equinox and Peaks invitationals.
The Ducks recently finished 5th at the NCAA Cross Country Championships in Columbia, Missouri. They also won the 2025 Big 10 Cross Country Championships and the West Regional Championship. They had three All-Americans on the grass, with Abdel Laadjel finishing 9th, Aiden Smith finishing 25th, and Simeon Birnbaum finishing 33rd. Birnbaum also recently finished runner-up to NAU’s Colin Sahlman in the NCAA Indoor 3000m national championship.
Other notable commits headed to Eugne this fall are Iowa high school standouts Quentin Nauman and Caleb Ten Pas who are class of 2026 signees.
Van Meerten finished 4th in the NBNI championships 2 mile in 8:53.13 last month, while also opening his outdoor season last week at the Scottsdale Distance Classic posting a 4:13.3 over 1600m for a 4th place finish. He looks to improve on his 8th place finish in the AIA Open State Championships in the 3200m, while also looking to take a strike at Bernie Montoya’s 3200m state record in 8:47.07.
