AZ linebacker names top five

One of the elite linebackers in the West region for the class of 2006 is Phoenix (Ariz.) St. Mary's athlete Keaton Kristick. Kristick, 6-3, 220 pounds is one of the top prospects in Arizona and has five solid offers at this time.

Kristick was a tackling machine a year ago totaling 100 tackles, 20 for loss with 10 quarterback sacks. He earned 1st team all-region and honorable mention all-state honors for his efforts and colleges from all over the region have taken notice.

"Keaton has written offers from Oregon State, Northwestern, Cal, Colorado State and UTEP," Keaton's father Kevin said. "Boise State, Utah and San Diego State have offered verbally but not in writing yet. Keaton is open to a lot of schools but his top five right now would be in no order Oregon State, Cal, Northwestern, UCLA and Colorado.

"Like I said though, there are a lot of other schools in consideration and a school like Stanford could easily jump in to the mix and replace one of those schools currently in his top five."

Kristick will be in Oregon this weekend for the Nike camp and will also camp with Colorado on June 25. Academically he's carrying a 3.2 GPA and will take the SAT later in the year.