NEWS: Ares Reading (Transfer) & Alex Miley (Grad Transfer) to Finish Eligibility at Santa Clara

Santa Clara University has announced that Furman's Ares Reading will be transferring into the program. The Broncos will also be the recipients of Duke's Alex Miley, a graduate transfer.

Reading, who has run for the Furman Paladins since the fall of 2019, will be transferring to Santa Clara with two seasons of eligibility remaining in cross country and three seasons of eligibility remaining in both indoor track and outdoor track.

Miley, meanwhile, took a gap year following the 2021 outdoor track season.

He is expected to join the Santa Clara men next fall with at least one full year of eligibility across all three seasons. This extra eligibility can be attributed to the 2020 fall season and the 2021 winter season not counting against an athlete's eligibility tally.

Both Reading and Miley are two very promising additions for the Broncos.

Reading has recorded marks of 4:06 (mile), 8:12 (3k) and 14:05 (5k) during his time with the Paladins. He has also posted a handful of strong cross country finishes, placing 12th at the FSU XC Open (where he was a key scorer) and 89th at the Joe Piane Invitational.

Reading has also made two appearances at the NCAA XC Championships with his team.

In high school, Reading was not only one of the better high school cross country talents in the state of Colorado, but he was also one of the best in the nation. In his final high school cross country season, Reading placed 17th at the NXN Championships and 19th at the Foot Locker XC National Championships.

We then come to Miley, an NCAA veteran from Duke who is a major asset to have on any track and field roster, specifically for his steeplechase prowess.

Miley has run 3:44 for 1500 meters and 8:10 for 3000 meters. However, the steeplechase is clearly the strongest event on his resume, boasting a personal best mark of 8:32 from last spring. Prior to the NCAA regional and national meets, Miley was ranked at NCAA #3 in the steeplechase.

This isn't the first time that the Santa Clara men have been active (and successful) in the transfer portal.

Alex Scales, for instance, was previously at Colorado where he had limited success. That, however, changed last spring when he ran 1:49 for the 800 meters and snuck into the NCAA West Regional Championships.

Teammate Kyle Johnson was originally at Pepperdine University. In his two years with the Pepperdine men, he never ran under 15:00 for 5000 meters.

Nowadays, he owns a personal best of 14:23.

And how could we forget about Henry Raymond? After previously competing for Dartmouth, the distance standout moved to Arizona State where he actually didn't record a single result. Now, the 4:02 miler and top cross country runner has taken his talents to Santa Clara.

The latest addition of Reading to Santa Clara's roster will bolster this team's presence in cross country and add to the top-level depth to this distance roster.

However, Furman will likely miss the potential scoring replacement that Reading could have been for soon-to-be-gone seniors like Daniel Bernal and Aaron Wier.

Miley, meanwhile, will be a valuable replacement for 8:42 steeplechaser Zach Litoff who could finish his outdoor track eligibility after this upcoming spring season.

Watch out for Santa Clara moving forward. They are slowly building a roster that is loaded with a few underrated names...