Green Bay-area high school athletes make college plans official on signing day

Jordan Escobar-Goral believed after the WIAA state track and field meet last year that a collegiate career might be possible. The Green Bay Preble senior was part of a talented 3,200-meter relay team that finished runner-up in Division 1, just 0. 42 seconds behind state champion Mequon Homestead.

Escobar-Goral posted a 1-minute, 53-second split in the event that day. “That’s where it really started for me, I started taking it a lot more seriously,” he said. Whatever he did, it worked.

Escobar-Goral signed a letter of intent during spring signing day May 6 to compete at NCAA Division I University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. UWM started to speak with Escobar-Goral in the winter, and while a few other schools were interested, nobody provided the opportunity the Panthers did. When the team extended him an offer last month, it only took about a week to accept even without taking an official visit to the campus.

“It obviously means a whole lot to me,” said Escobar-Goral, who also is a talented forward in soccer and was a second-team all-conference pick in the Fox River Classic as a senior in 2025. “Especially just with how much help financially I am getting from this and getting to do what I love, running track. It just means the world to me.