Former teammates Tillie Smith and Cleao Murray will be reunited again in the fall of 2025.
Smith, a senior-to-be guard at Ankeny Centennial, has committed to play basketball at Grand View. One of the Vikings’ current stars is Murray, who will be a junior this fall.
Both Murray and Smith played on the 2021-22 Ankeny Centennial team that posted a 20-4 record. Murray was a senior who earned all-state honors after setting a single-season school record with 352 points, while Smith played in 11 games as a freshman reserve.
“I talked to Cleao a lot about (Grand View) and asked her a lot of questions, which really helped me with my decision,” said Smith.
Smith averaged 5.8 points while starting all 23 games as a junior. She helped the Jaguars to a 14-9 record and a trip to the Class 5A state tournament.
Smith led the team with 38 3-point goals, shooting 32.2 percent from behind the arc. She earned all-conference honorable mention in the CIML Conference.
“There were a lot of schools that I looked at going to, but I had to tell them about my commitment to Grand View,” Smith said. “It was such a hard decision for me! But I liked seeing the campus, the coaches are amazing, and they have a good weightlifting program it seems like, which makes me excited for sure.”
