PELLA — The Central College track and field program will have another sizable group headed to the 2025 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships next weekend.

The national meet is to be held in Geneva, Ohio at the Spire Institute next Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The Dutch have eight individuals qualified across seven events..

Olivia Bohlen (junior, Belle Plaine) enters No. 3 in the women’s heptathlon with 5,045 points. Peyton Steffen (junior, Marion) is No. 4 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (10 minutes, 33.21 seconds) and No. 18 in the 5,000 meters (16:42.09)

Kale Hobart (sophomore, Mason City) qualified second in the men’s decathlon with 6,922 points. Reid Pakkebier (senior, Cedar Rapids, Kennedy HS) is also in the decathlon, entering 17th with 6,366 points). The Dutch men also have a pair of athletes in the 110-meter hurdles. Gunner Meyer (junior, Fairbank, Wapsie Valley HS) is No. 6 (14.10 seconds) and Grant Miller (junior, Norwalk) is No. 13 (14.20 seconds).

Men’s triple jumper Kale Purcell (senior, Holton, Kan.) is the No. 16 qualifier with a mark of 48 feet, 6.25 inches.). Jack Brown (sophomore, Norwalk) was the 21st qualifier in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (8:57.83).

 

Central College NCAA Championships schedule of events

Thursday, May 23 (times are EST)

11:30 a.m. – men’s decathlon (100-meter dash)

12:30 p.m. – women’s heptathlon (110-meter hurdles)

12:15 p.m. – men’s decathlon (long jump)

1:15 p.m. – women’s heptathlon (high jump)

1:25 p.m. – men’s decathlon (shot put)

2:45 p.m. – men’s decathlon (high jump)

3:10 p.m. – women’s heptathlon (shot put)

4:30 p.m. – women’s heptathlon (200-meter dash)

4:40 p.m. – men’s decathlon (400-meter dash)

5:35 p.m. – men’s 1500 meters (prelims)

7:10 p.m. – men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase (prelims)

7:35 p.m. – women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase (prelims)

 

Friday, May 24 (times are EST)

10 a.m. – men’s decathlon (110-meter hurdles)

10:45 a.m. – men’s decathlon (discus throw)

11 a.m. – women’s heptathlon (long jump)

Noon – men’s decathlon (pole vault)

12:15 p.m. – women’s heptathlon (javelin throw)

2:10 p.m. – men’s 110-meter hurdles (prelims)

2:45 p.m. – men’s decathlon (javelin throw)

2:45 p.m. – women’s heptathlon (800 meters)

4:30 p.m. – men’s decathlon (1500 meters)

4:40 p.m. – men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase (finals)

4:55 p.m. – women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase (finals)

Saturday, May 25 (times are EST)

11 a.m. – men’s triple jump (prelims and finals)

1:25 p.m. – men’s 1500 meters (prelims)

2:10 p.m. – men’s 110-meter hurdles (finals)

4:25 p.m. – women’s 5000 meters (final)

 

“I have two almost 4-year-olds, and I’m quite powerful and influential in certain circles, but not with two 4-year-olds,” says Joel Edgerton. “Kids run their own country, in a way.”

Edgerton’s been thinking a lot lately about those nascent years before entering adulthood thanks to his latest project, The Plague, which looks at the complicated and occasionally terrifying social dynamics of kids — specifically adolescent boys.

The feature debut of director Charlie Polinger, the film is set in the world of a competitive water polo summer camp, focusing primarily on the dynamic within a group of 12- and 13-year-old boys who have ostracized one camper because he has “the plague,” a nasty-looking case of eczema. One camper, Ben (Everett Blunck), struggles between his desire to help the outcast camper and his worry about incurring the wrath of the larger group. In the film, Edgerton plays the well-meaning if ineffective water polo coach.

“In the age of renewed questions about and considerations of the manosphere, The Plague is a prescient title,” wrote THR critic Lovia Gyarkye in her review of the film, which is quickly becoming one of the stand-outs of the fest.

Beyond displaying considerable range as an actor in everything from Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby to Paul Schrader’s The Master Gardener and George Clooney’s The Boys in the Boat, Edgerton is also a filmmaker — he received a DGA nom for first-time director for his 2015 thriller The Gift, which he also wrote and starred in.

Ahead of Cannes 2025, where The Plague is set to screen in the Un Certain Regard section, Edgerton talked to THR about the inherent horror of being a preteen: “I’ve often said about school experience that it’s like a documentary where you’re watching a depleting watering hole in the African savanna.”

What drew you to a story that is focused on a gaggle of 13-year-olds?

I’m really interested in this idea of when do we become responsible adults. There is an untethered, unchecked period of our life, even though we have parents, we have teachers and, in this case, camp counselors. There’s a nature in children that is natural, that can be beautiful or can be dark. It’s through a passage of experiential moments that we learn what makes others around us feel good, and therefore how that reflects our own character and that shapes who we are. I thought the journey within this film of the central character was a really, really interesting universal exploration of how we shape ourselves in the world. I just wanted to help make sure that the movie got made.

What was it about the script that had you saying, “I want to help it get made”?

There’s a real careful attention and accuracy to how children — while they might be terrible at understanding the ramifications or the collateral damage that they can cause — are excellent at socio-diplomacy. They learn where to position themselves within a flock or a herd. They understand hierarchy. They understand what is dangerous and what is safe. Whether we believe those instincts and cues to be good ones, they very quickly discern where they need to stand and with whom. Ben’s journey is about understanding that it’s dangerous to be caring towards the ostracized, wounded member of the group, but his nature draws him in that direction and draws him into the danger as well.

There is the old adage in film about not working with kids and animals, but in this movie, you are only working with kids. How did you find the experience?

I always marvel at kids, whatever the ages of kids that I’ve worked with. You’ll work with a child who’s never been in a film before and you’ll learn something from them. Kayo [Martin], who plays the bully, he could run rings around me to the point where we would shoot things, and when the lines were blurred, I wanted to throttle him. He knew that his job was just to be cocky to everybody, and so he didn’t stop with me. I don’t just look upwards to the older, wiser actors. There’s something to be learned from everybody. It’s very impressive, too, on Charlie’s side, to create the sense of danger for the character of Ben. Intention and effect are different things. I might say something just to make my friends laugh at me that really hurts you. I think there is a real accuracy and detail within that for the film. It’s not just like bullies going, “I’m going to be mean.” It’s “I’m being mean because I’m trying to survive.” For Kayo’s character, his way of surviving is to be the leader of a group.

When you put it like that, being a kid is pretty Darwinian.

The adult world has its own governing set of rules, and we impose those on our own children, supposedly to show them the ropes to the world that they’re about to take a hold of. But children have their own language, their own rules. They create them. They create their own society. Then an adult, like my character, becomes a foreigner within their country.

You are really the only adult in the film. What did you see as your character’s position in the middle of the kids’ dynamic?

Adults can hover around a camp or a school or a household, but they can’t be all knowing and all seeing. Their advice or their own experience can reflect or offer wisdom, but it doesn’t necessarily help when you’re living in the pain of something. Ben may remember my character as Charlie remembers his experience 30 years later, but I can guarantee it’s hard to receive all of that parental wisdom or teacherly wisdom when you’re in the midst of the turmoil of living in a nation of children. This was the closest thing I’d ever read to a Lord of the Flies type scenario — a society built and run and organized by children. I’ve been a big fan of movies like Thirteen in the past, because they’re like a peephole or a window into a life we don’t get to experience once we’re of a certain age. We don’t know how kids talk when they’re with each other. I think we’re all scared of them. I think we’re scared of youth.

There are times where the movie feels like a true horror film, like there is something audiences should be truly afraid of onscreen.

I’ve often said about the school experience that it’s like a documentary where you’re watching a depleting watering hole in the African savanna, crocodiles, and there’s a baby antelope and everything in between. It’s a dangerous place, and anything can happen. There’s something really Full Metal Jacket about this movie. There are similar tones to this.

I thought the choice of setting it inside a water polo camp was interesting. What did you think of having it set in that world specifically?

It could have been anything. It could be a tennis camp, gymnastics or whatever the culture. The specificity of that culture, cinematically, is beautiful, and the confines of being in one swim center and the danger of the water is very potent. Through the experience, I was just thinking back to so many experiences of my own as a child and everyone on the crew was talking about that stuff. Childhood is full of sentimental, beautiful memories, but it’s also full of crazy trauma. Those things diminish over time, we move on, and events get swallowed up, but they’ve all made their little kind of scars.

ATHENS, Ohio – Senior Emma Vorpagel led the way for the Northern Illinois University women’s track and field team on Friday in the second day of competition at the 2025 Mid-American Conference Track & Field Championships at Goldberry Track in Athens, Ohio.
 
Vorpagel (Hartland, Wis./Arrowhead HS) ran a time of 2:10.61 in the 800-meter preliminaries to qualify for Saturday’s final with the seventh fastest time. She will run in the finals at 1:50 p.m. (CT) on Saturday.  
 
Also on the track for NIU on Friday, Talayssia Sanders (Waco, Texas/Waco Connally HS) ran a season-best time of 56.22 in the 400-meter dash to place ninth, just one spot out of qualifying for the finals. Sanders came into the meet with the 13th best time in the MAC.
 
The Huskies’ Stella Oyebode (Nigeria) and Sam Huber (Villingendorf, Germany) did not advance out of their heats to the finals in the 100 meters.
 
NIU returns to action at the MAC Championships at 11:30 a.m. (CT) Saturday beginning with action in the triple jump with women’s running events scheduled to start at 12:10 p.m. with the 4 x 100-meter relay.  Click here to follow live results.
 
FRIDAY HUSKIE RESULTS
2025 MAC Championships
Athens, Ohio – Goldberry Track
 
800-meter Run (Prelims)
7. Emma Vorpagel – 2:10 .61 (qualifies for final)
 
400-meter Dash (Prelims)
9. Talayssia Sanders – 56.22
 
100-meter Dash (Prelims)
21. Stella Oyebode – 12.07
23. Sam Huber – 12.15
 
Long Jump
20. Precious Umukoro – 3.63m/11-11
 
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INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.—Babson College graduate student Anthony Rodriguez (Prairie View, Ill.) was officially selected to participate in in the NCAA Division III Championships on Friday night. 

Rodriguez, who earned All-America second-team honors last season, will compete in the men’s 10,000-meter run for the second year in a row. He placed 12th last season with a time of 31:24.63 in Myrtle Beach, S.C. 

Rodriguez achieved his 2025 qualifying time of 29:43.74, which ranks 14th among the 22 athletes selected, at the Raleigh Relays back on March 27. The time is also just 0.13 seconds off of his school record set back in 2024. 

One of the most decorated athletes in program history, Rodriguez owns five of the top six times in the 10,000 meters and also is the school-record holder in the 5,000 meters. He captured his fourth title in the 10k at the NEWMAC Championships back in late April and is a two-time conference track athlete of the year and seven-time all-conference honoree. 

Additionally, Rodriguez also qualified for the NCAA Cross Country Championships three times and finished 38th at the 2024 meet to become the first All-American in program history. 

The 2025 NCAA Division III Championships will be held at the SPIRE Academy Outdoor Track & Field Complex in Geneva, Ohio, with the men’s 10,000-meter run set for 8:30 p.m. on Thursday.