DURHAM, N.C. / GREENSBORO, N.C. – The High Point University men’s and women’s track and field teams competed in-state at two meets over the weekend. The men’s and women’s pole vault teams competed at the Aggie Classic hosted by NC A&T on Friday while the rest of the team competed at the Duke Twilight at Duke University on Sunday.
 
At the Aggie Classic, Jackson Toumey placed first with a 5.05m clearance and Gabe Imery placed third with a 4.55m height. For the women, HPU had six of the eight competitors represented as Sydney Horn and Emily Romano placed first and second with heights of 4.18m and 4.08m.
 
At the Duke Twilight, the High Point men’s 4x100m relay team opened the meet with a second-place finish behind Duke, breaking 39 seconds for the second time this season. The group consisted of Myles Darroch, Dominiq Northington, Marquis Belle and Keshon Sapp.
 
In the men’s 100m hurdles, two Panthers placed in the top 10 including Northington and Antonio Votour in fifth and sixth respectively. They both clocked a 14.22 time as Votour recorded a new personal best.
 
In the women’s 400m race, Dae’Nitra Hester represented the Panthers and earned fifth place with a 54.12 time. On the men’s side in the 400m, Tim Brown broke the High Point program record again with a 46.50 time to take home gold. Darroch also placed in the top 10 with a 48.07 time.
 
Quiana Williams crossed the finish line in the women’s 100m dash in seventh place with an 11.58 time.
 
In the men’s 800m, Camerin Williams ran in heat one and finished in seventh pace overall with a 1:49.64 time.
 
Allon Sweeney clocked a new personal best in the men’s 400m hurdles to place in the top 10.
 
Hester and Williams later competed in the women’s 200m dash and placed in 10th  and 11th respectively. The men’s side looked similar as Northington and Brown also placed 10th and 11th respectively.
 
Although Graham Ferguson did not finish in the top 10 in the men’s 1500m, he still managed to break the High Point program record with a 3:41.35 time. He ranks 60th overall in the East Region.
 
Aiden Morrison went to work in the men’s 3000m steeplechase. His new person best 8:58.39 time earned a sixth place finish.
 
Closing out the late night on the track at the Twilight Relays, Steinau ran a season-best in the men’s 5000m and registered a 14:18.33 for eighth place overall.
 
In the field events at Duke, High Point’s Alex Hoffman placed seventh in the men’s hammer throw with a 58.51 throw. In the women’s shot put, Elise Magaard placed 10th with a 12.14m throw.
 
Continuing the throwing events, two Panthers placed in the top 10 in the women’s javelin including Moriah Evans and Addison Freeland. Evans threw 41.56m and Freeland threw 40.01m. For the men, three Panthers placed sixth through eighth, including Drew Noblet, Jake Gherardi, and Justin Sluijter.
 
In the jumping events, Sluijter took home another first place title in the men’s long jump in back-to-back weeks and jumped 7.53m. Gianna Paul placed fifth in the women’s long jump and registered a 5.83m jump. In the men’s high jump, Shaun Thomas placed second clearing 2.06m and Alex Constantinou placed sixth clearing 2.01m.
 
In the women’s pole vault, Aurian Viola placed sixth clearing a season-best 4.09m. In the men’s pole vault, Toumey placed third in his second meet this weekend clearing 5.11m.
 
UP NEXT:
High Point will travel to Lynchburg, Va. for a mid-week meet at Liberty University for the Liberty Twilight. The meet will take place on Tuesday, May 6.
 

#GoHPU x #DefendTheTeam

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Following one of the best seasons in program history, Cal Poly beach volleyball dominated both conference and national award lists.

Four Mustangs earned All-American praise, with Cal Poly joining No. 3 UCLA, No. 5 USC, and No. 2 Stanford as one of four teams in the NCAA with four honorees.

10 Mustangs also received All-Big West Honors, the most out of any team in the conference.

Cal Poly’s No. 1 pair of senior Piper Ferch and sophomore Erin Inskeep led the Mustangs this year, two of sixteen athletes to secure First Team All-Americans this year. 

This is the second time the pair has received All-American recognition, the two earning Second Team All-Americans following a 30-win season in 2024.

The No. 2 pair junior Izzy Martinez and sophomore Logan Walter earned Second Team All-Americans following a strong season on the sand. Martinez’s All-American honors are her second in her Cal Poly career, with Walter winning the award for the first time.

Mustangs have also had four players recognized as AVCA All-Americans for the second straight year.

Big West Honors

Ferch and Inskeep’s stellar season also netted the pair First Team All-Big West Honors. 

The duo were one of the top pairs in the nation, becoming the winningest duo in program history in a historic season. Ferch and Inskeep held a record of 28-7 this season and are currently sitting at 60 total career wins following Saturday’s loss against No. 1 ranked TCU in the NCAA semifinals.

This is the fourth year in a row in which Ferch has earned the honor and Inskeep’s second. 

A new pair this season, Martinez and Walter also received First Team All-Big West Honors.

Martinez and Walter were nearly on equal footing with their No. 1 counterparts this season. The pair won nine matches in a row at one point in 2025 and built up a season record of 29-7. 

The award marks Martinez’s third consecutive season receiving First Team All-Big West Honors and Walter’s first.

Redshirt junior Ella Connor was the lone Mustang recipient of Second Team All-Big West Honors, having gone 25-9 throughout the season with several different partners. This is the third time in Connors’ career in which she has received All-Big West Honors.

Sophomore Quinn Perry, graduate student Lindsey Sparks, senior Madison Nichols, and freshman Elise Lenahan were all named to the All-Big West Honorable Mentions.

In addition to earning an All-Big West Honorable Mention, Lenahan and freshman Maddy Byrne were both recipients of the Big West All-Freshman Team.

Cal Poly will look to continue to build off their individual and team success next season, having finished as NCAA semifinalists for the second year running.

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Bellarmine University track and field on Friday and Saturday completed the outdoor regular season after competing in the University of Kentucky’s Jim Green Invitational.

Sophomore Alex Cole placed fourth in the men’s discus (47.16) while junior Zander Hooten was fifth in the 400 hurdles (54.21) and junior Jackson Gordon was sixth in the 400 (48.12).

Freshman Will Bracher placed in the top half of the shot in 10th (15.74) while senior Nolan Hester (17th, 3:49.41), junior Chase Atkins (25th, 3:52.77) and sophomore Chase Austin (27th, 3:52.82) all finished in the upper half of the 1500.

Junior Alysia Hurtado placed in the top tier of the women’s hammer throw in 13th (48.64).

Bellarmine will compete May 15-17 in the ASUN Outdoor Championship hosted by North Florida in Jacksonville.

For more coverage of Bellarmine athletics, follow BUKnights on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and Facebook.

 

 

 

East Beach may be a playground, but twin sisters Kelly and Lisa Strand had to work their way there a half-century ago.

They’d follow their older siblings by riding their bikes for six miles, packing nothing but a sack lunch and the hunger to play some beach volleyball.

“We wouldn’t even bring a towel, just an apple and a peanut butter sandwich,” recalled Kelly, who was a junior-high teen at the time. “We’d stay all day.”

Older brother Warren and sister Kathy were often already there.

They’d be holding court with such local volleyball gentry as Karch Kiraly, a future Olympic gold medalist in both the indoor and beach games.

It took countless hours of playing and pestering before the little sisters were included with all the “Queen Kathies of the Beach”: Kathy Gregory, Kathy Hanley and sister Kathy Strand.

“There was definitely a pecking order,” Lisa told Noozhawk. “We worked hard to get to play on the big girl court.

“We’d beg people to let us play. Thank God we were twins because we always had each other to play with.”

Lisa and Kelly will be paired again later this month when the Friends of East Beach Association dedicates “The Strand Court” in their honor.

The festivities will be held at Court No. 3 beginning at 10 a.m. May 31.

The organization has dedicated itself to improving the 16 permanent courts at East Beach. It renovated the first one in the name of the late Henry Bergmann in 2010.

Other courts have been named in honor of Kiraly, siblings John and Kathy Hanley, Gregory, Paul Hodgert and Jon Lee.

“It’s a pretty proud moment for us,” said Kelly, who’s now known by her married name of Kelly Van Winden. “It’s really cool because the name of the court will be The Strand Court.

“I just love that my family gets to be honored.”

Don of an Era

She and Lisa caught the volleyball bug while watching their siblings star for coach Rick Olmstead’s indoor teams at Santa Barbara High School.

Brother Warren played with Kiraly and Hanley on the Dons’ CIF-Southern Section championship boys team of 1978.

“We’d go and watch all those games as the tag-along, little sisters,” Kelly said. “It was so much fun.

“Warren and our sister, Kathy, were really good friends with Karch. They were always together, all three of those guys.”

Their father, Leon Strand, even hired Kiraly to help dig the foundation for their house.

“Our dad was the one who was always driving us to the beach or taking us to the park for tennis lessons,” Kelly said. “He taught us how to swim.

“He wanted us to be active, and all of that.”

Their father, who died last October, also took them sailing, skiing, and even backpacking in the mountain ranges of the High Sierra.

“He got us involved with a youth church group,” Lisa said. “He was trying to raise us up right and keep us out of trouble, so he kept us busy.

“We all had to get jobs pretty young … He had us pay for all our shoes and skis.”

He also facilitated their passion for volleyball.

“We’d stay up late in the front yard rallying, so our dad set up a night light,” Lisa said. “With only one volleyball, we had to wait till Warren and Kathy were done to go out and rally.”

Kelly and Lisa, like their older siblings, played for Olmstead at Santa Barbara High. They were both named to the All-CIF Southern Section Division 4A First Team during their senior season in the autumn of 1980.

“I don’t remember how far we went into the CIF playoffs every year, but I do remember all the fun we had and what great shape we were in,” Lisa said. “Our biggest rival was San Marcos.

“We’d go to Frimple’s for breakfast and do car rallies down State Street prior to those games.”

Girls volleyball at that time was in only its ninth year of sanction by the California Interscholastic Federation.

“I didn’t even recognize how lucky I was at the time, I was just riding the wave,” Kelly said. “It was like these doors opened and I just walked through them.

“I’m not saying that it didn’t come with hard work — the drive to play the game came from inside — but I had no idea about all of that.”

The twins also had no clue that volleyball could be the path to a college scholarship. Olmstead took them aside after their senior season to show them an envelope full of recruiting letters that had been addressed to them.

“He told us, ‘I want you to look through this … You can go to college to play volleyball,’” Kelly said. “We were like, ‘What are you talking about? Are you crazy?’

“We had no idea. We were just playing the game.”

The Next Level

Kelly first went to UC Santa Barbara, serving as a team captain her sophomore season, before transferring to Cal Poly.

She earned first-team all-league honors in 1984 and led the Mustangs to a 32-8 record and the championship of the Pacific Coast Athletic Association. (The league was later renamed as the Big West Conference).

Lisa, a versatile middle blocker, enjoyed even greater success at the University of Hawai‘i, earning All-America honors in both 1982 and 1983 while leading the Rainbow Wahine to back-to-back NCAA championships.

But both twins were just getting started with their lives in volleyball.

Kelly competed on the Women’s Professional Volleyball Association beach circuit for more than a decade, finishing as high as third in the Austin, Texas, event.

She also played two seasons with Major League Volleyball’s San José Golddiggers and four more on the four-person Bud Light Pro Beach Tour. She served as captain of the 1993-1994 championship team.

Kelly also coached at Napa Valley College as well as at Sonoma State College, earning three coach of the year honors.

Lisa, like her sister, competed in both Major League Volleyball and on the Bud Light circuit. She also played on the Association of Volleyball Professionals Tour.

She partnered with Janice Opalinski in 1990 to win the AVP’s Salem Fresh Tokyo Tournament — the richest tour event of that year.

They also got busy starting families.

Kelly married her college sweetheart, Cal Poly basketball player Jim Van Winden. Their daughters, Adlee and Torrey, both earned AVCA All-America honors at their parents’ alma mater.

“Much as we exposed our kids to other things, they chose the sport,” Kelly said. “We sort of led them all away from it, but at the same time they all chased it … They all fell in love with it.”

Torrey now plays on the AVP Tour with cousin Katie Spieler, Kathy’s daughter.

Her sister, now known by the married name of Adlee Kass, also still plays volleyball and is expecting her first child this summer.

“She plans on playing six months pregnant in the Santa Barbara Open,” Kelly said.

Lisa and former University of Hawai‘i men’s volleyball star Pono Ma’a are the parents of four former collegiate volleyball stars: Misty (Miami), Micah (UCLA), Mehana (UCSB) and Maluhia (Kent State).

Micah Ma’a made the Men’s National Team as a setter and helped the United States win a bronze medal at last summer’s Olympic Games in Paris.

“I went to Paris with Warren, Kathy and Kelly,” said Lisa, who’s served as a color analyst the last two decades for University Hawai‘i volleyball telecasts.

“We spent 12 days there and it was the most incredible trip I’ve ever been on.”

She claims that watching her children play volleyball doesn’t make her nervous even when an Olympic medal is at stake.

“I am just happy that they loved the sport,” Lisa said.

Beach Party

East Beach has always been their happy place.

Kelly and Jim even held their wedding reception at a venue that overlooked the area.

“East Beach was just such a comfortable place to be,” Kelly said. “It was like my backyard growing up.

“We’d go down there without a towel … Lie in the sand … Then we’d dive into the ocean, come back out, and lie in the sand once more to get warm.”

Lisa recalls that time as “those lazy, crazy days when all you’d do is play and then swim in the ocean.”

“It was like our yard … Our front yard and our back yard,” she said. “We lived to go down there and play.”

She also remembers how satisfying it was when they were accepted by the older players.

“If you lost, you had to wait like forever to get another chance,” Lisa explained, “so it helped with our motivation, and trained us to always win.”

Kelly, who still coaches aspiring players on the sand court that Jim built in their backyard, said “all those women at East Beach have no idea of how influential they were, and in so many ways.”

“They were so wonderful and kind, 99% of the time, to everybody in my family,” she said. “That was pretty huge.”

And it’s something she and her sister have devoted themselves to paying back, over and over again.

Durham, NH – The UMBC men’s outdoor track and field squad finished as the runner-up at the 2025 America East Championships this past weekend at New Hampshire University. The result is UMBC’s best since the 2017 season and the seventh time they have finished second since joining the league in 2004.

UMBC recorded 145 points, finished only behind UAlbany (163.50), and took the gold medal in three different events. Sophomore Alpha Balde set a new meet record in the 200-meter dash, junior losif Papa won the discus, and the Retrievers’ 4 x 800 relay also took first.

Balde, who also grabbed the silver medal in the 100-meter dash at 10:53, turned in the second-fastest time in program history (David Bobb, 20.63) with a time of 20.81 to take the 200-meter dash.

Papa’s throw of 56.65 meters (185’10”) in the discus gave him his second career gold medal at the outdoor championships.

The Retrievers struck gold in the 4 x 800 relay, with freshman Justin Banks, freshman Joseph Ensor, graduate student Mark Unger, and sophomore Tyler Edson winning by nearly two seconds.

Several Retrievers came home with silver medals over the weekend. Senior Marquis Miller grabbed second in the 400 meters (47.52), freshman John Dinnall (110 hurdles, 14.67), Ethan Hart (shot put, 16.53 meters, 54’2.75″), and senior Toren Burr (javelin, 60.77 meters, 199’4″).

UMBC’s 4 x 400 relay also finished second with a time of 40.43. The foursome comprised graduate student Jaeden Burke, Balde, Miller, and freshman Alim Raji.

Edson (800 meters, 1:48.97), Raji (200-meter dash, 21.30), and the 4 x 400 relay (3:12.36, Miller, Fred-Morgan Iheanacho, Raji, Balde) all turned in bronze medal performances. 

Unger just missed a medal with a fourth-place finish in the 1500 meters (3:54.01), as did Ensor in the 800 meters (1:49.86).