California State University, Bakersfield has announced that head swimming & diving coach Chris Hansen will not return as the program’s director next season. He will retire from collegiate coaching after 17 years leading the program.

“We appreciate Chris for his many years of service to CSUB,” said Kyle Conder, Assistant Vice President and Director of Athletics. “We wish him well in his future endeavors.”

The school’s press release did not reference Hansen being on paid administrative leave since returning from the Big West Championships in February.

his past season, the Roadrunner women’s team placed 5th out of six teams at the 2025 Big West Championships, while the men finished 5th out of five teams, with junior Vili Sivec winning conference titles in the men’s 100 and 200 fly.

Following the Big West meet, CSUB sent Sivec to the Bulldog NCAA Qualifying Meet, where he set a new school record in the 100 free in a time of 41.98, which ultimately saw him fall short of the NCAA Championship cutline by three one-hundredths of a second.

Sivec also set new school records in the 50 free (19.27), 200 free (1:33.48), 100 fly (45.61) and 200 fly (1:43.13) during the season.

In 2023-24, CSUB competed at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships, with the women placing 5th out of 10 teams and the men taking 6th out of seven teams.

In 2019-20, the team’s last season in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), Hansen coached Autumn D’Arcy to three individual conference titles, earning her WAC Swimmer of the Year honors, while Mikayla Popham won Freshman of the Year honors.

In 2014 and 2015, he coached Mitchell Huxhold as the school’s first NCAA Division I Championships qualifier. He earned an All-America honor in 2014 by finishing 16th in the 500 free and was named the WAC Male Athlete of the Year honor across all sports.

Hansen is also the managing director of Roadrunner Aquatics, a USA Swimming team based in Bakersfield.

Prior to taking over at CSUB, Hansen spend four seasons as the head assistant coach at the University of North Carolina, and as the head assistant coach at UNLV. He also spent two seasons as the head coach at Virginia Tech, including being named the 1998 Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year.

Other collegiate stops include as the head assistant at East Carolina, and brief stints as an assistant at UNC and Villanova.

Pornpun Guedpard, the veteran athlete and captain of the Thai women’s national volleyball team, was selected as Thailand’s representative at the press conference ahead of the 2025 Volleyball Nations League (VNL).

The first round of the tournament will be held from June 4-8 at the National Indoor Stadium in Beijing, China.

At the press conference, one athlete from each country took the stage, surrounded by media representatives from around the world. The head coach of the Chinese national team, the host of the first round, also spoke at the opening, setting the tone for the intense international competition ahead.

Pornpun discussed the opening match between Thailand and Poland on June 4, saying:

“We play against Poland often every year, and we always try to give our best performance. Poland is one of the top teams in the world, and we always gain valuable experience when we face them.

What we learn from these encounters is not only about technical skills but also mental strength. Sometimes we perform well, and other times we make mistakes, but we learn from each match against Poland.”

Five Wildcats qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championship on Saturday on the final day of the NCAA West Preliminary at E.B. Cushing Stadium in Bryan-College Station, Texas.

Senior Shalom Olotu qualified for her second event at nationals in the women’s triple jump, juniors Sharie Enoe and Tamaiah Koonce each earned bids in the women’s high jump and discus, respectively, while fellow juniors Safhia Hinds and Jourdin Edwards collected nods in the women’s 400-meter hurdles.

In case you missed it, Marquette Golden Eagles volleyball had a coaching change this offseason. Ryan Theis took the head coaching job at Florida, and so Marquette hired Tom Mendoza away from South Carolina, fresh off a season where he beat those same Gators on the way to constructing an NCAA Tournament caliber resume.

Of course, this change does lead to a certain amount of questions as to whether or not the recruiting class that Theis assembled before his departure would remain signed and schedule to play for Marquette. Three of the expected incoming freshmen — Isabela Haggard, Mari King, and Keira Schmidt — were already enrolled at Marquette for the spring semester when Theis left for Gainesville, while three more were expected to arrive in Milwaukee in time for preseason training in August.

I felt pretty confident that the three enrolled freshmen were going to stick around as all three played in the spring match against Wisconsin, a couple of months after Theis left. It stands to reason that if they were planning on moving on, they wouldn’t be trying to help Mendoza figure out how they fit into his plans for the 2025 season.

And so, when Marquette posted this “congrats on your graduations!” item on Instagram, it wasn’t a surprise to see Haggard, King, and Schmidt in there.

I’m not going to call it a surprise that we also see Avery Helms, Annika Kowalski, and Emma Parks in the collection of pictures. But we can call it confirmation that all three of the summer enrollees are still on board with suiting up in blue and gold. I didn’t have any evidence at this point to suggest differently, but it wouldn’t have been the weirdest thing in the world if they had elected to move on without Theis coaching the team any more.

That wraps up almost all the questions about the roster. Elena Radeff is still an outstanding question, as she was announced as an incoming transfer while Theis was still the head coach. Again, no evidence to suggest that she is electing to go elsewhere, but also no positive confirmation that she’s still headed to Milwaukee in about 8 weeks.

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