Mykolas Alekna’s legendary collegiate season will come to a close at next week’s NCAA Outdoor Championships.

T&F6/5/2025 1:16 PM | By: Cal Athletics

World Record-Holder Will Compete For NCAA Title In Eugene On June 13

The U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) announced Thursday that California track & field’s Mykolas Alekna, who owns the world record in the discus, has appeared on The Bowerman Watch List for the 23rd time in his career. This is the last watch list to be released this season for The Bowerman, which is awarded each December to the top collegiate men’s and women’s track & field athletes of the year.
 
Alekna, a two-time semifinalist for the award, hopes to advance to that group once more when the men’s honorees are announced June 26. Those 10 men will be winnowed down to three finalists, to be announced July 1.
 

The Olympic silver medalist’s outstanding season opened in April, starting with the Brutus Hamilton Invitational at Edwards Stadium in which he threw a then-world lead and ACC record of 70.09m (229-11). One week later, he traveled to Ramona, Oklahoma, and shattered his own world record twice in the same series to improve his mark to 75.56m (247-10), then started off the month of May by obliterating his own meet record with a toss of 71.29m (233-10). Alekna later won his third conference title with a meet and facility record of 69.86m (229-2) at the ACC Outdoor Championships at Wake Forest, then reset the meet and facility records at the NCAA West Regional, hosted at Texas A&M, with a mark of 72.12m (236-7) to advance to his third NCAA Outdoor Championships, which will be contested in Eugene, Oregon, from June 11-14. Over the past two months, he has been named the USTFCCCA National Men’s Athlete of the Week twice and an ACC Men’s Field Athlete of the week thrice.
 
Three men (Alekna, Ole Miss’s Tarik O’Hagan-Robinson and North Carolina’s Ethan Strand) appeared on every single Watch List this season. Of those, Alekna is the only one to do so in multiple seasons, also appearing on every Watch List in 2023.
 
The Bowerman Men’s Watch List – Pre-NCAA Outdoor Championships
Mykolas Alekna, California (Discus)
Jordan Anthony, Arkansas (Sprints)
James Corrigan, BYU (Mid-Distance/Steeple)
Nathaniel Ezekiel, Baylor (Sprints/Hurdles)
Ishmael Kipkurui, New Mexico (Distance)
Liam Murphy, Villanova (Mid-Distance/Distance)
Tarik Robinson-O’Hagan, Ole Miss (Throws)
Habtom Samuel, New Mexico (Distance)
Ethan Strand, North Carolina (Mid-Distance/Distance)
Ja’Kobe Tharp, Auburn (Hurdles)
 
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Wang is the 2024-2025 editor in chief. She was previously the 2022-2023 Opinion editor and the 2023-2024 Enterprise editor. She is Copy, Arts, News and Quad staff and also contributes to Sports on the men’s volleyball beat, Design, Photo and Video.

Jaida RossThroughout her time at the University of Oregon (UO), 2025 Arthur Ashe Jr. Female Sports Scholar Jaida Ross was always interested in bringing her best to the track and field team. In her final competition, the NCAA Indoor Championships in March, she was vital to the Ducks securing the Division I women’s title. 

“Jaida has been a joy to train; she’s always had a great attitude…and she’s willing to work hard, no matter what she does,” says Brian Blutreich, UO assistant coach. “[At indoor nationals] she was a little disappointed she didn’t win the individual title, but she came in second and helped our team win a national title.”

Ross grew up in Oregon as a Ducks fan. She wore the university’s colors, green and yellow, attended UO soccer games and watched UO football. The university felt like home, making it the perfect place to spend her collegiate career. In addition to her desire to excel as a thrower, she was determined to achieve in the classroom. En route to earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology (3.66 GPA) and a Master of Education in prevention science (4.09 GPA) she earned All-Academic honors from the U.S. Track & Field and Cross-Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA), made the UO dean’s list and the Pac-12 academic honor roll and was named Academic All-America First Team by the College Sports Communicators. 

“Education has never been something I’ve taken for granted, and I’ve always seen it as a way to understand the world around me and to make a difference,” says Ross. “Balancing academics with athletics has definitely been challenging, but I’ve learned how to stay disciplined, manage my time and stay focused on my goals. I’m very proud of what I’ve accomplished and grateful for the support system that has helped me both in the classroom and on the track.”

Her skills as a thrower excelled under Blutreich’s coaching, and in 2024 she was the Pac-12 Champion in both shot put and discus, NCAA Champion in shot put and USTFCCCA National Field Athlete of the Year. Last summer she competed in the shot put at the Olympic Games in Paris. Her fourth-place finish was the highest for an American.

Ross’ eighth grade basketball coach, Piet Voskes, who also coached track and field, directed her to throwing. Once she tried it the sport felt natural. Last year, Voskes attended the Olympic Trials and saw Ross earn her spot on the U.S. team. “A dream I had shared with him from the very beginning,” she says.

In the future, she looks forward to putting her degrees to work. The goal of the prevention science program is to research and explore ways to prevent social issues such as health problems, substance abuse, violence and racism and help people, especially children, live healthier, safer lives.

Ross’ care and concern for future generations has been evident in her extensive community outreach work. She volunteered as part of the Healthy Moves Physical Education program at Two Rivers Elementary School and Page Elementary School in Eugene, OR. She participated in Team IMPACT, a non-profit organization that matches children facing serious illness and disability with college sports teams. Ross was also a volunteer assistant track and field coach at Sheldon High School.

“One of the things I’ve loved most is getting the chance to speak at elementary schools and connect with younger students,” Ross says. “I want them to see what’s possible and know they’re capable of big things.”

“One of the things I’ve loved most is getting the chance to speak at elementary schools and connect with younger students,” Ross says. “I want them to see what’s possible and know they’re capable of big things.” 

Dr. Jennie Leander, UO director of services for student athletes and associate athletic director, says Ross was a stellar student. 

“Jaida is someone who shows up for her team, for her community and for her school,” says Leander. “She lifts everybody up that’s around her.” With her master’s program completed and her collegiate eligibility done, Ross is now making her way in professional track and field. Her experiences as a student-athlete have shown her that she has the discipline and motivation to succeed. “I’ve built a strong foundation, and now it’s about learning how to apply those tools in new ways,” Ross says.

 

 

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Senior opposite hitter Avry Tatum and junior middle blocker Ava Vickers will serve as Indiana’s representatives at the 2025 Big Ten Volleyball Media Days. The veteran duo will join head coach Steve Aird in Chicago at the network studios to kick off the new campaign (July 28-29).
 
For the fourth-straight season, the Big Ten has set the tone in the growth of women’s volleyball at the national level. All 18 conference programs will converge on the Windy City to take part in television interviews, social media hits and in-depth sit downs with Big Ten Network hosts.
 
The conference continues to take the sport to new levels. 2024 featured a record slate of games on national television – a number that is expected to increase this season. IU will do its part in growing the game by moving its rivalry match with Purdue to Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on October 16th.
 
Tatum and Vickers were selected to represent the program by the coaching staff due to their on-court play and their well-spoken nature. Tatum is one of the best returning players at her position in the league and is coming off a campaign that saw her provide a career high 348 kills. Vickers started all 20 Big Ten matches last season and hit .314 with 1.17 kills per set.
 
IU opens its 2025 season with a trip Coral Gables to take on Miami (Fla.) for the third-straight season. The Hoosiers will also meet VCU on opening weekend at the end of August.

After competition at the East and West Preliminary Rounds of the 2025 NCAA DI Outdoor Track and Field Championships, the final watch list update of The Bowerman had no changes in selections from the Big 12. Baylor’s Alexis Brown and Nathaniel Ezekiel, BYU’s James Corrigan and TCU’s Indya Mayberry were all named to the recent edition of the watchlist after earning selections to the post-outdoor conference championships update.

All four competed in the West Regional, which was hosted by Texas A&M in College Station, Texas.

Brown posted the season’s No. 1 wind legal mark of 6.94 meters in the women’s long jump at the West Regionals last week, along with qualifying for the national championship as a member of the Bears’ 4×100-meter relay team.

Ezekiel, the nation’s leader in the 400-meter hurdles, helped the men’s 4×400-meter relay team clinch a spot in the finals in Eugene, Oregon, next week with a season-best time of 3:05.33. Additionally, he will also compete in the 400-meter hurdles at the national championship.

Corrigan clinched a spot in the national championship in the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase after recording a time of 8:31.79 at the West Regional.

Mayberry rounded out the league’s The Bowerman selections as she qualified for the national championship in the women’s 100-meter, 200-meter and the 4×100-meter relay team.

BYU’s Lexy Halladay-Lowry and Meghan Hunter, along with Texas Tech’s Temitope Adeshina received votes on the women’s ballot.

Semifinalists will be announced later in June.