The senior’s throw earned her All-America Honorable Mention status and marked a powerful conclusion to a remarkable comeback journey. After missing two seasons due to injury, Sanders returned to competition last year and fought her way back to the national stage.

 

BEAVER RESULTS

Thursday

Javelin

18. Sara Sanders – 48.47m/159-0

 

OUR MISSION

Oregon State Athletics strives to Build Excellent Authentic Visionary Student-Athletes (Go BEAVS).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MORAGA, Calif. — Saint Mary’s Beach Volleyball continues to build their 2025-26 squad in the Spring recruiting window, signing Isla Johnson out of Harbor High School in Santa Cruz. Standing at 5-8, Johnson played outside hitter for her school’s indoor team, while enjoying a benedettaandexler66@gmail.com
dominant career on the sand as well in the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League. 

Over four years playing for the Pirates of Harbor High School, Johnson led her squad to four straight SCCAL Titles in beach volleyball, and two consecutive SCCAL Titles in indoor volleyball. On the hardwood, Johnson was a four time All-League honoree, culminating her prep career with League MVP honors. Following the culmination of both her prep indoor and beach career, Johnson was honored as Harbor High School’s Student-Athlete of the Year. 

Johnson originally committed to the University of Utah, but following the announcement of the Utes would be discontinuing their program, she re-opened her recruitment, and the Gaels were quick to reach out. 

Coach Harrer remarked,

“Isla is a well rounded player that will bring versatility to the team. She’s proven herself at high levels in California beach circuits and will add strength to our incoming freshman class!”

Johnson will join fellow true freshmen Bella Reyes and Ellasyn Scuba on the 2025-26 roster. 

#GaelsRise

By: Jonathon Zenk, Assistant Director of Communications

NATCHITOCHES—Two days. Two All-Americans.

It was a successful trip to nationals for Northwestern State as Roy Morris earned All-American honors Wednesday and now Maygan Shaw does the same Thursday evening.

Shaw clocked a 51.80 in the 400-meter dash to place 14^th and also earn a Second Team All-American spot during the women’s first day of nationals at Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon.

It is the first time a women’s sprinter has ever earned an All-American spot.

Coming out of a veteran-laden third heat in lane No. 4, she put heat on the top two qualifiers, but the top two qualifiers—Georgia’s Dejanea Oakley (50.18) and Iowa State’s Rachel Joseph (50.77) pulled away in the home stretch and were ultimately the only two to make it from the heat.

“I am so proud of her,” associate coach Adam Pennington said. “She really went for it today and just came up a little short. But to be a top 14 girl in the entire country is nothing short of amazing.

Making it last year was great, but making it individually is much different. I believe she is now the first All American sprinter in an individual event in NSU history. That’s alone tells you where she sits as the greatest.”

She will now prepare for USA championships but until then we will celebrate today and her amazing career. She loves cheese cake so we might end the night with that .

Shaw was out in front of Tennessee’s Javonya Valcourt, one of the 10 fastest 400-meter runners in college athletics, but Valcourt came back to squeak past Shaw to finish fourth in the heat and 13^th overall with a time of 51.65.

To qualify for Saturday’s finals, a runner has to finish in the top two of her heat or be one of the three next fastest times.

While only nine qualify for the finals, Shaw did once again earn a spot as an All-American.

It is the second consecutive All-American honor for Shaw, also doing so as a member of the 4×400 relay team, which also made the second team.

Shaw wasn’t the only member of the Southland Conference to earn an All-American spot, as Southeastern Louisiana’s Onyah Onyinye Favour also made the second team after finishing 16^th the event and sixth in her first heat, running a 52.39.

Another familiar name—former NSU runner Sanaria Buter—placed 21^st with a time of 52.78 for Arkansas.

Georgia went 1-2 in the semifinals, as Aaliyah Butler, the favorite in the event, ran a 50.16, finishing just .02 ahead of Oakley.

All nine finalists are from power conference teams, including five from the SEC, two each from Georgia and Arkansas.

This ends arguably the best career for any NSU sprinter ever, finishing it off with a bang with another All-American spot.

As a senior, she broke both the indoor and outdoor school records, including clocking a Southland Conference record 51.19 at the LSU Alumni Gold, shortly after breaking the SLC and school records two weeks before at the Leon Johnson NSU Invitational with a 51.87, also breaking the meet record as well as the Walter P. Ledet Complex record.

Now Shaw gears up for the USA Championships, which will also be held at Hayward Field, starting on July 31 in Eugene.

Barrington’s Mia Sirois won the Class 3A girls cross country title in November at Detweiller Park in Peoria.
Sandy Bressner/Shaw Local News Network

Aside from unfinished business in baseball and softball, the 2024-25 high school sports year is a wrap.

Not surprisingly, we dominated.

By “we” I mean the Daily Herald coverage area, our 80-plus high schools spread throughout Cook, Lake, DuPage, Kane, McHenry and Kendall counties.

Were there disappointments? Of course, but we saw far more triumphs. There were team and individual performances that won’t soon be forgotten, if ever.

Here’s a look at the 2024-25 school year, by the numbers.

18

The area piled up a whopping number of team state titles this school year.

That includes sweeping Class 3A boys and girls cross country (Downers Grove North and Barrington), boys and girls swimming (Hinsdale Central and Rosary) and boys and girls water polo (Naperville North and Stevenson).

Montini snared a Class 3A state football title, while the Broncos’ girls basketball team won a 3A basketball title and Benet’s boys claimed the 4A boys basketball title.

Fremd snared a piece of history by winning the IHSA’s first flag football state title.

53

That’s how many individual state titles were won in the area. Impressive.

Barrington sophomore Mia Sirois is a dynasty in the making after winning the 3A cross country title and the 3,200 meters in track and field.

Marmion senior Regan Konen wrapped up his high school career by winning a second straight Class 2A golf title.

It’d take a book to list all the individual champions, but check this out. The area won eight girls and boys swimming titles, 10 boys wrestling titles, seven girls track titles and six boys track titles.

Looking at the number of underclassmen on the list, we’ll be looking at another big medal haul in 2025-26.

1:26.75

While state titles are nothing new to the area, national records are rare.

But on Feb. 28, Hinsdale Central’s boys swimming team set a new NFHS record in the 200-yard medley relay in a stunning time of 1:26.75. The team of seniors Henry Guo and Josh Bey, junior Matt Vatev and sophomore Luke Vatev broke the previous record of 1:26.88 set by Carmel, Ind. in 2022.

15:53.40 and 10:01.12

Speaking of Sirois, she set a Detweiller Park course record in the state cross country meet while winning the race in Peoria by 37 seconds. Her 3-mile time topped the previous record, set in 2015 by Naperville North’s Judy Pendergast, by four-tenths of a second.

Last month in the state track and field meet, Sirois broke the 3A record with a time of 10:01.12 to win the title in the 3,200.

36-0

And speaking of Stevenson girls water polo, the Patriots were perfect in the pool while winning a third straight state title for the program’s second three-peat.

Only two other girls water polo teams in IHSA history have notched 36 wins — the unbeaten Stevenson teams in 2015 and 2019.

1,045

Boy, that’s a lot of wins … just ask Elk Grove softball coach Ken Grams.

On March 31, Grams — the Grenadiers’ coach for the last 45 years — helmed his team to a 3-2 win over Fenton for his IHSA record-breaking 1,045th victory.

Grams topped former St. Joseph-Ogden coach Randy Wolken, who retired after the 2018 season. They and Barrington’s Perry Peterson are the only IHSA softball coaches to eclipse the 1,000-win mark.

PROVO — Sami Oblad never expected to be where she was Thursday night at the close of the first day of the NCAA Division I women’s outdoor track and field championships in Eugene, Oregon.

The senior from Stansbury Park — and a converted volleyball player turned former heptathlete and high jumper — became the first flat sprinter (100, 200 or 400 meter) to qualify for an NCAA final in BYU women’s track history when she advanced out of Thursday night’s semifinals at Hayward Field.

Oblad, who is scheduled to race in the 400-meter finals Saturday night, clocked the third-fastest time of her career in 51.20 seconds to finish eighth and become the first BYU female sprinter in seven tries to make a final.

“I never expected to be here,” Oblad said after her race. “I’m glad that hard work is paying off, and it’s putting me where I want to be. … I’ve been on the verge of tears all day. I’m very emotional right now.”

Oblad was one of four BYU women to advance to Saturday’s final for one of the premier distance running programs in the country. The others were more natural to the Cougars’ historic legacy, though.

Meghan Hunter broke the two-minute barrier for the third time in her storied career to finish fourth in the 800-meter semifinals in 1:59.96 and advance to Saturday’s final.

Lexy Halladay-Lowry and Taylor Lovell both qualified in the 3,000-meter steeplechase — arguably the university’s most accomplished event, where men’s teammate and U.S. Olympian James Corrigan will race for a championship Friday night.

Halladay-Lowry eased to a third-place time of 9:36.24 as the senior from Meridian, Idaho looks to add a sixth first-team All-America honor, and Lovell after clinching a spot with a personal-best time of 9:37.97 — the No. 3 mark in BYU history.

The duo will compete at 5:38 p.m. MDT Saturday for a spot on the podium, and they’ll be joined by Utah State’s Shelby Jensen.

The sophomore from Saratoga Springs advanced to the first national final of her career in 9:38.01, a fifth-place finish in her heat and 10th overall. Jensen is the first Aggie woman to advance to the finals of an NCAA outdoor championship race since Cierra Simmons-Mecham in the steeplechase final in 2018.

“She executed the race like a pro and responded when girls went by her in the latter half of the race,” Utah State coach Artie Gulden said of Jensen. “She responded and was able to follow them and just compete like crazy over the last two laps.”

Oblad will be the fifth BYU 400-meter runner to race in a final this year, but the first in an open race. The men’s 4×400-meter relay squad — led by Oblad’s fiancé Eli Hazlett — qualified with the last spot in Wednesday’s semifinals to earn a title bid.

“That definitely got me more amped,” Oblad said. “If all my training partners were doing it, then I just had to join them.”

Four BYU women contested finals Thursday, including the 1,500-meter duo of Riley Chamberlain and Carlee Hansen who finished back-to-back. Hansen, the junior from Bountiful who transferred from North Carolina before setting the program record at the NCAA West prelims in 4:07.64, finished 15th in 4:12.35 — officially .08 seconds behind Chamberlain, a junior from Loomis, California.

Both earned second-team All-America honors.

Gretchen Hoekstre added a 21st-place finish in the shot put with a throw of 15.88 meters (52 feet, 1.25 inches), and freshman Tessa Buswell was 21st in the 800 in 2:05.94.

Kelsi Oldroyd became the first-ever All-American from Utah Valley in the javelin with her eighth-place throw of 56.37 meters (184-11), capping a banner season that included a third straight WAC outdoor javelin title and a national semifinal for the third consecutive season.

Utah’s 4×100-meter relay squad, led by Emily Rose, closed out the season just .02 from breaking their own school record, finishing in 43.86.

Morgan Jensen and McKaylie Caesar finished neck-and-neck in the 10,000-meter run in 33:11.05 and 33:34.36, respectively, for 19th and 20th overall.

While Thursday’s competition was mostly about the women, two dozen athletes wrapped up the men’s decathlon. That included BYU junior Ben Barton, who posted a sixth-place finish with 7,777 points for first-team All-American honors.

Barton is the highest-placed finisher in the decathlon from BYU since Curtis Pugsley also placed sixth in 2000. He briefly moved up to second behind Mississippi State star Peyton Bair with a 14.22 110-meter hurdle and a discus throw of 36.86 meters (120-11).

BYU sophomore Jaden Roskelley finished 19th with 7,475 points, including the second-best mark in the discus with a hurl of 45.72 meters (150-0). Bair added to his indoor multi-event national title with a first-place finish and a personal-best 8,323 points with first-place finishes in the 100 (10.25) and 400 (46.00).

EUGENE, Ore. – Indiana State sophomore hurdler Rachel Mehringer closed her record-breaking season with the Blue and White Thursday evening, placing 13th in the 100m hurdles at the NCAA Outdoor National Championships.
 
Mehringer ran a time of 13.15 to finish fifth in her semifinal heat and inside the top 15 in her NCAA National Championship debut, collecting Second Team All-America honors in the process.
 
Thursday’s performance closed the best season by a 100m hurdles athlete in Missouri Valley Conference history. Each of Mehringer’s last seven races ended with a time of 13.15 or better, including five under 13.10 (13.03 and 13.04 at Indiana State, 13.07 at the MVC Championships, 13.05 and 13.08 at the NCAA East First Round).
 
Mehringer’s sophomore season included an Indiana State and Missouri Valley Conference record time of 13.04 at the Sycamore Open, and she also broke the MVC Championship record with her time of 13.07 at Southern Illinois. Following the conclusion of the 2024-25 season, she owns the school and conference records in both the 60m hurdles and 100m hurdles while also having three facility records (60m dash, 60m hurdles, 100m hurdles).
 
The Schnellville, Indiana, native now owns the three fastest indoor 60m hurdles times in conference history (8.19, 8.19, 8.20) and the seven fastest outdoor 100m hurdles times in conference history (13.03, 13.04, 13.05, 13.07, 13.08, 13.12, 13.15), all of which were run during the 2024-25 season.
 
Up Next
Indiana State has four athletes – freshmen distance runners Gnister Grant (3000m steeplechase) and Peyton Smith (5000m), and freshmen throwers Olivia Marshall (shot put) and Emma Yoder (discus) – who qualified for the 2025 USATF U20 Outdoor Championships. The Sycamore quartet will compete June 19-20 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.
 
Follow the Sycamores

For the latest information on the Sycamore Track & Field and Cross Country teams, make sure to check out GoSycamores.com. You can also find the team on social media including Facebook and Twitter. Fans can also receive updates on Sycamore Athletics by downloading the March On App from the both the App Store and the Google Play Store.
 

– #MarchOn –