EUGENE, Ore. – Duke track and field freshmen Braelyn Baker and Valerie Jirak competed at the 2025 USA Track & Field U20 Championships Friday evening with both individuals turning in outstanding individual efforts at Hayward Field in Track Town USA.
 
Baker took part in the women’s 400m and parlayed a commanding showing into a first-place finish and the gold medal. After finishing atop the field in Thursday’s prelim via a time of 52.74 seconds, the rookie doubled down and turned in another sensational race in the final, trimming nearly a second off her preliminary time en route to clocking 51.78 seconds for the win.
 
Jirak was featured in the women’s heptathlon and garnered the silver medal following two days of elite competition. The Afton, Wyoming product totaled 5,586 points on the way to a runner-up finish with her point total checking in as a Duke freshman record and personal best. Jirak placed in the top three of each individual event during the multis, headlined by a first-place throw of 39.49m (129-6 feet) in the javelin.

To stay up to date with Blue Devils cross country and track & field, follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook by searching “DukeTFXC.”

 

#GoDuke

 

EUGENE, ORE.- Two athletes from the Bucknell men’s track and field program competed at the U20 National Championships on June 19-20 and recorded successful marks against some of the nation’s best young talent. Will Feddeler and Braiden Pulver more than held their own against elite competition. 

Results

Feddeler competed in the decathlon, finishing tenth with 5376 points. His best individual event finishes occurred in the 100-meter dash and shot put where he earned eighth. He ran 11.61 in the 100-meter dash and threw 44-4.25 in the shot put. Feddeler ranks fourth all-time in the decathlon in Bucknell history with 6302 points and the rising sophomore has the trajectory to break the all-time record of 6667 set by Andrew Powell in 2012. 

Pulver placed eighth in the hammer throw. The rising sophomore made the finals, where his best distance of 195-2 arrived in his final attempt. His last two tries fouled out but the mark slotted him sixth in Bucknell history and provided a springboard for the 2025-26 campaign. 

Bucknell men’s track and field returns to collegiate competition in December with the annual Bison Opener. 

 

A water polo team based at Woodside Leisure Centre are in need of a larger trophy cabinet after securing yet another momentous win.

The silverware continues to flood in at Watford Water Polo, and on Sunday, May 4, there was a chance for the Watford side to collect yet another, in the GoCardless Swim England Water Polo Open U17 National Age Group Championship Final.

Facing City of Manchester, the tough match went down to a dramatic penalty shootout.

Head coach Adam Page said: “It was nuts…But we always kept our composure. It was a difficult game; we know Manchester are very good.

“And for the penalties I couldn’t watch. I watched a little bit; I couldn’t watch some of it. I looked at the crowd half the time to see what the reactions were – people’s faces. I was bricking it is the right way to put it!”

Lucky for Adam and his Watford side, the boys came out triumphant, snatching the much-deserved trophy after beating the Manchester side 6-5 on penalties.

Adam continued: “We’ve worked so hard for this in the past four of five years… I’m just very proud of them.

“I’m so proud of the boys… I love them to bits!”

Jun. 20—MITCHELL — The Mitchell High School volleyball program will hold its summer camp on July 14-15 at the Mitchell High School gym.

The camp is open to volleyball players from first grade through seniors in high school. The cost is $45 per player in grades 1-7 and $70 per player in grades 8-12, and will feature B.O.M.B.S. volleyball program as special guests

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Grades 8-12 will play from 9 a.m. until noon on both days. Players in grades 1-7 will have their camp from 1 p.m. until 3 p.m. The camp will be a mix of both fundamentals and competition-based drills.

Registration can be completed at

kernelcamps.com

. For more information, contact coach Deb Thill at Deb.Thill@k12.sd.us.

Kansas Athletics

New KU volleyball coach Matt Ulmer speaks at his introductory press conference on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, at Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena.

New Kansas volleyball coach Matt Ulmer has placed a significant emphasis on strengthening his team’s roster with international recruits.

Since the Jayhawks wrapped up their first spring with Ulmer at the helm in late April, KU has signed a trio of players from Central Europe, including most recently, and perhaps most notably, Jovana Zelenović on Friday.

Zelenović is a 6-foot-7 opposite hitter from Novi Sad, Serbia. She has won a club title with OK Železnicar and is currently competing for the Serbian national team in the Volleyball Nations League.

“Jovana is an impact player on both sides of the ball,” Ulmer said in a press release. “She has the ability to score at a high level when everyone knows the ball is going to her. Her block is very imposing to the opposition. She has a very sweet personality and she’s very excited about coming to Kansas. Our fans will really enjoy watching Jovana compete as a Jayhawk.”

The addition of Zelenović provides KU some much-needed size at the pin, as she will be the tallest player on the roster, but it also fills a need on the right side, where the Jayhawks would likely otherwise have been relying on players for whom opposite hitter is not necessarily their primary position (returnees Katie Dalton or Ellie Schneider, for example, or even Washington transfer Audra Wilmes).

Ulmer has now added seven players in total, first bringing in a trio of transfers in Wilmes, setter Cristin Cline (Oregon) and defensive specialist/libero Ryan White (Oregon State). He then added highly touted incoming freshman Logan Bell, a 5-foot-11 pin hitter who may play in the back row early in her career, following the example of Ulmer’s previous undersized outside hitter Brooke Nuneviller.

In recent months, he has bolstered KU’s depth and experience considerably with the additions of 6-foot outside hitter Selena Leban from Slovenia and 6-foot-4 middle blocker Aurora Papac from Croatia, as well as Zelenović. All three will be considered freshmen, though Leban and Papac are 20 and Zelenović is 21.

Of Leban, Ulmer said in a release, “Selena is extremely talented in every phase of the game, and we are so excited to welcome her to Kansas. She has competed against some of the best competition in the world and has thrived. Beyond that, Selena has a magnetic personality and great sense of humor which makes her a great fit for Kansas Volleyball.”

Of Papac, he added, “Aurora is a great addition to our program, and she comes to Kansas as one of the best blockers in the world for her age. She has a presence at the net that can have a large impact on a match. She has a great combination of length and quickness plus high-level international experience with her national team.”

The European additions will help flesh out a roster that is headlined by key returnees such as Reese Ptacek, a rising sophomore middle blocker who was the Big 12 freshman of the year, and libero Raegan Burns.

KU’s season begins on Aug. 23 against Vanderbilt, a brand-new team playing its first-ever match, in Lincoln, Nebraska.

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Written By Henry Greenstein

Henry is the sports editor at the Lawrence Journal-World and KUsports.com, and serves as the KU beat writer while managing day-to-day sports coverage. He previously worked as a sports reporter at The Bakersfield Californian and is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis (B.A., Linguistics) and Arizona State University (M.A., Sports Journalism). Though a native of Los Angeles, he has frequently been told he does not give off “California vibes,” whatever that means.

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