VILLANOVA, Pa.—One of the biggest weeks of the summer track & field season is set to commence as countries from all parts of the globe hold their senior national championships in the final days of July and early days of August. There is added significance to national competition this year with these meets serving as qualification procedures for World Athletics Championships Tokyo 2025 coming up in September.
 

As is always the case on the national and worldwide stages, the Wildcats will be well represented by current student-athletes and alumni who are competing at the highest levels of the sport. Most notably, a group of eight athletes will be in action at the 2025 Toyota USATF Outdoor & Para National Championships in Eugene, Ore. starting on Thursday afternoon and continuing through Sunday afternoon. Coverage of the championships can be seen on NBC live and on-demand as well as USATF.tv on-demand. Visit the meet homepage for a full television schedule and live results.
 
Rising senior Marco Langon (Raritan, N.J.) and rising junior Dan Watcke (Hinsdale, Ill.) are each qualified for the USATF Championships in the 5000 meters and the 800 meters, respectively. Both are veterans of national and international competition and are coming off sensational collegiate seasons over the past year which included first team All-America performances in their respective events. Just over a month after closing out his record-setting collegiate career with a third straight appearance at the NCAA Championships, men’s distance runner Liam Murphy will be running the 1500 meters at the USATF Championships.
 
Veteran middle distance runner Sean Donoghue (Dublin, Ireland) will be running the 1500 meters this week at the Athletics Ireland National Outdoor Track & Field Senior Championships. Donoghue is returning to the Wildcats for a fifth collegiate campaign in 2025-26. During his collegiate career, Donoghue is a two-time BIG EAST champion and a two-time Penn Relays champion who ran the leadoff leg of Villanova’s 4xMile relay in 2024 which recorded the second-fastest time in world history. At home in Ireland, he was a two-time Irish U20 champion in the 1500 meters and advanced to the final of the event at the National Senior Championships.
 
The men’s 5000 meters at the USATF Championships consists of one championship race which is set for Sunday afternoon at 4:52 p.m. Eastern time (1:52pm Pacific time) at Hayward Field in Eugene. Langon is coming off a third place finish at the same venue in the NCAA Championships final last month. Earlier in the year he placed sixth in the 5000 meters and seventh in the 3000 meters at the indoor NCAA Championships, and he finished the 2024-25 collegiate competition season with All-America honors in cross county, indoors and outdoors. He most recently ran a lifetime best time of 13:12.89 in the 5K in Belgium on July 19.
 
Watcke will see a familiar face in the men’s 800 meters in Oregon as former teammate Sean Dolan is another entry in the event. The first round heats of the 800 meters are scheduled for Thursday at 6:07 p.m. Eastern time (3:07 p.m. PT), with the top finishers moving on to the semifinal round on Friday afternoon. Watcke earned first team All-America honors in the 800 meters with a fifth place finish at this year’s indoor NCAA Championships. It was his first collegiate NCAA Championships meet and the result came in his redshirt freshman indoor campaign. Watcke ran a lifetime best of 1:46.32 in the 800 meters at Penn State in January and recently set an outdoor PR with a time of 1:46.60 in Ireland on July 9.
 
Murphy finished the 2025 collegiate campaign as the all-time NCAA record holder in the event with a lifetime best of 3:33.02 set on March 27 at North Carolina State. Murphy set seven NCAA and/or school records while wearing the Villanova singlet, and in his final season as a collegian he tied the Wildcats records for career All-America honors (nine) and career BIG EAST titles (11) by a men’s athlete. Murphy has excelled on the big stage before. Last summer he made a remarkable run through the 1500 meters competition at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials, becoming the first Villanovan since 1988 to make the final and ranking as the third collegiate runner to cross the finish line in the final.
 
Two of the top women’s middle distance runners in program history – McKenna Keegan and Angel Piccirillo – are each entered in the women’s 800 meters this week. They will get underway in the first round heats on Thursday at 6:37 p.m. Eastern time (3:37 p.m. PT) and will be vying to advance to the semifinal on Friday afternoon.
 
Men’s distance runner Casey Comber is competing in the 3000 meter steeplechase this week, beginning with first round competition on Thursday at 8:39 p.m. Eastern time (5:39 p.m. PT), with the event proceeding to a final on Saturday afternoon. Women’s high jumper Sanaä Barnes will be in action in the final of her event on Friday starting at 7:05 p.m. Eastern time (4:05 p.m. PT).

 

UNIVERSITY PARK, — Fans of Penn State women’s volleyball will have plenty of chances to watch the defending national champions on national TV this season. The Nittany Lions are scheduled for 16 matches across three networks – FOX, BTN, and FS1 – during the regular season.

Penn State’s first five matches of the season will air live national TV, starting with the season opener against Creighton on FS1. That match is part of the AVCA First Serve event and is scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 23 in Lincoln, Nebraska. The Nittany Lions’ second match of the event against Kansas in Sioux Falls, South Dakota will air on B1G Network on Monday, August. 25.

The Nittany Lions then have three straight matches on FOX. That stretch includes contests against Arizona State (Aug. 31) and TCU (Sept. 1) at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, and the team’s home opener against Kentucky on Friday, Sept. 5. The Nittany Lions are back on FOX later in the season when they host Nebraska on Friday, Oct. 3.

Penn State has 11 matches scheduled to air on B1G Network. In addition to the matchup with Kansas, that list of opponents includes Pitt, UCLA, Wisconsin, Washington, Oregon, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Nebraska and Iowa.

The 2025 Penn State women’s volleyball season is presented by Musselman’s.

 

Sport	Day	Date	Visiting Team		Home Team	Site	TV	Time (ET)	Notes
Volleyball	Saturday	August 23, 2025	Penn State	vs.	Creighton	Lincoln, NE	FS1	6:00 PM	AVCA First Serve
Volleyball	Monday	August 25, 2025	Kansas	vs.	Penn State	Sioux Falls, SD	BTN	6:30 PM	Sanford Pentagon
Volleyball	Sunday	August 31, 2025	Penn State	vs.	Arizona State	Pittsburgh, PA	FOX	5:00 PM
Volleyball	Monday	September 1, 2025	Penn State	vs.	TCU	Pittsburgh, PA	FOX	5:00 PM
Volleyball	Friday	September 5, 2025	Kentucky	at	Penn State	University Park, PA	FOX	8:00 PM
Volleyball	Wednesday	September 17, 2025	Pittsburgh	at	Penn State	University Park, PA	BTN	7:00 PM
Volleyball	Sunday	September 28, 2025	UCLA	at	Penn State	University Park, PA	BTN	12:00 PM
Volleyball	Friday	October 3, 2025	Nebraska	at	Penn State	University Park, PA	FOX	8:00 PM
Volleyball	Friday	October 10, 2025	Wisconsin	at	Penn State	University Park, PA	BTN	7:00 PM
Volleyball	Friday	October 17, 2025	Penn State	at	Washington	Seattle, WA	BTN	10:30 PM
Volleyball	Saturday	October 18, 2025	Penn State	at	Oregon	Eugene, OR	BTN	10:00 PM
Volleyball	Friday	October 31, 2025	Penn State	at	Michigan	Ann Arbor, MI	BTN	6:30 PM
Volleyball	Sunday	November 2, 2025	Indiana	at	Penn State	University Park, PA	BTN	4:00 PM
Volleyball	Sunday	November 9, 2025	Penn State	at	Illinois	Champaign, IL	BTN	4:30 PM
Volleyball	Friday	November 28, 2025	Penn State	at	Nebraska	Lincoln, NE	BTN	6:30 PM
Volleyball	Saturday	November 29, 2025	Penn State	at	Iowa	Iowa City, IA	BTN	TBD

 

Big news friends, I’m MOVING TOMORROW! It’s SO EXCITING!!!!! And also I DID NOT GET ANY SLEEP BEFORE WRITING THIS!!!!! and have DECIDED TO PERMANENTLY STAY IN MY NEXT HOUSE TO AVOID THIS HELLISH EXPERIENCE EVER AGAIN!!!!

I did, however, make sure to carve out time to watch unusual sporting events in the middle of the move.

Do you rank sports based on how likely you would die if you participated? Or perhaps on how much merely watching a sporting event makes your body shudder in horror? Let me introduce you to the most NOPE event in all of international sports: The high diving competition at the World Aquatics Championships. They pre-populate the pool with emergency rescue divers, just in case. (See the little guys all the way down there in the pool?)

And it just so happens that this year’s high diving world championship also featured an absolute thriller of a duel, a surprise American gold medal, and another W for a niche sports GOAT.

• The championship was held at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, where they include just about every water-related event. They have Katie Ledecky racing against Summer McIntosh, just like in the Olympics, as well as diving and water polo. But it’s also got a bunch of fringe events, like multiple forms of open-water swimming, solo artistic swimming, and the high dive.

• They need to build a separate high diving venue because the platform is NINETY FEET IN THE AIR. And the pool needs to be extra deep so the divers do not die when they hit the bottom.

• All the dives are feet first, because it’s too dangerous to expose your head to impact at those high speeds.

• And the scuba team is there in case impact with the water knocks a diver unconscious.

• In the men’s 27m competition, Team USA’s James Lichtenstein won his first World Championship on the final dive of the competition … although it would be almost as accurate to say Spain’s Carlos Gimeno lost it. The two attempted the exact same dives throughout the competition and Gimeno led the whole way, but a sliiiiight over-rotation on the final dive gave Lichtenstein a 3.6-point win and the first American championship since 2017. Here’s Gimeno after the scores popped up:

England repeated as Women’s Euros champions, the greatest thing to happen to England in nearly two weeks since the Oasis reunion tour started. The Lionesses beat Spain on penalty kicks in the final, and for the second-straight game and the second-straight Euros, the winner came off Chloe Kelly’s foot. (Her signature run-up with the little crow-hop … iconic.)

And I’m going to be honest, I’m so mad about it. I’m just so mad about it. The English won back-to-back-to-back knockout stage matches in which they looked clearly worse than their opposition, stealing this tournament like it’s a priceless artifact they’re going to put in the British Museum and refuse to return to its original country because the 17th Earl of Chestwick-Hampstershire “found” it on an expedition in 1847.

• England led for exactly one minute during its three knockout round matches. You’ve probably taken about three minutes to read this far into the newsletter, which is about three times as long as England held a lead in the knockout stages.

• England trailed for 174 minutes in the knockout stages, almost an hour per match. That’s the length of “The Godfather.” (Don’t worry, this newsletter is not 174 minutes long.)

• England finished the tournament fourth in XG/90, behind Spain, France and Sweden … two of which they beat on penalty kicks.

• So OK, maybe you’re thinking they were great on penalty kicks. BUT THEY WEREN’T! They only hit six of 12 penalty attempts between the two shootouts. And I can’t even give goalkeeper Hannah Hampton all the credit—while Hampton made some saves between the two shootouts, England’s opponents also missed the net entirely on four of their 11 attempts—two over the crossbar, and two wide.

• Long story short … USWNT is going to win the 2027 World Cup.

OK, I fear I have been too mean to England. To make it up to the lads and lasses, I am going to talk about The Darts: 18-year old Luke Littler won the World Matchplay championship in stunning fashion, coming back from huge deficits in the semifinals and the finals.

• The YouTube title for this video says “THE SECOND-GREATEST LEG OF ALL TIME?” which seems awfully specific. So I had to search “greatest darts leg of all time” and sure enough the channel posted that video two years ago. Even more electric.

  Respect to The Darts for maintaining discipline in YouTube titles, something I cannot attest to. (My NCAA March Madness picks were not, in fact, The Most Accurate.)

• In the final, Littler again lost the first five legs. But of course, the finals at the World Matchplay are best-of-35—you know, best-of-35, that other classic format we all know and love—and Littler rallied back to win 18-13.

• At 18 years old, Luke the Nuke has now won the Triple Crown of Darts—the World Championship, the World Matchplay, and the Premier League. And The Darts is a sport where middle-aged men can shine. His opponent in Sunday’s final, James Wade, is 42. The World Matchplay winner in 2021, Peter Wright, was 51 at the time.

• 2-time Olympic gold medal-winning fencer Lee Kiefer won her first-ever gold at the World Championships, rallying back from an 11-4 deficit in the quarterfinals, surviving, advancing, and totally dominating the semis and the gold medal match.

• Kerry dominated the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship to win their 39th title, the most of any county. That means this shirt I bought at the SuperValu in Dingle celebrating Kerry’s 37 All-Ireland championships is now two championships out of date.

(I would take a picture of me wearing the shirt, but, like I said, I’m moving tomorrow, and I have no clue where it is. Probably 3/4ths of the way down a box also containing towels and winter clothes.)

• Canada’s Summer McIntosh won the 400m freestyle at the World Aquatics Championships in her first head-to-head battle against Katie Ledecky of the meet … but that was broadly expected. (McIntosh set a world record and won gold last year in Paris; Ledecky won bronze.) The real showdown is the 800m later this week.

• Tadej Pogačar coasted to his fourth Tour de France title, putting him just one away from tying the all-time record, because NOBODY HAS EVER WON MORE THAN FIVE. REMEMBER THAT GUY WHO WON MORE THAN FIVE? NO, YOU DON’T. Pogačar also won the Mountains Classification but didn’t get to wear the polka dot jersey because he was already wearing the yellow jersey.

• The green jersey for the Points Classification went to Jonathan Milan of Lidl-Trek, which I am mentioning because that’s the team our new editor Louis Bien works for during his day job. (Ed. Note: <3)

• Nick Kurtz went 6-for-6 with four home runs in one of the greatest individual games in baseball history.

  The #4 pick in the 2024 draft, Kurtz is just the 20th player in MLB history to hit four dingers in a game, and the first rookie.

• Former Alabama softball star Montana Fouts powered the Talons to the first AUSL title with a shutout win in Tuscaloosa. The Talons won the game 1-0 on a sixth-inning home run and this unreal solo double play in the seventh:

• Bubba Wallace won NASCAR’s Brickyard 400, which gets a big “hell yeah” from me.

• Team USA won the most medals at the World University Games—which, you know, makes sense, because we do the most college sports. (Japan and China did have more gold medals, though.)

• You can catch world championship swimming and diving every day this week. The diving gets started really early, while the swimming kicks off at 7 a.m. Eastern. That’s gonna be on Peacock.

• But make sure you lock in for the main event: Ledecky vs. McIntosh in the 800m free on Saturday morning.

• Also on this week: The Tour de France Femmes. Unlike the men’s race, which takes nearly a month, this one takes 10 days. They’ll get into the mountains this weekend. That’s also on Peacock!

• The USA Track and Field Championships will start Thursday in Eugene, Ore. I am not going to look it up but I feel like that should also be on Peacock.

• The NFL Hall of Fame Game is Thursday night, and as much as I love football I genuinely feel it should not exist in the month of July.

For the Journal Review

The Wabash College track and field program and student-athletes Haiden Diemer-McKinney and Quinn Sholar have been honored for their academic and athletic excellence by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association following the 2024-25 season.

The Little Giants were named a USTFCCCA All-Academic Team, one of 115 NCAA Division III men’s programs to receive the honor. Wabash posted a cumulative team grade point average of 3.36, surpassing the 3.10 threshold for recognition.

Diemer-McKinney, an economics major, and Sholar, an art major — both rising seniors — were among 512 individuals named USTFCCCA All-Academic Athletes. To earn the distinction, student-athletes must hold a cumulative GPA of 3.30 or higher and rank among the top 50 nationally in an individual event or be part of a top-35 relay.

Diemer-McKinney earned All-North Coast Athletic Conference honors in both cross country and track and field. He placed 15th at the 2024 NCAC Cross Country Championships to secure third-team all-conference recognition. During the indoor season, he finished second in the 800-meter run and ran the leadoff leg on the Little Giants’ runner-up distance medley relay and 4×400-meter relay teams to collect three All-NCAC performances. He added a fifth all-conference honor in the outdoor season with another second-place finish in the 800 meters at the 2025 NCAC Outdoor Championships.

Sholar captured the NCAC title in the weight throw at the 2025 indoor championships and placed third in the shot put to earn additional all-conference recognition. In the spring, he secured second-place finishes in both the shot put and discus at the NCAC Outdoor Championships, earning two more All-NCAC honors. Sholar qualified for the 2025 NCAA Division III Outdoor National Championships in the discus and finished 20th in the event.

“I am very proud of our team and the individuals for earning Academic All-American honors from the USTFCCCA,” said Clyde Morgan, Director of Track and Field and Cross Country at Wabash. “This is always one of our program’s goals, so to see them achieve academic greatness is phenomenal, especially at a prestigious place like Wabash College. Congratulations to all of our young men and coaches, as well as the rest of the Wabash community, who have poured into our team not just as scholar-athletes, but as young men.”

The honors cap a successful 2024-25 campaign for Wabash, which included an NCAC Outdoor Championship team title and multiple NCAA Championship qualifiers and All-American performances across cross country and indoor and outdoor track and field.

PHILADELPHIA – Recent University of Pennsylvania graduate Sam Sullivan added to his international rowing credentials over the weekend, winning a gold medal with the United States Men’s Four at the World Rowing U23 Championships. The event ran last week in Poznan, Poland.

?? That feeling when you become a World Champion.

Ryan Martin, Wilson Morton, Sam Sullivan, and Lyle Donovan know it well. pic.twitter.com/GvP9Yfoqhq

— USRowing (@usrowing) July 26, 2025

The United States dominated Saturday’s Men’s Four A Final, showing confidence in their crew from start to finish. The U.S. took the lead early with Great Britain inches away through the first half of the race, but the Americans could not be shaken. Their third 500 meters was rowed with power and confidence, each stroke pushing their bow further and further into the lead.  The U.S. countered a great sprint from Spain as they crossed the finish line in a time of 5:49.96. In addition to Sullivan, the boat featured Ryan Martin (Washington), Wilson Morton (California), and Lyle Donovan (Washington).
 
“It was a really good race. We talked about just being our own crew and going out there and staying internal, and that’s what we did,” Sullivan told USRowing after the race. “I think we just did a good job of being ourselves and sticking to what we know. No better group to do it with.”

??History made.

The U.S. men’s four won gold for the first time at the U23 World Championships. Ryan Martin, Wilson Morton, Sam Sullivan, and Lyle Donovan are victorious in the A Final, winning by 2.25 seconds. pic.twitter.com/2fAtSEwewA

— USRowing (@usrowing) July 26, 2025

“I had so much trust in these guys to execute their race,” said the men’s four coach, Sergio Espinoza, to USRowing. “They did everything we asked of them, and it paid off. I’m just so proud of them and all of our coaches. Huge thank you to Josy Verdonkschot, Casey Galvanek, Jesse Foglia, and Brett Gorman for all their work and support; it has made a major impact.”
 
Saturday’s gold adds to Sullivan’s silver medal from last year’s U23 Championships, where he stroked the U.S. Men’s Eight. Last September, Sullivan was named the USRowing U23 National Team Male Athlete of the Year.
 

#FightOnPenn

 
 

Jennifer Siebel Newsom and author JaNay Brown-Wood read to about 50 children Monday at the San Anselmo Public Library.

“It was awesome. Our Monday morning story time was always popular,” said Linda Kenton, the library director. “They were a great team up there.”

The library recently received a $1,000 grant from the state library to install a story walk. The book featured in the installation, “Here are the Seeds” by Brown-Wood, centers on two children who learn to garden.

The book has been selected for inclusion in Siebel Newsom’s children’s book club, which launched in June. About 900 libraries receive the book club selections, said Abby Lunardini, a spokesperson for Siebel Newsom.

Siebel Newsom, who was raised in Marin, lives in Kentfield with Gov. Gavin Newsom and their children.

“Growing up, this library was such an escape for me,” Siebel Newsom said in a prepared statement. “I just loved walking up the steps, eager to uncover the mystery of a new book to read.”

“This place and the incredible public servants who work here — our librarians and library staff — supported me, spurred my curiosity and creativity and instilled a lifetime love of books and storytelling,” she said.

The grant is meant to encourage families to use the library year-round, and promote early childhood literacy and educational programming, Lunardini said.

“San Anselmo has been doing amazing things on that forefront,” Lunardini said. “Today was an example of that.”