FARMINGTON, Utah – Following an eye-popping throw that broke her own conference record in the shot put by two feet, Montana State thrower Sydney Brewster was named Big Sky Women’s Field Athlete of the Week for the third consecutive week, the conference office announced on Monday. 

Brewster, a sophomore from Sandy, Oregon, earns the weekly accolade for the third straight time this season and for the fifth time overall in her career. 

On Brewster’s very first attempt in the ring on Saturday at the Bengal Invitational in Pocatello, the thrower unleashed a throw of 56-08, shattering her own Big Sky Conference record she had set two weeks prior at the Pacific Coast Intercollegiate in Long Beach (54-09.25). 

“This season, the goal was to be consistent and I’ve been really representing that throughout my throws,” Brewster said after the meet on Saturday. “Consistency leads to breakthroughs and I think that’s showing the further we get through the season. This throw has been building, and to hit it on the first one makes me even more excited for regionals and post season. It’s really nice to see practice paying off in meets and it leads to a simple and easy throw.” 

The mark ranks No. 17 in all of NCAA Division I this season and No. 10 in the West Region. 

Among all sophomores and freshmen in the country, Brewster’s throw ranks seventh. 

Brewster, the reigning indoor Big Sky champion, broke the Big Sky Conference indoor record in February. 

Prior to Brewster breaking the Big Sky Conference outdoor record herself two weeks ago, the mark had stood since 1998. 

Montana State track and field closes out the regular season this Friday, May 9, at the Tom Gage Invite in Bozeman at the Bobcat Track & Field Complex. 

The 2025 Big Sky Outdoor Track & Field Championships begin the following week from May 13-17 at Hornet Stadium in Sacramento, California. 

#GoCatsGo 

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Maple Mountain’s Trey Thornton reacts during a Region 7 boys volleyball match against Springville on Tuesday, April 29, 2025.

Harold Mitchell, Special to the Daily Herald

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Orem’s Ben Hone (25) takes a swing against Payson in a Region 8 boys volleyball match on Thursday, April 17, 2025.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Year 2 of boys high school volleyball in the state of Utah should be even better than Year 1.

Last season the state crowned its first four state champions in boys volleyball: Pleasant Grove in Class 6A, Maple Mountain in Class 5A, Pine View in Class 4A and Grantsville in Class 3A. Play improved dramatically over the course of the season, producing high-level volleyball in the all of the finals.

This week at Utah Valley’s UCCU Center, four more gold trophies will be awarded.

Here’s a look at the 6A, 5A, 4A and 3A tournaments.

Class 6A

Bingham (21-4) earned the No. 1 seed in 6A after rolling to 14 consecutive victories. Region 3 champion Westlake (22-5) is No. 2, Lehi is No. 4 and Lone Peak No. 7. Last year’s 6A champ, Pleasant Grove, is the No. 13 seed.

Westlake rolled through Region 3 unbeaten (10-0) after taking down Cedar Valley in a sweep on Friday. Junior Kilika Tafa has 286 kills and gets offensive help from junior Kyson Ririe (181 kills), senior Parker Swenson (178 kills) and sophomore Thomas Wood (142) kills, with senior setter Keagan Cundiff (826 assists) directing things.

“It’s been such a blessing to coach this team,” Westlake coach Whitney Randall said. “At the end of the season last year we did not end up how we wanted to. So we spent a lot of time talking about it and training some specific things to kind of bridge some of the gaps we saw last year. Coming in and beating a tough region in No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 from last year is something that we’re really proud of and we’re hoping to take that energy into the state tournament.”

The 6A Tournament has two first round matches on Monday, then runs Friday and Saturday with the championship match at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Class 5A

It would take a tremendous upset to derail No. 1 Maple Mountain (25-1) from winning a second straight 5A title. The Golden Eagles, led by 6-foot-7 BYU signee Trey Thornton and 6-7 setter Taft Hillman, have won 38 straight matches against Utah competition.

Still, there are a couple of dangerous candidates in the tournament field.

No. 2 Bountiful (24-4) has won 12 matches in a row and No. 4 Alta (18-7) is 10-1 in its past 11 matches. The catalyst for the Hawks has been been another BYU signee, Corbin Batista, a 6-foot-6 outside hitter who is the son of former Cougar great Victor Batista. Corbin Batista transferred to Alta from Snow Canyon in St. George and wasn’t eligible to start the season. In 11 matches he is averaging 5.2 kills per set and hitting .399, with 45 kills in his past two matches.

Maple Mountain knows it has a big target on its back and welcomes the challenge.

“From the beginning, the players knew what the goal was, and that is to win state again,” Golden Eagles coach Napoleon Galang said. “Every day in the gym we give the players challenges. We have to keep them challenged in every aspect of the game. They know they have to stay on top of it, because everybody is after us. As long as we play our game, play consistently and clean, and win the serve and pass game, it’s going to be ours to lose.”

The 4A tournament begins with first round matches on Monday, leading to Friday’s second round and finally the championship match on Saturday at 7 p.m.

CLASS 4A

Orem (22-6) is right back where it was to start last year’s tournament as the No. 1 seed. The Tigers lost a heartbreaking five-set match to Pine View in the 4A final, falling in the fifth set 17-15. Orem setter Lucky Jennings has a lot of options to feed, including leading hitter Ben Hone (203 kills) and middles Aaron Nielsen and Luke Wolsey.

Tigers coach Bill Sefita, who has coached the Orem girls team to back-to-back state titles, said the state tournament is as much a mental challenge as it is a physical one.

“We’ve been able to meet with one of our psychologists, John Osborne,” Sefita said. “He’s done a good work with us. I think that’s one thing that’s kind of helped us. We had a tough loss against Riverton a few weeks ago, so bouncing back into the next week, we met with sports psychologists and that helped us work on, how to be mentally tough and be more present within the game.”

The other challengers in the tournament are No. 2 Murray (18-7), No. 3 Desert Hills (16-8) and No. 4 Crimson Cliffs (17-8).

Play begins Wednesday and concludes with the championship match on Thursday at 4:30 p.m.

CLASS 3A

The 3A tournament runs concurrently with the 4A and is also Wednesday and Thursday. Ogden (20-5) is the No. 1 seed and will open with No. 17 UMA-Camp Williams (4-17). American Heritage (15-11) is the No. 6 seed and Freedom Prep (17-9) is No. 9.

FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. — The Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) named two Adrian College Bulldogs to its Athlete of the Week list on Monday, tabbing Alysia Townsend of Adrian College Women’s Track and Field and Peyton Russell of Adrian College NCAA Softball as AOW recipients.

On the track, Townsend delivered a standout performance at the MIAA Outdoor Championships over the weekend in the women’s 100-meter dash, finishing second with a personal-best time of 12.41 seconds. She later teamed up with her teammates in the 4×100-meter relay, where the group placed sixth with a season-best time of 51.20. Townsend also made a strong impact on day one of the championships, winning the women’s long jump with a mark of 5.25 meters to earn the title of MIAA Champion.

Russell took to the plate five times over the team’s sweep of Kalamazoo to close the regular season last weekend, grabbing four hits, five RBI, and three runs of her own. Of those four hits, Russell punched two of them over the fence for home runs.

The Adrian College women’s track and field team will head to the Midwest Twilight Final Qualifier on May 14-15, while the NCAA softball squad will travel to Angola, Indiana for the MIAA Softball Tournament from May 7-9.

KINGSTON, R.I. – Rhode Island unveiled a 2025 women’s volleyball schedule that includes four matches against Top 25 teams from a year ago and seven matches against teams that made national postseason tournament appearances last season.

Rhody gets started during the final weekend of August, when it travels to Stony Brook’s tournament. The Rams open the season against Siena on Aug. 29 before facing Central Connecticut State and the Seawolves the following day.

The second-annual Ocean State Cup will be hosted by Providence the following weekend. All four Division I programs from the state will get together for the weekend. Rhode Island opens against Providence on Sept. 5 before playing both Bryant and Brown on Sept. 6.

The action ramps up in the third weekend when URI heads to Fort Worth, Texas for TCU’s tournament. All three opponents are coming off national tournaments, as Rhode Island will play Missouri, TCU and Wyoming. Making its second straight trip to the NCAA Championship, The SEC’s Missouri ended the season ranked No. 25 in the country and reached the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2017. No. 20 TCU of the Big 12 advanced to the second round of the NCAAs in its third consecutive trip. Wyoming came out of the Mountain West with its second straight bid to the National Invitational Volleyball Championship.

After the TCU tournament, Rhode Island plays its home opener on Sept. 15, when it welcomes Northwestern from the Big 10 to Keaney Gymnasium. Later in the week, the Rams close out non-conference play with road matches at NJIT (Sept. 19) and Manhattan (Sept. 20).

The final 18 matches of the season are all Atlantic 10 matches. This season, conference play will eight weekends of two head-to-head matches, plus a pair of midweek single matches. URI’s partner for the midweek matches is Fordham. Rhody will travel to George Washington (Sept. 26-27), Fordham (Oct. 8), Saint Louis (Oct. 17-18), Duquesne (Oct. 24-25) and defending champion Loyola Chicago (Nov. 7-8).

Rhode Island will host Davidson (Oct. 3-4), VCU (Oct. 11-12), Fodham (Oct. 29), George Mason (Nov. 1-2) and Dayton (Nov. 14-15).

The final four matches of conference play will come against 2024 NCAA Championship teams. After upsetting Dayton to win the A-10 Championship, Loyola Chicago won its opening-round match of the NCAA Championship against BYU, marking the program’s first win at the tournament.

Rhode Island closes out the regular season against No. 23 Dayton, which was a No. 5 seed at last year’s NCAA Championship. The Flyers – who were 29-2 in 2024 – reached the Sweet 16 after beating South Carolina and Baylor before falling to national semifinalist Nebraska in four sets.