Sports

Big parlays, fake injuries and Telegram tips

Published

3 months ago

April 16, 2025

Big parlays, fake injuries and Telegram tips

Four men went to a New Jersey casino in March 2024, at the start of the men’s NCAA Tournament. While most of the attention in the sports world was on a pair of games in Dayton, Ohio, that would decide which teams would get the final spots in the round of 64, the men were focused on a forgettable NBA game, the Toronto Raptors hosting the Sacramento Kings. They were ready to make what they believed were the surest bets of their lives.

At about 6:30 that Wednesday evening, according to legal filings, one of those men, Mahmud Mollah, took cash in a blue bag and transferred it into his account with a casino, then made more than $100,000 in wagers on prop bets for Jontay Porter, a little-known center with the Raptors. Mollah’s bets all wagered that Porter would not reach the points, rebounds and assist thresholds the casino set for him in that game.

Putting that much money on a player few NBA fans even knew might seem risky, but Mollah and the other men were confident in the outcome: They had been talking directly with Porter for months. He had given them an assurance before the game that he would take himself out early and claim he was ill. This sequence of events, and other details of the scheme, are based on legal filings made by the Department of Justice in three cases over the last year.

According to law enforcement officials, it was not the first time Porter had faked a medical issue to get himself removed from a game and depress his stats, and they said he had been keeping the four men aware of his intentions in a Telegram chat. When Porter told the four men that he would come out early from a Jan. 26, 2024 game with an eye injury, Timothy McCormack bet $7,000 on a parlay that Porter wouldn’t hit his totals for points, rebounds, assists and 3s. He won $40,250. A relative of one of the other men won $85,000.

Two months later at the DraftKings Sportsbook in Atlantic City, according to court records, the men again bet heavily on the under on Porter’s props; Porter played just two minutes and 43 seconds and finished with zero points, zero assists and two rebounds.

That would be their last attempt to profit off of Porter’s play. The wagers, which would have netted Mollah and others more than $1 million in winnings, raised suspicions with DraftKings. It suspended his account and reported the wagers, prompting the trail of communication that ultimately put the bettors in the sights of the FBI.

Since last year, the FBI has been investigating what federal prosecutors say is a scheme to fix the play of professional athletes in order to win wagers on their performances. The investigations have so far led to charges for six people, and four of them have already pleaded guilty, including Mollah, McCormack and Porter, who pleaded to one count of wire fraud conspiracy. The others are believed to be in plea negotiations, based on legal filings made by the federal government.

But the investigation has led to what may become one of the most far-reaching scandals to hit sports in decades. The Athletic spoke with more than a dozen people in different corners of the NBA, college sports and betting worlds, including people briefed on the investigation and people with expertise on the wide-ranging intersections between casinos and sports teams. Many of the people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation or because they feared retribution or professional consequences for speaking publicly. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of New York declined to comment.

The Porter case is also linked to investigations into match-fixing across college sports, sources said, and five schools are being investigated by the federal government for their possible ties to the scheme. Alarms were raised when unnatural betting action moved the line on a Temple-UAB conference tournament game in March 2024; federal law enforcement is looking at whether the same group of bettors can be tied to unusual line movement on other college basketball teams this season as well.

The federal investigation has cast a cloud over college sports and the legalized gambling industry as they await the next turn and wonder how much more expansive the FBI’s findings will be, and who could be implicated. It is the largest conspiracy case yet since sports gambling was legalized for most of the country seven years ago, and the most prominent since the Arizona State point-shaving scandal of the mid-1990s.

Porter has already been banned from the NBA for not only manipulating his own stats during Raptors games, but also betting on the NBA and Raptors games via another person’s gambling account. Though Porter never played in a Raptors game he bet on, an NBA investigation found he did bet on the team to lose in a parlay bet. The NBA, like other pro sports leagues, does not allow players to bet on their own sport.

Jontay Porter received a lifetime ban from the NBA for violating the league rules by disclosing confidential information to sports bettors (Isaiah J. Downing / Imagn Images).

Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier reportedly is also under federal investigation after a game in March 2023, when he was still on the Charlotte Hornets, was flagged by an integrity monitoring company for potentially abnormal betting behavior. The NBA investigated Rozier and cleared him of any wrongdoing, a league spokesman said. The federal government continues to investigate.

“The NBA cleared Terry Rozier after a serious, professional investigation that included the FBI,” said Jim Trusty, Rozier’s attorney. “Our hope is that the prosecutors finish running down their leads, recognize there is no criminal case to be made against Terry, and that they have the professionalism to clear his name both privately and publicly.”

Gambling industry veterans claim that match-fixing of some sort has always been a part of sports, but it never has been as potentially identifiable as it is now because of the legalization and pervasiveness of sports gambling. It is now available in 38 states. (The Athletic has a partnership with BetMGM.) Sportsbooks, leagues, regulators and betting integrity monitors all closely watch wagers for hints of impropriety.

That has led to bans for players in two professional sports — the NBA and MLB — as well as suspensions in the NFL for a violation of the league’s gambling policy. A MLB umpire was fired after he shared a gambling account with a professional poker player and refused to cooperate with the league’s investigation.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver said the ability to monitor legalized betting has made it easier to keep tabs on potential illicit behavior in and around the game, much like how insider trading is monitored.

“We now have the ability, as opposed to the old days before there was widespread legalized sports betting, to be heavily into the analytics of every game, looking at any blip, anything that’s unusual,” Silver said. He added, “In terms of my faith in the future, human beings are fallible; I don’t want to suggest that we have a perfect system and there aren’t going to be any players that violate the rules. I certainly have absolutely no basis sitting here today to say there are multiple NBA players involved in anything inappropriate.”

When Porter was banned last May, it was a shocking moment across the sports world, as the first high-level ramification of its embrace of legalized sports gambling over the last decade. Now, the question is how far that scheme ultimately spread.

Although the full scope of the investigation is unknown, it has come at a crucial time. Legalized sports gambling, still only seven years old in the United States outside of a few states, is trying to legitimize itself. The sports world has never been closer to gambling, and now has a high-profile scandal that could rip into its credibility if more names come out and more games are known to have been involved.

Each unusual line movement is scrutinized closely. It may be a sign of potential illegal activity, or it may be what one sportsbook director called “seeing ghosts.”

That’s what had to be discerned when a Jan. 30, 2025 game between UNC Wilmington and North Carolina A&T triggered an alert from U.S. Integrity, which monitors betting lines for irregular activity. The morning of the game, NC A&T suspended three players for reasons that Colonial Athletic Association commissioner Joe D’Antonio said were unrelated to the gambling allegations. The line on that game began with UNC-Wilmington as an 11-point favorite before it surged to a 17.5-point spread. (UNC won by 24.)

“I don’t think there was anything behind that line movement,” the sportsbook director said. “It wasn’t that suspicious; everyone is on high alert.”

NC A&T has been linked to the NCAA’s gambling investigation, but D’Antonio said neither he nor the conference have been contacted by the FBI. The conference has heard from the NCAA, and is allowing the NCAA to run its investigation rather than doing one of its own.

“We live in a world right now where there is so much legalized gambling that is part of our makeup as a country you would hope that we wouldn’t be in scandalous situations,” D’Antonio said. “But the fact that gambling is legal, we have opened the door to these kinds of situations.”

(Ethan Miller / Getty Images)

Games for several other schools have also raised alarms for integrity monitoring services and gotten the attention of NCAA investigators. At least seven schools in all are believed to have drawn attention from the NCAA, according to multiple sources briefed on the case, not all of which have yet become public. The NCAA also has examined links between the Porter case and game-fixing in college. One person questioned by the NCAA was asked if they knew about Porter and the other men arrested along with him, said a source briefed on the investigation.

The alleged scheme seems to have eyed small- and mid-major schools. In late February, the University of New Orleans suspended four players from its basketball team. Vince Granito, the school’s interim athletic director, did not confirm or deny allegations centered on the basketball program, but said that UNO had conducted its own investigation and submitted its results to the NCAA after it received a letter of inquiry.

“Until we hear back from them on their conclusion, there’s really nothing for us to say,” Granito said. “The ball is in their court.”

Porter’s case has been the most substantive view into how the manipulation of player performance may have worked. The former NBA player, and brother of Denver Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr., had fallen into “significant” gambling debt to some of the men, prosecutors said, and decided to work his way out of it by helping them win bets on his play.

Sources say that poker games, potentially rigged ones, are believed to have been one way some players could have been ensnared.

Porter told his alleged co-conspirators that he would take himself out early of a Raptors game on Jan. 26, 2024 because of an eye injury, and that he would leave the March 20 game because of illness. In one message obtained by the federal government, Porter says before the Jan. 26 game, “Hit unders for the big numbers. I told [Co-Conspirator 2] no blocks, no steals. I’m going to play the first 2-3 minute stint off the bench then when I get subbed out, tell them my eye is killing me again.”

One of the men, believed to be Long Phi Pham, then texted another alleged co-conspirator, Shane Hennen, “911” and also forwarded him Porter’s text message. He also sent Hennen a screenshot of his own betting slips on Porter, including one parlay where he bet $29,382 and would win $103,387. Hennen used that information to wager, according to legal filings, using others to place bets on his behalf.

Porter played 4 minutes and 24 seconds on Jan. 26 against the LA Clippers; it was enough to raise suspicion, as U.S. Integrity sent out an alert to sportsbooks the next day about his betting props. He then played fewer than three minutes against the Kings on March 20. According to prosecutors, he also texted his co-conspirators during halftime of a Jan. 22 game and to let them know he would not be on the floor to begin the second half after starting the game, “but if it’s garbage time, I will shoot a million shots.”

Porter seemed to be aware of what he was doing. He texted other defendants last April and said that they “might just get hit w a rico.” He also asked, according to legal filings by the prosecutors, if they had deleted incriminating information off their phones.

If they had, law enforcement still found plenty to work off. Prosecutors have cited messages they obtained off of phones and through their investigation. But the government has been very deliberate in what it has revealed in complaints against the six men who have so far been charged.

Pham was arrested last June at a New York City airport after he bought a one-way ticket to Australia. His lawyer told a federal judge Pham was going there for a poker tournament; a Department of Justice attorney disputed that claim and said Pham was attempting to flee. Pham, 39, has since pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud conspiracy.

Hennen, who his lawyer describes as a sports bettor and poker player, was arrested at a Las Vegas airport in January after he bought a one-way ticket to Colombia for what he claimed was dental work. In a legal filing, a DOJ lawyer said the government intended to charge him with money laundering and wire fraud conspiracy, though it has yet to do so. Hennen is now in plea negotiations, according to legal filings, and he and federal prosecutors told a federal judge that they expect to avoid trial.

But Hennen’s case was the clearest indicator from the government of how expansive its case may be.

“The FBI has been investigating, among other things, a fraudulent scheme to “fix” the performance of certain professional athletes in specific games in order to make profitable bets on the athlete’s performance in that game,” an FBI agent stated in a complaint filed against Hennen in January.

Lawyers for Porter and Pham declined to comment. Todd Leventhal, a lawyer for Hennen, denied that Hennen was a part of any match-fixing.

“There’s manipulating the game and then there’s betting on a game on what you would consider bad info, good information, inside information,” Leventhal said. “He lost a lot of money betting… He in no way manipulated or was in with these players at all.”

The NCAA doesn’t necessarily need to wait on potential involvement by law enforcement to proceed with its own investigations. NCAA investigations into potential violations of gambling rules have been on the rise since the broad legalization of sports betting, but most cases are related to athletes and coaches placing bets despite rules restricting them from doing so, as opposed to what transpired in the Porter case.

It is a black mark for the NBA, too. One player has already been banned not only for betting on his own team, but also for fixing his own statline. And if the league, and fans, believed that kind of behavior would be limited to players at the end of the roster, like Porter, the investigation of Rozier created louder questions about legalized sports gambling’s possible impact on the game and its integrity. Rozier is in the midst of a $96 million contract and is in line to make more than $150 million in career earnings.

Meanwhile, those in the gambling industry and following the FBI’s investigation are wondering how much the investigation will find, and who else gets caught up.

The Athletic‘s Ralph Russo contributed to this story.

(Illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic; Photos: Ethan Miller / Getty Images, John Hefti-Imagn Images)

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Kim Kardashian’s Skims deepens women’s sports ties with volleyball league deal – NBC Connecticut

Skims has reached a partnership deal with League One Volleyball. Women’s volleyball has seen growth at both the amateur and professional level in recent years. The popular undergarments brand started by star Kim Kardashian and Swedish entrepreneur Jens Grede has been ramping up its efforts in the women’s sports category. Skims is deepening its ties […]

Published

17 seconds ago

July 22, 2025

Your Sports Nation

Skims has reached a partnership deal with League One Volleyball.
Women’s volleyball has seen growth at both the amateur and professional level in recent years.
The popular undergarments brand started by star Kim Kardashian and Swedish entrepreneur Jens Grede has been ramping up its efforts in the women’s sports category.

Skims is deepening its ties in women’s sports with a new partnership in League One Volleyball.

The popular undergarments brand started by star Kim Kardashian and Swedish entrepreneur Jens Grede will become the official loungewear, intimates and sleepwear partner of the emerging volleyball league. They did not disclose the size of the deal.

The partnership comes as Skims has been ramping up its efforts in the women’s sports category. In February, the company announced it was teaming up with Nike as it looks to win over more women and take on competitors such as Lululemon, Alo Yoga and Vuori.

League One Volleyball — or LOVB, pronounced “love” — was founded in 2020 and consists of the largest community of youth volleyball clubs in the country. LOVB launched a professional league in January.

“This partnership with LOVB is an exciting opportunity to expand our reach at the intersection of fashion, culture and sports,” said Grede, co-founder and CEO of Skims.

Skims said as part of the deal, the brand will also participate in the LOVB community, including athlete-driven events and leaguewide activations. The brand said it plans to help elevate the voices of female athletes of all levels and highlight volleyball’s growth across the U.S.

“Together, we look forward to inspiring confidence and empowering athletes at every level through innovative products, community activations, and storytelling that celebrates the athletes on and off the court,” Kardashian, co-founder and chief creative officer of Skims, said in a statement.

Skims sees huge potential in volleyball, calling it “America’s next major sports league.” In recent years, the sport has seen huge upticks both in fans and television ratings.

In 2023, 92,000 fans recorded the largest-ever crowd for a women’s sports event when the Nebraska Cornhuskers’ women’s team took on the Omaha Mavericks.

The 2024 Women’s NCAA Volleyball Tournament was the most-consumed ever for ESPN, with more than 1.3 billion minutes watched across its platforms, according to the network. The entirety of the NCAA Women’s Volleyball Tournament finished up 41% year over year, ESPN said.

In May 2024, ESPN secured the media rights for League One pro matches.

“Partnering with Skims is an incredible milestone for our league and clubs,” said Michelle McGoldrick, LOVB’s chief business officer. “Together, we’re not only supporting our remarkable athletes on their journey to becoming household names, but also helping to inspire the next generation of players and fans.”

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Harding Women’s Track and Field Honored with USTFCCCA All-Academic Awards

Story Links SEARCY – Nine members of the Harding University women’s track and field team have earned All-Academic Athlete honors from the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) for their outstanding performance both in competition and in the classroom during the recent season. To qualify for the prestigious […]

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21 minutes ago

July 22, 2025

Your Sports Nation

SEARCY – Nine members of the Harding University women’s track and field team have earned All-Academic Athlete honors from the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) for their outstanding performance both in competition and in the classroom during the recent season.

To qualify for the prestigious individual award, student-athletes must maintain a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.25 on a 4.0 scale through the end of the semester of competition. Additionally, they must have either finished among the top 50 individuals on the TFRRS descending order lists in their respective events, competed at the NCAA Indoor or Outdoor National Championships, or been a member of a top-35 ranked relay team (or participated in a relay at the national championships).

The nine Harding Lady Bisons recognized for their academic and athletic achievements are:

Kiera Blankinship (Marriage and Family Counseling) – 4.00 GPA, No. 21 in Outdoor High Jump

Jayden Bowman (Health Studies) – 3.80 GPA, Outdoor 4×400 relay

Tetiana Kharashchuk (Kinesiology and Sport Administration) – 4.00 GPA, No. 13 in Outdoor 400 meters

Leila Ngapout (Exercise Science) – 3.45 GPA, No. 16 in Outdoor 4×400 relay

Omolara Ogunmakinju (Kinesiology & Sport Administration) – 3.90 GPA, No. 6 in Outdoor 400 meters

Hanna Onufriieva (Kinesiology & Sport Administration) – 3.88 GPA, No. 9 in Outdoor Triple Jump

Josie Parks (Exercise Science) – 3.87 GPA, No. 40 in 3,000-meter steeplechase

Cadence Sansom (Criminal Justice) – 3.85 GPA, No. 17 in Outdoor Pole Vault

Karyna Vehner (Kinesiology & Sport Administration) – 3.67 GPA, No. 12 in Outdoor Triple Jump

In addition to the individual honors, the Harding women’s track and field team earned the USTFCCCA All-Academic Team award, boasting a cumulative team GPA of 3.58. To qualify for this team distinction, programs must maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher.

About the USTFCCCA All-Academic Awards: The USTFCCCA annually recognizes NCAA Division I, II, and III student-athletes and teams for their academic achievements in collegiate cross country and track & field. These awards highlight the commitment of student-athletes to excellence in both their athletic endeavors and academic pursuits.

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Women’s Volleyball Earns AVCA Team Academic Award

Story Links BABSON PARK, Mass.—The Babson College women’s volleyball team was recognized for their success in the classroom by earning Team Academic Award honors from the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) on Monday afternoon. Under the guidance of 15th-year head coach Eric Neely, the Beavers concluded the 2024-25 academic year with a […]

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22 minutes ago

July 22, 2025

Your Sports Nation

BABSON PARK, Mass.—The Babson College women’s volleyball team was recognized for their success in the classroom by earning Team Academic Award honors from the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) on Monday afternoon.

Under the guidance of 15th-year head coach Eric Neely, the Beavers concluded the 2024-25 academic year with a 3.32 team grade-point average. Nine student-athletes were named to Babson’s Dean’s List in either the fall or spring term and five members of the program finished with at least a 3.30 GPA in both semesters.

The AVCA Team Academic Award, which was initiated in the 1992-93 academic year, honors collegiate and high school volleyball teams that maintain a year-long grade-point average of 3.30 on a 4.0 scale or 4.10 on a 5.0 scale.

The Beavers were among 228 Division III programs recognized by the AVCA. In all, a record 1,450 collegiate and high school teams garnered AVCA Team Academic honors.

Babson concluded the 2024 campaign with a record of 22-7 after falling to MIT in the NEWMAC Tournament quarterfinals. The Beavers are set to open the 2025 season on Friday, August 29, against nationally-ranked Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md.

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2025 AVCA Division I Player of the Year

The AVCA is proud to reveal the 30 players who are part of the 2025 Division I Watch List for its Player of the Year Award, presented by Nike Volleyball. The players on the preseason list are being revealed starting July 22 and concluding July 24 in three groups of 10. There is no order […]

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26 minutes ago

July 22, 2025

Your Sports Nation

The AVCA is proud to reveal the 30 players who are part of the 2025 Division I Watch List for its Player of the Year Award, presented by Nike Volleyball.

The players on the preseason list are being revealed starting July 22 and concluding July 24 in three groups of 10. There is no order to which list the players are on, except that all of a school’s candidates will appear the same day.

The Preseason Watch List was compiled by the AVCA Division I Women’s Volleyball Awards Committee. They will also be the group working on the additional phases of the Player of the Year process, which include:

Midseason additions to the list [October]
Naming the semifinalists [November]
Revealing the finalists [likely Dec. 15]
The announcement of the Player of the Year in Kansas City at the AVCA Awards Banquet on Friday Dec. 19.

NOTE: Players who aren’t on the preseason Watch List can still be added as the season progresses.

AVCA Player of the Year Watch List (Group One – July 22)

The 2025 AVCA Player of the Year Award is presented by Nike Volleyball.

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Story Links CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – With the 2025-26 track & field and cross country seasons on the horizon, Harvard track & field reveals the incoming Class of 2029, as 31 student-athletes will join the Crimson’s storied tradition. Women’s Team Caitlyn Chang | Braintree, Mass. | Braintree High School 3200m: 11:16.00 1600m: 5:11.00 […]

Published

41 minutes ago

July 22, 2025

Your Sports Nation

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – With the 2025-26 track & field and cross country seasons on the horizon, Harvard track & field reveals the incoming Class of 2029, as 31 student-athletes will join the Crimson’s storied tradition.

Women’s Team

Caitlyn Chang | Braintree, Mass. | Braintree High School

3200m: 11:16.00

1600m: 5:11.00

Two-time Bay State Conference Cross Country All-Star during the 2023 and 2024 seasons … Earned Boston Globe Runner of the Week honors twice during the 2024 cross country campaign … Recipient of the Dave Wilson Trophy, recognizing the top female cross country athlete in Braintree … Three-time Bay State Conference All-Star in both indoor and outdoor track competition from 2023 through 2025 … Boston Globe All-Scholastic honorable mention … 2024 and 2023 Patriot Ledge All-Scholastic Team selection …

Ella Cohen | New York, N.Y. | Hunter College High School

800m: 2:10.00

1600m: 4:46.00

3000m: 9:40.00

2023 USATF New York Cross Country Athlete of the Year … Earned All-New York First Team honors during the 2023 campaign … Won New York state titles in the 1500m and the 4x800m relay in 2024.

Maya Davis | Athens, Ga. | Athens Academy

800m: 2:09.00

1600m: 4:56.00

Eight-time Georgia state champion … Holds the Georgia state record in the 800m … Also holds the Athens Academy 400m school record … 2024 Piedmont Orthopedic Cross Country Runner of the Year … 2023 Athens Area Runner of the Year … National Honor Society member … Member of the Cum Laude Society.

Mackenzie De Lisle | Cape Coral, Florida | Bishop Verot High School

1600m: 4:58.00

3200m: 10:39.00

Four-time Florida All-State honoree in both cross country and track & field competition … SWFL Cross Country Runner of the Year in 2022 … 2024 Florida state champion in the 1600m … Florida state runner-up in cross country during the 2023 season … Holds the 800m, 1600m, 3200m and the 5000m at Bishop Verot.

Sylvia Eckman| Roseburg, Ore. | Roseburg High School

3000m: 10:14.00

2024 Oregon Southwest Conference Cross Country Athlete of the Year … Named Co-Oregon Southwest Conference Cross Country Athlete of the Year in 2023 … 2024 Oregon 6A All-State selection … 3000m district champion.

Leila Holland | Long Beach, Calif. | Long Beach Polytechnic

100m: 11.66

200m: 24.52

2023 and 2024 All-Moore League First Team honoree … Also lettered in soccer.

Zoe Li-Khan | Brookline, Mass. | Buckingham Browne and Nichols School

Pole Vault: 1.96m (6’5″)

2025 All-Independent School League selection … 2023 and 2024 All-ISL honorable mention … Three-time All-NESPAC selection … Three-time AAU Indoor Nationals All-American … Holds the Buckingham Browne and Nichols school record in the pole vault … ISL and NEPSAC pole vault champion in 2025.

Dylan McElhinney | New York, N.Y. | Hunter College High School

800m: 2:06.07

1500m: 4:15.80

1600m: 4:39.89

World U20 Championships finalist in the 1500m … 2024 Nike Indoor Nationals Champion in the 800m and the mile … 2024 Millrose Games High School champion in the mile … Two-time Foot Locker Nationals qualifier.

Cia Siewe | Ijamsville, Maryland | Urbana High School

Heptathlon: 4486

100m Hurdles: 14.42

Long Jump: 5.62m (18’5″)

Shot Put: 12.16m (39’10”)

Triple Jump: 11.58m (38’0″)

2025 Milesplit Maryland All-State First Team selection in long jump, triple jump, shot put and the 100m hurdles … 2025 Frederick News Post Field Athlete of the Year … Six-time Maryland State Championships medalist … Finished in the top-eight in the heptathlon at the Outdoor New Balance Nationals.

Callie Wallace | Washington, D.C. | Maret School

800m: 2:15.62

1600m: 4:59.21

Three-time All-Washington D.C. from 2022 to 2024 in cross country … Also earned All-Independent School League from 2022 to 2024 in cross country … Received Washington Post All-Met status twice in cross country … Also earned Washington Post All-Mer honors twice in track & field.

Nadjela Wepiwé | Friedrichsdorf, Germany | Kaiserin-Friedrich-Gymnasium

Discus: 53.13m (174’3″)

Won gold at the European U18 Championships in the discus throw … Her sister Milina is a sophomore at Harvard and two-time All-American in the discus.

Jillene Wetteland | Long Beach, California | Long Beach Polytechnic

High Jump: 1.78m (5’10”)

Three-time All-Moore League selection … California state finalist … two-time CIF Southern Section Division I champion … Also helped Long Beach Polytechnic win a CIF Team Championship … Ranked in the top-three in the United States and first in California in the high jump.

Men’s Team

Benjamin Bouie | Sunnyvale, California | Crystal Springs Uplands School

1600m: 4:03.23

3200m: 8:58.66

CIF All-State First Team honoree in cross country in both 2023 and 2024 … Helped Crystal Springs Uplands School win back-to-back team state championships … CSC champion in the 1600m during the 2024 season … Cum Laude Society member.

Preston Ellis | Chicago, Ill. | Walter Payton College Prep

800m: 1:54.86

2024 2A State Champion in the 800m … Finished in third at the Illinois State Championships … Finished fifth place at Nike Nationals … Also earned New Balance Indoor 4x800m All-American honors with a fifth place finish.

Tam Gavenas | Andover, Mass. | Philips Academy Andover

1500m: 3:50.20

3200m: 8:53.71

2024 Foot Locker Cross Country National Champion … 2024 MileSplit COROS XC Athlete of the Year … Only the third runner from Massachusetts to win the Foot Locker Cross Country National Championship … Finished the 2024 season ranked No. 1 in DyeStat’s final Boys Cross Country rankings … Massachusetts Gatorade Player of the Year in cross country.

Eamon Gordon | Santa Barbara, Calif. | Dos Pueblos Senior High

3200m: 9:15.53

2025 CIF Scholar-Athlete of the Year … All-Channel League First Team honoree from 2021-24 … 2023 Santa Barbara Athletic Roundtable Cross Country Athlete of the Year … Qualified for the Adidas Meet of Champions.

Levi Harrison | Chestnut Hill, Mass. | The Roxbury Latin School

800m: 1:55.66

2022 and 2024 Cross Country All-ISL selection … Also earned All-New England honors in honors in 2022 and 2024 in cross country competition … ISL champion in the 800m and 4x400m relay during the 2025 season … Helped Roxbury Latin win the New England Division II Team Championship.

Keith Hunter | Seattle, Washington | Overlake School

800m: 1:54.42

1500m: 3:54.13

All-NESPAC selection in the 800m during the 2025 season … Three-time Emerald Soung All-Conference selection in cross country … Finished in third in the 1500m at the USAF National Championships in 2023 … 2024 Metro League Champion in the 800m.

Joachim Johnson | Lansdowne, Pa. | Episcopal Academy

Triple Jump: 15.34m (50’4.25″)

High Jump: 2.10m (6’10.75″)

Two-time Pennsylvania All-State selection … Holds the Delaware County records in both the triple jump and high jump … 2025 Pennsylvania state champion in the indoor high jump and indoor triple jump.

Arpad Kovacs | Szeged, Hungary | Szegedi Radnóti Miklós Kíserleti Gimnázium

400m: 45.97

200m: 21.45

Finished in second place in the 400m at the U18 European Championships … Took third in the 4x400m at the Indoor World Championships … 15-time Hungarian national champion.

Yannick Kraus | Dubai, United Arab Emirates | Jumeirah English Speaking School

Decathlon: 7000 points

High Jump: 2.01m (6’7″)

Finished in fourth place in the Decathlon at the German National Championships … Ranked 16^th in the U18 decathlon according to World Athletics.

Cameron McConnon | London, England | St. Paul’s School

3000m: 8:59.00

Two-time Middlesex cross country champion … U19 3000m Middlesex Country winner.

Hudson McGough | Los Angeles, Calif. | Loyola High School of Los Angeles

800m: 1:52.95

2025 Mission League champion in the 800m and the 4x400m relay … CIF state finalist in the 4x400m relay during the 2025 season … Also lettered in soccer.

Ansh More | New York, N.Y. | Riverdale Country School

3200m: 9:18.16

Led Riverdale to league championships in cross country, indoor and outdoor track & field during the 2024-25 season … Finished in 27^th in the 5000m at the New Balance Indoor Nationals.

Brady Mullen | New Orleans, La. | Jesuit Nola

1600m: 4:05.57

3200m: 8:47.59

NXN Cross Country qualifier … Three-time Louisiana Gatorade Player of the Year in cross country … Two-time Louisiana state champion in cross country competition … Led Jesuit Nola to four state title in cross country competition.

Oliver Parker | Leicester, England | Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College

400m Hurdles: 50.48

Finished in second in the United Kingdom U20s in the 400m hurdles … 2025 Icelandic Games silver medalist in the 400m.

Grant Schorder | Downers Grove, Ill. | Downers Grove North High School

Three-time NXN qualifier … Runner-up at the Illinois State Championships … Member of a Nike Midwest Regional Team that finished in third in 2022 and first in 2023 and 2024.

Robert Satcher | Bellaire, Texas | The Kinkaid School

Triple Jump: 13.90m (45’7.25″)

Three-time Texas All-State honoree … holds The Kinkaid School program record in the triple jump.

Andrew Thorton-Sherman | Waterford, Vermont | St. Johnsbury Academy

800m: 1:49.98

1000m: 2:24.97

1500m: 3:54.67

1600m: 4:12.87

2023 New Balance All-American in the distance medley relay … 2024 New Balance All-American in the sprint medley relay … 2024 Gatorade Vermont Track & Field Player of the Year … Six-time Vermont state champion.

Demetrios Tzoannos | Athens, Greece | Athens College

High Jump: 1.96m (6’5″)

Represented Greece at the U18 European Championships … finished in fifth place in the high jump at the Greek U18 National Championships.

Daniel Ye | Chappaqua, New York | Horace Greeley High School

Weight Throw: 22.38m (73’5.25″)

Hammer Throw: 65.71m (215’7″)

2025 Nike All-American … Two-time Westchester Most Outstanding Field Athlete … 2024 New York All-State honoree.

For complete coverage of Harvard Track & Field, follow us on Twitter (@HarvardTFXC) and Instagram (@harvardtfxc).

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Women’s Volleyball Nations League 2025 quarter-finals: USA hoping to dethrone defending champions Italy

Meanwhile, 2023 VNL champions Türkiye will target a sixth semi-final appearance in seven years, facing the last edition’s runners-up in Japan who finished the preliminaries with the third-best record. The final quarter-final matchup sees three-time runners-up Brazil look to build on their impressive record, where they lost just once in the 2025 VNL to Italy. […]

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42 minutes ago

July 22, 2025

Your Sports Nation

The final quarter-final matchup sees three-time runners-up Brazil look to build on their impressive record, where they lost just once in the 2025 VNL to Italy. The South Americans will take on Germany, who make their second appearance in the final eight.

Find out the full schedule and how to watch the VNL finals live.