KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee head coach and director of track & field Duane Ross has announced the hiring of Deanna Hill as an assistant coach. Hill will aid the development of UT’s sprinters, hurdlers and relay squads.
 
“We are thrilled to welcome Deanna Hill to our staff here at Tennessee,” Ross said. “She brings an elite level of technical knowledge, a proven track record of developing championship-caliber athletes, and an infectious energy that fits perfectly with the culture we’re building. Her experience at both the collegiate and international levels will be invaluable as we continue to elevate our sprint, hurdle and relay groups. I have no doubt she’ll make an immediate impact on our program.”
 
Hill arrives on Rocky Top after a four-year stint as an assistant coach at the University of Georgia, most recently helping the Bulldogs capture the women’s team titles at the 2025 SEC and NCAA Outdoor Championships. Since 2022, Hill served on a UGA staff that collected 12 NCAA top-10 team finishes.
 
Individually, Hill coached three NCAA champions during her time in Athens — including 2024 Bowerman finalist Christopher Morales Williams, who swept NCAA 400-meter crowns that season and posted an all-time world best of 44.49 at the 2024 SEC Indoor Championships. Hill also mentored 2024 Paris Olympian Aaliyah Butler, who helped Team USA win gold in the women’s 4×400-meter relay and took home the 2025 NCAA outdoor title in the women’s 400-meter dash with a time of 49.26 that ranks fifth in collegiate history.
 

In her first season in Athens, Hill coached Matthew Boling to the 2022 NCAA indoor title in the men’s 200-meter dash with a time of 20.12 seconds – establishing the No. 5 indoor mark in NCAA track & field history.
 
The depth of Hill’s development during her time at UGA is evident, as 107 top-10 marks in school history and 14 current school records in the sprints, hurdles and relays were established from 2022-25.
 

“I am so excited and blessed to be joining the University of Tennessee track & field program,” Hill said. “Knoxville is a beautiful city, and I can’t wait to become a part of the Vol and Lady Vol community with its athletic excellence and incredible support.
 
“I want to extend a huge thank you to coach Caryl Smith Gilbert for the opportunity she gave me at the University of Georgia and for all her mentorship throughout my life. To all my former Dawgs—the athletes, staff, and parents—I will forever appreciate your love and support. To my friends, family, and God, thank you for always pushing me to new heights.
 
“I’m incredibly grateful to coach Duane Ross for the opportunity to join his program. I was immediately drawn to his mission for this team, and it is a true privilege to learn from someone with his career accomplishments. Go Big Orange!”
 

A phenomenal athlete in her own right, Hill was a 16-time First Team All-American and team captain of the Southern California track & field program as a collegian – earning Team MVP honors three consecutive years and helping the Trojans clinch the 2018 NCAA outdoor team title with a memorable, triumphant victory in the women’s 4×400-meter relay. Her 16 first team All-America certificates are the most in USC history.
 
The Orlando, Florida, native returned to her hometown after graduating from USC and took over as the head varsity coach at Lake Highland Preparatory School to start the 2019 season. While guiding Lake Highland, her school won its first boys’ district championship in 21 years and its first regional championship in school history.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Maybe what happens in Las Vegas really does stay in Las Vegas, as a memorable marketing campaign promised. But as the days tick down until Vanderbilt’s first competitive volleyball match in more than four decades, the Commodores are counting on their recent experiences in Osaka, Kyoto, Tokyo and bullet trains across Japan to resonate from Austin to Tuscaloosa. What happened in Japan will help shape the years ahead.

As May gave way to June, more than 30 student-athletes, coaches and staff traveled from Nashville to Japan for 10 days of competition and cultural exploration in Osaka, Tokyo and Kyoto. A little more than three years after Vanderbilt announced it would reinstate volleyball as its 17th varsity program, and as the reborn program’s first student-athletes completed their first year on campus, the international trip was one more in a line of ‘firsts’ that will continue through the opening match against Kansas on Aug. 23 in Lincoln, Nebraska, and their home debut against Belmont on Aug. 29 on Wyatt Lawn.

The Japan trip created once-in-a-lifetime memories running the gamut from food to history to volleyball. It was a meaningful part of each student’s Vanderbilt experience solely on its own merits. But it was also part of an ongoing effort to build a team capable of competing on day one and a program that can grow into something remarkable. From the value of preparation to the benefits of competition to camaraderie, every part of the experience underscored the importance of making the most of right now and preparing for what’s to come. The trip, in other words, was part of a journey.

Preparing to Succeed

From almost the moment he was hired, head coach Anders Nelson intended for his team to take an international trip prior to its debut season. NCAA rules allow teams to take international trips once every four years, and with every hour together on and off the court even more valuable in building something from scratch, there was no sense waiting.

But when the first recruits committed many months later, the coaching staff still couldn’t tell them the trip’s destination. That, too, was part of the plan. Emphasizing their equal agency in building whatever the program was to become, one of the initial tasks for the first Commodores was choosing from among a list of possible trips. All right, perhaps coaches, particularly intrigued by a trip to Japan, exhibited extra enthusiasm as they made the case for each destination, but Reese Animashaun, Maddy Bowser, Taryn DeWese, Hailee Mack and Rachel Ogunleye ultimately cast the deciding—and unanimous—votes.

Whether it was assistants Russell Corbelli and Lauren Plum integrating Japanese terms and concepts into weekly practice plans or the sports nutrition team incorporating Japanese flavors into easy everyday recipes that student-athletes could follow, the trip became a core part of the team’s first year together.

“Anders was really intentional about keeping the trip front of mind,” Corbelli said. “If we didn’t keep hyping this trip up, it was going to be here before we knew it and the excitement wouldn’t have been nearly what we wanted it to be. We wanted to create anticipation. We tried to do as much of that as we could, whether it was incorporating the language or the style of play or any aspect from the culture.”

They leaned on the university’s collaborative power to stoke enthusiasm. As they got the program up and running, Nelson and his staff had set up classes open to university staff to help better understand and appreciate the sport. Now, they invited Asami Nakano, senior lecturer in Japanese, to address student-athletes in classroom sessions that helped introduce some basic language skills and discussion points about the culture.

The team also forged a bond with Tyler Walker, assistant director of global health and safety. Fluent in Japanese and Korean after studying and working in both countries, Walker also previously worked for Vanderbilt Study Abroad before shifting to the Global Health and Safety team. She helped student-athletes understand norms that would allow the Commodores to be considerate guests on their travels. That might be something as simple as lowering the volume of public conversations—particularly useful as the team used public transport for almost all of its travel within the country. After initially making a series of PowerPoint presentations this spring, Walker ended up joining the Commodores on the trip.

Granted, even the best intentions sometimes run aground on the reefs of reality. Corbelli at one point convinced graduate transfer Sydney Conley to join his bid for additional fluency through a language-learning app. Like many of us in such efforts, neither lasted all that long. Fortunately, Google Translate always stood at the ready.

The point of the efforts, after all, was never to blithely assume they could master a language, learn millennia of history or understand the nooks and crannies of a culture of more than 120 million people. You don’t do any of that over the course of a semester, any more than you take your place as an NCAA title favorite in a matter of months. But any effort to learn, any willingness to try, speeds development and enriches experiences.

“I think what people enjoyed most was learning about the cultural differences,” Conley said. “Just learning about Japan, from the food to everything else, really helped build anticipation. It was really cool because it definitely made being there more exciting when we had been learning about it for the entire semester and it was finally here. I enjoyed that a lot, and I’m glad they did that for us.”

Learning to Compete

The competitive component of an international trip is always a variable. For some teams, competition is essentially an afterthought, a scrimmage and a practice or two squeezed in between prioritizing other activities. The Commodores didn’t have that luxury. They wanted the full cultural experience, but they also needed the time on the court.

When Vanderbilt plays Kansas next month, the sum total of the Commodores’ competitive experience together on this continent will come from spring exhibitions against Tennessee, Lipscomb, Louisville and Purdue. Their opponents have cheered each on other after victories and probably also grumbled about each other after defeats—hopefully learning from both.

The Commodores and their peers from Nihon University (Amon Kehr/Vanderbilt).

Any opportunity to catch up, even when no one will remember the scores, matters. Over a little more than a week, the Commodores doubled their total match time by playing Senri Kinran University, Kansai University, Nihon Taiku University and Nihon University.

“At this point, every time we get to compete, it’s a special thing for us, especially the ones who have been here for a full year now—or two and a half years for our staff,” Corbelli said. “It was some of the best preparation we could get, in some ways even more than playing the teams we played in the spring, who are powerhouses in the volleyball space. The Japan matches were such meaningful preparation for the season because of the difference in style and all the other components around competing in a foreign country.”

While not necessarily gaining as much mainstream recognition as their peers in soccer or softball, Japan has a rich history in women’s volleyball—including Olympic gold medals in 1964 and 1976. Regular participants in the Olympics and World Championship, the national team embodies a style of play based on speed and technical precision that filters down to the university-level teams that the Commodores faced.

“None of the people in the spring—nobody I’ve ever played—played as fast as them,” Conley said. “They were doing these really creative plays, coming out of nowhere and none of us knew what was going on. In the fall, we’ll have game plans, of course, but it was a way for us to learn how to better adapt to teams that we don’t recognize. I don’t know if we reacted well to it at first, because we were just all amazed at what was going on. But I think throughout the trip, each game we got better at preparing, because each team played pretty similar—but completely different than teams in the U.S.”

Adapt and Thrive, Together

Instagram influencers notwithstanding, travel is rarely glamorous—or even all that comfortable. After missing out on international trips during her four years at Florida State, Conley got her chance this year with the Commodores. Complete with a 12-hour flight. In the back two rows of economy. In the middle seats. At least she was sitting next to a teammate, DeWese, and not a random stranger. They talked. They tried sleeping, with little success—despite the special pillow Conley had secured for the trip. They ate. By the time the team arrived in Japan and struggled through an initial dinner, the student-athletes were united in a shared desire to find their beds.

It says something about the scale of the challenge involved in building a program from scratch that the team’s longest road trip prior to crossing the international date line came when it crossed the dividing line between time zones on the four-hour bus ride to the Indianapolis area for an exhibition against Purdue in April. Jet lag wasn’t an issue there.

Collective experience isn’t just about playing matches together. It’s about riding buses and waiting for flights, eating meals and passing time. Playing together means trusting the people around you to have your back—to make the right set or run the right play. And while you don’t have to be best friends with someone to trust them on a court, knowing and understanding them goes a long way toward building that trust.

That isn’t easy. The Commodores who arrived in Japan together took different routes to Vanderbilt. They came to Nashville as members of the first recruiting class, transfers, early enrollees and more, from last summer through this spring—the newest member of the traveling party just a matter of weeks into her time at Vanderbilt. The shared misery of a long-haul flight and jet lag might seem inconsequential. But the more experiences that are shared—whether spring exhibitions or economy seating—the more a group of individuals figures out how to be a functioning team.

“I think just playing together made us get to know each other better,” Conley said of evolving group dynamics. “This past semester, I’d say we really started to hang out more in different groups and branch out and make more friendships off the court. And then on this trip, I was seeing people hang out who I had never really seen hang out very much before.”

To that end, Nelson and his staff wanted to give the student-athletes as much freedom as a packed itinerary would allow. The group came together to practice and play. They ate most meals together (phones allowed only briefly as a concession to a modern generation eager to share visual evidence of the cuisine). They visited unforgettable sites like Osaka Castle and the Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto. But in a country with impeccable communication networks, easy public transport and celebrated public safety, the Commodores also had opportunities to explore (and in what became a particularly popular pastime, shop) in ad hoc groups of their own choosing.

“You can handle this as adults and individuals, and we’re trusting that you’re going to be able to follow the parameters that we’ve set out,” said Kim Williams, volleyball’s director of operations. “We built a lot of solid trust in that realm. Carry yourself and present yourself well because you’re wearing Vanderbilt volleyball, but get the full travel experience of getting lost, translating things, figuring out a currency on your own. I feel like they grew a lot as far as trusting themselves to handle these situations.”

Each of them came home with bags full of souvenirs for family and friends, not to mention Japanese candy for themselves. Each returned with new tastes to try and fill at home—whether the authentic ramen that Conley and a few teammates found on their final night in Tokyo or the Wagyu beef that Corbelli fears will never again be as affordable as it was when he and his wife had an evening meal to themselves. And they brought back the stories that make travel so much more than anything tangible—like the laughter in recalling the group stranded on the subway when they missed their stop and the grand adventure of finding their way back from the next stop.

All of it a shared experience—their shared experience. Made by them.

“Typically when you travel as a team, you just listen to what the ops person or the coach says,” Williams explained. “There was a lot more independence here. I think, for me, that helped give a new lens to see that, ‘All right, they can handle these things.’ It doesn’t always have to be laid out picture perfect for them. They’ll adapt. They’ll adjust.”

If it turned their time in Japan into the trip of a lifetime, imagine what it can do when they hit the road in the SEC.

BIRMINGHAM – The UAB Department of Athletics has made single-game tickets for women’s soccer, men’s soccer, and volleyball available beginning today. Tickets are $10 for adults or $8 for youth 17 or younger.
 
Season tickets for all three sports can be purchased with the 2025-26 Gold Card and is the best way to catch all the action. The Gold Card provides access to all regular season home events for women’s soccer, men’s soccer, volleyball, women’s basketball, baseball, and softball.
 
2025-26 Gold Cards and single game tickets for women’s soccer, men’s soccer, and volleyball can be purchased by clicking here.
 
Entering UAB’s third season in the American Athletic Conference under the leadership of head coach Lisa Mann, the women’s soccer team opens its regular season slate against UCF on Aug. 14 at PNC Field. The Blazers have 11 regular season home matches, featuring five home conference games as well as a road trip to SEC opponent Ole Miss. UAB women’s soccer hosts Jacksonville State (Aug. 3) and South Alabama (Aug. 9) in exhibitions and admission to the exhibition matches are free.
 
Under the direction of second-year head coach David Lilly, the UAB men’s soccer program begins its third season in the American Athletic Conference. The Blazers play eight regular season home matches, including four conference home games at PNC Field. The regular season home schedule starts on Aug. 21 against Elon followed by ACC opponent Louisville on Aug. 25. UAB men’s soccer will also face Clemson and two-time National Champion North Carolina on the road during the 2025 slate. UAB plays two home exhibition matches against Tennessee Wesleyan (Aug. 8) and Belmont (Aug. 11) that have free admission.
 
Betsy Freeburg’s volleyball team has 14 opportunities for fans to catch the Blazers compete at Bartow Arena during the 2025 season. Volleyball hosts in-state opponents Alabama State and North Alabama and has a total of eight conference home matches. The non-conference slate also features the Blazer Classic on Sept. 5 – Sept. 6 which includes USC Upstate, Tennessee Tech, and UNA.
 
Additionally, UAB Athletics has announced its group experiences leading into the 2025-26 seasons. Individual and corporate groups can plan memorable experiences at UAB Athletics home events this season by accessing the UAB Athletics Group Ticket Request Form. Discounted group tickets and fan experience packages are available starting today for a minimum purchase of 15 tickets and are available on a first come, first served basis.
 
For more information on 2025-26 Gold Cards or single game tickets, contact the UAB Athletics Ticket Office at (205) 975-UAB1 or tickets@uab.edu. Be sure to follow @UAB_Athletics on social media for updates.
 
Your Support Fuels Success!
With your help, Blazer Student-Athletes are given the resources, tools, and opportunities they need to achieve greatness. Every contribution you make directly supports our teams, ensuring they excel not only on the field but in the classroom as well. We invite you to renew your support to UAB Athletics today and for more information on ways to show your generosity through the Blazer Scholarship Fund, capital initiatives, and sport specific giving go to blazerboosters.com or call us at (205) 996-9969.
 
FOLLOW THE BLAZERS
For more information on the UAB women’s soccer team, follow @UAB_wsoc on X and Instagram.
For more information on the UAB men’s soccer team, follow @UAB_msoc on X and Instagram.
For more information on the UAB volleyball team, follow @UAB_VB on X and Instagram.
 

The crowd inside the Untold Story in Anaheim was ready for open mic night to begin last week, but there was no way it would start on time.

Whenever owner Lizzette Barrios Gracián tried to approach the podium, someone pulled her away for a hug. A congrats. A recommendation. A thanks.

The bookstore opened last year in an industrial part of the city so isolated that 911 dispatchers couldn’t find it when Barrios Gracián called about a medical emergency. Though it quickly earned a loyal following for focusing on BIPOC books and allowing activists to meet there without having to buy anything, the location wasn’t working, and Barrios Gracián was ready to close what had been a longtime dream.

Then she found a better, if smaller, place in a strip mall near downtown, within walking distance of her home. The Untold Story reopened a few weeks ago, and this was the first open mic night at the new spot.

“Oh my god, what a difference location makes,” Barrios Gracián told me as people kept filing in on July 25. “They’re coming to hang out, they’re coming to buy, they’re coming to organize, they’re coming from across the country.”

Among the customers she talked to that day: Toby from Florida. Nick from Kentucky who lives in Utah. A group of teenage girls in town for a water polo tournament. Anton Diubenko of Ukraine, who was in Orange County to see a friend and told me he visits bookstores around the world.

“This one’s really nice,” Diubenko said. “If I was a local, I’d come here every week.”

Barrios Gracián finally reached the podium. She was 20 minutes late. No one cared.

“Thank you muchachos!” the 52-year-old said in a loud, warm tone that hinted at her day job as a history teacher at Gilbert High in Anaheim. “Bienvenidos to our new location of the Untold Story, Chapter 2! Your job tonight is to support, clap and give lots of love.”

Over the next two hours, the audience snapped their fingers, applauded, hooted in approval or nodded as speakers poured out their proverbial hearts in English, Spanish and Nahuatl. Local political blogger Vern Nelson tickled out on his electric keyboard the Mexican children’s tune “El Ratón Vaquero” as adults and teens alike sang and clapped along. Every time someone went up to perform, Barrios Gracián sat in their seat, because all the others were occupied.

“The greatest success of this bookstore,” she said in closing, flashing a smile as bright as her gunmetal gray hair, “is uniting all of you.”

Although the night was officially over, no one left. They wanted to exult in the moment.

Vivian Lee, who organizes board game get-togethers at the bookstore through her role as community engagement coordinator for the Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance, said that “welcoming spaces” can be hard to find in her native city.

“People like Liz are just so incredible,” said Lee, 30. “She’s game for anything that helps community.”

Paola Gutierrez teaches monthly bilingual poetry classes at the Untold Story. “When I first asked if she could sell my book, she said not just ‘Yes’ but ‘We will promote you and help you,’” the 47-year-old said. “How can I not say I’m free for whatever you need?”

She pointed at a massive couch and laughed. “Liz needs me to move this freakin’ thing again? Let’s do it!”

I visited Barrios Gracián the following day when things were chiller. The Untold Story’s design is bohemian Latinx. All the fixtures and artwork are donated, including bookshelves, massive mirrors and a bust of the Egyptian goddess Isis as well as a replica of the Titanic above the used fiction section. Insulation peeks out from sagging ceiling tiles. A stand next to the gift section offers free toiletries and canned and dried food.

“We’re going through hard times,” Barrios Gracián said as Argentine rock gods Soda Stereo played lightly from speakers. “I can’t give a lot, but I can give.”

How did she think open mic night went?

“It was very successful for our first time here,” she responded. “You never know if people will follow you when you move.”

A customer walked in.

“Hi, welcome!” Barrios Gracián exclaimed, the first of many times she would do that during our chat. “Don’t shy away, you don’t have to buy!”

Born in Guadalajara, Barrios Gracián came to Anaheim with her parents in the 1980s without papers, eventually legalizing through the 1986 amnesty. A bookworm from a young age, she found her “safe space” as a teen and young adult in long-gone bookstores such as Book Baron in Anaheim (“I loved how disorganized it was”) and the bilingual Librería Martínez in Santa Ana.

When the latter closed in 2016, Barrios Gracián vowed to open a version of it when her daughters were older. In 2021, she launched the Untold Story as a website and a pop-up, aiming to eventually open a storefront in her hometown.

“Anaheim is nothing but breweries,” she said. “That’s the teacher in me. There’s nothing cultural for our youth — they have to go to Santa Ana to find it, while [Anaheim] lets gentrification go crazy.”

Rent proved prohibitive at most spaces. At others, prospective landlords would offer a lease only if the Untold Story dropped its books on critical race theory, which she refused to do.

“Those are the untold stories,” Barrios Gracián said. “Anaheim needs to hear them. Everyone needs to hear them.”

She greeted Benjamin Smith Jr. of Riverside, who had read the previous night and was returning now with his poetry books.

“I can sell them, but we should have an event just for you, because people like to meet the author of the book they might buy,” Barrios Gracián told Smith. He beamed.

“Liz gives people chances,” Smith, 68, told me. “I’m no one famous, but look at me here now.”

Barrios Gracián is keeping her job at Gilbert High, where she also heads the continuation school’s teen parent support program. At the Untold Story, she wants to host more author signings and launch an oral history project for students to record the stories of Anaheim’s Latino elders.

“We’re in a crucial moment where our stories must be told from the past,” she said. “Ellos sobrevivieron, también nosotros [They survived, we can as well]. It brings hope.”

One thing I suggested she work on is the business side. The books are ridiculously affordable — used copies of a J. Robert Oppenheimer biography and a book about the rise of Nazism in L.A. before World War II set me back $11. Barrios Gracián’s training consisted of a free entrepreneur course through the city of Anaheim, a video by the American Booksellers Assn., talking to other bookstore owners and Googling “how to open a bookstore.”

She laughed.

“I tell my students we learn by falling and then getting back up,” she said. “If I can make money, it would be great, but that’s not the point here. Might sound crazy for business people, right?”

The numbers are thankfully going “in the right direction,” said the Untold Story’s manager, Magda Borbon. Barrios Gracián was one of her favorite teachers at Katella High School, “so now it’s time to pay it back” by working at the store, she said.

Like me and too many other Anaheimers, Borbon moved to Santa Ana “because I didn’t see myself culturally in Anaheim. Now I do.”

Barrios Gracián excused herself to greet more customers. I walked over to a table where a group of women were painting book covers as part of their book club. It was everyone’s first time at the Untold Story.

“This is very much an extension of Liz,” said Angela Stecher, who has worked with Barrios Gracián before. “She’s been talking about doing something like this for years, and it’s wonderful to see her do it.”

“This is like something that you’d see in San Francisco,” added Maria Zacarias, who grew up in Anaheim and now lives in Santa Ana.

“You go to a bookstore, you feel like you can’t touch anything because everything is so neat,” said Liliana Mora. She waved around the room as more people streamed in. “Here, it feels like home.”

Key Takeaways

• Roc Nation Sports and Klutch Sports Group both landed on Forbes’ 2025 list of the most valuable sports agencies.
• Roc Nation Sports manages over $2.6 billion in contracts, representing stars like LaMelo Ball and Vini Jr.
• Klutch Sports Group, founded in 2012, ranks in the Top 5 with over $7 billion in athlete deals, including LeBron James and A’ja Wilson.

JAY-Z and Rich Paul’s strategic moves in sports are paying off. Their agencies, Roc Nation Sports and Klutch Sports Group, just landed on Forbes’ 2025 list of the most valuable sports agencies — cementing their status as power players in athlete representation.

The ranking was published Thursday (July 31). From MVP contracts in basketball, baseball, football, and soccer to rising stars with collegiate NIL deals, the moguls are making an impact across the industry.

Over at Roc Nation Sports, the roster includes WNBA star player Skylar Diggins, Charlotte Hornets shooting guard LaMelo Ball, and standout Brazilian soccer player Vini Jr., to name a few. The subdivision of Roc Nation was launched in 2013 in a partnership with Creative Arts Agency (CAA), the top agency across sports and media.

“Because of my love of sports, it was a natural progression to form a company where we can help top athletes in various sports the same way we have been helping artists in the music industry for years,” said the Blueprint rapper. According to Forbes, JAY-Z’s company has an estimated $2.14 billion in management contracts for athletes currently playing, and another $510 million in non-playing deals. It was ranked seventh on the list with an estimated $218 million in maximum commissions.

Klutch Sports Group secured a Top 5 on the Forbes list, managing over $7 billion in athlete contracts. The Black-owned and women-led agency was founded in 2012. Its estimated max commissions are $351 million. Super Bowl champion Jalen Hurts, NBA legend LeBron James, and WNBA megastar A’ja Wilson all call the agency home.

Roc Nation and Klutch Sports are top-tier agencies

Both Roc Nation and Klutch have expanded their global soccer footprint, signing rising talent and inking major partnership deals. Paul has also tapped in with Gen Z and millennial fans on TikTok. In a video that has generated hundreds of thousands of views, the businessman shared his insights about the business of sports and traits that separate good athletes from world-class powerhouses.

As Roc Nation and Klutch continue to dominate the industry, JAY-Z and Rich Paul are proving that cultural capital and business savvy can rewrite the rules of athlete representation. Their success is ushering in a new era — one where culture is at the forefront.

Casey Clinger, the former BYU All-American via American Fork, placed sixth in the 10,000-meter run Thursday night at the USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon.

Clinger finished with a time of 29:18.74 in a relatively slow, tactical race. Grant Fisher, the double bronze medalist in the Paris Olympics who lives in Park City, placed second in a close race with American record holder Nico Young. Young’s time was 29:02.12, Fishers’ 29:02.37.

The top three finishers qualify to represent the U.S. in the world championships later this year.

Joey Nokes, who just completed his senior year at BYU, placed 16th in the race with a time of 29:50.73.

Keira D’Amato, the former American record holder in the marathon who moved to Utah to train with BYU coach Ed Eyestone, was seventh in the women’s 10,000-meter race with a time of 32:19.40.

The 10,000 was the only final event held on the track on the first day of the four-day competition. The rest of the schedule was devoted to qualifying races. Most of the top athletes ran just hard enough to qualify for the next round while also conserving energy.

Meghan Hunter, who just completed her senior year at BYU, finished sixth in her heat of the 800-meter run and 21st overall with a time of 2:01.95, which was enough to qualify for Friday’s semifinals. Allie Wilson, a Paris Olympian who now trains under BYU women’s coach Diljeet Taylor, placed 10th in 2:01.24 to also advance.

As expected, all four BYU-connected steeplechasers advanced to Saturday’s final. Kenneth Rooks, the Olympic silver medalist and two-time defending national champion, had the fastest time in Thursday’s semifinals, clocking 8:21.35. Teammate James Corrigan, the 2025 NCAA champion, finished sixth overall to join Rooks in the final. Dan Michalski, who joined Eyestone’s training group this year, was second overall.

In the women’s race, Courtney Wayment and Lexy Lowry easily advanced to Saturday’s final. Wayment was fourth in her heat and fourth overall with a time of 9:30.70. Lowry won her heat with a time of 9:37.53, which was the eighth-fastest overall.

Riley Chamberlain, who just completed her junior year at BYU, advanced to Saturday’s finals of the 1,500-meter run. Riley placed third in her heat and seventh overall with a time of 4:06.65. Anna Bennett, Carlee Hansen and Sadie Sargent failed to qualify. Sargent produced a personal-best time of 4:07.44, the 10th-fastest time of the day. But because she finished only sixth in her heat, she failed to advance even though she had a faster time than several qualifiers, including American record holder Sinclaire Johnson.

Abe Alvarado, another former BYU middle-distance runner, advanced to the finals of the 800-meter run with a time of 1:46.50, the eighth fastest of the day.