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Clemson hires Cal co-head coaches Justin Howell, Elisabeth Crandall-Howell

Clemson hired Cal co-head coaches Justin Howell and Elisabeth Crandall-Howell, the school announced Monday. The Board of Trustees Compensation Committee approved the hiring Monday morning, including $225,000 salaries for both members of the husband-and-wife coaching duo that has spent the last 13 years building the Golden Bears program, culminating in a national runner-up finish in […]

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Clemson hired Cal co-head coaches Justin Howell and Elisabeth Crandall-Howell, the school announced Monday.

The Board of Trustees Compensation Committee approved the hiring Monday morning, including $225,000 salaries for both members of the husband-and-wife coaching duo that has spent the last 13 years building the Golden Bears program, culminating in a national runner-up finish in 2024.

Justin and Liz were named Co-ACC Head Coaches of the Year in Cal’s first season in the conference after winning the regular season title. The Bears finished second at the ACC Championships before the team was narrowly eliminated in the Alabama regional final. They qualified two individuals to nationals this year.

“We’ve gotten to see the program that Justin and Liz built up close during their first season in the ACC, and the consistent excellence they have achieved speaks for itself,” said Clemson Director of Athletics Graham Neff. “In addition to many competitive accomplishments, their reputation has been praised time and again in our research. We emphasized finding a coaching staff with experience in some of the biggest moments, and who could continue the trajectory of our program – we feel we have that in Justin and Liz. We are impressed with their technical ability, approach to operations, plan for development, incorporation of health, wellness and recovery, and attention to detail. We are excited to see them get to work.”

“I’d like to thank President Clements and Athletics Director Graham Neff for this unbelievable opportunity to lead the Clemson Gymnastics program,” said Howell. “The world-class resources and support for Clemson student athletes to succeed in the classroom and on the competition floor are incredible. Liz and I are excited to bring our passion, energy, and pursuit of excellence to Tiger Town. Clemson is truly a special place. Go Tigers!”

“I cannot express how excited we are to come to TigerTown,” said Crandall-Howell. “The passion and commitment to excellence that runs through Clemson was clear from the moment we arrived on campus. The abundance of resources have been carefully and meticulously curated to support the student-athletes in every pursuit – sport, academics, career and leadership development – and to utilize those skills to go out into the world as leaders. It was, however, the people that we met in Clemson that confirmed that this is the place we need to be. Justin and I believe that Clemson gymnastics can become one of the top programs in the nation, and we cannot wait to get out there and get to work!”

The duo is known for their recruiting and growing said talented recruits into NCAA stars. Time will tell if any of the current Cal roster follows their head coaches to Clemson. One of the Bears’ top all-arounders, eMjae Frazier, already entered the transfer portal in April after graduating early and is looking for a team in her final year of eligibility.



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Knutson, Siviero Earn ITA Regional Awards

Story Links TEMPE, Ariz. – The ITA released its 2025 Division III Men’s Regional Award recipients Monday and Gustavus was honored twice. Marco Siviero was selected Central Region Arthur Ashe Leadership & Sportsmanship Award, while Dominik Knutson was named Central Region Player to Watch.  Siviero was also named the recipient […]

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TEMPE, Ariz. – The ITA released its 2025 Division III Men’s Regional Award recipients Monday and Gustavus was honored twice. Marco Siviero was selected Central Region Arthur Ashe Leadership & Sportsmanship Award, while Dominik Knutson was named Central Region Player to Watch. 

Siviero was also named the recipient of the prestigious Arthur Ashe Award for the MIAC recently. The award annually recognizes a senior men’s tennis student-athlete who exhibits outstanding sportsmanship and exemplary athletic, academic, and humanitarian accomplishments. Siviero started his senior campaign by earning All-America honors at the ITA Cup, advancing to the doubles semifinals with partner Josh Christensen. Siviero also finished runner up in the ITA Midwest Regional singles championship. Siviero owns a 15-12 overall record (4-0 MIAC) in singles and is 20-11 overall (5-0 MIAC) in doubles this season. Throughout his career, Siviero is 52-47 in singles and 72-22 in doubles.

“Marco contributes a beautiful blend of maturity, perspective, and intensity to bring out the best in himself and his entire team during competition,” said head coach Dr. Tommy Valentini after the MIAC awards. “He is a passionate young man who beautifully combines intensity with respect for the opponent and the game.”

A business management and communication studies double major with a 3.87 GPA at Gustavus, Siviero has been honored as a Singles All-American, Doubles All-American, and Academic All-American during his time as a Gustie.

“Coming from Brazil to a new culture and competitive atmosphere challenged me to adapt and to grow as an athlete, teammate, and individual,” Siviero said earlier this month. “Tennis allowed me to contribute to a cause bigger than my own goals. I learned what it means to compete for something greater than myself.”

Knutson was named the ITA Central Region Player to Watch after a successful sophomore campaign. Knutson boasted a 20-7 overall record in singles and went 4-0 in MIAC play. Knutson played primarily at No. 4 singles where he went 9-5. He also played at No. 2 (2-0) and No. 3 (5-1). 

In doubles action, Knutson went 17-9 overall and was 5-0 against conference opponents, earning All-Conference honors. Knutson played primarily with Siviero at No. 2, going 7-5. They also played at No. 1 with a 4-0 record. Knutson played 10 matches with Taona Mhwandagara and went 6-4. 

 



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Bulldogs battle for Walter Cup in PWHL Finals – Duluth News Tribune

DULUTH — The 2025 Professional Women’s Hockey League Finals get underway at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Canada’s capital city when the Ottawa Charge host the defending PWHL Walter Cup champion Minnesota Frost at TD Place Arena. Eight alumni of the Minnesota Duluth women’s hockey program will be on the ice in the best-of-five championship series, […]

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DULUTH — The 2025 Professional Women’s Hockey League Finals get underway at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Canada’s capital city when the Ottawa Charge host the defending PWHL Walter Cup champion Minnesota Frost at TD Place Arena.

Eight alumni of the Minnesota Duluth women’s hockey program will be on the ice in the best-of-five championship series, with three going for back-to-back titles with Minnesota while five chase their first PWHL championship in Ottawa.

The Charge feature former Bulldogs captains

Mannon McMahon,

Ashton Bell

and

Gabbie Hughes,

as well as Czechia legend Katerina Mrazova and two-time Olympic gold medalist

Jocelyne Larocque

— another former UMD captain, who was traded from Toronto to Ottawa a month into the 2024-25 season.

A sixth former Bulldog, Haley Irwin, is on the Charge bench as an assistant coach. Irwin is also a former UMD captain and teammate of Larocque’s.

Olympic goal medalist

Maddie Rooney,

2024 Walter Cup finals star

Michela Cava

and defenseman Maggie Flaherty are back with the Frost this year.

Cava is having another standout postseason, ranking fourth in the PWHL in playoff points with five, while her three goals are tied with Frost teammate Lee Stecklein for first through the semifinals.

The fourth-seeded Frost and third-seeded Charge both won their semifinal series as underdogs in four games after both teams

clinched playoff berths on the final day of the 2024-25 regular season.

Lower seeds are now 5-0 in the PWHL playoffs with Toronto and Montreal — the top two seeds the first two years — losing in the semifinals each season.

The Charge host Games 1 and 2 at 6 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday in Ottawa, while Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul gets Games 3 and 4 over the Memorial Day weekend at 4 p.m. on Saturday and Monday. If necessary, Game 5 would be Wednesday, May 28, back in Ottawa.

  • The Winnipeg “Bulldogs” are out of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs after the top-seeded Jets lost in six games to the Dallas Stars in the Western Conference semifinals. Hermantown natives Neal Pionk and Dylan Samber, Duluth native Dominic Toninato and All-American Alex Iafallo

    were the final four former Bulldogs left

    in the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Pionk led all Jets’ defensemen in scoring and was tied for third on the team in points with seven goals and six assists. He led all Jets in average time on ice with 24 minutes, 25 seconds. Samberg was second at 24:04.

  • Ten former Bulldogs have declared for the 2025 PWHL Draft on June 24, including seven members of the 2024-25 Bulldogs: Jenna Lawry, Olivia Mobley, Clara Van Wieren, Olivia Wallin, Hanna Baskin, Nina Jobst-Smith and Tindra Holm. Former Bulldogs Kas Betinol, Reece Hunt and Naomi Rogge

    have also declared.

  • Six former Bulldogs will be eligible for the PWHL Expansion Draft on June 9 if not protected. They include Bell, Hughes, Larocque, McMahon, Mrazova and Anneke (Linser) Rankila of Toronto.

    Seattle and Vancouver are joining the league in 2025-26.

    Players must be under contract for 2025-26 to be eligible for the expansion draft or protection. Teams may only protect three players, though a fourth can be added once two players are selected. Each team will lose four players.

Matt Wellens

Co-host of the Bulldog Insider Podcast and college hockey reporter for the Duluth News Tribune covering the Minnesota Duluth men’s and women’s hockey programs.





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David Carle on Xfinity Monday Live at ViewHouse Tonight

Story Links DENVER – University of Denver Richard and Kitzia Goodman Hockey Head Coach David Carle will join CBS Colorado’s Romi Bean tonight, May 19, on Xfinity Monday Live at ViewHouse Centennial.   The show begins at 6:30 p.m. MT and will be broadcast live on CBS Colorado (KCNC-TV, channel 4).   […]

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DENVER – University of Denver Richard and Kitzia Goodman Hockey Head Coach David Carle will join CBS Colorado’s Romi Bean tonight, May 19, on Xfinity Monday Live at ViewHouse Centennial.
 
The show begins at 6:30 p.m. MT and will be broadcast live on CBS Colorado (KCNC-TV, channel 4).
 
Carle will recap the Pioneers’ season that featured their third trip to the NCAA Frozen Four in the last four years, signing a contract extension at DU and looking ahead to the 2025-26 campaign that includes Denver hosting the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game at Ball Arena against Minnesota on Thanksgiving Weekend and NCAA Regionals in Loveland.
 
The ViewHouse Centennial is located at 7101 S Clinton St, Centennial, CO 80112, and fans are welcomed to attend.
 
 



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Unbeaten Czechs shut out Germany and France relegated at ice hockey worlds

Associated Press HERNING, Denmark (AP) — Defending champion the Czech Republic shut out Germany 5-0 to stay unbeaten at the ice hockey world championship on Monday. The sixth win lifted the Czechs to the top of Group B, one point ahead of Switzerland and three more than the United States in third. The Czechs complete […]

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Associated Press

HERNING, Denmark (AP) — Defending champion the Czech Republic shut out Germany 5-0 to stay unbeaten at the ice hockey world championship on Monday.

The sixth win lifted the Czechs to the top of Group B, one point ahead of Switzerland and three more than the United States in third.

The Czechs complete the group stage against the Americans on Tuesday.

Germany and Denmark also meet on Tuesday and will decide the fourth team from the group to reach the quarterfinals.

The Czechs’ Jakub Flek scored twice and David Pastrnak rifled a one-timer from the left circle and set up Lukas Sedlak in the middle period. Jakub Lauko added a short-handed goal.

Daniel Vladar shut out the Germans with 19 saves.

In Stockholm, newcomer Slovenia beat France 3-1 to avoid relegation at the expense of the French.

Later Monday, Canada plays Finland in Stockholm and Norway meets Hungary in Herning, Denmark.

___

AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports




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Unbeaten Czechs shut out Germany and France relegated at ice hockey worlds | National Sports

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Judicial races could affect caregiving statewide

On Tuesday, Pennsylvania Democrats and Republicans will choose candidates for openings on two powerful appellate courts that shape caregiving statewide. These courts — Commonwealth and Superior — can affirm or reverse rulings from lower benches, and play critical roles in the state judicial system. Commonwealth Court handles cases brought against local and state governments, […]

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On Tuesday, Pennsylvania Democrats and Republicans will choose candidates for openings on two powerful appellate courts that shape caregiving statewide.

These courts — Commonwealth and Superior — can affirm or reverse rulings from lower benches, and play critical roles in the state judicial system.

Commonwealth Court handles cases brought against local and state governments, from regulatory agencies to school districts to the legislature. Superior Court hears civil and criminal appeals, ruling on child custody disputes, malpractice cases, and many other issues involving kids and caregivers.

For most cases, Commonwealth and Superior Courts are the end of the line, as the Pennsylvania Supreme Court considers only a minority of appeals. In the past several years, cases heard by these intermediate courts have changed how public education is funded and created a new legal pathway to parenthood.

To help prepare you to vote on these key roles and show how rulings from these benches can affect you, Spotlight PA has chosen consequential caregiving-related cases that have moved through these courts. Learn more about them below:

Case: William Penn School District et al. v. Pennsylvania Department of Education et al.

Issue: The right to education and school funding

The petitioners in this case — a coalition of school districts, parents, an education nonprofit, and the NAACP— sued the Pennsylvania education department and elected leaders over how the state funds public schools. They argued the state’s method for funding public K-12 education, which heavily depends on property taxes, discriminates against poor school districts.

A Commonwealth Court judge ruled in the petitioners’ favor, finding that education is a fundamental right and that the state’s funding scheme was unconstitutional.

Because of that decision, the legislature has had to take steps to close the gap between wealthy and poor schools. As part of last year’s budget, the state’s poorest schools received an additional $500 million, for instance.

Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg, a Philadelphia attorney who was part of the legal team that won the case, told Spotlight PA that the $500 million provided to poor schools is just a fraction of the $4.5 billion that the state legislature and governor determined is needed. But it’s a start, he added: “This is not like you snap your fingers, and this is done.”

The attorney said the petitioners will return to Commonwealth Court if the state fails to make meaningful progress, but argued that this ruling is particularly salient against the backdrop of the Trump administration’s stated goal of dismantling the U.S. Department of Education.

“No matter what happens around the country, every Pennsylvania child, no matter what you look like [or] where you were born, you have a fundamental right to a contemporary, effective public education,” Urevick-Ackelsberg said.

Case: Allegheny Reproductive Health Center et al. v. Pennsylvania Department of Human Services et al.

Issue: Equal protection against gender discrimination

A group of Pennsylvania reproductive health clinics is challenging the state’s prohibition on using taxpayer-funded Medicaid insurance to pay for an abortion, which only makes exceptions in cases of rape, incest, or a pregnant person’s life being endangered.

They argue the ban violates the state constitution, which forbids discrimination based on sex.

Commonwealth Court ruled in 2021 that the clinics didn’t have the right to sue because the ban affects their patients and not them as providers.

But the state Supreme Court took up the appeal, overturned the lower court’s ruling, and sent the matter back to Commonwealth Court.

Now, Pennsylvania’s attorney general must prove that the Medicaid ban, which remains in place, is the least restrictive way for the state to advance its “compelling government interest” of discouraging abortion.

This is a high bar, and the case will likely return to the state Supreme Court, said Seth Kreimer, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

Whatever happens next will significantly affect parents and families; a 2022 survey by health policy research org KFF found that nearly six in 10 abortion patients have had at least one previous birth. Other studies show that finances and the need to focus on other children are common reasons people end pregnancies.

The state Supreme Court ruling could shape other health issues as well, said Sue Frietsche, executive director of the Pennsylvania-based Women’s Law Project.

Frietsche represents the clinics that brought the suit, which she said provides a possible blueprint for challenges to other abortion restrictions and could be used to expand access to medical care for transgender Pennsylvanians.

“Both those areas are about both gender and health. So you have two very important connections,” said David Harris, a constitutional law professor at the University of Pittsburgh.

Such cases face a more difficult path in federal courts, in part because the U.S. Constitution does not explicitly forbid sex discrimination.

Case: Glover v. Junior

Issue: Rights of non-biological parents

The case involves a divorced lesbian couple who separated before the birth of their son and before the non-biological mother could obtain a second-parent adoption. Many non-biological parents seek these adoptions to ensure they have the same legal rights as their partners.

The women initially pursued parenthood as a couple, according to court documents. They selected a sperm donor, signed contracts with a sperm bank and fertility clinic, shared the costs of in vitro fertilization, planned a baby shower, and agreed on their child’s name, legal filings say.

But after their son was born, the biological mother argued that her ex was not the boy’s legal parent, kicking off a three-year custody battle that moved from a court of Common Pleas to Superior Court, and finally to the state Supreme Court, which upheld the lower court’s ruling.

The high court ruled in March that the non-biological mother is legally the boy’s parent, adopting what the majority opinion called “the doctrine of intent-based parentage.”

This created an entirely new legal path to establish parental rights in Pennsylvania. Now, when determining a parent’s legal status, courts must consider evidence showing individuals intentionally pursued parenthood.

A coalition of LGBTQ legal organizations praised the landmark decision, saying it protects the children of these families, and affirms the dignity and rights of Pennsylvanians who become parents with the aid of reproductive technology.

“This is a clear and easy to apply rule, and it means that children won’t be stripped of a parent just because the adult relationship breaks down,” said Patience Crozier, director of family advocacy for GLAD Law. The organization was among the legal groups that filed an amicus brief for the case.

Case: Commonwealth v. King

Issue: Cruel punishments in juvenile sentencing

This case centers on whether a de facto life sentence for a juvenile offender is unconstitutionally cruel because it denies him the opportunity to reenter society as a matured and rehabilitated adult.

Petitioner Ivory King, who was sentenced to four consecutive 20-year sentences for killing four people when he was 17, is suing the commonwealth.

King’s argument pulls in part from a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that found juvenile offenders are constitutionally different from adults due to their immaturity, a general inability to remove themselves from bad situations, and a greater capacity to change.

The state Supreme Court recently agreed to hear King’s appeal from Superior Court.

The appeal also challenges his sentence based on the Pennsylvania Constitution’s prohibition against “cruel punishments.” The phrasing differs from the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment, which bans punishments if they are both cruel and unusual.

This makes cruel punishments unconstitutional in Pennsylvania, even if those punishments are common, said Marsha Levick, chief legal officer at the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center.

Levick submitted an amicus brief on behalf of King, who will be 97 when he’s eligible for release and therefore likely to die in prison.

In addition to possibly changing juvenile sentencing, the case could lead to a prohibition on subjecting Pennsylvania kids to strip searches or putting them in solitary confinement, Levick said.

“It’s hard to imagine something that could be more cruel, more traumatic than that,” she said of the latter, “and yet we allow it.”

Melissa Chapaska, a Harrisburg-based attorney for HMS Legal who writes for the blog Pennsylvania Appellate Advocate, told Spotlight PA that she thinks Levick’s theory has potential. Like other institutions, the courts are becoming more aware of how mental health and trauma shape child development, she said.

“That’s the beauty of the thing,” she said of the law. “It is evolving … While we do have to follow legal precedent, that doesn’t mean that we’re stuck. And that’s why these judicial electrons matter.”

BEFORE YOU GO… If you learned something from this article, pay it forward and contribute to Spotlight PA at spotlightpa.org/donate. Spotlight PA is funded by foundations and readers like you who are committed to accountability journalism that gets results.



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