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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

#GoCatsGo 

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

Harold Mitchell, Special to the Daily Herald

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

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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

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

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

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

Class 6A

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

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

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

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

Class 5A

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

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

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

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

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

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

CLASS 4A

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

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

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

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

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

CLASS 3A

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Alexandria High School graduate Mya Lesnar made the most of her last home meet of her college career at Colorado State.

Lesnar set the Colorado State women’s track and field program’s outdoor shot put record with a mark of 19.60 meters at the Doug Max Invitational on Saturday in Fort Collins, Colorado. This mark set the CSU facility record, is the fifth-best in NCAA DI women’s history, and puts her at No. 1 in this season’s women’s outdoor rankings.

“I got very emotional,” Lesnar said in a Colorado State Athletics

press release

. “Not because of my mark, but because all my family got to be here, even my dog. I have a couple more months to focus on track, and I’ve sacrificed a lot to do this. The support from my teammates and boyfriend – it’s been great.”

Jaida Ross, who won the 2024 NCAA Division I women’s outdoor shot put title and placed fourth at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, occupies the top three spots in the NCAA women’s outdoor shot put record book with a mark of 20.01m, leading the way. Ohio State graduate Adelaide Aquilla is fourth all-time on the NCAA women’s outdoor shot put list with a mark of 19.64m.

Lesnar surpassed Ole Miss’ Akaoma Odeluga on the NCAA DI 2025 season best list on Saturday. Odeluga’s season best is 18.93m.

Lesnar finished in first on Saturday and has won four out of five events this season, competing in the shot put and hammer throw.

Lesnar also hold the Colorado State indoor women’s shot put program record (19.10m).

In the last calendar year, Lesnar won the 2024 Mountain West Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championship shot put title, placed fifth at the 2024 NCAA Division Outdoor Track and Field Championships, placed 12th at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials, then won the 2024 MWC Indoor shot put title and placed fourth in the shot put at the 2024 NCAA Division I Indoor National Championships.

Lesnar and the Colorado State Rams are ramping up for the championship portion of the outdoor season.

The 2025 MWC Outdoor Championships are set for May 15-17 in Fresno, California.

The NCAA DI West Preliminary Round takes place on May 28-31 in College Station, Texas. The 2025 NCAA Division I Track and Field Outdoor Championships are set for June 12-14, 2025, in Eugene, Oregon.

Contributed photo

Alexandria graduate Jacob Balcome is having quite the sophomore season at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. He won the 2025 Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Indoor heptathlon title and the 2025 NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field heptathlon title.

On May 2-3, Balcome added to his resume by winning the decathlon title at the 2025 WIAC Outdoor Championships in Oskosh, Wisconsin, with a score of 6,802. This score is 113 points off he program record (6,915) he set on March 20-21 at the Klein / Nwaba Combined Events in Santa Barbara, California.

A first place finish in the pole vault (4.15m) led the way for Balcome in his WIAC Outdoor decathlon title win on Saturday. Balcome earned six second place finishes – 1500-meter run (4:40.87), discus (36.24), 110m hurdles (15.64), high jump (1.91m), shot put (11.91m), and the long jump (6.89m). He also placed fifth in the 100-meter dash (11.40), ninth in the javelin throw (43.10m), and ninth in the 400-meter dash (51.84).

Balcome is set to compete in the 2025 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships on May 23-25 in Geneva, Ohio.

Balcome placed 16th in the decathlon at the 2024 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

Sam Stuve covers a variety of sports in the Douglas County area. He also is assigned to do some news stories as well.

New For 2025 

Want to watch high-level volleyball up close like never before? Courtside seats make their debut at Diddle Arena for the 2025 volleyball season. For just $200 each, catch the action up close for all 15 home matches this season. Courtside seats can only be purchased by calling the WKU Ticket Office at 1.800.5.BIGRED.  

  

Season ticket packages return and continue to offer the flexibility to attend every match, or mix and match during the season. Season ticket packages are $75 and provide fans with 15 vouchers to use throughout the season – that’s just $5 per ticket! 

  

If you prefer to go game by game, single game tickets will go on sale closer to the beginning of the season. Season ticket prices will be $10 for adults, $7 for youth (under 12) and $5 for groups of 10+. 

 

2025 Schedule 

The 30-match slate includes 15 matches at E. A. Diddle Arena as well as matchups with four NCAA Tournament teams. Three of those four teams made it past the first round of the NCAA Tournament, while Louisville made it to the national championship match. 

WKU opens its 44th season at home in the WKU Invitational. That tournament, held Aug. 29 and 30, will feature three matches for the Hilltoppers against Wright State, Loyola-Chicago, and Drake. 

Hilltopper Volleyball will then go on a six-match road trip to play Drake, Marquette, and Buffalo at the Marquette tournament in Milwaukee, Wis., Sept. 5-6. After returning from Milwaukee, WKU will travel to Johnson City, Tenn. To take on High Point, East Tennessee State, and Virgina Commonwealth University on Sept. 12-13. 

On Sept. 16, WKU is excited to host Vanderbilt Volleyball at E. A. Diddle Arena in the Commodores’ first indoor volleyball season since 1980. Later that same week, WKU Volleyball will host its eighth-annual Alyssa Cavanaugh Classic Sept. 19-20, featuring Bradley, Indiana, and Austin Peay.  

After hosting Vanderbilt and the Alyssa Cavanaugh Classic, the Hilltoppers will travel to Louisville, Ky. on Sept. 22 to take on the national runner-up Cardinals. 

Completing a preseason schedule that includes three AVCA Top 50 teams, WKU will open its Conference USA slate against Jacksonville State, Sept. 26-27.  

New to Conference USA in the fall of 2025 is Missouri State. WKU will travel to Springfield, Mo. to take on the Bears, Oct 3-4. Continuing their road trip, the Hilltoppers head to Ruston, La. to play LA Tech Oct 10-11. After their four-match road swing, WKU returns to Bowling Green, Ky. to host Sam Houston Oct. 17-18, and UTEP Oct. 24-25.  

In their 76th and 77th all-time matchup. WKU will travel to Murfreesboro, Tenn. for the 100 Miles of Hate rivalry against Middle Tennessee Oct 31- Nov. 1. 

On Nov. 7-8, WKU welcomes new CUSA opponent, Delaware, to Bowling Green for their final two home matches of the season. Much like last season, WKU will round out its CUSA regular season schedule against Liberty on Nov. 14-15 in Lynchburg, Va.  

The 2025 Conference USA Championship will take place at the Ocean Bank Convocation Center in Miami, Fla. from Nov. 21-23. 

WKU returns eight returners—Callahan Wiegandt, Callie Bauer, Gabby Weihe, Izzy Van De Wiele, Faith Young, Alivia Skidmore, Camila Adams, and Abby Schaefer—and welcomes six new faces to the WKU Volleyball program. Four of those six are freshman, Kaira Knox, Kennedy Cherry, Kate Rush, and Sonja Laaksonen, while the Hilltoppers also welcome Austin Peay transfer Taylor Baron, and Colorado transfer Kendall Meller. 

The Hilltoppers are coming off a 28-7 overall record and a perfect 18-0 in Conference USA. WKU also claimed its 10th regular season title and seventh CUSA Tournament title.