VERMILLION, S.D. – Fresh off strong freshman campaigns, three South Dakota women’s track & field athletes are set to compete at the Nike Outdoor Nationals & USATF Under 20 Championships in Eugene, Oregon this week.
 
Anna Willis (women’s pole vault), Berkeley Engelland (800-meters), and Mariah Fenske in the 3,000-meter steeplechase will compete at the U20 Championships beginning Thursday. Willis and Engelland earned all-Summit League honors in their events this spring, as Willis was the pole vault runner-up and Engelland won the 800-meters. Fenske finished fourth in the 3,000-meter steeple, one place off the podium.
 
Engelland will be the first to compete Thursday, running in the prelims at 6:37 p.m. Central Time (4:37 p.m. Pacific). Her personal best in the 800-meters is 2:08.65, set at the USD Tune Up at the beginning of May. She won the Summit League title in the event with a time of 2:11.03. If Engelland were to advance to the finals, she would run at 7:26 p.m. Central (5:26 p.m. local) Friday night in the finals.
 
Fenske will compete in the finals of the steeple Thursday night with a start time of 7:33 p.m. Central. Fenske’s personal best of 10:50.77 was set at the Summit League Championships this May.
 
Willis is set to compete in the women’s pole vault at 7:30 p.m. Central Thursday. The first team all-American and Summit League Runner-Up in the pole vault holds a personal best of 14-10, set at the Summit League Championships, and recorded a height of 14-6 ¾ at the NCAA Championships in Eugene last week.
 
All the live results can be found on Athletic Timing. RunnerSpace will provide live webcasts of the meet.
 

ISTANBUL — Canada’s women’s team opened the second leg of the 2025 Volleyball Nations League with a 3-2 loss to South Korea on Wednesday.

Set scores were 27-25, 25-18, 15-25, 20-25 and 15-13.

Canada came back from a 2-0 deficit and led the final set 6-1 before the Koreans stormed back.

Abby Guezen, playing in her first VNL match this year, led Canada with 17 points, all off the attack.

Anna Smrek added 16 points, including four off the block.

Canada (2-3) sat in 10th place at the tournament heading into a match Thursday against host Turkey.

“It’s not the result we wanted,” Canada head coach Giovanni Guidetti said. “Korea put our attack in trouble and our block defence was not enough. But we knew that we came to Istanbul with a very young team with many players in their first full VNL match.

“I’m happy the team didn’t give up after going down 2-0. … We want to keep working, progressing and pushing every match.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 18, 2025.

The Canadian Press

BOSTON – A total of 11 student-athletes from the University at Albany have collected America East Presidential Scholar-Athlete honors, the conference announced on Wednesday. The award recognizes graduating student-athletes who compiled a cumulative GPA of 3.75 or higher as an undergraduate student and earned their undergraduate degree in 2024-25.
 
In addition to registering a 3.75 GPA for their college career, honored student-athletes must have received their undergraduate degree in the academic year they are honored and have attended their institution for a minimum of two years.
 
UAlbany’s 11 honorees represented seven of the university’s athletic programs. Volleyball led the way with three honorees, followed by women’s lacrosse and softball with two each. Also representing UAlbany was field hockey, men’s soccer, women’s track and field, and cross country.
 
In total, over 130 individuals from around the conference were named Presidential Scholar-Athletes. The Presidential Scholar-Athlete Award program started during 2013-14 academic year. In total, over 1,000 student-athletes have been honored as part of the program.
 
For a full list of this year’s UAlbany representatives, see below.
 
2025 America East Presidential Scholar-Athletes
Floor de Ruiter – Field Hockey
Daniel Shannon – Men’s Soccer
Kate Powers – Softball
Sara Anderson – Softball
Leann Nicholas – Track & Field
Sthefany Carvalho – Volleyball
Kendall Harris – Volleyball
Shynelle Woroniuk – Volleyball
Ali Heller – Women’s Lacrosse
Haley Phalines – Women’s Lacrosse
Chris Bertola – Cross Country/Track & Field
 
Stay up to date with UAlbany Athletics by following the Great Danes on X (@UAlbanySports), Instagram (@ualbanysports), and Facebook for all of the latest news and highlights.
 

If you want to be a coach of a women’s sport at the Power 4 level, you have to wear a lot of hats. One of the biggest for Arizona volleyball coach Rita Stubbs is the fundraiser cap. She was successful once again as a donor came through with a large donation to help the program obtain Taraflex floors for the upcoming season.

It’s a never-ending battle, even before things like NIL come into the conversation. Can you take a chartered flight on a brutal road trip, or will your players get back in the wee hours of a Monday morning then have to go to class? Can they come back over the summer so they can engage in bonding activities, including getting into the gym before the coaches can join them? Then, there’s the floor.

High-level teams all play on Taraflex these days. Beginning with the 2024 NCAA Volleyball Tournament, if a program hopes to host regionals or beyond, access to the playing surface is required. If a team doesn’t have it in their facility, it must be rented.

The Wildcats just hope to get back to the tournament at this point, but if Stubbs can rebuild it to the level it was in its heyday, the playing surface won’t be a question.

Stubbs had been pushing the need for the upgrade at public gatherings. Last season, she started a series of regular meetings with the fans at the Sands Club. The fans get to meet and talk to the players and coaches. They also get to hear the latest sales pitch from Stubbs.

One of the topics of conversation during some of those “Bump, Set, Spike” events was the fact that Arizona did not yet have the upgraded floors. Stubbs even made the point that ASU already had it.

“That makes me feel some kind of way,” she said late last season.

The cost was steep. After taxes and all the other “bells and whistles,” Stubbs said it was a $150,000 investment. Making that need known helped make it happen.

“We had a donor come through and take care of that, which was huge,” Stubbs said. “That was one of those things, it’s huge. I’m very appreciative. I’m very, kind of speak out loud, which you kind of need.”

Because Arizona doesn’t have a volleyball-only facility, the floor must be laid down for volleyball and removed for basketball when both are in season, but the extra labor is worth it. The spongy feel is definitely more forgiving than the hardwood of a basketball court. The shock absorption properties of the floor help reduce injuries from repeated impact.

That doesn’t mean all of the fundraising for next year is done. The team will hold the first of what is expected to be an annual golf tournament on Aug. 8 at Omni Tucson National to help raise money for things that are currently beyond the budget.

“We wanted to have it when the players are back,” Stubbs said, adding that redshirt senior Haven Wray would be playing in the event.

The tournament will be a four-person scramble. The entry fee for each four-person group is $600 with any payments over $130 per player being tax-deductible.

The event will also include a silent auction with sports memorabilia and sponsorship possibilities to help raise additional funds.

Lead photo by Catherine Regan / Arizona Athletics

From memes of Tyrese Haliburton doing Reggie Miller’s famous choke celebration to a seemingly neverending stream of international soccer content leading up to the FIFA World Cup, sports are everywhere these days—even if you’re not on NBA Twitter.

In fact, more than half (56%) of US adults watch sports in some capacity at least once a week, according to a survey conducted by independent ad agency PMG. A similar share (51%) said the performance of their favorite team or athlete has some impact on their mood.

The survey was conducted Sept. 30–Oct. 9 among 1,200 people over the age of 18 in the US who watch sports “at least once every few months.”

“The days of simply watching a game and turning off the TV when it’s over are long gone; modern sports have transformed into a cultural phenomenon that keeps fans connected before, during, and after the game,” PMG wrote in a report about the survey results.

In addition to providing insights into why and how fans engage with sports, the report explores the role of brands in the sports ecosystem, the evolving crossover between athletes and creators, and what other trends are on the horizon for sports.

Here are some of the report’s takeaways.

Loyalty test: Sometimes, sports fans are born, not made. According to PMG, being raised as a fan of a team from childhood is a top factor that contributes to fan loyalty, along with living in the city a team plays in. Smaller shares of respondents said they’re loyal to a team because it was the first one they watched when they started following a sport, or because their friends are fans. Less than 20% said they’re loyal to a team because it’s trendy—so sports fans, fear not the bandwagon.

PMG’s report suggests that advertisers can capitalize on these findings by leaning into regional and local approaches to their sports marketing and customizing their messaging to each community to maximize brand loyalty.

Generational fandom: While many people come to sports fandom at a young age, their preferences for engaging with sports shift across generations, PMG found. Gen Z has more of a “communal focus” when it comes to their fandom, with 46% saying they participate in viewing parties, according to the report; among older generations, though, the act of watching games and their outcomes is more important than socializing. Millennials are particularly attached to team performance, PMG found.

“Gen Z’s emphasis on community engagement, rather than strict allegiance to individual teams, indicates a new form of sports fandom that values shared experiences over traditional loyalty,” the report’s authors wrote. “Meanwhile, the strong emotional connection seen among millennials and Generation X fans highlights the importance for brands to leverage the significant impact sports can have on personal identity and loyalty, especially within these emotionally invested fan segments.”

Brands might consider taking generational differences into consideration when crafting their sports marketing strategies, embracing community-oriented digital and social content for Gen Z and focusing on team loyalty and rituals for millennials and Gen X, per the report.

Follow the leader: It’s not only the fans that sports marketers should consider—it’s the athletes, too. PMG found that 51% of survey respondents connect specific brands with their favorite sports teams or players, and that a quarter take an athlete’s values into account when thinking about brands. Marketers who partner with athletes that have similar values to those of their brands, therefore, will likely make more authentic connections with consumers, according to the report.

Then there are sports content creators, who “have become integral to how younger fans consume and interact with sports” and “compete with traditional athletes for influence,” per PMG. Almost half (44%) of millennials follow sports content creators. Brands may want to consider partnering with these figures in addition to athletes, PMG suggests.

Paradox of choice: In addition to the growing cache of sports content online, fans and brands have a broadening slate of sports and leagues to engage with, as niche sports like pickleball become more popular and new women’s leagues, like the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) and the Pro Volleyball Federation, are introduced.

A majority of US adults still mostly follow traditional sports, per the survey, but 40% said they’ve started to pay attention to emerging sports “to some extent” as well. The United Football League has gained the largest share of attention, followed by League One Volleyball, the United Soccer League, esports, the PWHL, and pickleball, according to the report.

By: Jason Pugh, Associate Athletic Director for External Relations

NATCHITOCHES – Longtime, legendary Northwestern State track and field coach Leon Johnson, who led the Demons and Lady Demons to national prominence and tutored a pair of USA Olympians before retiring in 2013, died Tuesday after a brief illness.
 
Funeral arrangements will be announced soon for Johnson, 86, whose decades-long career at Northwestern made him a nationally recognized name in track and field. He is survived by his wife, Elaine, and his son, Dean, a former NSU assistant, another son, Kendon, and daughters Darla and Molly, and many grandchildren and great grandchildren.
 
“I’ve known Leon Johnson for many years, since he was coaching and teaching at Opelousas High School, and he has always been an exceptional person, mentor, educator, coach, neighbor, and family man,” Northwestern State President James T. Genovese said. “He brought out the best in people, not just his athletes. What he did in his coaching career in high school and then for 33 years at Northwestern is remarkable not only for the championships won, the records broken, but for the tremendously positive, nurturing influence he had on the young people around him along with his coaches and colleagues.
 
“As a coach and as a man, he made impact in the communities where he lived for generations of people whose lives are better because of him.”
 
The second-longest serving head coach in Northwestern State athletics history, Johnson’s impact on both the Demons program and the Southland Conference is indelible.
 
Johnson’s 31-year head coaching career at Northwestern ranks second in school history only to H. Lee Prather’s 36-year run as the Demons basketball coach. Like Prather, Johnson’s name resonates across campus.
 
Track and field fans enter the Walter Ledet Track Complex by walking or driving down Leon Johnson Lane. Northwestern’s annual track and field meet was renamed the Leon Johnson Invitational in 2011, making Johnson the exceedingly rare coach who led a team in a competition that bears his or her name.
 
A high school basketball coach in Colorado before moving to Louisiana and becoming a high school track and field coach, Johnson took the reins of the Northwestern track and field program in 1982.
 
For the next 31 years, he presided over 57 All-Americans, nearly 100 NCAA championship qualifiers, including national champions and a pair of Olympian triple jumpers – LaMark Carter (2000 Sydney Games) and Kenta Bell (2004 Athens Games and 2008 Beijing Games).
 
He helped Brian Brown develop into one of the world’s best high jumpers in the early 1990s after he won the 1989 USA Outdoors and the 1990 NCAA Indoors, setting a meet record with a 7-8 clearance. Brown went on to earn his doctorate and is the deputy director of athletics for student-athlete development, integrated healthcare and inclusion at Missouri.
 
“All of us at Northwestern State are saddened by the loss of Leon Johnson,” Director of Athletics Kevin Bostian said. “Coach Johnson’s impact on our track and field program is both tangible and intangible. His standout career helped cement the foundation for a tremendous stretch of competitive success that is reflected in the current state of our program – especially our women’s program that has captured five of the past six Southland championships. Coach Johnson earned the respect of so many of his contemporaries as evidenced by the Southland Conference’s Leon Johnson Coach of the Year Award. He was in a class by himself and we are grateful for all he poured into Northwestern State track and field, the university and our community.”
 
In 1986, Johnson was tasked with starting the Lady Demons track and field program. Under Johnson’s direction, and with his protégé and former competitor Mike Heimerman coaching her, Trecey Rew became Northwestern’s first female track and field national champion, capturing the 2011 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Discus championship.
 
Student-athletes like Carter, Bell and Rew – and a slew of other All-Americans — flourished under the tutelage of Johnson, a 1999 N-Club Hall of Fame inductee.
 
His Northwestern teams were fixtures near the top of the Southland Conference, capturing conference titles in 1993, 1999 and 2002 while finishing in the upper half of the conference standings each year from 1989-2005.
 
Johnson’s Northwestern squads collected top-20 team finishes in both the NCAA Division I Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
 
That extended run of success landed Johnson in the Southland Conference Hall of Honor in April 2017. Since 2014, the Southland presents the Leon Johnson Coach of the Year award to the top men’s track and field coach in the conference each season.
 
“Coach Johnson was one of the nation’s best mentors in his sport, and made a meaningful impact on his university, the league, and certainly the championship student-athletes he led in his program,” Southland Conference Commissioner Tom Burnett said upon Johnson’s receipt of the Southland’s top individual honor.
 
Johnson’s impact stretched far beyond the track, throwing areas, and jump pits where he spent most of his career – especially as it pertained to the student-athletes he coached.
 
He was the driving force behind bringing the Louisiana High School Athletic Association’s Cross Country State Championships to Natchitoches and keeping it here for more than 30 years, making it a staple of the city’s athletic calendar.
 
An active volunteer, Johnson gave his time to the Louisiana chapter of the Special Olympics, the American Heart Association, and the American Cancer Society.
 
Following his retirement from coaching track and field, Johnson became a volunteer assistant and advisor to former Mike McConathy’s Northwestern State men’s basketball team, providing insight on flexibility and conditioning for student-athletes while also imparting his vision to McConathy and his staff.