Airi Cowie of Maple Ridge has won a silver medal with the women’s national U17 water polo team at the PanAm Aquatics Championships, held from May 13 to 25 in Medellin, Colombia.

Cowie said the win was a highlight of her career, on par with last year’s appearance with the U16 national team that competed at the World Championships in Turkey. She won player of the match in one of those games, with a four-goal performance.

At the PanAms, Cowie played more of a defence and assisting role she said, but scored seven goals during the tournament – including a four-goal performance in one game.

The Canadian women started the tournament with three wins: 28-24 against Mexico, 25-9 over Brazil and 21-9 over Argentina.

They then lost 16-10 to Team USA, but bounced back and beat Colombia 28-13, and Peru 24-1. That put them in the championship game, and the U.S. won the battle again, by a score of 18-7. 

“The U.S. is obviously very strong,” said Cowie. “I definitely think our team under-performed against them.”

However, she noted Team Canada still won a big prize – a qualifying spot in the 2026 U18 World Championships. The host venue has yet to be decided, but Cowie is hoping it’s someplace exotic and interesting.

“I love that I get to travel a lot with my sport,” she said.

Cowie is a Grade 11 student at Maple Ridge Secondary, and plays for the Surrey Water Polo club. She said her place on next year’s team is not guaranteed, but she is confident she will have a good chance of again wearing the Maple Leaf at the worlds.

Her coach was happy with the team’s overall improvement at the PanAms.

“These two weeks, our team had an amazing progression,” said Water Polo Canada’s women’s U17 national team head coach David Paradelo. “Starting from one week training in California where we were able to come together for the first time, the athletes were hungry for more every day and the staff was easily able to get the girls in a professional behaviour that lead to a quick evolution of the team chemistry.

“We were able to start the tournament in Colombia setting the tone in the first few games. We were able to maintain this through the tournament, yet lacked some composure in the games versus the USA,” Paradelo added. “The girls learned a lot within adversity from in and out of the water in an experience that will teach them for their future in water polo and in life.”

The Canadian men’s U17 team won gold, making it the best-ever finish for the Canadian delegation at the event.

Cowie has a big summer ahead of her.

Her club team will compete at the U18 national championships in Calgary from June 5 to 7. After that, she is going to be on the roster of a U.S. club team, competing in high-level water polo events in California this summer.

Long-term, Cowie is hoping to follow in the footsteps of her older siblings Yuri and Andy, who both played water polo on scholarships for U.S. universities in the NCAA.

Day One Results 

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (May 29, 2025) – Four Northern Arizona track and field athletes have qualified for the next round of the NCAA West Preliminary Round today in College Station, Texas.

 

LiNay Perry is on to Saturday’s quarterfinals in the 400-meter hurdles after breaking her own school record once again with a time of 57.40. She auto qualified by finishing third in her heat and placed 12^th overall in the first round after entering the event ranked 17^th.

 

She will race at 5:25 Mountain Standard time on Saturday, May 31.

 

All three Lumberjacks entered in the 1,500-meters advanced to Saturday’s quarterfinals by auto-qualifying in their heat. Maggi Congdon placed second in her heat with a time of 4:17.10 which was good for 12^th overall. Alexandra Carlson raced in the same heat as Congdon and placed fifth, clocking 4:18.79 to place 17^th overall. Keira Moore ran a near personal best of 4:18.80 to place fifth in her heat and 18^th overall after coming in ranked 33^rd.

 

Congdon is looking to punch her second-straight ticket to the National Championships in the 1,500-meters. The quarterfinals take place on May 31^st at 3:15 p.m. Mountain Standard time.

 

In the 400-meters, Kyairra Reigh placed 28th with a time of 53.35.

 

Odessa Zentz placed 32^nd in the 800-meters with a time of 2:07.93, followed by Kiki Vaughn in 38^th with a time of 2:10.09.  

 

Sariyah Horne-Kemp placed 31^st in the hammer throw with a toss of 57.02-meters.

 

Alexis Kebbe placed 35^th in the 10,000-meters with a time of 35:49.09.

 

The men are back in action tomorrow, beginning with the field events at 11 a.m. MST and the track events at 3 p.m. MST. The meet is streamed on ESPN+ with live results available here.

 

JU junior qualifies for nationals in long jump

• Multiple Hodges Stadium records tumbled at the NCAA Track and Field East First Round competition in Jacksonville, Florida.
• Evan Puckett, Tarik Robinson-O’Hagan, and Tima Godbless set new stadium records in pole vault, shot put, and the women’s 100-meter dash, respectively.
• Jacksonville University’s Julia Sue-Kam-Ling qualified for nationals in the women’s long jump.
• Grace Hartman added a facility record in the women’s 10,000.

Evan Puckett sent a message on May 29. Tarik Robinson-O’Hagan did, too. Then, Tima Godbless.

Staff Reports | REUTERS

The New York Times said on Thursday it would license its editorial content to Amazon.com for use in the tech giant’s artificial-intelligence products, marking the publisher’s first licensing deal tied to generative AI.

The multi-year agreement allows Amazon access to its news articles and content from NYT Cooking and sports website The Athletic.

“This will include real-time display of summaries and short excerpts of Times content within Amazon products and services, such as Alexa, and training Amazon’s proprietary foundation models,” the publisher said.

NYT recorded $4.4 million in pretax litigation costs in the first quarter related to its copyright lawsuit against Microsoft and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, which it filed in 2023.

Editor’s Note: Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – On Thursday afternoon, Ricardo Montes de Oca from the High Point University men’s track and field team represented the Panthers in the men’s pole vault at the NCAA East First Rounds. The freshman from Venezuela qualified for the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Oregon, becoming the first men’s pole vaulter to punch their ticket to the big dance.
 
The final 12 competitors advanced to the NCAA Championships in each field and Montes de Oca made the cut after clearing three bars. He opened the day at 5.03m, clearing it with ease on his first attempt. He continued his first attempt streak clearing the second bar at 5.18m.
 
Moving on to the third bar along with 15 other athletes, Montes de Oca missed on his first and second attempts. Not feeling any pressure as a young freshman at his first NCAA’s, he regrouped on his third attempt and sailed over 5.43m. He landed a spot in the top 12 and will advance to the NCAA Championships in Eugene, OR and will compete on Wednesday, June 11 at 4:35 p.m. at Hayward Field.
 
Brianna Malone competed in the women’s 1500m first rounds on Thursday afternoon. She paced with the front group of runners in the second heat and crossed the finish line in the top five to qualify for the quarterfinals. She clocked a 4:15.50 time. She will compete in the quarterfinals on Saturday, May 31 at 5:15 p.m. The top 12 athletes will move on to the NCAA Championships in June.
 
Due to weather delays, Emily Romano, Auriane Viola and Sydney Horn will resume the women’s pole vault on Friday at 9:30 a.m. Rachel Vesper and Jackson Tuomey also competed in the pole vault on Thursday and concluded their seasons.
 
On Wednesday, Drew Noblet represented the Panthers in the men’s javelin to jumpstart the events. He placed 32nd in his first-ever NCAA First Round appearance, launching the spear 62.13m on his birthday.
 
Weather delays halted the next events, pushing Justin Sluijter to a 10:00 p.m. jump as he registered a second jump of 7.32m to finish 20th. It was the Dutchman’s first time competing at the NCAA East First Round.
 
Camerin Williams wrapped up the opening day, running in the 800m at nearly midnight and advancing to the quarterfinals on Friday at 7:05 p.m. for a spot in Eugene. The freshman set a new personal best and program record with his third-place 1:47.11 finish.
 

#GoHPU x #DefendTheTeam