Volleyball player Ben Stuerman going to Simpson, while wrestler Santino Alvaro picks Southern Oregon

Two senior student-athletes from Santa Ynez High School are make plans for the next level.

Joined by their families, teammates, and friends, volleyball player Ben Stuerman and wrestler Santino Alvaro made their intentions known during a signing ceremony on the SYHS campus May 6. Both are headed for similar destinations: smaller NAIA schools on the West Coast.

Stuerman, team co-captain of the Pirates’ boys volleyball team that just won the CIF Central Section Division II championship, is going to Simpson University in Redding, California.

Stuerman, who also played water polo at SYHS, said he got on Simpson’s radar thanks to a couple of former teammates on Flight Academy, his club volleyball team.

“A couple of guys, my very best friends, were up there and said the coach was asking about me constantly,” he said. “I met with the coach (Steven Brasher), and he was really great. Plus, it’s a Christian school and I’m very religious, so that was awesome, and it seemed to good to be true.”

However, it was a visit to the Simpson campus that clinched it for Stuerman.

“I went up and had an amazing tour, and an amazing practice with the team,” he said. “The teammates were awesome, and the area was just really pretty. After that everything just kind of fell into place I had no doubt after the visit that I would be going there.”

Simpson is an NAIA school that competes in the California Pacific Conference with four other in-state college programs. The Red Hawks finished 7-17 overall this season, although they were .500 (4-4) within the CalPac. Stuerman said he plans to study kinesiology at the school and aspires to be a firefighter after graduation.

Alvaro, meanwhile, is coming off a high-school wrestling career that saw him win back-to-back CIF Central Section titles, having won the 126-pound championship this past February. He will continue wrestling at Southern Oregon a public university in Ashland, Oregon.

Alvaro had been hearing about SOU for awhile from a personal connection.

“My sister’s boyfriend went to school there, and she was always telling me how nice it was, and she took me for a visit,” Alvaro said. “It was really nice, and there were a lot of things to do outside of school. It’s real outdoorsy there, and I really liked that.”

The interest in Southern Oregon, as it turns out, was mutual.

“I had contacted a number of schools about joining their program,” Alvaro said. “And Southern Oregon was the one school that got back to me very quickly and showed a lot of interest.”

Alvaro said as far as a major and field of study, he is still undeclared and plans to take general requirement classes his first year while he decides.

The wrestler will be joining an SOU program that finished ninth in the NAIA Championships, it’s best finish in eight years. The Raiders had a 19-3 overall record in duals, including a 12-1 mark in the Cascade Collegiate Conference and a first-place finish in the conference championships.

Before Alvaro and Stuerman signed their letters of intent, they both took the time to thank their respective parents for their part in helping them along in this journey.

The parents of both were pleased with the schools that their sons selected.

“It’s great to see him reach this point — he’s been working toward this since he was 8 and started wrestling,” said Rudy Alvaro, Santino’s father. “We took him up to Southern Oregon and he like it right away; he’s gotten to know those guys up there and I think he’ll do well.”

With Santino ready to leave in a few months for SOU, the Alvaros are expecting more excursions up north.

“We’ll be taking trips, a lot of trips,” said his mother Isabella. “Me might even be looking at houses when we’re up there.”

For Stuerman’s parents, Shawn and Krista Sue, the process was made easier once Ben took a look at Simpson.

“It was a blast, but we just wondering what kind of school would be best for him, but once we went to Simpson we all knew that would be the best for him,” Shawn said.

“I actually went to school at Westmont [in Santa Barbara] years ago and was hoping he’d go there, too,” Shawn said laughing, “but they didn’t have a volleyball team, so that was out. However, we’re all very happy with Simpson.” 

BRYAN-COLLEGE STATION – The NCAA announced on Thursday the accepted student-athletes for the first rounds of the 2025 NCAA Div. I Men’s and Women’s Outdoor Track & Field Championships, and The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) is sending a program-best eight Vaqueros to compete at the NCAA West First Round running May 28-31 in Bryan-College Station, Texas. 
 

The Vaqueros will have three track and five field student-athletes representing UTRGV in seven events at the postseason meet hosted at Texas A&M. Previously, the program record for NCAA West qualifiers was seven set in 2019.

Junior Nayla Harris will compete in the women’s 100-meter dash, while junior Corin Burns and freshman Richard Young will race in the men’s 200-meter dash. Junior Hannah Hilding is set to make her second consecutive NCAA West appearance in the women’s hammer throw and senior Efe Latham will take on the women’s shot put. Sophomore Keamonie Archie and juniors Aaron Cooper and Achol Maywin qualified for jumps. Cooper earned his second consecutive NCAA West bid in men’s triple jump, while Archie takes on men’s long jump and Maywin competes in women’s high jump. 

 

“We are always striving to get better, and this record number of qualifiers is the result of that unwavering drive for continued success. It’s become a habit for this group to set program bests,” head coach Shareese Hicks said.

The top 48 declared student-athletes are accepted into the East and West first rounds for individual events, and the top 24 declared relay teams are accepted. The top 24 declared heptathlon and decathlon competitors advance straight to the championship meet. The qualifying window was from March 1 to May 19. 

 

Harris, the 2025 Southland Conference (SLC) champion in the 100 (and indoors in the 60-meter dash) heads to College Station ranked 16^th in the West with her program and personal-best time of 11.22. 

 

Hilding is 30^th in women’s hammer with a mark of 59.44 meters, a personal best. She won the SLC championship in the event. Last year, Hilding finished 32^nd in hammer at NCAA West.  

 

Cooper is tied for 31^st in men’s triple jump with his program and personal-best mark of 15.48 meters. He was the bronze medalist at the SLC Outdoor Championships in the event. In 2024, Cooper finished 30^th at NCAA West. 

 

Burns and Young both head to NCAA West tied at 39^th on the men’s 100 performance list with a time of 20.79, which is a program record. Burns was the 100-meter dash silver medalist at the SLC Outdoor Championships. This is the junior’s second trip to NCAA West after qualifying for the meet in 2023 while competing at Incarnate Word. Young, a freshman, is UTRGV’s youngest qualifier. 

 

Maywin is one of three women’s high jumpers heading to NCAA West with a clearance of 1.77 meters. That mark is a program and personal record, which Maywin tabbed at the SLC Outdoor Championships as she earned silver. 

 

Latham captured the women’s shot put silver medal at SLC Outdoor Championships with a mark of 15.36 meters, which is a personal best and the mark which secured her spot at NCAA West. She is 46^th on the performance list. 

 

Archie also earned a silver medal at SLC Outdoor Championships with his personal-best mark of 7.52 meters, which has him heading to College Station ranked 46^th on the men’s long jump performance list. 

 

The NCAA East First Round also runs May 28-31 in Jacksonville, Fla. The top 12 finishers in each individual event and the top 12 teams in each relay will advance from the first round meets to the championship meet scheduled for June 11-14 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon. 

 

UTRGV Schedule 

Wednesday, May 28 

Men’s long jump first round, 4:30 p.m. 

Keamonie Archie 

 

Men’s 200-meter dash first round, 8:45 p.m. 

Corin Burns 

Richard Young 

 

Thursday, May 29 

Women’s hammer throw first round, 10 a.m. 

Hannah Hilding 

 

Women’s 100-meter dash first round, 7 p.m. 

Nayla Harris 

 

Friday, May 30 

Men’s triple jump first round, 2:30 p.m. 

Aaron Cooper 

 

Men’s 200-meter dash quarterfinals, 7:50 p.m. 

TBD

 

Saturday, May 31 

Women’s high jump semifinal, 3:30 p.m. 

Achol Maywin 

 

Women’s 100-meter dash quarterfinals, 6:35 p.m. 

TBD

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INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Stony Brook men’s track and field student athlete Collin Gilstrap was announced as an individual qualifier for the NCAA outdoor Track and Field East Preliminary Round by the NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Track and Field and Cross Country Committee on Thursday.

Gilstrap will compete in the 1,500-meter run for a second straight season at the 2025 NCAA East Prelims hosted by the University of North Florida from May 28-31 in Jacksonville.

His qualification comes after numerous stellar outdoor season performances, during which he defended his crown as CAA champion in the 1,500-meter, winning gold for a second year in a row.

Gilstrap made program history on April 18, breaking his own program record in the 1,500-meter run with an outstanding run at the Wake Forest Invitational (3:40.94).

In addition to his record-breaking run, Gilstrap added a first-place finish in the 1,500-meter run during the regular season. Winning the event at the Colonial Relays (3:47.39).

The 2025 NCAA Preliminary meets are from Wednesday, May 28, to Saturday, May 31, in Jacksonville, Fla. (East) and College Station, Texas (West). At the end of the second round on Friday, the field will be narrowed to 12 participants from each region. These individuals will advance to the NCAA Division I Men’s Outdoor Track and Field Championship hosted by the University of Oregon in Eugene, Ore., from June 11-14.

For an inside look at the Seawolves track & field program, be sure to follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
 

Hamilton College’s Keira Rogan ’28 runs in the preliminary heats of the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase at the 2025 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships held at SPIRE Academy in Geneva, Ohio, on Thursday, May 22.

The first 11-runner heat begins at 7:35 p.m., and Rogan is one of 11 athletes in the second heat. The steeplechase final is the last event on Friday, May 23 with a start time of approximately 4:55 p.m.

Rogan owned the third-fastest performance in Division III in the event this spring with a time of 10:27.88, which she recorded in Hamilton’s outdoor invitational on April 4. She set team records in the steeplechase, the 1,500-meter run and the 5,000-meter run this season. Rogan finished second in the steeplechase at the NESCAC championships on April 26 and earned all-conference honors for the event.

Rogan is trying to collect her third all-America award in her first year with the Continentals’ cross country and track and field teams. She ended up in 15th place out of 290 finishers at the 2024 NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships, and landed in fifth place out of 20 athletes in the 3,000-meter run at the 2025 NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships.