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Lumberjacks Send 29 Athletes, Plus Two Relay Teams, to NCAA West Preliminary Round

Story Links ScheduleMen’s Declared AthletesWomen’s Declared Athletes  FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (May 27, 2025) – With the NCAA West Preliminary Round just around the corner, the Northern Arizona men’s and women’s track and field team will be well-represented. Twenty-nine individuals plus two relay teams finished the year ranked in the top 48 of their respective events and have […]

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Lumberjacks Send 29 Athletes, Plus Two Relay Teams, to NCAA West Preliminary Round

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Men’s Declared Athletes
Women’s Declared Athletes 

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (May 27, 2025) –

With the NCAA West Preliminary Round just around the corner, the Northern Arizona men’s and women’s track and field team will be well-represented.
 
Twenty-nine individuals plus two relay teams finished the year ranked in the top 48 of their respective events and have qualified for the preliminary rounds in College Station, Texas, from May 28-31.
 
On the men’s side, NAU will be represented by Colin Sahlman (1500m), Drew Bosley (5k/10k), David Mullarkey (5k/10k), Corey Gorgas (5k), Santiago Prosser (5k/10k), Ford Washburn (5k), Justin Keyes (5k/10k), Josiah Johnson (400mh), Jeret Gillingham (3k steeplechase), Sirr Butler (triple jump), Desmond Lott (discus/hammer), Trevor Hook (javelin), Clay Carbajal (javelin) plus the 4×100-meter relay team.
 
For the women, the Lumberjacks will be represented by Kyairra Reigh (400m), Odessa Zentz (800m), Kiki Vaughn (800m), Maggi Congdon (1500m), Alex Carlson (1500m), Keira Moore (1500m/5k), Ava Mitchell (5k), Agnes McTighe (5k), Elise Stearns (5k), Emma Stutzman (5k), Alexis Kebbe (10k), LiNay Perry (400mh), Karrie Baloga (3k steeplechase), Hayley Burns (3k steeplechase), Maisie Grice (3k steeplechase), Sariyah Horne-Kemp (hammer) and the 4×400-meter relay.
 
The meet will be streamed each day on ESPN+ with live results available here. The top 12 in each event will punch their tickets to the NCAA Outdoor National Championship in Eugene, Ore., from June 11-14.
 
Women’s Preview
 
Reigh will be making her fourth career appearance at the NCAA West Regional, competing in the 400-meters. She enters with the 29th fastest time in the field of 52.83, ran at the Desert Heat Classic in early May. Most recently, Reigh defended her 400-meter title at the Big Sky Conference Outdoor Championships. She will be looking to punch her first individual ticket to the NCAA Division I Outdoor National Championships, competing as part of the 4×400-meters in 2024. The first round of the 400-meters is set for Thursday, May 29 at 5:25 p.m. Mountain Standard time with the quarterfinals set for Saturday, May 31 at 4:50 p.m. MST.
 
Zentz and Vaughn will represent NAU in the 800-meters, with the first-round set for 5:50 p.m. MST on May 29 and the quarterfinals take place on May 31 at 5:05 p.m. MST. Both are making their NCAA West Regional debuts, looking to punch tickets for the first time in their careers. Zentz ranks 40th in the field with a time of 2:06.74 and Vaughn is right behind her in 2:06.85 to rank 41st. Both are personal bests that were ran at the Big Sky Championships in the prelims. Zentz placed sixth in the finals while Vaughn earned a fifth-place finish.
 
Congdon, Carlson and Moore will represent NAU in the 1500-meters. Congdon is no stranger to the NCAA West Regional, as she is making her second career appearance. In 2024, she punched her ticket in the event with an eighth-place finish. She went onto place ninth in the finals of the 1500-meters at the NCAA National Championships and eventually made it all the way to the finals of the Olympic trials. She placed second in the event this season at the Big Sky Championships and ranks fourth in the field with a time of 4:07.23.
 
Carlson competed in the NCAA East Regional in the 1500m while at Rutgers but is looking to punch her first ticket to the National Championships in the event. She is ranked 20th overall with a time of 4:14.73, ran at the Desert Heat Championships. Carlson placed fourth in the event at the Big Sky Championships.
 
Moore is also looking to punch her first-ever ticket to the National Championships, competing in the 1500m and making it to the quarterfinals at last year’s preliminary round. She ranks 33rd overall with a time of 4:18.01, a personal best she ran at the Bryan Clay Invitational. The first round of the 1500-meters is set for 4:30 p.m. MST on May 29. The quarterfinals take place on May 31 at 3:15 p.m.
 
Moore will also compete in the 5,000-meters along with Mitchell, McTighe, Stearns and Stutzman. Mitchell enters the 5k ranked eighth overall in the field with a time of 15:31.41 that she ran at the Stanford Invitational. At the Big Sky Championships, she won the 10,000-meters and placed third in the 5,000-meters. Last season, she earned a 25th-place finish in the event at the first round. The semifinals of the 5,000-meters are set for 6:10 p.m. MST on May 31.
 
McTighe has the 22nd fastest time of 15:44.82 that she ran at the APU Franson Last Chance Meet. She competed in the 5k at the 2024 NCAA East Preliminary Round for Florida State, looking to punch her first-ever ticket to the National Championships.
 
Stearns is right behind McTighe, ranked 23rd with a time of 15:45.86 that was also ran at the APU Franson Last Chance Meet. Recently, Stearns won the Big Sky Championship in the event with a meet record for 16:03.08. Stearns hasn’t competed at the NCAA West Preliminary Round since 2022 when she placed 20th in the 5,000-meters.
 
Stutzman, a freshman, is ranked 27th overall with a time 15:48.92 that she ran at the Stanford Invitational. Moore comes in ranked 44th with a time 16:02.50 ran at the Stanford Invitational. She placed fifth overall in the event at the Big Sky Championships and is making her NCAA West Regional debut in the event as well.
 
In the 10,000-meters, Kebbe will be representing the Lumberjacks with the 39th fastest time of 33:55.75, ran at the Stanford Invitational. She earned a fourth-place finish in the 10k at the Big Sky Championships and will be making her NCAA West Regional debut. The semifinal of the 10,000-meters is set for 7:10 p.m. MST on May 29.
 
Perry will toe the line in the 400-meter hurdles, ranking 17th with a time of 57.53 that she clocked at the Desert Heat Classic. She is the two-time defending Big Sky Champion in the event, making her third NCAA West appearance in her career and the second-straight in the 400-meter hurdles, placing 47th in the event last season. She’s looking to punch her first individual ticket in the event, qualifying in the 4×400-meters last season. The first round of the 400-meter hurdles is set for 6:20 p.m. on May 29 and the quarterfinals take place on May 31 at 5:25 p.m. MST.
 
Baloga, Burns, and Grice are all entered in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Baloga is a two-time defending Big Sky Champion in the event and has the third-fastest time in the field of 9:44.09 that she ran at the Bryan Clay Invitational. Last year as a freshman, she placed fourth at the NCAA West First Round to punch her ticket to the National Championships where she finished eighth in the finals with a school and U-20 record of 9:42.22.
 
Burns is ranked 16th overall with a time of 10:01.59 that she ran in her first and only career collegiate steeplechase race at the Bryan Clay Invitational. Grice is right behind her, ranked 17th with a time of 10:02.35, also ran at the Bryan Clay Invitational. She placed seventh in the event at the Big Sky Championships. In 2023, Grice punched her ticket to the NCAA National Championships while competing for New Mexico, placing 12th in the finals. The steeplechase is scheduled for May 31 at 3:40 p.m. MST.
 
The women’s 4×400-meter relay team of Congdon, Alaynah Reed, Perry and Reigh also qualified for the NCAA West Prelims. The quartet won the Big Sky Championships with a time of 3:34.23 that was a meet record and the second fastest-time in program history. Last season, Congdon, Perry, Reigh and now-graduated Madeline Wilson punched their ticket in the event after placing 11th overall with a time of 3:33.01. At the National Championships, the group earned a 14th place finish. The 4×400-meter relay will cap off the track events on May 31 at 6:45 p.m. MST.
 
Sariyah Horne-Kemp is the lone Lumberjack on the women’s side entered in a field event. After winning the hammer throw at the Big Sky Championships, she ranks 28th in the field with a toss of 60.10-meters. Horne-Kemp will look to punch her first-ever ticket to the National Championships and is competing in her second-straight NCAA West Prelim. The hammer throw opens the field events at 8 a.m. on May 29.
 
Men’s Preview
 
Sahlman will kick off the action as the lone competitor in the 1,500-meters on Wednesday. He enters the competition ranked 27th in the field with a time of 3:39.41 and will look to punch his ticket to the national meet in that event for the third-straight year. In 2023 he finished 12th overall in the preliminary round and in 2024 he placed third, earning a fourth-place finish at the national meet. At the Big Sky Championships, he placed second in the event with a time of 3:40.14. The 1,500-meters is set for 4:30 p.m. MST on Wednesday, May 28.
 
Northern Arizona will be represented by six athletes in the 5,000-meters on Friday night at 6:10 p.m. MST. Bosley has the fifth-fastest time in the field with a time of 13:17.06, followed by Mullarkey (15th, 13:29.55), Gorgas (26th, 13:35.47), Prosser (13:35.94), Washburn (45th, 13:37.69) and Keyes (48th, 13:37.90).
 
Bosley has not raced at the NCAA West Preliminary round since 2022 and will be looking to punch his first ticket to the outdoor national meet. Mullarkey will be aiming for his third-straight national championship meet appearance in the 5,000, qualifying in 2023 and 2024 for Florida State. He placed 18th in the finals in 2024 after placing ninth at the NCAA East First Round. Mullarkey placed fourth in the 5,000 at the Big Sky Championships.
 
Gorgas, Prosser, Washburn and Keyes are all looking to punch their first tickets to the national meet. Prosser competed in the 5,000-meters last year at the Preliminary Round and placed 17th. Keyes won the 5,000-meters at the Big Sky Championships while Gorgas placed third.
 
Mullarkey, Bosley, Keyes, and Prosser will also double and compete in the 10,000-meters on Wednesday, May 28 at 7:10 p.m. Mullarkey, the Big Sky Champion in the event, as the seventh-fastest time in the field of 27:51.80. Bosley is 10th in 27:53.48, followed by Keyes (26th, 28:20.85) and Prosser (31st, 28:22.14). At the Big Sky Outdoor Championships, Keyes placed third in the 10,000-meters and Prosser placed second.
 
Johnson, a freshman, will take the stage in the first round of the 400-meter hurdles on May 28 at 6:20 p.m. MST, with the finals set for May 30 at 5:25 p.m. He won the Big Sky Championship in the 400-meter hurdles, and enters the event ranked 31st in the field with a time of 50.87.
 
Gillingham competes in the quarterfinals of the 3,000-meter steeplechase on Friday, May 30 at 3:40 MST, making his NCAA West Preliminary Round debut. He placed fourth at the Big Sky Championships and has the seventh-fastest time in the field of 8:32.00.
 
NAU also enters with the 19th-fastest time in the 4×100-meters with a school-record time of 39.66. The quartet of Khamis Hassan, Kyle Smith, Ian Lipsey and Lamar Smith placed third in the event at the Big Sky Championships. The quarterfinals are set for May 30 at 3 p.m. MST.
 
Four Lumberjacks will represent NAU in four different field events. Butler won the triple jump at the Big Sky Championships and is 29th in the field with a personal best of 15.51-meters. Lott placed third in the discus and won the hammer throw at the Big Sky Championships. He ranks 38th in the discus (56.65m) and 25th in the hammer throw (65.27m). Two Lumberjacks will compete in the javelin, with Hook ranking 24th with a personal best of 68.98-meters. He won the event with that toss at the Big Sky Championships, breaking his own school record. Carbajal is 48th with a mark of 64.60-meters.
 
The hammer throw is set for 8 a.m. MST on May 28, followed by the javelin at 12:30 p.m. The discus is scheduled for 11 a.m. on May 30, followed by the triple jump at 12:30 p.m. MST.
 

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Volleyball Welcomes 11 Newcomers to Campus

The Syracuse volleyball team is complete, and the 2025 squad has arrived on campus for summer classes and workouts. The Orange welcome 11 newcomers to the 2025 squad which returns seven from last year’s team than went 15-17 overall and 3-17 in the ACC. “We are very excited about this new group that is coming […]

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The Syracuse volleyball team is complete, and the 2025 squad has arrived on campus for summer classes and workouts. The Orange welcome 11 newcomers to the 2025 squad which returns seven from last year’s team than went 15-17 overall and 3-17 in the ACC.

“We are very excited about this new group that is coming in because we feel like it’s a good mix of really young and talented players and some athletes coming in with experience previously competing at a high level around the country,” Syracuse head coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam said. “We truly invested a lot of time and effort into this class, not just evaluating them based on how good they are as athletes but even more how good they are as people. We really paid attention to making sure we recruited the right characters.”

Syracuse welcomes five middle blockers in Marisse Turner, Kaliya Ndiaye, Oreva Evivie, Soana Lea’ea and Mari Lawton. Outside hitters Marie Laurio, Elizabeth Turner and Gabriella McLaughlin will help strengthen the Orange attack while SU also adds defensive specialist Reese Teves and Rana Yamada. Additionally, Syracuse added setter Tehya Maeva this offseason, a junior transfer from Nevada by way of San Diego, California.

Marisse Turner is a 6-foot graduate transfer from Long Beach, CA. Turner attended Marymount High School and joins the Orange from California State University – Fullerton where she appeared in 49 sets across 14 matches. Ndiaye is a 6-foot-4 middle blocker from Aliso Viejo, CA. She played at Santa Margarita Catholic where she helped SMHS to a 25-15 record a s a senior.

Evivie is a 6-foot middle blocker from Charlotte, NC, who began her collegiate career at Virginia Tech before spending her final two seasons of undergrad at FGCU where she helped the Eagles to a 27-5 overall record and a 15-1 mark in the Atlantic Sun Conference appearing in all 32 matches as a senior in 2024.

Lea’ea joins the Orange from UC Irvine where she appeared in 114 sets across 41 matches after redshirting the 2022 season. The 6-foot-1 Las Vegas, Nevada native was an All-WCAL Second Team honoree out high school at Saint Francis (CA). Lawton, a 6-foot junior transfer from San Jose State joins the Orange from Mililani, Hawaii, where she won an ILH and state championship as a senior en route to earning All-State recognition. At San Jose State she appeared in 32 matches over her first two seasons totaling 78 kills and 64 blocks.

Laurio is a 5-foot-10 middle blocker from Ann Arbor, Michigan, who earned All-Region and All-State recognition each year from 2022-24. She was named Saline High School’s Most Valuable Player a junior and senior. She’s joined by freshman Elizabeth Turner who hails from Pine Bluff, Arkansas and has spent time in Japan playing for Kizankino Sho Club the last four years. While attending Seiwa Joshi Gakuin High School in Japan, she helped her varsity team finish No. 1 in the Sasebo region in each of her final two seasons and was named the Best Hitter and MVP for the DODEA Pac-East in 2022.

The final middle blocker added for the 2025 season is Nevada transfer Gabriella McLaughlin. The 5-foot-8 senior played three seasons for the Wolfpack where she was named All-Mountain West in 2024. She is a College Sports Communicators Academic All-District honoree in 2023 and led the team in kills (443), kills per set (3.82) and was second in digs with 265 in 2024.

McLaughlin and Maeva will reconnect in Syracuse after having shared the court at Nevada the past two seasons.

Teves is a 5-foot-7 sophomore transfer from Waipahu, Hawaii. She appeared in 25 matches playing in 79 sets at Long Island University in 2024 and tallied 59 digs (0.75 per set) and secured 21 aces with five assists. Joining Teves as a defensive specialist and libero is Yamada, a 5-foot-6 junior from Kanagawa, Japan, who played most recently at Western Arizona.

“We want to build a team that the Syracuse community can see themselves in,” Ganesharatnam added. “We want to be a team that’s truly blue collar, has grit and works hard. We want the relentless pursuit of excellence not just on the court but also in the classroom and in our community. We want to be engaged, and I feel like this group will do that. We want to strengthen our core values and really pursue that.”

The first official practice of the 2025 season is slated for later this month on July 31.

For more on Syracuse volleyball, follow the Orange on social media @CuseVB.

 



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Cuts to the soul of track and field

A track and field team is an eclectic bunch of athletes. You have skinny distance runners, training on their own, sometimes far away from the track. You have sprinters. These guys are fast, and sometimes it seems as if they spend more time fiddling with their starting blocks than practicing. You have pole vaulters, perhaps […]

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A track and field team is an eclectic bunch of athletes. You have skinny distance runners, training on their own, sometimes far away from the track. You have sprinters. These guys are fast, and sometimes it seems as if they spend more time fiddling with their starting blocks than practicing.

You have pole vaulters, perhaps the quirkiest of the bunch — which might be what it takes to run down a path, plant a pole in a pit and try to hurl yourself over a bar 18 feet off the ground. 

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You have the jumpers, versatile athletes who, in addition to jumping, often run relays and even the 100-meter dash, the 200, the 400.

You have the hurdlers, who aren’t quite fast enough to run the 100 and 200 but are skilled enough to run 110 meters and jump over 10 barriers without stumbling. 

And you have the throwers. Big. Thick. Strong. Muscular. They’re usually uber competitive, but most are teddy bears once a competition is over.  

I can tell you all about these dynamics because I was a college distance runner at Division III SUNY Brockport. And when I saw the recent news that Washington State will focus its track and field program on distance running only, I was dismayed. Sure, the Cougars will keep their track team, but this means they will no longer have a field team. They’ll recruit athletes who can run cross country, along with the 800, 1,500, 3,000 steeplechase, 5,000 and 10,000 meters in the winter and spring. If you run the 200 or are a long jumper, scratch WSU off your list.

There are several other schools that have track but no field, and with the House settlement now approved, look for more to make the same decision as Washington State. The situation could get even worse, and entire track and field programs could be eliminated as schools adapt to the world of revenue sharing and calculate what they must sacrifice to field competitive football and basketball programs. 

Just look at Washington State, which seems to be using House to reduce costs in its athletic department. The Cougars, still reeling from being orphaned when the Pac- 12 collapsed, are desperate to find a home for football and basketball, and to do this with full fervor, their calculations may have told them that field should be dropped. 

And now that Washington State has broken the seal, how many more schools will follow?  Track and field is not a revenue sport; it costs universities money to keep it going. But every four years, at the Olympics, it’s the most watched competition, and team USA is expected to excel.  

We want gold medals in the 100 and 200. We have dominated the 110-meter hurdles for decades, Al Oerter won the discus in four straight Olympiads (1956, 1960, 1964, 1968), and shot putter Ryan Crouser is the three-time defending Olympic gold medalist and the consensus greatest at his sport in the world.

It will be tough to dominate, however, if there are fewer programs to train future Olympians. But if this happens and the US fails to shine, the pundits will still ask what’s wrong. Most won’t have any idea that schools like Washington State no longer support field. 

When I look back at my time as a track and field athlete, it’s not the competitions that stand out. It’s the bond shared with the sprinters, jumpers, hurdlers, throwers and vaulters. I remember chiding the sprinters, remember them saying they got tired watching distance runners do interval after interval on the 400-meter oval. Most of all, I remember the camaraderie that existed between an unusual cast of characters.

The bus rides were even more fun: 5 a.m. wake-ups on Saturday mornings to catch the bus to Alfred, to Cortland, to Geneseo, to Plattsburgh. The rides were quiet, with most of us sleeping or focusing on the upcoming events. We would stop, grab a quick bite and continue with a little more noise. 

Rides home were much livelier — loud, fun and sometimes off-color. The sprinters and throwers usually sat in the back and were quite guarded about allowing visitors. I learned a lot about people and life on those bus rides, and that’s something that will stick with me much longer than how I did in the 5,000 meters at the Geneseo Invitational. 

Sadly, that will no longer happen at Washington State. It’s unfortunate on so many levels. The focus in college is to get a degree, but character development and maturation are vitally important. 

Sports like track and field are different from football and basketball. When you go to an invitational, your event can last anywhere from 11 seconds to 33 minutes, but you’re there for eight to 10 hours. When not competing, you’re talking with your teammates as well as with athletes from other schools. It’s a time to make friends, network and so much more. 

That’s being taken away because football (and basketball) teams need more money. I think what Washington State is doing is shortsighted, but I understand. That doesn’t make it any easier to swallow.

Track and field isn’t the same without field.  

Nicknamed “The Almanac,” by a fellow freshman at SUNY Brockport for his penchant for sports history, John Furgele follows every sport there is. When not following sports, he works in nursing and teaching to pay the bills and stays busy with his son and two daughters. 



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Princeton University

Full Schedule PRINCETON, N.J. – Highlighted by seven home matches and three tournaments, the Princeton University women’s volleyball team announced its 2025 schedule Tuesday afternoon. Along with three tournaments (James Madison, Towson/Coppin State/Penn State), the Tigers host seven matches inside Dillon Gymnasium. 2025 opens for Princeton at the JMU Tournament in Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Sept. […]

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Full Schedule

PRINCETON, N.J. – Highlighted by seven home matches and three tournaments, the Princeton University women’s volleyball team announced its 2025 schedule Tuesday afternoon.

Along with three tournaments (James Madison, Towson/Coppin State/Penn State), the Tigers host seven matches inside Dillon Gymnasium.

2025 opens for Princeton at the JMU Tournament in Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Sept. 5-6, where the Tigers will face Lehigh, Bellarmine and the Dukes.

Following the JMU Tournament, Princeton will play at the Towson/Coppin State Tournament from Sept. 12-13. Opponents include both Towson and Coppin State along with Iona.

Non-conference play wraps up in State College, Pennsylvania, from Sept. 19-20. The Tigers will take on defending National Champion Penn State, who ended 2024 with a 35-2 record, a 19-2 Big Ten record and its eighth national title in program history, along with Central Michigan.

Ivy League play opens inside Dillon Gymnasium on Oct. 3 and Oct. 4 against two opponents who joined Princeton at the 2024 conference tournament, Brown and Yale. The Tigers then travel north to face Dartmouth in Hanover, New Hampshire, on Oct. 10 then Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Oct. 11.

Princeton returns to Dillon Gymnasium to host Cornell on Oct. 17, Columbia on Oct. 18 and the University of Pennsylvania on Oct. 24.

Four consecutive road matches follow; Yale (Oct. 31), Brown (Nov. 1), Columbia (Nov. 7) and Cornell (Nov. 8). Regular season play ends at home against Harvard on Nov. 14 and Dartmouth on Nov. 15.

Postseason play begins with the Ivy League Tournament, hosted by the No. 1 seed, from Nov. 21-23. The NCAA Tournament starts with the first and second rounds from Dec. 5-7, then regionals from Dec. 12-15 and the National Championship from Dec. 19-22.

The Tigers, who won the 2024 regular season championship and earned the No. 1 seed at the Ivy League Tournament, will aim to return to the NCAA Tournament in 2025. Led by three-time Ivy League Coach of the Year Sabrina King, the Tigers return three-time All-Ivy selection Lucia Scalamandre, two-time All-Ivy selection Sydney Draper and 2024 All-Ivy selection Jackie Onyechi. The trio will be joined by seniors Valerie Nutakor and Ella Bunde, juniors Sydney Bold, Erin McNair and Ava Harrington, sophomores Sylvia Bunde, Ashtyn Sims, Ashley Duckworth and Nicki Gaito along with the incoming Class of 2029.



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Big East, ESPN team up again on a 6-year digital media rights deal Big East, ESPN team up again on a 6-year digital media rights deal

The Big East Conference has signed a new, six-year digital media rights agreement with ESPN, conference officials announced Tuesday. The Big East Conference has signed a new, six-year digital media rights agreement with ESPN, conference officials announced Tuesday. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Under the agreement, ESPN will add hundreds of live […]

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The Big East Conference has signed a new, six-year digital media rights agreement with ESPN, conference officials announced Tuesday.






The Big East Conference has signed a new, six-year digital media rights agreement with ESPN, conference officials announced Tuesday.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Under the agreement, ESPN will add hundreds of live Big East events, including “a minimum of 75 women’s basketball and 200 Olympic sports events,” which will stream on ESPN+ annually beginning in the 2025-26 academic season.

The extra events will also include a minimum of 25 non-conference games annually for Big East men’s basketball.

The deal comes as ESPN plans to offer its flagship programming on an as-yet unnamed direct-to-consumer digital streaming platform, which it expects to launch this fall. The new platform will be separate from but include its current ESPN+ digital offering, which shows some sports and non-live sports content.

The deal reunites the Big East Conference with ESPN, which held the broadcast rights to the conference from 1980 to 2013. It fills a gap for the sports and entertainment network that was left after it lost the media rights to the Big Ten conference to CBS, Fox and NBC in 2022.

“This exciting partnership with ESPN reinforces our commitment to placing Big East teams front and center on the leading digital sports platform,” Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman said. “Streaming on ESPN+ gives all 22 of our sports — especially women’s basketball and Olympic sports — the visibility they’ve earned and the access our fans expect.”

“We’re pleased to welcome the Big East back to ESPN,” said Nick Dawson, ESPN senior vice president, programming and acquisitions. “This agreement returns one of the country’s premier conferences and its tradition of excellence to ESPN platforms.”

The deal with ESPN comes just over a year after the 11-team conference announced a new six-year TV deal that begins with the 2025-26 season. That deal was estimated at $480 million, with annual rights payments to each school in the range of $75 million to $80 million per year.

That new contract includes coverage on Fox Sports (Fox, FS1, FS2), as well as on NBC Sports (NBC, Peacock) and TNT Sports (TNT, TBS, truTV and Max).



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University of Richmond

RICHMOND, Va. – Six University of Richmond student-athletes were named to the 2024-25 Virginia Sports Information Directors (VaSID) Academic All-State Team. To qualify, student-athletes must be sophomores in academic standing with a minimum 3.25 cumulative grade point average. The VaSID All-State Team recognized 216 student-athletes representing 36 institutions across the Commonwealth of Virginia.   Richmond’s honorees […]

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RICHMOND, Va. – Six University of Richmond student-athletes were named to the 2024-25 Virginia Sports Information Directors (VaSID) Academic All-State Team. To qualify, student-athletes must be sophomores in academic standing with a minimum 3.25 cumulative grade point average. The VaSID All-State Team recognized 216 student-athletes representing 36 institutions across the Commonwealth of Virginia.
 
Richmond’s honorees include women’s basketball’s Addie Budnik, swimming and diving’s Katie Chignell, women’s cross country and track and field’s Laurel Kurtz and Morgan Lyons, baseball’s Brady O’Brien and men’s lacrosse’s Joe Sheridan.
 
Budnik earned her fourth straight VaSID Academic All-State honor. A master of business administration major, she led the Spiders to a historic season. Budnik helped Richmond win back-to-back Atlantic 10 regular season titles and earned the program’s first-ever NCAA Tournament win, a dominant 74-49 victory over Georgia Tech in Los Angeles. She was named to the A-10 All-Conference Second Team and All-Academic Team, the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team and was honored as the VaSID Defensive Player of the Year. Budnik closed her career ranked third on Richmond’s all-time scoring list with 1,897 points.
 
Chignell earned her first All-State laurel after helping the Spiders to a runner-up finish at the Atlantic 10 Championships. The health studies major won gold in the 400 free relay, setting a new program record with a time of 3:19.32, and placed fifth in the 800 free relay. She also contributed with several top-15 finishes in the finals.
 

Kurtz, a leadership and rhetoric & communication major, earned A-10 All-Conference First Team honors for the second straight year in cross country. During the indoor season, she helped Richmond finish second at the Atlantic 10 Championships with a seventh-place finish in the 5,000 meters. At the outdoor A-10 Championships, she placed seventh in the 10,000 meters. She capped her career with a gold medal in the 10K at the Outdoor IC4A/ECAC Championships.
 
Lyons, a health studies major, helped the Spiders to a runner-up finish at the Indoor A-10 Championships, contributing to medals in two relay races. She helped Richmond win silver in the distance medley relay with a time of 11:38.63 and gold in the 4×800 relay with a time of 9:03.23. At the Outdoor A-10 Championships, she again earned gold in the 4×800 with a time of 8:47.46. In her final collegiate race, she helped Richmond win gold in the 4×800 at the Outdoor IC4A/ECAC Championships.
 
O’Brien, a data analytics major, finished the regular season ranked ninth in the nation with a .777 slugging percentage and 11th in both home runs (20) and RBIs (72). A 2025 Dick Howser Trophy semifinalist, he ended the season with a 22-game on-base streak, 25 multi-hit games and 19 multi-RBI games. He was named to the A-10 All-Academic Team in May and also earned CSC Academic All-District and ABCA/Rawlings NCAA Division I All-Atlantic Region Second Team honors.
 
Sheridan, a biochemistry and molecular biology major, helped lead the Spiders to a regular season and Atlantic 10 Championship title. He also contributed to Richmond’s first NCAA Tournament win, a 13-10 victory over North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Sheridan earned USILA All-America Honorable Mention, Inside Lacrosse All-America Honorable Mention, First Team All-Atlantic 10, A-10 All-Academic honors and was named the A-10 Tournament Most Outstanding Performer. 
 



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Meet the Vandal: Koen Makaula

Story Links MOSCOW, Idaho – Summer is in session, the Vandals are coming back to town, and the schedule has been released. Live volleyball is closer than we think.  As summer training rolls on, Vandal fans get the opportunity to meet the newcomers taking the court for Idaho Volleyball in time for […]

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MOSCOW, Idaho – Summer is in session, the Vandals are coming back to town, and the schedule has been released. Live volleyball is closer than we think. 

As summer training rolls on, Vandal fans get the opportunity to meet the newcomers taking the court for Idaho Volleyball in time for the 2025 season. Since the end of last year, ten newcomers have arrived in Moscow from the transfer portal and high school levels. Three of which enrolled in time for the spring, which leaves seven to make their Idaho introduction. 

First up among the new members of the Vandal family is Koen Makaula.

MEET KOEN

A rising junior middle blocker originally from Kailua, Hawaii, Koen becomes the second Vandal on the 2025 roster to hail from the Aloha State. Finishing her prep career at Punahou School in 2023, she committed to the University of Nevada.

As a freshman with the wolfpack, Koen played in 32 total sets, earning an ATK% of .417 alongside six kills and four blocks against Boise State that November, all season highs. She finished her first college season with totals of 25 kills, 22 total blocks, 11 digs, and 36.5 total points, according to Nevada Athletics.

In her sophomore campaign, Makaula took it up a notch from ’23, appearing in 48 sets and helping the Wolfpack on offense and defense. She recorded a season-high three total blocks vs. Oregon State early in the year, followed by a career-high eight kills and nine points the next day vs. Cal State Bakersfield. She would end her second season in Reno with 31 kills, 19 blocks, and eight digs in 48 sets played.

Now a rising junior entering her first season in black and gold, Koen provides valuable Mountain West experience and looks to bring success to Moscow, a task she is excited for.

“I feel very grateful and excited to rep the Vandals, and I am so ready to be a part of this culture and make the most of this opportunity that [head] coach Romana [Redondo Kriskova] has blessed me with,” said Makaula. 

A culture is building among Vandal Volleyball, and the newest members of the family are taking notice. 

“I was drawn to Idaho because of the sense of belonging I felt after having many conversationgs with the coaches and girls on the team. Coach Ro got to know me on a personal level first, which I really appreciated.”

FOLLOW THE VANDALS

To stay up to date with Vandal Volleyball, follow the team on Instagram (vandalvolleyball), X (IdahoVolleyball) and visit govandals.com



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