2025 USTFCCCA Outdoor Track and Field All-Region Honorees

The Hillsdale College track and field teams are preparing to wrap up the 2024-25 season this weekend at the NCAA DII Outdoor Championships in Pueblo, Colorado. First, however, the Chargers are celebrating some additional honors their athletes have earned from the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) last week.

Nine Chargers, four men and five women, earned All-Midwest Region honors for the 2025 outdoor season from the USTFCCCA, including eight of the nine athletes representing Hillsdale at the 2025 NCAA DII Outdoor Championships beginning on Thursday. USTFCCCA All-Region honors go to the individuals with the top five times or marks in each event in each of the eight NCAA Division II regions across the country, as well as the members of each top-three ranked relay teams.

On the men’s side, there are three repeat All-Region honorees, led by senior Richie Johnston, who received his third consecutive outdoor All-Region honor in the 3,000m steeplechase after breaking his own school record in the event earlier this season. Joining Johnston in earning All-Region honors is senior Cass Dobrowolski, who finished in the top five in the region in the high jump for the second-straight outdoor season and third time overall, and also earned All-Region honors in the triple jump for the first time. Also receiving repeat All-Region honors is junior Ben Haas, the 2025 indoor weight throw national champion who finished in the top five in the hammer throw for the second straight year, and also earned All-Region honors in the outdoor shot put for the first time.

Hillsdale also got a first time All-Region honoree in senior Ross Kuhn, who broke a 28-year old school record in the 1,500m run to receive All-Region honors in the event. All four Hillsdale men who earned All-Region honors will be competing in Pueblo this weekend.

On the women’s side, Hillsdale had five athletes earn recognition. The lone repeat honoree for the Chargers among female competitors is senior Averi Parker, who took All-Region honors in both the hammer throw and shot put to add to the same awards won in 2023. Parker redshirted last outdoor season but is back among the nation’s elite competitors in both events.

Junior Tara Townsend also earned outdoor All-Region honors for the first time in the pole vault, after a season that included personal bests and a G-MAC Championship. Along with Townsend, three members of a standout freshman class also earned All-Region honors for Hillsdale — Evyn Humphrey in the 1,500m run, Allison Kuzma in the 10,000m run and Baelyn Zitzmann in the heptathlon. All three athletes are part of a decorated young core that portends a bright future for the Chargers’ women’s track and field team in years to come. Parker, Townsend, Humphrey and Kuzma all will compete in Pueblo later this week as well.

The NCAA DII Outdoor track and field championships begin on Thursday, May 22 and will run for three days through the 24th in Pueblo, Colorado. Links to watch live, see live results or purchase tickets are available at hillsdalechargers.com.

As a former major league baseball scout, Laz Gutierrez recognized that a player’s mental game is what separates most Division I college athletes.

So when he wanted to study why pitchers suffered from the yips – the sudden and unexplained loss of ability to execute certain skills, such as throwing the ball – he enrolled at Grand Canyon University.

Gutierrez, who spent five years as the mental skills coordinator for the Boston Red Sox and serves as the pitching coach and mental skills director at the University of Miami, is one of several current or former major league mental skills or performance directors who have earned doctorates from GCU.

After being a part of five World Series championships with the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers, Carl Kochan was hired as director of performance for the St. Louis Cardinals in December, around the same time he graduated after successfully defending his doctorate, titled “The Longitudinal, Grounded Theory Study on Psychological Resilience and Professionals.”

Kellen Lee is in his third season as the mental skills coach for the Seattle Mariners, five years after earning his doctorate from GCU in 2020 and serving as a master resilience trainer/performance expert for the U.S. Army.

Chad Bohling, who is scheduled to earn his doctorate this year, is in his 21st season with the New York Yankees, currently serving as the senior director of organizational performance.

And Justin Su’a, who is on track to earn his doctorate from GCU next spring, was the head of mental performance for the Tampa Bay Rays for five years before starting the Performance Advisory Group, which assists coaches, players and executives in professional sports.

The groundswell of mental skills staffers in baseball over the last 20 years illustrates teams’ efforts to address their players’ well-being, as well as their physical tools.

“Remember, this is a people-person industry,” Kochan said. “So before a player is ever an athlete, he’s a human being. So, really, making sure that we have that human connection is priority No.1.”

He added, “Ultimately, getting to know somebody and understanding what they value, versus balancing what the organization needs, both as a player and as a staff member – that’s the fine line that we get to walk every day. And then, oh, by the way, try to win baseball games, too.”

One of the biggest ingredients is trust, and it didn’t hurt that Gutierrez knew Chris Sale – the 2024 National League Cy Young Award winner with Atlanta – when Sale pitched at Florida Gulf Coast University and Gutierrez scouted the South Florida region for Boston.

Sale was drafted by the Chicago White Sox, but the two connected quickly after Sale was traded to Boston after the 2016 season, when Gutierrez already transitioned to the mental skills department.

“He’s an easy guy to talk to because he was in the game and knew both sides of the ball,” Sale said. “He knew how to get information out of people and make them feel comfortable, but he also knew the game and knew when was the right time to go about it.”

Before one of Boston’s off-days, Sale planned to fly to Naples, Florida, to visit his wife and three children and invited Gutierrez, who then could rent a car to drive about 100 miles to see his family.

“There might have been only 14 seconds of silence the entire time,” Sale recalled of the flight. “We spent the whole time talking about anything and everything. Laz is one of my guys.”

As a former strength and conditioning coach, Kochan sought ways to improve his craft and marveled at how mental skills coach and former major league pitcher Bob Tewksbury and sports psychologist/former minor league manager Derin McMains conveyed tough and easy conversations and getting players to view things in a different light while with the Giants.

That swayed Kochan to pursue his doctorate in hopes of understanding what makes players and coaches tick when faced with adversity on a daily basis.

Lee has worked with service members who were thinking about their family and with college student-athletes concerned about an examination, so he recognizes the importance of helping a player direct their focus toward the task at hand and remain fully present.

“Being able to control their focus and focus on essentially what they can control in the moment is a key skill, a key tool in their toolkit to be able to optimize performance in the moment,” said Lee, who played baseball at UC San Diego, served as director of baseball operations at Santa Clara University and taught mental skills and physical education at Presentation High School, an all-girls school in San Jose, California.

Lee’s dissertation focuses on the mental component of injury rehabilitation.

“I just saw that particular subgroup of athletes could seriously benefit from just making sure that their mind is good, super confident going back into sport,” Lee said. “Because fear of injury is really common. Fear of like, ‘Oh no, like, am I going to be as good as I was before?’”

Lee’s sounding board includes wife Jaclyn, who is an athletic trainer in San Jose, and brother Korey, a catcher with the Chicago White Sox and his spring training roommate, thanks to the proximity of their spring facilities.

“I tell our players that I feel like I have the answers to the test, because my brother will tell me everything about what players are thinking about, what the pressure are at the high level, and I’m able to use some of those stories to connect what I spent years and years and years studying and understanding and being able to apply it in a very real way,” Lee said. “I’m using real-life examples coming directly from a player.”

Lee liked that GCU professors emphasized that he choose a topic he was passionate about, rather than be steered in a certain direction.

“I felt the power to be able to determine where I wanted to go and how I wanted to go about it,” he said.

GCU News senior writer Mark Gonzales can be reached at [email protected]

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ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College women’s track & field team will send three student-athletes to the NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships at SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio from May 22-24.

Laura Suppa and Rachel Larson will compete in the 100-meter hurdles, while Madeleine Wright will be in action in the high jump.

Suppa, who finished 13th at last year’s Outdoor Championships, just set IC’s school record in the event at 13.86 seconds to move up to fourth nationally, while Larson is seeded seventh at 13.98 seconds. Both will run in the preliminary race at 2:30 p.m. on Friday, May 23, with the final set for 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 24.

Wright is seeded 11th in a jammed high jump competition at 1.68 meters. Eight qualifying athletes are tied for 11th entering the 11:30 a.m. start on Friday.

All three athletes have been named All-Americans during their career. Suppa is a three-time All-American with a top finish of fourth in the 60-meter hurdles, which occurred at this year’s NCAA Division III Indoor Championships, while Larson finished sixth in the same race. Wright was a Second Team All-American at indoors this season, placing 14th.

 

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Former Kentucky Wildcat, Kaz Brown, is a Professional Volleyball Federation champion after she and the Orlando Valkyries defeated the Indy Ignite in four sets on Mother’s Day to claim the league’s second ever title.

“The overwhelming emotion was joy,” Brown said. “The moment felt very joyful to be spending that championship weekend with teammates, with family, with friends, which is one of the biggest perks.”

But before she was winning championships at the professional level, Brown dominated at the University of Kentucky, becoming the Wildcats all time leader in total blocks, solo blocks and block assists. After college, she would take her talents overseas, playing volleyball in Germany, Ukraine, France and Greece for a handful of years. That experience would shape her into the player she is today, becoming the first ever Middle Blocker of the Year in 2024.

“Being overseas prepared me a lot from a mental standpoint,” Brown said. You’re kind of over there alone and you kind of have to be the one to check yourself and and keep yourself in check. I think that benefited me greatly in my professional career.”

In the 2025 regular season, Brown set new career highs with 228 kills, 73 blocks, 56 digs and 19 aces. And in the playoffs, she picked up right where she left off, finishing with a career high seven blocks in the semifinals against the Atlanta Vibe and helping Orlando close out in day for the championship.

“I would have to say our experience is really what set us apart,” Brown said. “Having players who have been on a big stage before and have been able to perform and compete at that level, I think was huge for us.”

From Lexington stand out to 2025 champion, Brown is proving that Kentucky talent belongs at the top.

“I love the University of Kentucky,” Brown said. “I had the best four years of my life there to date. And so to be able to win a title at the pro level, I mean, I have I have so many people to thank, And the University of Kentucky volleyball program is definitely at the top of that list.”