The 2025 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Track and Field Championships came to a close Saturday at the University of Minnesota Duluth’s James S. Malosky Stadium. This year’s Championships was full of great successes for the University of Minnesota Duluth track and field teams. 

The crown jewel of these successes came from graduate student Shaelyn Hostager, who won the women’s 5000m in a time of 17:10.41. After taking the women’s 10,000m on Friday, it was Hostager’s second win on the weekend. 

Other all-conference performances came from junior Brock Unger in the men’s 400m, and Savannah Schley in the women’s 800m. Unger took third with a time of 47.69, while Schley ran a time of 2:08.57, each in their respective events. Both performances were also facility records and PRs. 

The Bulldog relays also showed up big this weekend. The women’s 4x100m school record was broken again by the team of Emily Anderson, Kate Fitzgerald, Jordan Grell, and Hailey Hollar. The women ran to fifth in a time of 47.00.

In the same event, the Bulldog men ran to a third place finish with a time of 41.06. The squad consisted of Cole Brisbois, Brock Unger, Nick Westphal, and Brady Johnson.

In the men’s 110m hurdles, junior Sam Blomberg took fourth with a time of 14.41. Also landing herself on the podium was fifth year Madeline Verkerke in the women’s 1500m. Verkerke ran to fifth place with a time of 4:36.04. 

Freshman Noah Rodenwald launched himself to a fourth place finish in the men’s pole vault (4.46m), and junior Will Heydt threw to a mark of 55.23m to take fourth in the men’s javelin throw. 

Over in the pit, sophomore Erin Steinman leaped to a mark of 11.72m in the women’s triple jump, with freshman teammate Allysah Larson just behind with a bound of 11.51m. The women placed fifth and seventh respectively.  

In the women’s 400m hurdles, freshman Avary Fitzpatrick ran to a PR and fifth place finish in a time of 1:02.92, while sophomore Noah Foster also ran a PR and eighth place finish in the men’s 1500m (3:54.11). Freshman Billy Auvin also took eighth in the men’s 400m run. 

Sophomore Brady Johnson showed up big in both the men’s 100m and 200m races. His times of 10.59 and 21.34 were good for seventh and sixth, respectively. 

The day of competition wrapped up with the 4x400m relays, where the Bulldog women claimed fourth, and the men, fifth. The women’s team of Avary Fitzpatrick, Hailey Hollar, Kate Fitzgerald, and Savannah Schley ran a time of 3:52.39, and the men’s squad of Brock Unger, Cole Brisbois, Alex Croston, and Brady Johnson clocked a time of 3:15.43.

PR’s 

Women’s 5000m; 

Eve Anderson 18:01.16

Mileena Sullivan 18:12.37

Elizabeth Van Loon 18:13.33

Women’s Javelin Throw; Graycee Roubinek 36.79m

Women’s Triple Jump; Parker Ennis 10.10m

FOUNTAIN – The Eaglecrest boys volleyball program has been successful since serve one of the first sanctioned season, but winning a state championship had thus far been elusive.

The Raptors finally chased that down Saturday night at Trojan Arena, as they overcame nemesis and Centennial League rival Littleton Public Schools — who they played for a second time on the final day — for a thrilling 19-25, 25-23, 25-19, 27-25 victory.

Eaglecrest had been building towards a title and it finally came on the efforts of a veteran group that laid everything on the line to get it done.

“Even when things were going well, I just wanted to think about how we were performing,” said Eaglecrest coach Chad Bond, whose team finished 25-5. “I’ll probably be sitting around on my couch tomorrow and think ‘wow, this solidifies all the hard work we’ve put in over the years. Those guys came into my gym four years ago playing volleyball for the first time and now they are leaving as state champions.”

The Raptors had come close to reaching the mountaintop in 2023 when they advanced to the state championship match, but lost in four sets to Discovery Canyon, a co-op program that was the powerhouse for the first two years of the sport.

A 1-2 showing last season — where it was eliminated by the same LPS program in the consolation bracket — again left Eaglecrest shy of a title. Bringing one home this season seemed possible, but the journey included significant adversity, especially when it came to injuries.

The opponent that also loomed in the Raptors’ way was LPS, which defeated them in five sets during Centennial League regular season play, swept them in the Centennial League Challenge final to claim the league title and dealt them a 25-20, 25-22, 25-22 defeat in a championship semifinal. In total, LPS (a co-op of players from Arapahoe and Heritage) had won the past five matches between the teams dating back to the 2022-23 season.

Eaglecrest’s brand of all-out defense coupled with its never-say-die attitude and plenty of talent eventually brought it through to the championship.

The Raptors watched LPS roll to a six-point win in the opening set, but unlike previous matches, they turned the momentum in their favor and held it the rest of the way.

Led by the attacks of senior Jackson Shaw, junior Ashton Bond and a variety of others, Eaglecrest was able to hold on to leads in the second and third set to take the advantage.

“We just had to move on to the next point, no matter what happens,” Bond said. “Our guys could not have shown that attitude any better than they just did. It was amazing.”

Not going out quietly, LPS had set point in its quest to push the match to a deciding fifth set, but a successful tip by sophomore Will George evened the match. Senior Ethan Levakin then put Eaglecrest in front and a wide attack on match point sent a swarm of Raptors into the center of the court in two big dogpiles.

“I couldn’t be more proud of my team,” said Shaw, who along with fellow senior Matthew Dye was on the roster for the 2023 state runner-up team. “We battled through adversity, through injuries the whole season. We stuck with the game plan and it worked out.”

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The St. Olaf College men’s track and field team won three events as part of a third-place performance at the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Outdoor Track & Field Championships on Friday and Saturday at Macalester Stadium.

Junior Lance Nemecek, senior Andrew Skemp, and St. Olaf’s 4×800-meter relay of first year Jackson bullock, senior Sean Hartney, junior Zach Martin, and first year Austin McInturff accounted for the Oles’ three event victories over the two-day meet. St. Olaf compiled 116 points to finish 26.5 points ahead of fourth-place Concordia-Moorhead. Bethel University edged Saint John’s University by half a point to win the team title with 207 points.

Over the duration of the meet, St. Olaf had eight all-conference (places 1-3) and 10 honorable mention all-conference (places 4-6) performances, including a pair of runner-up showings by junior Ignatius Fitzgerald in distance events. Fitzgerald was second in both the 1,500-meter run and the 3,000-meter steeplechase, breaking the program record in the latter event in the process.

FRIDAY RECAP

Titles from the 4×800-meter relay and Skemp highlighted the opening day of the meet for St. Olaf, which earned 55 points on Friday to sit second in the team standings behind only Saint John’s. The Oles registered four top-two showings in the three track-event finals on the day.

Bullock, Hartney, Martin, and McInturff won the 4×800-meter relay in 7:41.52, edging the Johnnies’ unit by just under one-and-a-half seconds while setting a new facility record by nearly four seconds. The performance marked the first time St. Olaf won the event since posting the meet record in 2016-17 and slotted the quartet in at No. 3 on the program’s all-time list.

In the final event of the night, Skemp, junior Kevin Turlington, and junior Gael Manzur Strandlund recorded a 1-2-4 finish in the 10,000-meter run, which was pushed back a couple of hours due to temperatures in the 80s during the day. After being the runner-up the last two years, Skemp won his first individual conference title in 31:19.19 to give the Oles their second champion in the event in the last three seasons.

Turlington collected All-MIAC honors after being edged out by Skemp at the line by less than half a second in 31:19.66. Manzur Strandlund landed in the honorable-mention spots for the second season in a row in fourth (31:47.42), while first year Cooper Gundersen also scored with a PR of 32:23.89 in eighth.

In the first track event of the day, Fitzgerald was the runner-up in the 1,500-meter run (3:50.97) for the first of his two second-place showings at the meet. Junior Lance Nemecek (1:54.55), junior Cullen Moore (1:55.75), and sophomore Christian Fells (1:55.87) all qualified for the finals of the 800-meter run, with Nemecek posting the top qualifying time of the day.

Sophomore Max Albertson grabbed honorable-mention honors in the long jump for the second season in a row by placing fifth with a mark of 6.86 meters (22′ 6 ¼”) on his first attempt. Senior Andrew Cogley also scored for the Oles in the high jump after taking eighth by clearing 1.87 meters (6′ 1 ½”).

SATURDAY RECAP

Nemecek’s victory in the 800-meter run and Fitzgerald’s school record in the 3,000-meter steeplechase paced the Oles on day two, as St. Olaf wound up third in the team standings. St. Olaf had three top-three and 11 top-six performances on the final day.

Nemecek won his first individual conference title in the 800-meter run, edging Bethel’s Victor Lelinga by less than three-tenths of a second in 1:51.32. That time ranks second on St. Olaf’s all-time list, as Nemecek won the Oles’ first title in the event since Kevin Skrip ’16 in 2015-16. Fells (5th, 1:53.38) and Moore (7th, 1:53.83) were separated by less than half a second in the scoring places as well.

Fitzgerald broke the school record in the 3,000-meter steeplechase set by Will Kelly ’24 by less than one second with his runner-up time of 8:52.30, collecting his second All-MIAC accolade in as many days in the process. The performance also solidified Fitzgerald in qualifying for the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships, as the time ranks seventh nationally.

Junior Jack Deaver rose to seventh on St. Olaf’s all-time list and secured All-MIAC honors with a third-place finish in the 3,00-meter steeplechase (9:10.33) to give the Oles two of the top three in the event. Sophomore Lex Kaye was also in the top five, earning Honorable Mention All-MIAC honors in fifth (9:34.52).

The day after finishing 1-2 in the 10,000-meter run, Skemp and Turlington placed fourth and fifth, respectively, in the 5,000-meter run with times of 15:13.04 and 15:13.13. Senior Eh Ler Moo, first year Gavin Vogel, first year Luke Jones, and first year Jakob Eenigenburg added another honorable-mention accolade on the track with a sixth-place showing in the 4×100-meter relay (42.78).

St. Olaf had three other top-six results in the field events, led by a fourth-place finish from first year Kale Kardonsky in the shot put (15.09m, 49′ 6 ¼”). Albertson posted a personal-best mark in the triple jump to take fifth (13.68m, 44′ 10 ¾”), while Cogley was fifth in the javelin throw (53.70m, 176′ 2″), a result that ranks sixth on St. Olaf’s program list.

 

A pair of Utah Valley teams were unceremoniously dumped from the semifinals in 6A on Saturday morning.

No. 2 seed Westlake and No. 4 seed Lehi were hoping to have a Region 3 repeat in the final (Pleasant Grove won last year’s 6A title) but were both swept by red-hot teams from Region 2. No. 3 Mountain Ridge beat the Thunder and top-seed Bingham took care of the Pioneers.

Westlake and Lehi met in the third-place match a few hours later, and the Pioneers won a tight second set to force a third, then won that third set handily.

Saturday afternoon, Bingham (25-4) continued its stellar play with a 3-1 (25-20, 25-19, 23-25, 25-18) victory against Mountain Ridge to win the 6A championship.

The Miners dominated the first set against Lehi in the semifinal but the Pioneers were on a good run in the second when senior middle blocker Taite Stewart injured his knee, which caused a 15-minute delay as he was attended to by trainers. Lehi still managed to tie the set at 25-all but an untimely net violation cost the Pioneers a point. Bingham took the advantage and won 27-25.

Lehi played well in the third set but Bingham got a kill from sophomore Brody Siddoway to end things at 25-22, sending the Miners to the championship match.

“We played really well in that second set,” Lehi coach Kolby Shewell said. “Then we had the injury (to Stewart). We lost some momentum and got a little emotional and we couldn’t finish it. We played really well in the third set too. But Bingham is such a strong team and they capitalized.”

Westlake fought Mountain Ridge in the first set of its semifinal with ties at 19, 20, 21 and 22. Senior Curtis Fowler smashed a kill for the Sentinels for a 23-22 lead, then a tip by Gabe Geersten pushed them to match point. A Thunder hitting error gave Mountain Ridge a 25-23 win.

The second and third sets belonged to the Sentinels, who raced to big leads and never let up in earning a shot at the 6A title.

The loss ended Westlake’s 14-match win streak.

The Thunder won the first set of the third-place match 25-21, but Lehi managed to squeeze a close victory in the second to force a third. In the third set, a block by senior Dylan Avery and sophomore Ty Reynolds gave the Pioneers at 12-8 lead. Down the stretch, Lehi made all the right plays at the net. Reynolds won a joust and contributed a block for a 23-17 advantage. Sophomore Ashton Shewell won a joust then scored on a swing to get to match point at 24-18. Senior Ian Wilson threw up a block on the next Westlake attack and Lehi finished on top of its Region 3 rival.

“We lost to Westlake twice this season so the third time’s a charm,” Coach Shewell said. “I was really proud of the way the boys played today.”

Ashton Shewell, the coach’s son, led Lehi with 16 kills.

“I love coaching him because he’s such a competitor,” Coach Shewell said. “He always wants to win and always expects excellence no matter what he’s doing. He’s such a phenomenal athlete and he’s just worked so hard.”

In the fifth place match, No. 9 Corner Canyon held off No. 7 Lone Peak 2-1 (25-21, 27-29, 29-27), with the Knights ending up seventh.

5A Semifinals

Maple Mountain had a big challenge in the semifinals against No. 4 Alta, especially after the Hawks outlasted the Golden Eagles 31-29 in Set 1. The match was billed as a showdown between two future BYU teammates in Maple Mountain’s Trey Thornton and Alta’s Corbin Batista, and the two hitters didn’t disappoint. Thornton finished with 20 kills and Batista 19.

Maple Mountain made Set 3 interesting after taking a 24-17 lead and allowed Alta to close to 24-22 before Thornton went off the block to finish things off.

Wasatch needed five sets to get past No. 14 Olympus in the second round and No. 6 Box Elder in the quarterfinals on Friday, and also lost to No. 2 Bountiful 3-1 back in March. So the Wasps went into the semifinals as a heavy underdog.

Wasatch got off to a great start and won Set 1 25-20 but the Red Hawks rebounded with a 17-25 win in Set 2. Behind outstanding pin hitters JJ Serre and Chase Billeter, the Wasps won Set 3 25-21 and rode that momentum into the fourth set, taking a 19-14 lead on a kill from senior middle Alec Slater. Billeter’s kill got Wasatch to match point at 24-19 and Serre tooled the block for the winner.

No. 10 Springville played for fifth place against No. 5 Viewmont (score not reported) and No. 13 Spanish Fork topped No. 14 Olympus 2-0 (25-20) for sixth place.

DULUTH, Minn. – The Vikings had a successful Saturday at the conference championships, collecting three NSIC Champions with 15 total athletes claiming All-Conference honors. 

The women’s 4×100-meter relay consisting of Jennifer Noutsougan, Nyanas Kur, Kylee Sallee, and Lily Juhnke started the final day of conference with a third-place finish and a time of 46.59. 

 

Ryan Hartman took the NSIC champion title in the 1500-meter run with a time of 3:49.24. Tyson Rucker earned All-Conference with a time of 3:50.30 for third. 

 

Four Vikings had personal bests in the 1500-meter including Payton Brown (3:51.27), Bryant Keller (3:52.23), Nick Batchelor (3:58.38), and Kieran Weigelt (3:59.15). 

 

Ramsey Karim and Ally Sample both had personal bests in the 1500-meter run as they took seventh in 4:41.98 and 10^th in 4:45.74, respectively. Tenley Nelson also was 12^th in 4:59.58. 

 

Andrew Martens took home an NSIC champion title in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 13.76. His time gives him the eighth spot on the DII College Outdoor Rankings. 

 

Jude Jarding took seventh had in the 400-meter dash with a time of 48.69, taking seventh as Sydnee Serck and Caroline Sudbeck took seventh and eighth in the women’s 800-meter run with times of 2:15.93 and 2:17.32, respectively. 

 

Maria Pedroso gathered a personal best in the 400-meter hurdles, taking sixth with a time of 1:03.02 while on the men’s side, Martens continued his success by taking fourth in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 53.90. 

 

Kur took home her second All-Conference honor in the 200-meter dash after placing third with a time of 24.13. 

 

The Vikings swept the top four spots in the 5000-meter run with Hartman taking his second NSIC title of the day in 14:40.75. Erik Gunderson (14:42.13) followed in second and Bryant Keller (14:42.25) in third, both garnering All-Conference honors. Payton Brown (14:42.33) came fourth, Kadin Groen (14:47.73) and Isaiah Anderson (14:49.49) rounded out the top 10, finishing eighth and ninth. 

 

On the women’s side, Taylor Melton led with her fifth-place finish in 17:29.22 for a new personal best. Lindsey Young (17:32.85, PR) came seventh, Ally Sample (17:56.69) was 11^th and Tenley Nelson (18:07.61) took 14^th to round our AU in the top 15.

 

The women’s 4×400-meter relay with Sudbeck, Maia Peterson, Ella Heinitz, and Kur took third place with a time of 3:51.18 as the men’s squad of Martens, Ethan Boyens, Tyler Christianson and Jarding finished eighth in 3:19.15.

 

In field events, Sallee was 21^st in the javelin throw with her mark of 107-00.00 while three Vikings competed in the women’s triple jump. Lexi Olderbak (36-00.25) was 14^th, Mackenzie Hemmer (35-03.25) was 18^th and Nyamal Changson (34-06.75) was 23^rd.

 

The women’s team took third place overall with 88 points as the men were fifth with 80 points. 

 

UP NEXT

Should any athletes qualify, the Vikings will compete at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Pueblo, Colorado on May 22 through 24.

 

–GoAugie.com–