Welcome to “Olympic Sports Catch Up!” As the Olympic sports manager at this beautiful little website, I lead a team of talented and passionate writers who have a special interest in non-revenue Olympic sports at Missouri (I despise the phrase “non-revenue.”) Because it’s the summertime and (flag) football was added to the LA2028 Olympics, I’ll make an exception for the inclusion any Mizzou athletic team.

I’ve broken down each of the sports below and will be sharing fun/relevant info, social posts any writing our talented crew has done, and links to other stories from outside of Rock M that people have done, as we used to do in the Links posts. We are in a content desert, y’all.

Enjoy!

Non-Sports Specific

Mizzou has found great success in volleyball, softball and gymnastics in recent years, and track and field just crowned an individual national champion in Valentina Barrios Thursday night. Meanwhile, baseball and women’s basketball have struggled in recent years but provide tremendous upside for generating revenue.

Athletics departments that strike the right balance between the revenue sports and Olympic sports, and between short-term and long-term success, will set themselves up for the future both in competition and on the balance sheet.

Baseball

There has been some movement in the portal for the Tigers both in an out since I last checked in with you. Transferring out are relief pitcher Victor Christal, OF/1B Brady Picarelli, pitcher Brock Lucas and UTIL Trey Calloway.

Kam Durnin (June 18)- Durnin spent his first two collegiate seasons in the American Athletic Conference at Wichita State, where he hit .251 with a .724 on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS) this year and had 20 extra-base hits alongside 23 walks to 54 strikeouts, playing mostly at shortstop. The Camdenton native’s best season came as a true freshman, hitting .267 with an .833 OPS and seven home runs for the Shockers. Durnin is mashing this summer in the Appalachian League with the Kingsport Axmen, going 12-31 (.387) so far in nine games and recording more walks (9) than strikeouts (8).

Jamal George (June 15)- George was a part-time starter for Texas A&M in 2024, playing in 34 games and making 17 starts. The incoming senior hit .231 with a .584 OPS for the Aggies in 65 at-bats, also stealing six bases, and split time between the corner outfield and second base. The Trujillo, Puerto Rico, native’s addition will add back depth to Mizzou’s outfield after the graduations of Pierre Seals and Cayden Nicoletto. George is unlikely to start for the Tigers, but senior has solid numbers in college with the potential for a second-season jump in the SEC. This addition gives Jackson another experienced position player and valuable depth.

Basketball- Men’s

What we know is Trent Burns was making enough of an impression in early spring workouts that it caused other bigs on the roster to consider their position in the depth chart. Burns has more of a shooting touch than any other post currently on the roster and projects to be the kind of big who can stretch the floor.

Scottie Adkinson (2027 CG) is outperforming some of the best competition on Nike’s EYBL circuit, currently ranking in the 95th percentile for offensive efficiency. Unsurprisingly, the 6-2 guard remains a menace on the break. What’s surprising is the fact his dosage of off-ball opportunities has doubled up his combined tally of pick-and-rolls, isolations, and handoffs.

The Tigers face four high-major teams, all in the top 100 of Bart Torvik’s projections, but also have the usual assortment of buy games against low and mid-major squads. The team has eight games falling in that category, with only two teams – SEMO and Bethune-Cookman – cracking the top-250 of the Torvik projections.

Basketball- Women’s

Kellie Harper has been hot on the recruiting trail in her first season at the helm of the Tigers, and as of June 11, they’ve offered 23 different prospects spread across the USA in 2026 and 2027.

• Practice has started! Here’s some social posts! And SEC opponents! Per Dylan (on RockM+), this slate is favorable for Mizzou.

Games against Texas A&M, Arkansas, Georgia and Auburn are the perfect opportunity to pick up wins in the unforgiving grind of conference play. Plus, conference games against Alabama, Ole Miss and Oklahoma seem much more manageable with a strong crowd. That leaves just one home game left: Texas

• I’ve been loving this X’s and O’s content series with Kellie Harper. Next up, Lisa Thompson and Jordana Reisma!

Football

Isaac Jensen is much more of the pass-catching variety at the moment, though his massive frame makes you wonder what it would look like if he puts on the necessary weight to start pushing dudes around in the trenches. He’s all of 6’6”, but could stand to add a few dozen pounds before he’s game ready. But he’s got decent athleticism and size you can’t teach. He’ll continue Drinkwitz and Kirby Moore’s long-standing project to find a towering TE to revive Mizzou’s dormant tight-end-passing-game.

The greatest Missouri team of all-time (according to SP+) was the 2008 squad that finished +24.0 and ranked 7th in SP+. Last year’s Alabama finished +25.0 and ranked 4th in SP+.

In a “down year”.

We should all have that level of misfortune.

Golf- Men’s

• Per MUTigers, HC Glen Millican and incoming freshman Reese Roberts will be a part of the Team USA World Junior Golf Cup in Nagoya, Japan in late June.
• Congrats to Veikka Viskari on making the semifinals of the Amateur Championship.

Gymnastics

• Looks like Mizzou’s new rookies, Kimarra Echols, Hayli Westerlind, Bryce Kupbens and Maiya Terry will arrive in CoMo!

• I could re-live this season forever.

Soccer

• Here’s the schedule! Per Dylan at RockM+, the Tigers play seven of the same conference opponents as last year, and finished 0-6-1 in those games. The non-con looks similar to last year, and the Tigers will again face SLU, Memphis, MO State and Illinois (finishing 1-2-1 in those games).

As a whole the Tigers will play 10 home games, including the first Mizzou athletics event of the new school year in the home opener against SDSU (plus an exhibition against K-State on Aug. 6).

Mizzou faces six teams who made the NCAA Tournament, taking no shortcuts as Golan looks to have the best season in years for the Tigers.

Softball

She made 23 appearances in the circle for the Cougars with 14 starts. Michalak notched a team-best 35 strikeouts over 59.2 innings to go with a 6-5 mark in 2025.

Adding a young pitcher, but one with experience, is a smart move for a program looking to rebound, though her stats (a 5.75 ERA and more BB than K) are a bit eye-opening, per Karen. There is still a lot to do in order to move this program back into the top of the conference like they’ve been in recent years. Especially with the losses of Taylor Pannell (A&M) and Madison Walker (Florida), amongst many others.

Swim & Dive

Track & Field

• A bit delayed but incredible congratulations must go out to Valentina Barrios, Mizzou’s first individual javelin national title winner. She is the THIRD individual national champion of the year for Mizzou Athletics!

Other results: Kristi Perez-Snyman (high jump, 6th place) and Callan Saldutto (javelin, 3rd place) earned First Team All-American honors in the high jump while Claudina Diaz (high jump, 11th place) and Alicia Burnett (100m, 11th place) earned Second Team honors. Skylar Coffey finished 21st in the men’s discus after setting a PR in the first round of the west regional. The women overall placed 20th at NCAAs, which is their third best finish in school history. This is their highest finish since 2018, when they finished 11th.

“It was an outstanding week for the Tigers,” head coach Brett Halter said via MUTigers. “I’m really proud of everyone’s efforts and appreciate the support that we’ve had through our season. It’s been a collective effort – high-level performances take a village to achieve, and this staff did an incredible job of helping us reach that goal. The credit goes to the kids in the arena for sticking to the plan and achieving a historical season.”

• Some Tigers also participated in the USATF U20 Championship. Ryan Eddington took bronze in the 1500m. Charlotte Cullen advanced to the finals of both the 800m and the 1500m.
• Jonathan Seremes made his Diamond League debut with a fourth place finish in the triple jump.

Volleyball

• Dawn Sullivan & Co. has wasted no time adding a bunch of high-level roster additions! Lucky Fasavalu, a 5-8, top-60 setter from CA, Maizy Agnello, a 6-1, 43rd ranked outside hitter from IL, Eve Bushnell, a 6-2 outside hitter from NC, and Danielle Lewis, a 5-5 libero from NC.

Here’s Matthew’s master list of the roster members thus far.

Wrestling

• Brian Smith welcomed in 2-time NCAA qualifier Evan Bates from Northwestern. Matthew wrote on RockM+, “Similar to Maxx Mayfield, Bates provides the solid floor of a likely top-25 wrestler with a limited ceiling. He seems likely to be what he is at this point, garnering a lower seed at the NCAA Championships and lasting three or four matches but not making it deep into the consolation bracket”

Overall, this is a solid addition for Tiger Style as the program looks to get back into the top-10 at next season’s NCAA Championships after back-to-back down years. If nothing else, the team should be more prepared for attrition and adversity in 2025-26.”