BRYAN-COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Sir Jonathan Sims became the third Tarleton State Track and Field athlete to punch his ticket to the NCAA National Championships after his performance on Day 3 of the NCAA West First Rounds on Friday at E.B. Cushing Stadium.
 
Sir Jonathan Sims joins fellow jumpers, Lokesh Sathyanathan and Prestina Ochonogor who punched their tickets to Track Town USA in the long jump on each of the first two days.

“Time after time, Sir Jonathan has proved that he belongs on the big stage,” said head coach Bobby Carter. “I’m so proud of this young man. It’s always good to see the growth. He will be ready for the big show in two weeks and I’m excited to see what’s to come. “

 

Sims best jump came on his second attempt. The Arizona transfer posted a 15.83-meter leap on his opening attempt, but he had more left in the tank. Sims came back on his second jump nearly matching his season best with a 15.97-meter performance. He took one final jump landing at 15.64 meters. He finished ninth earning himself a top 12 slot.

 

“We got the job done,” said Sims after the event. “Long jump didn’t go as well as I planned, but I put my head down and I got ready for triple jump. I came out and got our business done. I appreciate my teammates for always pushing me all season. I appreciate my coaches and most importantly my trainers. We do a lot and there is a lot going on with our bodies, but they definitely take care of us. I just appreciate everyone, and we are going to Oregon, y’all!”

 

The junior entered the meet with a season best of 15.99 meters. Sims will return to the NCAA National Championships for his second consecutive season. Last year he was one of four jumpers to reach Oregon in both the long and triple jumps. He posted a pair of All-American Honorable Mention performances in his debut at the National Championships.

 

Gabriele Tosti entered the meet with the third best triple jump in the NCAA. He finished just outside of the top 12 at 14^th with his first jump his only counting attempt at 15.83 meters.

 

On Saturday, Cameron will be running in three events all with the chances to punch herself a ticket to Oregon. She will start in the 4×100 relay scheduled to run at 5 p.m. with her teammates, Hanna Dudley, Amandine Estival and Lauren Roy. She will then run in the third heat of the 100 meters slated to start at 6:35 p.m. Her final race of the day will be in the 200 racing out of the first heat at 7:50 p.m. Sofia DeGroot will make her NCAA West debut in the triple jump at 2:30 p.m.

With just one day left at the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds, the top 12 in each event of the final day will earn themselves a trip to Eugene. The Purple and White have two individuals still looking to punch their tickets to Eugene, Ore., as well as a four-women relay team. The NCAA National Championships will be held at Hayward Field from June 11-14.

 

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The Wichita State men’s track and field team punched four more tickets to the NCAA Outdoor Championships Friday at the NCAA West Preliminaries at E.B. Cushing Station.
 
Sophomore Josh Parrish earned his second entry to the NCAA Championships, finishing third in his 110-meter hurdles quarterfinal with a time of 13.56 claim an auto-qualifying spot.
 
Shortly after, redshirt-junior Yared Kidane punched his ticket with a gutsy finish in the 800-meter quarterfinals, running 1:47.35 to finish 12^th overall claim the final qualifying spot.
 
In the next race, sophomore Jason Parrish auto-qualified in the 400-meter hurdles, running his third-straight sub-50 second race to finish third in his quarterfinal and get the big Q.
 
Capping the night, the Wichita State quartet of Joakim Genereux, Josh Parrish, Kidane, and Jason Parrish clocked another school record time in the 4×400-meter relay, running 3:06.38 to finish fourth in the second heat. With three heats of quarterfinals, the top three in each heat automatically advanced to the NCAA Championships, and the next three fastest times would fill out the field. The Shockers sat in the final qualifying spot prior to the third heat, needing their time to be faster than the fourth-place team in the final heat. Watching with bated breath, Wichita State saw their hopes of making it to Eugene, Ore. slip away when TCU finished fourth in 3:04.12, leaving the Shockers in 13^th place as the first team out.
 
But that wasn’t the end of the road as there had been a red flag in the first heat, leaving the relay results under review. The Shockers stuck around at the track while multiple protests were filed and reviewed, and a disqualification of Cal Poly, the 12^th-place team, for taking two steps on the lane line pushed Wichita State up into the final qualifying spot, sending the relay the NCAA Championships. While Kidane and the Parrish twins had already locked in entries to the championship meet, Genereux, the senior, who thought his track and field career had come to an end, celebrated joining his teammates at Hayward Field in June.
 

By Nate Raymond

BOSTON (Reuters) -A U.S. appeals court on Friday reinstated a former University of Southern California water polo coach’s bribery conviction arising from his role in the nationwide “Varsity Blues” college admissions scandal.

The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a trial judge wrongly overturned a jury’s 2022 verdict finding Jovan Vavic guilty of conspiring to commit federal programs bribery by accepting payments to help wealthy parents’ children gain admission to USC as fake athletic recruits.

The judge had set Vavic’s conviction aside and ordered a new trial after concluding the prosecution during closing arguments misstated what it needed legally to prove its case, which arose out of the investigation dubbed “Operation Varsity Blues.”

But U.S. Circuit Judge Julie Rikelman, writing for a three-judge panel, said that while part of Vavic’s conviction could no longer stand following an appellate ruling in a different “Varsity Blues” case, the prosecution’s closing arguments were not contrary to the judge’s jury instructions on the law.

The ruling opens the door to Vavic being sentenced three years after the jury’s verdict. His lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.

He was among dozens of people charged in 2019 in the investigation, which exposed how some wealthy parents went to extreme lengths to secure spots for their children at schools like Yale, Georgetown and USC.

They did so with the help of William “Rick” Singer, a California college admissions consultant who was sentenced in 2023 to 3-1/2 years in prison after admitting he facilitated college entrance exam cheating and helped bribe coaches to secure his clients’ children’s admission as phony athletes.

More than 50 people, including coaches and parents, pleaded guilty.

Prosecutors claimed that in exchange for more than $200,000, Vavic helped mislead USC admissions officials into believing children of Singer’s clients belonged on his championship team.

While prosecutors said some money that Singer paid went toward Vavic’s children’s private school tuition, another $100,000 went to a USC account used to fund the water polo team.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by David Gregorio)

By: Hunter McKay

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Chance Cross of the Kennesaw State men’s track and field team punched his ticket to Eugene, Oregon in the 100m at NCAA East First Rounds Friday at Visit Jax Track at Hodges Stadium on the campus of the University of North Florida.
 
Cross ran a time of 10.09 seconds to finish third in his heat and tenth overall. Cross’ time is the fastest wind-legal men’s 100m mark in program history. He is the second Owl to reach the semifinals in program history joining Drew Duggans, who went in 2015. The junior will compete in the semifinals at 8:25 p.m. ET on Wednesday, June 11.
 
Notable Performances

• Chance Cross, Xavier Parris, Nicholas Mabilo, and Eric Young II ran a time of 39.32 seconds in the 4x100m relay to place 13th. That time established a new school record and narrowly missed qualifying for Eugene.
• Justin Campbell closed his KSU career with a personal-best mark of 15.79m (51’9.75″) to finish 13^th. That mark ranks sixth in program history.
• Fellow senior Lloyd Hill also wrapped up his career placing 21^st in the triple jump with a leap of 15.43m (50’7.5″).
• Kenyatta Bennett cleared a personal-best height of 2.15m (7’0.5″) to place 13^th in the high jump. The freshman’s mark tied for the fourth-highest mark in program history.
• In his final race as an Owl, Jeremiah Sims placed 19^th in the 110m hurdles with a time of 13.73 seconds.  
• Four women will compete for KSU on day four of the NCAA East First Rounds on Saturday, May 30.

 
The Owls Fund
The Owls Fund is the primary fundraising arm of Kennesaw State Athletics with the goal of supporting our student-athletes, coaches and each of our 18 NCAA Division I programs. Through initiatives such as Legacy Lockers, the Dot Martin Scholarship Golf Classic, sport-specific giving opportunities, general donations and season tickets, The Owls Fund connects fans with KSU’s programs and student-athletes. Members receive exclusive benefits such as hospitality seating areas and events at Kennesaw State home games, and more. Joining The Owls Fund here and discover more opportunities on how you can support Kennesaw State Athletics.
 

RESULTS

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (May 30, 2025) –

On the final day for the men at the NCAA West Preliminary Round, the Northern Arizona track and field team punched three more tickets to Eugene, Ore., for the Division I NCAA National Championships.
 
Less than 48 hours after both punched tickets in the 10,000-meters, Drew Bosley and David Mullarkey qualified in the 5,000-meters while Colin Sahlman punched his ticket in the 1,500-meters.
 
For the third-straight season, Sahlman is off to the NCAA Championships in the 1,500-meters. He finished fourth in his heat and fourth overall to auto qualify, clocking 3:40.17.
 
In the 5,000-meters, both Mullarkey and Bosley ran under the facility record. Mullarkey raced in the first heat and qualified by time, clocking a near personal best of 13:33.85 to finish sixth in his heat and eighth overall. It marks his third-straight appearance in the 5,000-meters after qualifying the previous two years for Florida State.
 
Bosley auto-qualified, placing fourth in his heat and 10^th overall with a time of 13:34.58. He will be making his first outdoor NCAA Championship appearance.
 
Rounding things out in the 5,000-meters, Justin Keyes place 18^th with a time of 13:44.62, followed by Santiago Prosser (13:49.83, 23^rd), Corey Gorgas (14:15.59, 41^st) and Ford Washburn (14:16.57, 42^nd).
 
The quartet of Ian Lipsey, Kyle Smith, Lamar Smith and Khamis Hassan placed 19th in the 4×100-meter relay with a time of 40.10.
 
Jeret Gillingham finished 30^th in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 9:01.39.
 
In the field events, Desmond Lott placed 42^nd in the discus with a throw of 52.03-meters and Sirr Butler placed 39^th in the triple jump with a leap of 14.81-meters.
 
Today concludes action for the men in the NCAA West Preliminary round. The Lumberjacks will send four onto the NCAA Division I Championships in four events from June 11-14 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. They will be represented by Trevor Hook (javelin), Drew Bosley (10k, 5k), David Mullarkey (10k, 5k) and Sahlman (1500m).
 
The women conclude their portion of the meet tomorrow, beginning at 3:15 p.m. with the 1500-meters. The meet is broadcast on ESPN+ and live results are available here.
 

COLLEGE STATION, Texas— Long Beach State sprinter Tristyn Flores secured spots in both the 100-meter and 200-meter events at the 2025 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships after standout performances Friday at the NCAA West First Round at E.B. Cushing Stadium.
 
Flores broke his own school record in the 100 meters, clocking 10.05 seconds in the second of three heats to earn one of 12 qualifying spots for the national meet in Eugene, Oregon. His time ranked 10th overall and is also a new Big West record.

He becomes the first Long Beach State sprinter to advance to the NCAA finals in the men’s 100 since Brent Gray in 2008.

 

Just over an hour later, Flores returned to the track for the 200-meter quarterfinals and tied Gray’s 2007 school record of 20.46. He placed second in his heat to automatically qualify. Flores joins Gray (2007, 2008) and Jaime Barragan (1995) as the only Long Beach State athletes to qualify for nationals in the 200 since Andy Sythe took over the program in 1990.

 

The NCAA Championships are scheduled for June 11–14 at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field. Flores will be joined by teammates Ryan Gregory (decathlon) and Claudine Raud-Gumiel (heptathlon) in representing Long Beach State.

 

The 100-meter semifinals are set for Wednesday, June 11 at 5:25 p.m. PDT, followed by the 200-meter semifinals at 6:29 p.m. The decathlon will be contested June 11–12, with the heptathlon running June 13–14. Coverage will air on the ESPN family of networks.

 

In the Field

In the high jump, Long Beach State’s TJ Funches and Kyle Jankans both cleared 6 feet, 8 1/4 inches. Jankans advanced with a clearance of 7-0 1/4 on his first attempt but fell just short of qualification after missing at 7-1 1/2. He finished 13th overall, one spot shy of advancing.

 

In the discus, Canaan Wharry posted a mark of 182 feet, 3 inches on his second attempt, placing 27th out of 48.

Novye’ James delivered a season-best 50 feet, 6 inches on his opening triple jump attempt. Despite fouling on his final two jumps, he climbed 12 spots above his seeding to finish 29th.

 

Up Next

Rahni Turner will compete in the women’s 100-meter hurdles quarterfinals Saturday at 4:15 p.m. PDT. The event will be streamed live on ESPN+.

 

~#LongBeachBuilt~