Women’s Outdoor Track and Field | 5/22/2025 12:19:09 PM

Thirty-five Empire 8 student-athletes from seven institutions earned 2025 United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Women’s Outdoor Track and Field All-Region honors.
 
To earn All-Region honors, an athlete must be one of the top-5 individuals in their event in their respective region on the TFRRS Descending Order List. In addition, each member of a region’s top-3 relay team was selected for the distinction.

All Empire 8 institutions with the exception of Russell Sage compete in the NIagara region. Russell Sage is part of the Mideast Region.

 

ALFRED UNIVERSITY

Anne Splia, Senior — Heptathlon, 43,41 points – first

SUNY BROCKPORT

*Rebecca Heuler, Sr. — Discus, 42.44 meters – third

                                    Javelin, 41.23 meters – second

*Lexi Rodriguez, Junior — 400-Meter Hurdles, 1:01.36 – second

Sasha Schramm, Junior — Long Jump, 5.63 meters – fifth

Marissa Wise, Senior — 400-Meter Hurdles, 1:02.16 – fourth

SUNY GENESEO

*Sam Pynn, Senior — 4×100-Meter Relay, :46.33 – second

*Brynn Mooney, Sophomore — 4×100-Meter Relay, :46.33 – second

                                                 4×400-Meter Relay, 3:46.26 – second

                                                 100-Meter Dash, :11.76 – third

                                                 200-Meter Dash, :24.20 – second

                                                 400-Meter Dash, :54.45 – first

*Jill Ambler, Sophomore — 4×100-Meter Relay, :46.33 – second

                                           100-Meter Hurdles, :14.14 – fourth

                                           Long Jump, 5.90 meters – second

*Kayla Huba, Junior — 4×100-Meter Relay, :46.33 – second

*Nicole Gretzinger, Junior — 4×400-Meter Relay, 3:46.26 – second

*Janelle Eckl, Senior — 4×400-Meter Relay, 3:46.26 – second

                                      800-Meter Run, 2:08.89 – third

*Sierra Doody, Junior — 4×400-Meter Relay, 3:46.26 – second

                                      800-Meter Run, 2:08.09 – second

                                      1,500-Meter Run, 4:33.11 – fifth

Ava Bagley, Sophomore — 400-Meter Hurdles, 1:02.16 – fifth

*Ann Brennan, Junior — Steeplechase, 10:33.41 – second

*Zoe Connor, Senior — Shot Put, 12.77 meters – third

                                     Hammer Throw, 52.51 meters – second

*Lilly Fowler-Conner, Senior — 1,500-Meter Run, 4:30.46 – fourth

                                                 5,000-Meter Run, 16:48.40 – fifth

                                                 10,000-Meter Run, 35:04.34 – second

*Penelope Greene, Senior — 1,500-Meter Run, 4:22.23 – first

                                              5,000-Meter Run, 16:12.88 – first

                                              10,000-Meter Run, 33:42.16 – first

Skyler Klimow, Senior — Javelin, 39.79 meters – fifth

*Gabriella McCarthy, Senior — 10,000-Meter Run, 35.38.67 – fourth

Payton Mehalick, Junior — Shot Put, 12.85 meters – second

Lanna Wandy, Senior — Long Jump, 5.71 meters – fourth

                                      Heptathlon, 4,264 points – second

HOUGHTON UNIVERSITY

*Alexa Belanger, Freshman — High Jump, 1.71 meters – first

NAZARETH UNIVERSITY

Katie Jacques, Graduate Student — Triple Jump, 11.86 meters – second

Sydney LaSalle, Junior — Triple Jump, 11.48 meters – third

Samantha Luba, Junior — 100-Meter Hurdles, :14.81 – sixth

*Isabel Morse, Junior — Pole Vault, 3.89 meters – first

Lea Richard, Graduate Student – Hammer Throw, 51.97 meters – third

Kiara Tornusciolo, Junior – Pole Vault, 3..6 meters – fourth

ST. JOHN FISHER UNIVERSITY

Veronica Duell, Senior — Long Jump, 5.77 meters – third

*Ciarra Franz, Senior — 100-Meter Hurdles, :14.13 – third

Erin McGuinness, Junior — Shot Put, 12.58 meters – fifth

Anna Steed, Junior — 51.48 meters – fourth

UTICA UNIVERSITY

Hannah Allison, Sophomore — High Jump, 1.63 meters – third

Nora Devitt, Senior — Triple Jump, 11.29 meters – fifth

Stefania Grimaldi, Sophomore, Heptathlon, 4,139 points – third

* Qualified for 2025 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in the event

ABOUT THE EMPIRE 8 CONFERENCE

The members of the Empire 8 Conference are committed first and foremost to the pursuit of academic excellence and the league is regarded as an outstanding NCAA Division III conference. The membership has distinguished itself among its peer group for its quality institutions, spirited and sportsmanlike competition, outstanding services and highly ethical policies and practices. Its commitment to serve the educational needs of its student-athletes is the hallmark of the E8. For more on the Empire 8 visit www.empire8.com.

 

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SPRINGFIELD – Missouri State distance runner Ella Cronhardt will head to College Station, Texas for the West First Rounds of the NCAA Track and Field Championship on May 28 to May 31.

Cronhardt qualified for the regional round after a stellar performance at the Missouri Valley Conference Championship where she place third in the 3000-meter steeplechase with a time of 10:23.55. The top 48 times in the region qualify for the meet. 

The meet will be held on the campus of Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. Cronhardt’s race is schedule for Friday, May 31 at 5:40 p.m. Schedule is subject to change. 

#GoBears

GENEVA, Ohio — Wabash College junior Quinn Sholar competed in the men’s discus on the opening day of the 2025 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships on Thursday at the SPIRE Academy Stadium.
 
Sholar produced a throw of 40.50 meters (132 feet, 10 inches) on his third and final attempt in the first of two heats at the national championship meet to finish 20th out of 22 competitors in the event.
 
Teammate Will Neubauer competes in the preliminary heats of the 800-meter run on Friday at 4 p.m. The senior will run from lane three in the second of three heats. The top two finishers from each heat advance to Saturday’s finals, as well as the next three best times.
 
 
 
 

In the summer of 2020 when COVID had everyone shut down and living in seclusion, Tiffany Hawkins decided to build herself a home volleyball court so she could give local youth volleyball lessons.

She started with one player, then seven. By the summer of 2021 she moved her lessons and growing volleyball club to an indoor gym and finished that summer with 20 volleyball players – middle schoolers and high schoolers – focused on learning and becoming their own volleyball club.

Fast forward to this May when Hawkins’s Cool Sunshine Volleyball Club took top honors at the  11th annual “In It To Win It” tournament in Las Vegas, Nev. Cool Sunshine Volleyball Club brought two teams and both walked away undefeated as gold division champions.

“I am beyond proud of the work our girls put in,” said Hawkins, who is the creator and director of the club.

Hawkins is Alamosa born and raised. She was part of the 1996 Alamosa High state championship volleyball team and fulfilled her own dream of playing collegiate volleyball at Adams State. She finished her last collegiate match by breaking Adams State’s record for most kills in a match.

“I spent the first season as a red-shirt to get my eligibility up and then played two seasons for Adams, starting every game,” she said of her collegiate career. “Volleyball has always been a bright spot in my life and I do my best to share that love for the game with my athletes.”

The Cool Sunshine Volleyball Club includes athletes from eight different school districts in the San Luis Valley – Alamosa, Monte Vista, Del Norte, Sargent, Sangre de Cristo, Sanford, Centauri, and Center High. 

The traveling volleyball club is organized as a public 501(c)3 nonprofit and this year used Sangre de Cristo High as its home gym. “I wanted the club to be about the athletes and volleyball, not about making money,” Hawkins said of Cool Sunshine’s nonprofit status.

She and the club’s coaches worked with 38 volleyball players this season. In addition to their gold status in Las Vegas, Cool Sunshine Volleyball teams won the Gold Division Championship at the Rumble at the Ranch tournament in Casper, Wyo., and the USA Volleyball Rocky Mountain Regions in Denver.

Related

Four years ago, USA Water Polo introduced a separate national championship for Division III programs that had always had to compete against Division I foes in the NCAA Championship Tournament.

Before the sport’s governing body changed its postseason format, “A top team would end our season pretty quickly,” Sagehens Women’s Water Polo Coach Alex Rodriguez recalls.

Earlier this month, Pomona-Pitzer captured a fourth straight USA Water Polo Division III championship, defeating chief rival Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS), 9-8, to cap yet another unblemished postseason run.

The four-peat sent Pomona College seniors Zosia Amberger ’25 and Kaylee Stigar ’25 into the sunset having never lost a playoff game in blue and orange. Amberger started in goal all four championship years and was named Tournament MVP in her farewell season.

“Zosia’s probably the best goalie I’ve ever had here,” Rodriguez says. “She’s been a huge part of what we’ve been able to do. And Kaylee Stigar played phenomenal in the finals. She really stepped up. She had this anger and vengeance that really helped us.”

As seniors, Amberger and Stigar were among the class of Sagehens that started at Pomona when students returned to campus following the initial pandemic shutdown. In that first year as Sagehens, Rodriguez says the current seniors learned much from the Class of 2022, including how to lead and handle adversity.

As much winning as the program’s done these past four years, the pressure to retain the top spot in Division III mounts, Rodriguez says.

“I have a simple philosophy that to get better, you have to play better teams,” the coach adds. “Because our sport is small, we play a lot of Division I teams early in the season, and that’s how we develop small goals. To be clutch, to be someone who plays well in big moments, you have to understand you’re going to fail sometimes.”

“It’s not a big deal,” Rodriguez adds. “You just keep going forward.”

Despite losing Pomona grads Amberger, Stigar and a handful of seniors from Pitzer College, the Sagehens do not expect to relinquish their stranglehold on Division III women’s water polo anytime soon.

Rodriguez and Associate Head Coach Alex La—one of the best coaches in Division III, Rodriguez says—expect Mia Amberger ’26, Brienz Lang ’26 and Gabby Lewis ’26 to assume leadership roles next season, and key underclassmen from this year’s team will continue to develop at the collegiate level.

“The goal of every season is to try to have little championship moments every week,” Rodriguez says. “We try to prepare to win certain types of games, get more feathers in our cap, then win a Division III championship by the end.”