FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (May 14, 2025) – The biggest meet of the year so far has arrived.
 
The Northern Arizona men’s and women’s outdoor track and field teams will head to Sacramento, Calif., for the 2025 Big Sky Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships, hosted by Sacramento State.
 
The meet runs from May 14-17, beginning with the combined events, which Northern Arizona does not have anyone competing in. The bulk of the ‘Jacks will compete on May 16-17. The meet will be streamed on ESPN+, with live results available here. For a complete meet schedule and other details, click here.
 
The NAU women are the defending champions, finishing first last year with 240.5 points ahead of Montana State who placed second with 134.5 points. They have won four-straight championships and eight out of the last 10 dating back to 2014.
 
On the men’s side, the ‘Jacks finished runners up by one point to hosts Montana State last year. Prior to that, they had won three-straight and have won nine out of the last 11 dating back to 2012.
 
If the Lumberjacks can earn two trophies, they will have completed the calendar sweep for the second time in the last three seasons – as both the men’s and women’s team won the Big Sky cross country and indoor track and field titles this season.
 
A full preview for each event group can be found below.
 
Men’s Sprints and Hurdles:
 
Kyle Smith earned two All-Conference honors last year in the 100-meters and 200-meters, placing first and second, respectively. He will be back to defend his 100-meter title, as he enters the competition with the second fastest time in the Big Sky this year of 10.30. His season-best 200-meter time of 20.89 also ranks second.
 
Khamis Hassan placed fourth in the 100-meters at last year’s outdoor championships and enters with the fifth fastest time this season (10.46). He will also compete in the 200-meters.
 
The hurdle crew will look to put big points up on the board for the ‘Jacks, as they enter with the fourth, fifth, and sixth fastest times in the Big Sky this season. Tyson Givens ranks fourth with a season best of 14.04, followed by Shon Martin (14.09) and Josiah Johnson (14.22).
 
Johnson has the fastest 400-meter hurdle time in the conference this year with a blazing time of 50.87. Joining him in the 400-meter hurdles is Cannon Booker who placed fourth in the event last year. He has the third fastest time of 53.03. Givens earned All-Conference honors in the event at last year’s championships with a third-place finish. He currently ranks fourth with a season best of 52.68. Rounding out the hurdle crew is Nicolas Martinez who ranks fifth with a time of 53.07.
 
The 4×100-meter relay squad will take to the track to defend its outdoor title from a year ago. Ian Lipsey, Kyle Smith, Lamar Smith and Hassan enter the event ranked first in the Big Sky with a school record time of 39.66.
 
The men’s 4×400-meter relay team will be made up of Luke Yruretagoyena, Johnson, Colin Sahlman and Martinez. The quartet ranks fifth with a time of 3:13.25.
 
Yruretagoyena will also be NAU’s lone competitor in the open 400-meters, currently ranked 12^th with a season-best of 48.07.
 
Women’s Sprints and Hurdles:
 
At last year’s championships, Kyairra Reigh won the 400-meters and placed second in the 200-meters, and she will be back in both events this year. Reigh currently ranks third in the 200-meters with a season best of 23.76 and has the top time in the 400-meters of 52.83. Reigh placed second in the 400-meters indoors this year.
 
LiNay Perry will be back to defend her 400-meter hurdle title from a year ago, entering the event with a school record time of 57.53 which leads the Big Sky. Fellow school record holder in the 100-meter hurdles, Sydnie Watkins, enters the event with the third fastest time in the conference of 13.72.
 
Perry won the Big Sky’s Indoor Most Valuable Athlete award after winning the 200-meters and the 400-meters at the championships, while Watkins placed third in the 60-meter hurdles.
 
Shanye Harris will be making her outdoor conference debut and is entered in the 100-meters with the third fastest time in the Big Sky of 11.56. Jordann Germain is ranked sixth, coming in with a time of 11.83. Both Germain and Harris are entered in the 200-meters, ranking seventh and ninth, respectively.
 
Both the 4×100-meter relay and the 4×400-meter relay squads placed first at last season’s outdoor championships and the teams look relatively the same this season. Harris, Perry, Reigh and Ariel Haygood will represent NAU in the 4×100-meter relay, while Perry, Alaynah Reed, Reigh and Maggi Congdon will take on the 4×400-meter relay.
 
Men’s Distance:
 
Colin Sahlman won Big Sky titles in both the 800-meters and the 1,500-meters at last year’s championships, and he will be back to defend both this week. He will be making his outdoor 800-meter debut this season and is currently ranked third in the 1,500-meters with a time of 3:39.41. At the indoor championships, Sahlman took home gold in both the 800-meters and the mile.
 
Joining him in both the 800-meters and the 1,500-meters is Caleb Easton who placed eighth in the 1,500-meters last season. His current 1,500-meter season best is 3:42.37 which ranks seventh.
 
Ford Washburn will also double in the 800-meters and 1,500-meters, coming in fifth in the 800-meters with a time of 3:40.52. Corey Gorgas enters with the sixth-fastest time in the 1,500-meters of 3:42.27.
 
Jeret Gillingham will be NAU’s lone competitor in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, entering with the second-fastest time of 8:32.00, which also ranks second all-time in program history. He will also compete in the 5,000-meters.
 
The 5,000-meters will be stacked, as the ‘Jacks currently own the top five fastest times in the Big Sky. Drew Bosley, who will also compete in the 1,500-meters, enters with the fastest time of 13:17.06. Bosley hasn’t competed at an outdoor championship since 2022 where he won the 5,000-meters and placed second in the 10,000-meters. At this year’s indoor championships, Bosley won both the 3,000-meters and the 5,000-meters and placed second in the mile.
 
Rounding out the top 5,000-meter competitors are David Mullarkey (2^nd, 13:29.55), Gorgas (3^rd, 13:35.47), Santiago Prosser (4^th, 13:35.94) and Justin Keyes (5^th, 13:37.90).
 
Mullarkey, Keyes, and Prosser will also double and race in the 10,000-meters, owning the top three spots in that event as well. Mullarkey enters with the fastest time of 27:51.80, followed by Keyes (2^nd, 28:22.14) and Prosser (3^rd, 28:22.14). At the indoor championships, Mullarkey placed second in the 3,000-meters and the 5,000-meters while placing third in the mile. He also won the 2024 individual cross country title.
 
Others that will compete in both the 5,000-meters and 10,000-meters include Aidan Puffer and Manny Perez. Perez is ranked 4^th in the 10,000-meters (28:47.14) and 10^th in the 5,000-meters (13:52.62), while Puffer is ranked sixth in the 10,000-meters (29:12.52) and ninth in the 5,000-meters (13:48.14).
 
Women’s Distance:
 
Maggi Congdon is the defending champion in the 800-meters and placed third in the 1,500-meters last season. She enters the 800-meters with a Big Sky Conference record mark of 2:00.27 and leads the way with a record time of 4:07.23 in the 1,500-meters. In 2023, she finished second in 800-meters and the 1,500-meters. Indoors this season, Congdon won the mile.
 
Joining Congdon in the top five of the 800-meter rankings is Odessa Zentz and Kiki Vaughn. Zentz ranks seconds with a time of 2:06.75 and placed seventh in the event outdoors last year. Vaughn was named the Big Sky Indoor Freshman of the Year after placing second in the event at the indoor championships. She ranks fourth with a personal best of 2:08.24.
 
NAU owns the top three times in the 1,500-meters. Behind Congdon, Alexandra Carlson ranks second with a time of 4:14.73 and Emma Stutzman is coming in with the third fastest time of 4:20.54. Carlson won the 800-meter title indoors this season.
 
Karrie Baloga is the defending 3,000-meter steeplechase champion, and she will toe the line on Friday with the top time in the Big Sky of 9:44.09. She is the current NAU, Big Sky, and U-20 record holder in the event. She will be joined by Maisie Grice who has the third fastest time of 10:02.35. Baloga won the indoor 3,000-meter title this year and placed third in the mile.
 
Baloga is also the NAU outdoor record holder in the 5,000-meters with a time of 15:24.38 and she will compete in that event as well. She comes in with the second fastest time behind Elise Stearns who clocked a Big Sky record of 15:08.07 at the NCAA DI Indoor National Championships. Stearns won the 1,500-meters at the 2022 outdoor championships and placed third in the 5,000-meters. At the indoor championships this year, she placed second in the mile and third in the 800-meters.
 
In fact, the Lumberjacks hold seven of the top eight times in that event heading into the championships. Ava Mitchell, who placed sixth in the event at last year’s outdoor championships, is ranked third with a time of 15:31.41. Mitchell is the indoor 5,000-meter champion as well. Behind her are Hayley Burns (4^th, 15:39.97), Agnes McTighe (5^th, 15:44.82), Stutzman (15:48.92), Grice (16:01.79) and Keira Moore (16:02.50).
 
Moore scored points in both the 800-meters and the 1,500-meters at last year’s championships but will try her hand at longer-distance events this year as she is also entered in the 10,000-meters.
 
Joining Moore in the 10,000-meters is Alexis Kebbe who has the top time of 33:55.75 and will also race in the 5,000-meters. Burns and Mitchell will both double in the 5,000-meters and 10,000-meters as well. Burns placed third indoors in the 3,000-meters this season.
 
Men’s Throws:
 
Desmond Lott will compete in all three throws events at the championships. He is the conference leader in the hammer throw (65.27m), ranks second in the discus (56.65m), and is third in the shot put (17.68m). Lott won both the shot put and the weight throw indoors this season.
 
Joining Lott in the discus throw is Amar Elmore (6^th, 53.60m) and Nikolas Strait (9^th, 49.92m). Strait will also compete in the hammer throw and enters with the seventh-best mark of 56.33-meters.
 
Trevor Hook will be NAU’s lone competitor in the javelin, coming in with the second-best toss in the conference this season of 68.17m.
 
Women’s Throws:
 
Sariyah Horne-Kemp is the conference leader in the hammer throw, coming in with a mark of 60.10-meters. Jamie Jacobs (4^th, 53.96m) and Ronan Gallagher (8^th, 52.07m) also rank in the top ten and will look to give NAU crucial points in the event.
 
Larissa Francois will be the lone competitor in the shot put for the ‘Jacks and will also compete in the hammer throw.
 
In the discus, Horne-Kemp is ranked third with a mark of 48.18-meters. She placed second indoors in the weight throw back in February.
 
Emilia Betlej placed eighth at last year’s championships in the javelin throw. She is ranked eighth this year as well, coming in with a mark of 40.12m.
 
Men’s Jumps:
 
Northern Arizona will be represented by Ian Lipsey (3^rd, 7.33m), Malachi Marshall (4^th, 7.29m) and Shon Martin (11^th, 6.94m) in the long jump. Lipsey earned a second place finish indoors in the long jump.
 
Marshall and Martin will also compete in the triple jump along with Sirr Butler. Butler placed sixth in the event last year and comes in ranked fifth this year with a mark of 14.49m. At the indoor championships, Butler earned All-Conference honors in the triple jump with a third-place finish.
 
In the high jump, Carter Anderson comes in ranked seventh with a personal best of 2.01-meters.
 
Women’s Jumps:
 
Brenna Rodriguez is entered in both the long jump and the triple jump. At last year’s championships, she earned NAU points with a seventh-place finish in the triple jump.
 
Alexa Hamilton will compete in the triple jump and is currently ranked eighth with a mark of 11.83-meters.
 
Up Next:
The top 48 in each event group on the men’s and women’s side in the Division I West Region will advance to the NCAA West Regional where they will look to punch their tickets to the NCAA National Championships. The West regional is held in College Station, Texas, from May 28-31.
 

Al Sermeno/KLC fotos

Finley Rollins (right) has made an immediate impact on her team and her community since arriving in the summer of 2023.

BVB5/14/2025 12:56 PM | By: Daniel Moebus-Bowles

Finley Rollins Immerses Herself In Coaching, Mentoring At Local Volleyball Club

This feature originally appeared in the 2025 Spring edition of the Cal Sports Quarterly. The Cal Athletics flagship magazine features long-form sports journalism at its finest and provides in-depth coverage of the scholar-athlete experience in Berkeley. Printed copies are mailed four times a year to Bear Backers who give annually at the Bear Club level (currently $600 or more). For more information on how you can receive a printed version of the Cal Sports Quarterly at home, send an email to CalAthleticsFund@berkeley.edu or call (510) 642-2427.

 

The term “student-athlete” is an effective and accurate description of young men and women who engage in both academic and athletic activities, but sometimes it feels as if it falls short of providing the full picture of what many student-athletes bring to the University of California and the surrounding campus community.

 

It may be time to think of a new term for Finley Rollins, a junior on the Cal beach volleyball team. Rollins immediately began making an impact in the community when she arrived in Berkeley as a transfer from UC Davis in the summer of 2023. Rollins had an itch to get acclimated to the Bay Area, and the perfect opportunity came across her phone screen in the form of a group text from head coach Meagan Owusu.

 

“[Owusu] sent a message in our team group chat saying there was a chance to coach youth indoor volleyball if anybody is interested,” Rollins said. “Coaching was something I’d done before and I was new to Berkeley at the time, so I thought this can be a fun way to just get to know the community. Why not?”

 

Rollins responded to Owusu’s call to action and was put into contact with Starlings Volleyball, USA – a club whose mission is to positively impact the lives of at-risk girls through the sport of volleyball. According to its website, the organization aims “to provide at-risk, disadvantaged youth with equal access to quality volleyball programs, regardless of financial hardship, ethnicity or skill level through exposure to training and participation in the sport of volleyball.”

 

According to Rollins, dues for most youth indoor volleyball clubs can range anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 a year depending on their location and competitive status. Starlings offers membership for less than $1,000.

 

The club began in 1996 with a small team of 11 girls in San Diego, and in its 29 years of existence has grown to be the nation’s largest junior volleyball club with teams in over 50 cities. Over 40,000 girls have participated and approximately 3,000 participate each year. Over 750 college scholarships have been earned by Starlings players, and the club has a 90% high school graduation rate.

 

What started as a fun, part-time opportunity quickly became a big part of Rollins’ life as she took on a larger role than she first expected. Luckily, one of her new teammates, Lara Boos, joined forces with her and several other of her teammates have come on since.

 

“I didn’t really know anyone on the team at that time,” Rollins said. “Coincidentally, Lara Boos, who was going to be my new roommate at the time, also reached out to Owusu, so we went over there together. We had assumed it was just going to be like just us coaching these girls and that would be that, but we ended up taking on much more responsibilities.”

 

In addition to coaching several different teams and age groups, Rollins and Boos began managing the program’s calendars and books and became the main point of contact for their teams, which includes being a liaison to parents. The Berkeley branch has between 45 and 50 players across four teams and Rollins oversees practices and competitions as a part of the Northern California Volleyball Association (NVCA).

 

The regular membership dues are not enough to cover the full cost of the operation, so Rollins has also been tasked with fundraising through applying for state and federal grants to afford facility rentals. All of these tasks that have come along with this endeavor have given her a wealth of experience in potential career paths.

 

“I really love coaching, but this experience has taught me so much about business as well,” Rollins said. “I really feel like I am running a business at this point, and it’s shown me that I would like to have a managerial role. Maybe not in sports specifically, but I am thinking about getting into consulting, client services, or sales now.”

 

While she loves coaching and values the experience she’s gained from managing a nonprofit organization, the deepest motivation comes from her relationships with the young players.

 

“It’s been great to learn all this stuff, but [Boos] and I signed up for it because we’ve been coaching forever and we wanted to be a mentor for these girls,” Rollins said. “The girls that we coached literally became our little sisters. I love them; they’re so amazing.

 

“They get volleyball and to see them fall in love with it like I did is so rewarding. They come into the gym as early as possible and stay as late as possible because they really just want to be there with their friends. The parents love that their daughters are enjoying it, too. When my old players see me in the gym, they run up to me and give me a big bear hug and honestly that’s my favorite part. It’s so worth it.”

 

One of the players on Rollins’ 12-year-old team, sixth-grader Kora Poirier – who Rollins describes as leader with raw talent and athleticism that’s a joy to be around – has truly fallen in love with the game and has gained so much more from the program beyond learning how to dig, set, and swing.

 

“So many of my friends from school kept telling me ‘You have to check out Starlings, it’s a great club’,” Poirier said. “So I decided to give it a shot and I love it. I already had some friends from school on the team, but I’ve made so many friends with players other schools now.”

 

Poirier has had a chance to try different positions and has really fallen in love with serving. She is set on playing for the Berkeley High School team when she graduates from King Middle School in a couple years.

 

“Coach Finley is the best coach that I’ve ever had,” Poirier said. “She’s great at motivating, is so supportive of us, and is really good explaining stuff and showing us how to improve. She’s our coach but she also feels like friend.”

 

According to Kora’s father, Julien Poirier, the club has truly been a blessing to their family.

 

“I think it’s great – I really appreciate the club being there,” Julien Poirier said. “We were sort of at loose ends to find a program and this one seemed so great. It’s so diverse and inclusive and financially accessible. Kora had some friends on the team and it’s being coached by a Cal student, which I loved. Everything just lined up great.”

WINTER PARK, Fla. — Every morning starts the same for Winter Park water polo head coach Barry Creighton. 

“In the morning, I stand over here and in the afternoon I stand over there because of the sun,” he said as he walks around the Winter Park swimming pool. “When I come and see the water polo goals set up, it just warms my heart.”

Amid growing public scrutiny of sports agents and questions around athlete empowerment, few voices carry the weight of lived example like Leigh Steinberg. Known as the inspiration behind Jerry Maguire, Steinberg has redefined what it means to represent athletes with integrity, purpose, and impact. At a time when college athletes are navigating NIL deals and professionals are building personal brands, his blueprint of combining on-field success with off-field legacy is more relevant than ever.

How can athletes and the professionals around them leverage their platforms not just for profit, but for purpose?

On this episode of Krow Knows, host AJ Krow sits down with legendary sports agent Leigh Steinberg. They explore the origins of Steinberg’s career, his philosophy on representation, and the long-lasting impact of community-driven work.

Key Highlights:

• Steinberg emphasizes that trust and deep listening, not deal-making, are at the heart of elite athlete representation.

• He recounts how his first client, Steve Bartkowski, led him into the sports agency by chance, not ambition.

• He shares stories of client-led philanthropy, including Warren Moon’s foundation and Patrick Mahomes’ “15 and the Mahomies,” which reflect Steinberg’s influence beyond contracts.

Leigh Steinberg is a legendary sports agent and Chairman of Steinberg Sports and Entertainment, where he has represented over 300 professional athletes and secured more than $4 billion in contracts. Known for building athletes into global brands, he is credited as the inspiration for the film Jerry Maguire and has represented eight No. 1 overall NFL draft picks. Steinberg also founded a brain health foundation and has taught sports law at top universities, emphasizing ethics, philanthropy, and athlete empowerment.

Florida A&M’s women’s track and field team is returning to Tallahassee with some hardware.