CARLSBAD, Calif. – Sophomore Alenka Navarro and freshman Nanami Nakashima each tallied under-par rounds to lead the Kansas State women’s golf team during the opening round of the 2025 NCAA Championship on Friday at the par-72, 6,330-yard Omni La Costa Resort & Spa.
 
The Wildcats recorded a first-round total of 1-over par 289 as they are in seventh place in the 30-team field. K-State is one shot back of a tie for third place, while the Cats are two shots ahead of an eighth-place tie between Tennessee and Northwestern.
 
Navarro finished her first round at 2-under par 70 and is tied for 10th place, while Nakashima was one shot back and is tied for 17th.
 
“There were a couple of nervy moments starting out today, but we just hung in there,” head coach Stew Burke said. “We didn’t let it get away from us thanks to a couple of nice birdies toward the end. We are in a fairly good position. I am really proud of the effort today. Now, it’s all about getting some good rest. We were up at 4:45 a.m., having breakfast. We will be able to sleep in a little bit in the morning, make sure we have a good warm up and go again tomorrow.”
 
The Wildcats tied for third in the first round by carding 15 total birdies on a course that is averaging 4.69 strokes over par per player.
 
Navarro parred each of the first nine holes before her first birdie of the day on the par-4 11th. After a bogey on No. 15 to bring her score back to even, the Mexico City product birdied two of her final three holes – including a five-foot birdie putt on the final hole of the day – for her eighth under-par round of the season.
 
The sophomore finished the first round by tying for 11th in the 156-player field with 14 pars, while she is tied for first with only one bogey on the day.
 
Nakashima entered the NCAA Championship with momentum after a final-round total of 67 in the NCAA Lexington Regional. She used that momentum in the opening round as she birdied two of her first four holes. After running into trouble with consecutive bogeys on Nos. 7 and 8, the Kani, Japan, native was able to rebound with a birdie at No. 9 to close out the front at 1-under par. A bogey at No. 13 lowered her to even par before a birdie on No. 16 and pars on the final two holes put her in the clubhouse with her 11th under-par round of the year.
 
Senior Carla Bernat is tied for 27th place after a first-round score of even par. She bogeyed No. 4 but responded with birdies on three of her next four holes to make the turn at 2-under par. She got to 3-under par with a birdie on No. 10, but two bogeys and a double bogey – along with a birdie on No. 17 – made her 2-over par on the back. She finished the first round tied for seventh with five birdies.
 
Senior Sophie Bert went 4-over par 76 as she enters the second round in a tie for 98th place, while junior Noa van Beek is tied for 144th place at 8-over par 80.
 
Vanderbilt holds the 18-hole lead at 6-under par 282, two shots ahead of Oklahoma State. Bailey Davis of Tennessee is atop the individual leaderboard at 5-under par 67.
 
Kansas State starts its second round of the 2025 NCAA Championship with tee times beginning at 12:12 p.m. (PT) off the 10th tee, and the Wildcats will once again be paired with Oklahoma State and Vanderbilt. Live results can be followed on SCOREBOARD powered by Clippd.

 

Yale Athletics

The eight members of the Yale men’s soccer class of 2025 started their collegiate careers with a bang and reached heights that no prior Bulldog class had seen before.

In October 2021, a young Yale squad earned a 1-1 tie against the No. 3 ranked University of New Hampshire Wildcats, putting the college soccer world on notice. That year, TJ Presthus ’25, a first-year Yale defender, already earned an All-Ivy honorable mention. The following season, Yale once again came to play, securing a 2-1 road victory over No. 10 ranked University of West Virginia.

The next fall, in 2023, the team hit double digit wins and won the first-ever Ivy League Tournament Championship. The Bulldogs then defeated Bryant University in the opening game of their first NCAA Tournament. Presthus was named Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year in 2023, and Chris Edwards ’25 earned All-Ivy status both that year and in 2024.

“These seniors were inspirational both on and off the field,” midfielder Andrew Seidman ’26 said. “On the field, they were a key component for one of the most successful periods in Yale men’s soccer history, and off the field they were role models for all of us to follow.”

After the 2024 campaign, the senior class was honored with multiple awards. Jamie Orson ’25 took home the Jack Marshall Award for the member of the team who demonstrated the qualities of team spirit, loyalty and dedication. Quanah Brayboy ’25 and Edwards won the Walter Leeman Trophy for “sportsmanship and team play.” Presthus was recognized as the team’s most valuable player.

By: Justin Lafleur

HANOVER, N.H. — It’s a big weekend for Dartmouth rowing, with the women’s team, along with the men’s heavyweight and lightweight teams in action for championship racing.
 
Women’s Rowing – Saturday, May 17 and Sunday, May 18
Ivy League Championship
Watch Live (Saturday) | Watch Live (Sunday) | Live Results | Event Schedule
The Big Green head to Camden, New Jersey for the Ivy League Championship this weekend. Racing in the heats begin on Saturday at 4 p.m. with Sunday’s championship racing set to begin at 8 a.m. The Big Green most recently finished fourth overall at the Eastern Sprints, which included a varsity eight win over Columbia which helped propel them to No. 19 in the national rankings.
 
Men’s Heavyweight Rowing – Sunday, May 18
Eastern Sprints
Watch Live (Morning Session) | Watch Live (Afternoon Session) | Live Results | Event Schedule
Dartmouth heads to Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester to compete in the Eastern Sprints, facing the best teams in the East. The Big Green varsity eight has enjoyed an impressive season, standing unbeaten heading into a weekend that will face strong competition, which includes the entire Ivy League. Most recently, Dartmouth defeated Northeastern two weekends ago at home. The Big Green varsity four is ranked fourth nationally, only two points behind Harvard and 10 points ahead of Princeton.
 
Men’s Lightweight Rowing – Sunday, May 18
Eastern Sprints
Watch Live (Morning Session) | Watch Live (Afternoon Session) | Live Results | Event Schedule
The men’s lightweight rowing team will also be in action at Lake Quinsigamond, looking to build momentum from last time out — a varsity eight win at Columbia. The Big Green own dual wins over Yale for the Durand Cup and Columbia for the Subin Cup, with the varsity eight entering the weekend ranked No. 5 nationally.
 

“I think the Rolls-Royce of Falk College, undoubtedly, is the analytics program,” said David Falk, benefactor of the Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics, to a room of senior sport analytics students and their families during their capstone poster presentations. “We’ve won virtually every analytics competition for the last few years.”

That was certainly true during the Spring 2025 semester, when sport analytics students were victorious at multiple analytics and research competitions and presented findings at several highly regarded conferences around the country. Below is a recap of the semester’s highlights.

SABR Analytics Conference

Sport analytics students Owen St. Onge ’26, Payton Smith ’26, Andrew Diamond ’27, Jonah Soos ’25 and Jacob Kalamvokis ’27 won their room in the Diamond Dollars Case Competition, during which teams compete by preparing an analysis and presentation of a baseball operations decision similar to what a team’s general manager and staff would do in Major League Baseball.

Two students, Nathan Backman ’25 and Brett Cerenzio ’25, took part in the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) Analytics Conference research competition, with Backman winning best student presentation for his research titled Baseball Cinematography: Using Open Source CV Algorithms to Track and Quantify Pitcher Mechanics.

Syracuse University Football Blitz

Sport analytics students won every room of the Football Blitz competition, including one room of entirely first-year students, while also being named winners of the overall competition.

The Football Analytics Blitz tasks students with a current football analytics prompt. They are given a week to put together a presentation for football analytics professionals. The competition brought together students from 25 different universities and judges from eight NFL teams.

The winning Falk College students were:

• Room 1: Charlie Maddux ’26, Jonah Soos ’25, Nathan Backman ’25, Austin Ambler ’26 and Zach Seidel ’26
• Room 2: Nick Wolfe ’27, Jameson Bodenburg ’27, Jacob Kalamvokis ’27 and Jessica Fackler ’27
• Room 3: Noah Bair ’28, Jimmy Roberto ’27, Carter Pointon ’28, Alex Percey ’28 and Braden Hines ’28

MIT Sloan Research Paper Competition

Research conducted by sport management major Alivia “Ava” Uribe ’25, a member of the University’s women’s soccer team, with sport analytics professors Justin Ehrlich and Shane Sanders about the location of penalty kicks won the Research Paper Competition at the prestigious MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. Their paper won over thousands of entrants and six other finalists, and Uribe became the first female lead author in the conference’s 19-year history to capture the competition.

Connecticut Sports Analytics Symposium

Sport analytics students Danielle Napierski ’26, Dan Griffiths ’26 and Brett Cerenzio ’25 were named runners-up in the Major League Baseball Data Challenge at the Connecticut Sports Analytics Symposium (CSAS).

Alivia Uribe ’25 and Shane Sanders also presented their penalty kick research at CSAS.

American Soccer Insights Summit

Sport analytics students Sebastian Bush ’27 and Theo Schmidt ’26 presented their work, Dual Dependency: Analyzing the Winger and Wingback Relationship, at the American Soccer Insights Summit.

NFLPA Analytics Case Competition

Sport analytics students Christopher Marfisi ’25, Evan Vassilovski ’25, Walker Oettl ’25 and Ryan Severe ’25 were named finalists for their work on the given prompt and traveled to Washington, D.C., to present their findings.

National Collegiate Sports Analytics Championships

Falk College student Jonah Soos ’25 won the undergraduate division individual championship, while the undergraduate team of Soos, Hunter Geise ’25, Piper Evans ’25 and Maddy Forster ’25 finished second in the team competition. Two graduate students, Andrew Odnoralov G’25 and Owen Brown G’25 , also competed—a first for representatives from the Falk College’s graduate programs.

At this event, students gave five-minute presentations based on analysis of provided data related to brands, teams and athletes. Judges chose a winner based on statistical analysis, data visualization, actionable insights, communication and integrity.

Cincinnati Reds Hackathon

Teams were tasked with modeling a projection system that predicted total plate appearances and batters faced for Major League Baseball players in the 2024 season based on their past data. Sport analytics students Dan Griffiths ’26, Ben Resnic ’26, Hunter Cordes ’26, Jared Weber ’27 and Josh Davis’27 won the Hackathon, with two other teams from the Falk College being named finalists.

To learn more about the college’s academic programs, experiential learning and career opportunities in sport analytics and sport management, visit the Falk College website.

With UCLA’s bats quiet early, Kaitlyn Terry stepped into the batter’s box looking to ignite a two-out rally — and with one swing she brought the Bruins to life.

Terry, a right fielder and left-handed pitcher, hit a three-run home run in the second inning to jump-start UCLA’s 9-1 win over UC Santa Barbara in six innings in the opening round of the Los Angeles Regional on Friday.

The No. 9 Bruins (50–10) advanced to Game 3 of the regional, where they’ll face the winner of Arizona State and San Diego State at 2 p.m. PDT Saturday.

Before the season, coach Kelly Inouye-Perez stressed that a UCLA championship push had to start with securing a regional at Easton Stadium — and taking care of business once there.

UCLA is chasing its ninth Women’s College World Series berth in the past decade, but early on Friday, the path looked shaky. Instead of a confident march into the postseason opener, it felt like déjà vu for a moment — a flashback to the haunting 2023 regional, when the Bruins dropped their first game and ultimately fell short of a trip to Oklahoma City.

The Bruins squandered early opportunities uncharacteristic of the nation’s No. 2 run-scoring lineup.

Trailing in the second inning, Alexis Ramirez reached base on a hit up the middle, then stole second. After advancing on a groundout, she was caught in a rundown between third and home. Still, UCLA had a chance to even the score with runners on first and second, but Terry flied out to end the inning.

Terry found herself in a similar situation two innings later, and she delivered.

With two outs in the fourth, Kaniya Bragg reached first on a hit-by-pitch. Batting for the first time this season, Taylor Stephens followed with a slow roller into right field — just soft enough for Bragg to beat the tag at third while Stephens stepped onto second.

On the next pitch, Terry crushed a home run to center field.

Taylor Tinsley, an All-Big Ten first team selection, gave up three hits and one walk while striking out one. Her only blemish came in the second inning, when she gave up a run on an RBI single by UCSB catcher Delaina Ma’ae.

A pair of home runs in the sixth inning ended the game via the mercy rule. Jessica Clements hit a three-run home run. That was followed by a walk and steal from Savannah Pola, who was driven in by Jordan Woolery’s RBI single. Megan Grant ended the game with a two-run blast to left-center field.

UCLA, which finished its first season in the Big Ten tied for second with Nebraska, has won 26 games by mercy rule this season.

TOMMY GANNON

Tommy Gannon covers men’s ice hockey. He is a sophomore in Branford college majoring in history and economics.