RIO GRANDE VALLEY – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Department of Intercollegiate Athletics announced on Monday that junior Corin Burns, of the men’s track & field team, is the Killers Golf UTRGV Student-Athlete of the Week.
 

Burns was the highest scoring individual across both the UTRGV men’s and women’s track & field teams after medaling in three of his four events at the Southland Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Houston. Burns either accounted for or helped score 24 points for the men’s team.
 
The championships started on Thursday where Burns placed third in the men’s 200-meter dash preliminaries, and he qualified for the finals with a time of 20.96, the No. 4 time in program history.
 
On Friday, Burns punched his second finals ticket as he ran 10.36 in the men’s 100-meter dash. He moves on as the top qualifier and tabbed the No. 5 time in program history. 
 
On Saturday, Burns helped the 4×100-meter relay team to a fifth-place finish after the team clocked a 40.15, the No. 2 time in program history.
 
Burns proceeded to take silver in the 100-meter dash in 10.32, the third-fastest time in program history and bronze in the 200-meter dash where he ran 20.79, which was a personal best and tied the program record.
 
The sprinter stepped out of his comfort zone to run the third leg of the 4×400-meter relay team. The Vaqueros finished third with a time of 3:08.47, the No. 2 time in program history and the first sub-3:10 race since 2023.
 
Up next for qualifying student-athletes will be the NCAA West First Round which is scheduled for May 29-31 in Bryan-College Station, Texas.

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SAN BRUNO, Calif. – The West Coast Conference announced its 2025 volleyball conference matchups on Thursday. The West Coast Conference slate will run from Sept. 25 to Nov. 29 with each team playing 18 Conference matchups. 

The league increased to 12 teams in 2025 with the additions of new full-time member Seattle joining second-year affiliate members Oregon State and Washington State. 

2024 West Coast Conferece Champion LMU opens league play on Sept. 25 at home against Seattle in the first-ever West Coast Conference league match for the Redhawks. On Sept. 27, the Lions head to San Diego for an early big conference match. 

Official start times will be announced closer to the beginning of the season. 

2025 West Coast Conference Volleyball Conference Schedule

Sept. 25

Seattle at LMU

Pacific at Portland

Saint Mary’s at Oregon State

San Francisco at Washington State

Santa Clara at Gonzaga

San Diego at Pepperdine

Sept. 27

Seattle at Pepperdine

Pacific at Oregon State

Saint Mary’s at Portland

San Francisco at Gonzaga

Santa Clara at Washington State

LMU at San Diego

 

Oct. 2

Washington State at Seattle

Oregon State at Santa Clara

LMU at Pacific

Pepperdine at San Francisco

San Diego at Saint Mary’s

 

Oct. 4

Gonzaga at Washington State

Seattle at Portland

Oregon State at San Francisco

LMU at Saint Mary’s

Pepperdine at Santa Clara

San Diego at Pacific

 

Oct. 9

Gonzaga at Oregon State

Washington State at LMU

Portland at San Diego

Saint Mary’s at Pacific

San Francisco at Santa Clara

 

Oct. 11

Washington State at Pepperdine

Seattle at Gonzaga

Portland at LMU

Oregon State at San Diego

Pacific at San Francisco

Santa Clara at Saint Mary’s

 

Oct. 16

San Francisco at Portland

LMU at Gonzaga

Pepperdine at Seattle

San Diego at Washington State

 

Oct. 18

Saint Mary’s at Gonzaga

San Francisco at Oregon State

Santa Clara at Pacific

LMU at Washington State

Pepperdine at Portland

San Diego at Seattle

 

Oct. 23

Gonzaga at Santa Clara

Seattle at Saint Mary’s

Portland at Pacific

Oregon State at Pepperdine

 

Oct. 25

Gonzaga at San Francisco

Washington State at San Diego

Portland at Saint Mary’s

Oregon State at LMU

Santa Clara at Seattle

Pepperdine at Pacific

 

Oct. 30

Oregon State at Portland

Pacific at Washington State

San Francisco at San Diego

LMU at Pepperdine

Nov. 1

Washington State at Oregon State

Portland at Santa Clara

Pacific at Gonzaga

Saint Mary’s at Seattle

San Francisco at Pepperdine

San Diego at LMU

 

Nov. 6

Seattle at Pacific

Oregon State at Saint Mary’s

Santa Clara at San Francisco

LMU at Portland

Pepperdine at Gonzaga

Nov. 8

Gonzaga at Portland

Pacific at Santa Clara

Saint Mary’s at San Diego

San Francisco at Seattle

LMU at Oregon State

Pepperdine at Washington State

Nov. 13

Washington State at Gonzaga

Portland at Seattle

Saint Mary’s at San Francisco

Santa Clara at LMU

San Diego at Oregon State

Nov. 15

Gonzaga at Saint Mary’s

Seattle at Washington State

Oregon State at Pacific

Santa Clara at Pepperdine

LMU at San Francisco

San Diego at Portland

Nov. 20

Gonzaga at Seattle

Portland at Washington State

Pacific at Saint Mary’s

Santa Clara at Oregon State

Pepperdine at San Diego

Nov. 22

Washington State at Saint Mary’s

Portland at Gonzaga

Oregon State at Seattle

San Francisco at Pacific

Pepperdine at LMU

San Diego at Santa Clara

Nov. 26

Gonzaga at Pepperdine

Washington State at Santa Clara

Seattle at San Francisco

Pacific at San Diego

Saint Mary’s at LMU

Nov. 29

Gonzaga at San Diego

Washington State at San Francisco

Seattle at Santa Clara

Portland at Oregon State

Pacific at LMU

Saint Mary’s at Pepperdine

 

 

2025 USTFCCCA Outdoor Track and Field All-Region Honorees

The Hillsdale College track and field teams are preparing to wrap up the 2024-25 season this weekend at the NCAA DII Outdoor Championships in Pueblo, Colorado. First, however, the Chargers are celebrating some additional honors their athletes have earned from the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) last week.

Nine Chargers, four men and five women, earned All-Midwest Region honors for the 2025 outdoor season from the USTFCCCA, including eight of the nine athletes representing Hillsdale at the 2025 NCAA DII Outdoor Championships beginning on Thursday. USTFCCCA All-Region honors go to the individuals with the top five times or marks in each event in each of the eight NCAA Division II regions across the country, as well as the members of each top-three ranked relay teams.

On the men’s side, there are three repeat All-Region honorees, led by senior Richie Johnston, who received his third consecutive outdoor All-Region honor in the 3,000m steeplechase after breaking his own school record in the event earlier this season. Joining Johnston in earning All-Region honors is senior Cass Dobrowolski, who finished in the top five in the region in the high jump for the second-straight outdoor season and third time overall, and also earned All-Region honors in the triple jump for the first time. Also receiving repeat All-Region honors is junior Ben Haas, the 2025 indoor weight throw national champion who finished in the top five in the hammer throw for the second straight year, and also earned All-Region honors in the outdoor shot put for the first time.

Hillsdale also got a first time All-Region honoree in senior Ross Kuhn, who broke a 28-year old school record in the 1,500m run to receive All-Region honors in the event. All four Hillsdale men who earned All-Region honors will be competing in Pueblo this weekend.

On the women’s side, Hillsdale had five athletes earn recognition. The lone repeat honoree for the Chargers among female competitors is senior Averi Parker, who took All-Region honors in both the hammer throw and shot put to add to the same awards won in 2023. Parker redshirted last outdoor season but is back among the nation’s elite competitors in both events.

Junior Tara Townsend also earned outdoor All-Region honors for the first time in the pole vault, after a season that included personal bests and a G-MAC Championship. Along with Townsend, three members of a standout freshman class also earned All-Region honors for Hillsdale — Evyn Humphrey in the 1,500m run, Allison Kuzma in the 10,000m run and Baelyn Zitzmann in the heptathlon. All three athletes are part of a decorated young core that portends a bright future for the Chargers’ women’s track and field team in years to come. Parker, Townsend, Humphrey and Kuzma all will compete in Pueblo later this week as well.

The NCAA DII Outdoor track and field championships begin on Thursday, May 22 and will run for three days through the 24th in Pueblo, Colorado. Links to watch live, see live results or purchase tickets are available at hillsdalechargers.com.

As a former major league baseball scout, Laz Gutierrez recognized that a player’s mental game is what separates most Division I college athletes.

So when he wanted to study why pitchers suffered from the yips – the sudden and unexplained loss of ability to execute certain skills, such as throwing the ball – he enrolled at Grand Canyon University.

Gutierrez, who spent five years as the mental skills coordinator for the Boston Red Sox and serves as the pitching coach and mental skills director at the University of Miami, is one of several current or former major league mental skills or performance directors who have earned doctorates from GCU.

After being a part of five World Series championships with the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers, Carl Kochan was hired as director of performance for the St. Louis Cardinals in December, around the same time he graduated after successfully defending his doctorate, titled “The Longitudinal, Grounded Theory Study on Psychological Resilience and Professionals.”

Kellen Lee is in his third season as the mental skills coach for the Seattle Mariners, five years after earning his doctorate from GCU in 2020 and serving as a master resilience trainer/performance expert for the U.S. Army.

Chad Bohling, who is scheduled to earn his doctorate this year, is in his 21st season with the New York Yankees, currently serving as the senior director of organizational performance.

And Justin Su’a, who is on track to earn his doctorate from GCU next spring, was the head of mental performance for the Tampa Bay Rays for five years before starting the Performance Advisory Group, which assists coaches, players and executives in professional sports.

The groundswell of mental skills staffers in baseball over the last 20 years illustrates teams’ efforts to address their players’ well-being, as well as their physical tools.

“Remember, this is a people-person industry,” Kochan said. “So before a player is ever an athlete, he’s a human being. So, really, making sure that we have that human connection is priority No.1.”

He added, “Ultimately, getting to know somebody and understanding what they value, versus balancing what the organization needs, both as a player and as a staff member – that’s the fine line that we get to walk every day. And then, oh, by the way, try to win baseball games, too.”

One of the biggest ingredients is trust, and it didn’t hurt that Gutierrez knew Chris Sale – the 2024 National League Cy Young Award winner with Atlanta – when Sale pitched at Florida Gulf Coast University and Gutierrez scouted the South Florida region for Boston.

Sale was drafted by the Chicago White Sox, but the two connected quickly after Sale was traded to Boston after the 2016 season, when Gutierrez already transitioned to the mental skills department.

“He’s an easy guy to talk to because he was in the game and knew both sides of the ball,” Sale said. “He knew how to get information out of people and make them feel comfortable, but he also knew the game and knew when was the right time to go about it.”

Before one of Boston’s off-days, Sale planned to fly to Naples, Florida, to visit his wife and three children and invited Gutierrez, who then could rent a car to drive about 100 miles to see his family.

“There might have been only 14 seconds of silence the entire time,” Sale recalled of the flight. “We spent the whole time talking about anything and everything. Laz is one of my guys.”

As a former strength and conditioning coach, Kochan sought ways to improve his craft and marveled at how mental skills coach and former major league pitcher Bob Tewksbury and sports psychologist/former minor league manager Derin McMains conveyed tough and easy conversations and getting players to view things in a different light while with the Giants.

That swayed Kochan to pursue his doctorate in hopes of understanding what makes players and coaches tick when faced with adversity on a daily basis.

Lee has worked with service members who were thinking about their family and with college student-athletes concerned about an examination, so he recognizes the importance of helping a player direct their focus toward the task at hand and remain fully present.

“Being able to control their focus and focus on essentially what they can control in the moment is a key skill, a key tool in their toolkit to be able to optimize performance in the moment,” said Lee, who played baseball at UC San Diego, served as director of baseball operations at Santa Clara University and taught mental skills and physical education at Presentation High School, an all-girls school in San Jose, California.

Lee’s dissertation focuses on the mental component of injury rehabilitation.

“I just saw that particular subgroup of athletes could seriously benefit from just making sure that their mind is good, super confident going back into sport,” Lee said. “Because fear of injury is really common. Fear of like, ‘Oh no, like, am I going to be as good as I was before?’”

Lee’s sounding board includes wife Jaclyn, who is an athletic trainer in San Jose, and brother Korey, a catcher with the Chicago White Sox and his spring training roommate, thanks to the proximity of their spring facilities.

“I tell our players that I feel like I have the answers to the test, because my brother will tell me everything about what players are thinking about, what the pressure are at the high level, and I’m able to use some of those stories to connect what I spent years and years and years studying and understanding and being able to apply it in a very real way,” Lee said. “I’m using real-life examples coming directly from a player.”

Lee liked that GCU professors emphasized that he choose a topic he was passionate about, rather than be steered in a certain direction.

“I felt the power to be able to determine where I wanted to go and how I wanted to go about it,” he said.

GCU News senior writer Mark Gonzales can be reached at [email protected]

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