David Falk (far left) speaks with students from the sport analytics program during their capstone poster presentations.

“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

Nathan Backman (left) won best student presentation at the 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

From left, students Dan Griffiths, Danielle Napierski, Brett Cerenzio and Alivia Uribe at the 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

Jonah Soos holds his trophy for winning the individual/undergraduate division at the 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.

UCLA pitcher Taylor Tinsley delivers against UC Santa Barbara in the Los Angeles Regional on Friday.

(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)

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.

1

2

3

1. UCLA’s Jordan Woolery fields the ball at third base against UC Santa Barbara on Friday. 2. UCLA infielder Kaniya Bragg fields the ball. 3. UCLA’s Megan Grant celebrates after hitting a game-ending home run in the sixth inning. (Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)

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.

Hockey is set up much the same way, the exception being – and this is really what’s driving a lot of the misconception about “bust” picks — all drafted players are typically 18 years old. Some don’t get drafted their first year of eligibility and occasionally do get taken the following summer at age 19.

But just like baseball, they are also competing against grown men at the NHL level and that’s very tough to do for reasons both physical and mental. An 18-year-old player can have all the “hockey sense” in the universe, but their body is still not fully developed physically compared to players in their early to late 20s.

Sure, a handful of truly gifted players have entered the league at 18. Kraken president Ron Francis was one of them, stepping in with the Hartford Whalers for a 68-point season in 59 games the fall after being taken fourth overall in 1981.

But Francis played at a solid 6-foot-3, 200 pounds in an era where players weren’t as big or quick as today’s.

When I was a teenager growing up in the Montreal suburb of Laval, Quebec, our local junior team, the Voisins, featured a guy named Mario Lemieux. We used to take the bus across town to the arena next to a penitentiary, buy standing room tickets for right up at the ice level glass and watch Super Mario in action.

His draft year in 1984, Lemieux stood 6-foot-4 and weighed 230 pounds. That season, he scored 133 goals and added 149 assists in 70 games. For those who like math, that’s a four-point-per-game average.

He was a giant among boys and watching him from ice level emphasized the size part. I was standing by the glass the Monday night in March 1984 when he broke Guy Lafleur’s single-season junior goals record of 130, finishing that game with six goals and five assists against the league’s second-best team from Longueuil. It was 11-0 by the eight-minute mark of the second period and wound up a 16-4 final.

His team clinched the league title that season with a 17-1 victory over the same squad.

When you think of surefire, NHL-ready 18-year-olds, that’s a good place to start. Merely putting up 100 points in a major junior hockey season doesn’t guarantee you’ll withstand the next level.

And that’s just from a physical standpoint. Lemieux, clearly, was a gifted playmaker with hockey sense streaming out of him that was wise beyond his years.

Put that whole package together, that’s a candidate for an 18-year-old NHL debut.

Now, not every 18-year-old has to be a towering future Hall of Famer to make the NHL full-time. But it sure helps. A teenage body often must grow into a man to play into a men’s league.

NORTH ADAMS — The Peter Foote Vietnam Veterans Memorial Rink is in serious need of a new roof — and the state has agreed to pay for it.

In a Wednesday news release, the state Department of Conservation and Recreation said the money “is part of DCR’s ongoing effort to ensure families and residents have access to welcoming and safe recreational facilities that provide important opportunities for activity as well as serve as community hubs.”

The replacement will cost about $537,000, with completion slated for the summer and before the rink’s fall season opening, and consists of replacing the 36,000-square-foot roof with PVC roofing membrane and new insulation.

The city took the rink over from the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, which didn’t own it but had a lease with the state, in 2008. The city signed a long-term lease and committed to putting money into the rink. Around the same time, the DCR made a major change in its management of skating rinks throughout the state, ceding control to private operators and municipalities. Now, the rink is owned by DCR and managed by the city.

Between expanded youth hockey programs, open skating and more, the rink is a popular spot in the city, even more so now that MCLA hockey has returned to the rink after a 20-year hiatus.

State Rep. John Barrett III, D-North Adams, who was instrumental in getting the DCR to fund the project, recalled his efforts as mayor in 2008 to secure a long-term commitment of $1.1 million from the state for the upkeep of the rink, which was built in 1969.

“DCR was getting rid of all of its rinks, and MCLA backed away from it, ending their hockey program and no longer running the rink,” he said Thursday. “We took it over, and it has become most successful, and hasn’t cost the city any money. It’s a tremendous resource for Northern Berkshire.”

“I never thought I’d be around to promote this,” Barrett said. “I know it’s in desperate need, like it was when I took it over. I thank the DCR and the Healey administration for not walking away from commitments made two administrations ago.”

North Adams Mayor Jennifer Macksey said that one of her first actions as mayor, in January 2022, was to work with DCR on maintaining “this important community and regional asset.”

“Fortunately, one of our biggest concerns with the rink is being addressed,” she said in the news release.

GRAND FORKS — UND coach Dane Jackson said in his introductory press conference last month that he wants the Fighting Hawks to be a leader in recruiting Western Canada.

On Friday, UND landed one of the top-performing young players in the Western Hockey League.

Saskatoon Blades forward Cooper Williams, who tallied more points than any 2008-born player in the WHL this season, announced his commitment to UND on Instagram.

Williams scored 21 goals and tallied 57 points in 68 regular-season games for the Blades.

The 6-foot, 150-pound Calgary native was one of six finalists for the WHL’s Rookie of the Year honor.

“He’s very, very smart,” Saskatoon coach Dan DaSilva told

Global News

in December. “He has a high hockey IQ. He’s in the right position. He knows where to go on the ice — both offensively and defensively. That’s his biggest asset, I’d say, is his ability to think and to read plays.”

Williams, 17, is expected to return to the Blades next season. His date of arrival on campus is yet to be determined.

Williams, who is eligible for the 2026 NHL Draft, visited UND last week.

“It was awesome,” he said. “Everything was so cool. I met a couple of guys on the team. They were awesome. The staff was awesome as well.”

Williams said he had been thinking about attending college for a while. He signed with Saskatoon, but in November, the NCAA changed its rules to allow players from the three Canadian Hockey Leagues to retain their college eligibility.

“I was thinking about (college) for a while now, even before the WHL Draft,” Williams said. “It was a 50-50 split. It’s awesome that the rules changed.”

Williams said he knew about UND because of former Fighting Hawks defenseman Jacob Bernard-Docker, who helped coach hockey at Williams’ elementary school in Calgary.

“I talked to one other school over the phone, but I didn’t want to check out other schools,” Williams said. “(At UND), the facilities are great, the campus is unreal and it just seemed like the right fit for me.”

Williams is the second 2008-born player to commit to UND, joining West Fargo’s Keaton Jundt.

UND has a commitment from one 2009-born player in forward Eli McKamey, who accelerated his education and will be a senior next year.

The Fighting Hawks have been busy building the 2025-26 roster since Jackson was announced as head coach in late March.

Their 2025 commitments have included freshmen Jack Kernan (center) and Jan Špunar (goaltender). They’ve also picked up transfers Ellis Rickwood (Clarkson center), Anthony Menghini (Minnesota Duluth winger), Isaac Gordon (Michigan Tech winger), Gibson Homer (Arizona State goaltender) and Zach Sandy (Minnesota Duluth goaltender).

Williams is the first non-2025 commit of the Jackson era.

Schlossman has covered college hockey for the Grand Forks Herald since 2005. He has been recognized by the Associated Press Sports Editors as the top beat writer for the Herald’s circulation division four times and the North Dakota sportswriter of the year twice. He resides in Grand Forks. Reach him at bschlossman@gfherald.com.

The University of Texas Hockey Team has seen great success on the ice, they’ll look to build off that success at the Southeastern Collegiate Frozen Showcase in 2026.

Ice hockey is gaining ground in the heart of SEC country, with club teams from several Southeastern Conference universities set to take center stage at the inaugural Southeast Collegiate Frozen Showcase in January 2026.