Jake Stewart enters his first season as the assistant coach for the men[apos]s and women[apos]s cross country and track and field teams. He is in charge of the men[apos]s distance group.

Stewart came to Purdue from Lamar University where he spent three seasons as the distance coach for the track and field teams and two as the assistant cross country coach.

In his first season as assistant cross country coach at Lamar, Stewart was named the Southland Conference Coach of the Year after the men won four of their five invitationals including a top finish at the 12-team conference championships. He also led the Cardinals to a third place finish at the regional meet last year.

Prior to his time at Lamar, Stewart was the assistant coach for the Iona College men[apos]s and women[apos]s cross country and track and field teams for three seasons. In his time with the Gaels, the men[apos]s cross country team finished third in 2006 and runner-up in 2007 and 2008, the highest finish of any program in school history. The men[apos]s team was also honored for its scholastic achievements as it was named the NCAA Division I All-Academic Team of the Year in 2006 and 2007.

While at Iona, he coached four student-athletes who competed at the World Cross Country Championships for their respective nations. He also helped lead eight All-Americans in both cross country and track and field, 10 NCAA Track & Field Championships qualifiers, and 26 MAAC indoor and outdoor track and field champions.

Stewart has guided student-athletes to some very impressive marks. The top times he has coached for men are as follows:
-1:48.33 in the 800-meter run
-3:40.89 in 1,500m
-4:04.93 in the mile
-8:35.75 in the 3,000 steeplechase
-7:59.89 for the 3,000m
-13:35.75 in the 5,000m
-28:32.62 in the 10,000m.

With his impressive résumé, Stewart knows what it takes to build a distance program that is capable of competing at the highest level.

Before entering the coaching ranks, Stewart was a four year member of the cross country and track and field team. During his athletic career, the Gaels won four MAAC championships and finished in the top 10 each year. He was the team captain in 2005, the first walk-on in program history to carry the honor. Stewart graduated in 2005 with a bachelor of science in English.

In the spring of 2006, Stewart began his coaching career as an assistant track coach at Western Oregon University. There, he mainly worked as a distance oach. He helped coach four student-athletes who provisionally qualified for the Division II National Championships. He also served as the Western United States recruiting coordinator and helped bring in one of the deepest recruiting classes in the programs history.

He is a native of Kelso, Wash., and is married to his wife, Brandi.

The Nebraska volleyball team has been selected as the Big Ten’s top team in the coaches’ 2025 preseason poll. The league’s 18 coaches voted the Huskers as the conference’s No. 1 team, with Penn State ranked second, followed by Wisconsin, which placed third.

The Huskers are coming off their fifth Big Ten title in 2024 with a 19-1 conference record. They finished the season with a 33-3 record and reached the NCAA Semifinals.

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The program enters the 2025 season under new leadership after the surprise retirement of former head coach John Cook. Former Louisville head coach Dani Busboom Kelly replaced Cook.

The Big Ten’s coaches have also noticed the individual talent the Huskers roster holds this season. Four Huskers were named to the Preseason All-Big Ten Team.

Andi Jackson is a junior middle blocker. She was an AVCA All-America First Team member and a unanimous All-Big Ten First Team honoree last season.

Harper Murray is a junior outside hitter. She was an AVCA Second Team All-American last year and led the Huskers in kills with 3.40 per set.

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Bergen Reilly is a junior setter. She is coming off her second straight AVCA All-America Second Team honors and is the first player in conference history to win Big Ten Setter of the Year as both a freshman and sophomore.

Rebekah Allick is a senior middle blocker. She averaged 1.82 kills per set in 2024 with a career-best .357 hitting percentage. She had a team-high 1.43 blocks per set. She was an All-Big Ten Second Team selection in 2022 and 2023.

Earlier this week, Jackson, Murray, and Reilly were named to the AVCA Player of the Year watch list. The three juniors are among the 30 players named to the list.

Nebraska will begin the 2025 season on Friday, August 22, when the Huskers host Pittsburgh at Pinnacle Bank Arena. Find the entire Big Ten volleyball preseason poll by scrolling below.

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2025 BIG TEN VOLLEYBALL PRESEASON POLL1. Nebraska2. Penn State3. Wisconsin4. Minnesota5. UCLA6. USC7. Purdue8. Washington9. Illinois10. Michigan11. Indiana12. Oregon13. Ohio State14. Michigan State15. Northwestern16. Maryland17. Iowa18. Rutgers

Contact/Follow us @CornhuskersWire on X (formerly Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Nebraska news, notes, and opinions.

This article originally appeared on Cornhuskers Wire: Nebraska volleyball voted No. 1 in Big Ten preseason poll

The562’s coverage of Long Beach Poly is sponsored by Bryson Financial.

The562’s coverage of high school volleyball in 2025 is brought to you by the MLP’s Bay Area Breakers.

The Long Beach Poly girls’ volleyball team showed “the Long Beach” in them while winning a five-setter against Bishop Diego in the CIF-SS Division 3 championship last November, earning the No. 4 spot on our Top 10 Long Beach Sports Moments of the Year.

The championship win was Poly’s third in girls’ volleyball program history and marked the 131st CIF-SS championship in school history. It was also the Jackrabbits’ first volleyball title since 2010.

“It’s just the grit, it’s the Long Beach in them,” said Poly coach Gerald Aquiningoc after the win. “It feels amazing. I can’t even put it into words yet—I haven’t processed it. It was up and down, but it’s just them. They don’t give up. That fifth set, when it was win or go home, they went into the huddle and said, ‘We’re not losing. We’re not going home without a ring.’”

Cedra Saolotoga-Talaga had 15 digs and a team-high 14 kills in the match, and also contributed one of Poly’s 12 total aces. Sydney Mercado finished the game with a match-high five aces. Taimane Poe and Aleeya Salima also chipped in with 10 kills each.

Moore League Players of the Year and middle blocker duo Layla Moore and Kristin Dear held UCLA-committed outside hitter Eliana Urzua to just a .095 hitting percentage, while combining for seven blocks. Dear also hit a match-high .571.

“Just look at this, man—it’s amazing,” said Aquiningoc after the game, while the Jackrabbits celebrated behind the Cerritos College gym with family and friends. “The bond that we have is just unbreakable and too undeniably good to lose. They did their very best today, and as the game went on, we just decided we’re not losing.”

EUGENE, OR (WBNG) — Recent Binghamton University graduate Marcus Johnson was accepted to participate in the USA Track and Field National Outdoor Meet in Eugene, Oregon.

The former Bearcat will run his first race, the 400-meter hurdles, on Aug. 1 at 6:30 P.M. EDT.

Johnson ended his graduate year in June at the NCAA Outdoor Championship, where he placed 22nd in the first round of the 400 hurdles.

In his four years as a Bearcat, he was a five-time America East champion and two-time NCAA East Region qualifier.

Copyright 2025 WBNG. All rights reserved.

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