Water Polo Masters Tournament

Havana, Jun 16 (JIT) – With a solid demonstration of collective play, Havana reaffirmed its leadership by conquering, for the second consecutive year, the supremacy in the Water Polo Cup for masters Hermanos Martinez Ginoris, which was held in the Varadero beach resort.

In the grand finale, the capital’s team won 20-7 over their long-time rivals from Matanzas, thus reediting a classic of this sport on the island.

Beyond the competition, the tournament was marked by an atmosphere of mutual respect and admiration between the capital and the representatives of Matanzas, who shared not only their dedication in the water, but also the values of camaraderie, sports passion, and commitment with which they were trained in this discipline.

The podium was identical to that of the founding edition with Havana at the top, followed by Matanzas and Santiago de Cuba.

The organizers highlighted the quality of the competition and expressed their wish that in the next edition more teams will join in order to broaden the scope of a competition that pays tribute to national swimming and water polo icons.

BYU’s James Corrigan won the 3,000-meter steeplechase Friday, June 13, at the NCAA track and field championships in Eugene, Oregon, continuing a Cougar tradition of dominance in the event.

One year after making the United States’ Olympic team in Paris, the 23-year-old junior from Los Angeles, California, gained the lead with less than 200 meters to go, kicking past Louisville’s Geoffrey Kirwa to cross the finish line first with a personal-best time of 8 minutes and 16.41 seconds at Hayward Field.

Corrigan’s victory marked an impressive step forward from his ninth-place finish at the 2024 NCAA championships.

Asked after the race how it feels to be an NCAA champion, Corrigan told reporters, “It feels amazing.”

“Two days ago, I was asked why I chose the NCAA and why I peaked for this meet and not just focus on a long-term world championship,” Corrigan told reporters after the race. “I think there are goals down the line. To win an NCAA championship is special because it shows that you can show up and win on the day. To me, it was a big goal, and I’m just glad that I was able to pull it off.”

Corrigan is the latest in a distinguished line of BYU athletes who have won the NCAA steeplechase: Josh McAdams in 2006, Kyle Perry in 2009 and, more recently, Kenneth Rooks in 2023 and now Corrigan in 2025.

On the women’s side, the Cougars’ Courtney Wayment claimed the title in 2022, while BYU athletes won the first three steeplechases at the NCAA women’s championships — Elizabeth Jackson in 2001, Michaela Mannova in 2002 and Kassi Anderson in 2003.

Rooks and Corrigan finished first and third, respectively, at last summer’s U.S. Olympic trials to qualify for the U.S. Olympic team that competed in Paris. Rooks won the silver medal, delivering one of the biggest surprises of the Olympic track competition.

Corrigan, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who served in the Arizona Tempe Mission, was one of several Latter-day Saints who competed at the NCAA championships.

BYU’s men’s team finished in a tie for 11th place at the NCAA championships with 19 points.

BYU’s women’s team finished 18th with 16 points.

New record set — but runner up

In the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase, BYU’s Lexy Halladay-Lowry set a school record by more than seven seconds — but still came in second place to Alabama’s Doris Lemngole.

Halladay-Lowry, a senior from Meridian, Idaho, recorded a new personal best of 9:08.68.

“I told myself that no matter if I ran a personal best or raced the best I could that I would be happy but still it’s bittersweet,” she said. “On a perfect day, I knew I could run 9:06, and I am really happy with 9:08. That was almost a perfect day for me, so I am happy with my effort.”

In the 800-meter run, BYU’s Meghan Hunter, a senior from Provo, finished third (1:59.03) to secure her third first team All-American honor.

“We got out pretty hot, and I just wanted to go for it, so that is what I did,” Hunter said. “I was feeling that the second lap,” she said. “I started to feel good with 150 meters to go, and I was thinking ‘I am doing this, I am doing this.’ That first lap affected my second lap, but I am proud of how I went for it.”

Sami Oblad, a senior from Stansbury Park, Utah, who served in the California Oakland Mission, became the school’s first first-team All-American sprinter with a seventh-place finish (51.57) in the 400-meter run.

Decathlon

Mississippi State’s Peyton Bair, a junior from Kimberly, Idaho, who served in the Arizona Mesa and Mexico Cancún missions, took home the 2025 NCAA decathlon title.

The first American man to win the event in a decade, Bair’s 8,323 points was the 14th highest in NCAA history, and the 10th highest in NCAA Championship history, according to a Mississippi State news release.

The decathlon consists of 10 track and field events: 100-meter sprint; long jump; shot put; high jump; 400-meter run; 110-meter hurdles; discus; pole vault; javelin throw and 1,500-meter run.

BYU’s Ben Barton, a junior from Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, who served in the Nevada Reno and Hungary/Romania missions, finished sixth in the decathlon with 7,777 points. His sixth-place finish is the highest by a Cougar in the decathlon since 2000.

Boise State’s Landon Helms, a junior from Emmett, Idaho, finished ninth overall with a personal-best score of 7,696 points. He was the first Bronco decathlete to compete at nationals in 13 years.

Air Force freshman Brayden Richards, of Perry, Ohio, tallied 7,488 points to finish 18th. He was the first athlete in 14 years to represent Air Force at the NCAA championships, according to a news release. Richards will serve in the California Ventura Mission starting in August.

Barton’s BYU teammate, sophomore Jaden Roskelley, of Arlington, Washington, was 19th, with 7,475 points. Roskelley served a mission in Ecuador.

All-American team honors

The BYU 4×400-meter relay team of Eli Hazlett, Jonah Heimuli, Josh Taylor and Trey Jackson set an all-time school record with a time of 3:02.51, good for seventh in the final behind champion South Florida (3:00.42).

The top-10 finish marks the first All-American first-team honor in the relay in BYU history.

Heimuli served in the Mozambique Beira Mission, Taylor in the Mexico Puebla and Texas Lubbock missions and Jackson in the Mexico Querétaro Mission.

Another Cougar, senior Danny Bryant, of Valencia, California, took sixth place in the shot put. Bryant, who served in the New Zealand Auckland Mission, finished his collegiate career as a two-time first-team All-American, having been victorious in 27 shot put competitions.

BYU junior Creed Thompson, of Lehi, Utah, also earned first-team All-American honors by placing eighth in the 10,000 meters in his first appearance at the NCAA outdoor championships.

Also making his first NCAA appearance, Luke Grundvig finished 23rd in the 5,000 meters with a time of 13:54.70. He served in the Philippines Angeles and Washington Spokane missions.

For years, his face was synonymous with charm on American television. Eric Dane, the actor who brought to life the unforgettable Dr. McSteamy on Grey’s Anatomy, has gone public with a diagnosis that offers no cure—but many questions. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, has transformed his life. But Dane is not giving up.

“I don’t think this is the end of my story,” the actor said in an interview aired Monday on ABC News’ Good Morning America.

In April, Dane revealed that he had been diagnosed with ALS after a long stretch of medical consultations. It all began with a slight weakness in his right hand, something he initially attributed to fatigue. “I thought maybe I’d been texting too much or my hand was fatigued,” he recalled. But as the weeks went by, the deterioration became clear. What followed was a journey through multiple specialists, until nine months later, he received the diagnosis that would change his life.

ALS is a neurodegenerative disease that progressively destroys motor neurons. It affects a person’s ability to move, speak, swallow, and eventually breathe. “I’ll never forget those three letters,” he said. “It’s on me the second I wake up. It’s not a dream.”

At 52, Dane spoke with honesty and vulnerability. He shared that only one of his arms is still functional, and he fears that the other will soon lose mobility as well. “I feel like maybe a couple more months and I won’t have my left hand either.” Though he is still able to walk, he worries constantly about losing strength in his legs. Alongside the fear, there is anger. “I’m angry because my father was taken from me when I was young, and now there’s a very good chance I’m going to be taken from my girls while they’re very young.”

His personal history gives that fear an added emotional weight. Dane’s father died by suicide when he was only seven years old. Now, as the father of two teenage daughters, he faces the painful possibility that history might repeat itself in a different form.

In the interview, Dane recounted a heartbreaking moment during a boat trip with his youngest daughter. Once a competitive swimmer and water polo player, he jumped into the ocean—only to realize he could no longer generate enough strength to return to the boat. “I jumped into the ocean that day and realized I couldn’t swim and generate enough power to get myself back to the boat. I thought, ‘Oh god.’” It was his daughter who rescued him.

The experience shattered him. But even in that moment of anguish, he made sure his daughter wouldn’t carry that memory with her. “I made sure she got back in the water with her friend and continued on with the snorkeling. But I was just heartbroken.”

In the midst of this struggle, Dane has found comfort in someone important: Rebecca Gayheart, his former partner and the mother of his daughters. Though they were once separated, they now maintain a close and supportive relationship. “We have managed to become better friends and better parents. She is my biggest champion and most stalwart supporter.”

News of his diagnosis was first shared in an interview with People and later covered by The New York Times, which highlighted not only his career but also his resolve to keep going. Despite his physical decline, Dane plans to return to the set of Euphoria, where he plays Cal Jacobs. He also has a new series on the way: Countdown.

His response to the disease defies the stereotypes often associated with ALS. Rather than retreating, he chose to be visible. Rather than stopping, he plans to move forward. “There’s so much about it that’s out of my control… All I want to do is spend time with my family, work a little if I can, and make sure that I tell them that I love them every day.”

Stories like his put a human face on a disease that, according to Good Morning America, affects around 5,000 people each year in the United States. And while the famous Ice Bucket Challenge raised $200 million a decade ago, the path to a cure remains long.

Amid it all, Dane holds onto something that transcends his acting career: “I don’t feel like this is the end of me.”

Eric Dane is sharing a heartbreaking moment amid his amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) diagnosis.

On Monday, June 16, the Euphoria actor, 52, was interviewed by Diane Sawyer for Good Morning America and opened up about his ALS diagnosis. Dane, who was once a competitive swimmer and a water polo star, shared that he had a scary moment recently when he was in the water with one of his daughters.

“When I jumped in the ocean that day and realized I couldn’t swim [or] generate enough power to get myself back to the boat, I thought, ‘Oh, God,’ ” Dane recalls. “And then I realized in that moment I’m not safe in the water anymore.”

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In a voice-over, Sawyer explains that his daughter had to race to her dad’s rescue. “She dragged me back in the boat,” Dane says.

“What did you say to each other?” Sawyer asks.

“I was like breaking down in tears, so I made sure she got back in the water with her friend and continued on with the snorkeling with the guide,” the dad of two says. “But I was just heartbroken.”

Dane shares his daughters, Billie, 15, and Georgia, 13, with wife Rebecca Gayheart.

ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a rare degenerative disease that causes progressive paralysis of the muscles. Patients first experience twitching or weakness in a limb, often followed by slurred speech. According to the Mayo Clinic, because the disease affects the nerve cells in the brain and spine that control muscle movement, patients slowly lose their ability to speak, eat, walk, and breathe independently.

There’s no cure for ALS, and people usually live three to five years after diagnosis, according to the Muscular Dystrophy Association. However, some patients can live decades.

Dane first revealed his ALS diagnosis exclusively with PEOPLE in April. “I have been diagnosed with ALS,” he shared at the time. “I am grateful to have my loving family by my side as we navigate this next chapter.” 

“I kindly ask that you give my family and I privacy during this time,” he told PEOPLE.

Although Gayheart filed for a divorce from Dane in 2018, the actress filed to have the divorce petition dismissed in March with no prejudice, per documents obtained by PEOPLE. Just a day before Dane’s diagnosis became public, Gayheart said that he and her husband were the “best of friends.”

“We are best of friends. We are really close,” the 90210 alum told E! News. “We are great coparents. I think it’s important to not look at a relationship that ends as a failure.”

“It’s just a season. It wasn’t a failure. It was a huge success,” Gayheart said of their relationship. “We were married for, I mean, we are still married, but together for 15 years, and we had two beautiful kids so I think that’s a successful relationship, and that’s how we look at it.”

The Hibiscus Coast Water Polo Club entered two teams at the annual Logan Family King’s Birthday U12 Tournament on May 30 to June 2, both brought home medals.

The club has been based at Stanmore Bay Leisure Centre since 2017. The HBC Horizons, a team new to the sport, ended with a third-place finish in the Newbie Grade. The more experienced HBC Hurricanes competed in the C Grade and emerged as champions with the gold.

They won six of their seven games. The teams include players from a range of local schools on the Hibiscus Coast, including Silverdale Primary, Gulf Harbour School, Ōrewa Beach Primary, Red Beach School, KingsWay Primary, Whangaparāoa Intermediate, Wentworth College, and Ōrewa College.

The tournament brought together 33 teams from across Auckland, Waikato and Rotorua hosted by Mountfort Park Water Polo Club in Manurewa. 

Oregon is in the market for a new pitching coach.

Blake Hawksworth, who coached at UO the past two seasons, has taken the same position at Oklahoma State.

Hawksworth, whose two-year contract was due to expire at the end of this month, earned $195,000 in salary plus $20,000 in bonuses this season.

Friday starter Grayson Grinsell (9-3, 3.01 ERA) emerged as a third-team All-American this season under Hawksworth, recording 101 strikeouts as Oregon’s Friday starter.

The Ducks led the Big Ten and ranked 15th nationally in ERA (4.10) and led the country in hits allowed per nine innings (7.1), but ranked 72nd in walks allowed per nine innings (4.14) this season. Those were significant improvements from 2024, when UO ranked 45th in ERA (4.88), 18th in hits allowed per nine innings (8.12) and 145th in walks allowed per nine innings (4.69).

Hawksworth was previously the director of operations at UC Irvine (2023), as well as pitching coach at California’s JSerra High School (2021-22), Grand Canyon (2020) and Cal State Fullerton (2017). He played also professionally for 11 seasons, including three in the major leagues with the St. Louis Cardinals and Los Angeles Dodgers.