Sports
The first year of North Dakota 3-class volleyball is complete, so how did it go? – InForum
BISMARCK — The first year of North Dakota sanctioning three classifications of volleyball is officially in the books after the state tournament concluded last weekend in Bismarck.
So how did it go?
“I think we were pretty excited for the first year,” said Kevin Morast, assistant director for the North Dakota High School Activities Association who oversees volleyball. “We had basketball as the trial to be able to look at it and say, ‘OK, let’s try to fix what we had wrong with basketball.’
“But overall, I’m very happy with the way it went. We saw some very competitive volleyball across all three classes. We had the opportunity to see several different teams and it’s great to see several different teams here at state getting opportunities to showcase themselves on the main stage. We’re excited about it. A few minor things to change possibly, but overall, I think it worked really well.”
Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum
The NDHSAA board approved a three-class volleyball plan in September 2023 and finalized the move last year.
The approved plan mimics
the move to three-class basketball,
which enters its third season in 2025-26.
Sixty percent of support from the NDHSAA’s member schools was required to move forward with a three-class volleyball plan.The association first sanctioned the sport in 1983-84 and had previously competed under two classes since 1988-89.
Under the new system, classes are officially referred to as “divisions” and are split into Division AA (enrollment 650 or higher), Division A (162.5 to 649) and Division B (162.5 or less).
Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum
Public and non-public schools located within a Division AA school district that have an enrollment of 100-399 are placed in Division A. Those within a Division AA district and an enrollment of 400 or more students are placed in Division AA.
Teams may also choose to opt up a division. Opt-ups are a minimum of two seasons.
A tournament performance factor is also calculated after each season, which promotes teams to a higher division based on continued postseason success.
The NDHSAA utilized a three-day, combined state tournament for all three divisions that was held at the Bismarck Event Center Nov. 20-22.
This format differs from basketball, which fields boys and girls divisions and hosts five state tournaments in multiple host cities.
Eight volleyball teams qualify for state in each division, bringing the total to 24 that descended upon Bismarck to vie for championships.
All Division AA quarterfinals were held in the Bismarck Event Center’s exhibit hall while all Division B quarters were held on the main floor. For Division A, two quarterfinal matches were held on the main floor with two others held in the exhibit hall.
On Friday, all consolation matches were held in the exhibit hall while all semifinals were contested on the main floor beginning with the first Division B semi at 9 a.m. and rolling through the day before concluding with the two Division AA semis.
On Saturday, seventh-place matches were hosted off-site at Bismarck High School beginning at 8 a.m. Fifth-place matches also began at 8 a.m. in the exhibit hall while third-place matches began at 8 a.m. on the main floor.
The Division B, Division A and Division AA title matches were slated for 3, 5:30 and 8 p.m. on the main floor but fell behind schedule with all three third-place matches going the full five-set distance. Two of the three title matches also went five.
Due to the extended matches, the Division AA
title bout between Fargo Davies and West Fargo Sheyenne
finally ended at 10:52 p.m. Although late, it was still an earlier finish than 2022 when Sheyenne and Bismarck Century went to 12:04 a.m. in the Class A state championship.
Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum
Morast said he was pleased with the schedule format as even with a third classification, things were still able to wrap up earlier than some previous years.
“Schedule-wise, it’s a different schedule so it’s something to get used to,” Morast said. “We’re playing a little bit earlier. It goes to show we needed all that time because we’re starting the (Division AA) championship at 8:30, which is much better than 10 o’clock like some past nights.
“We’ll get together as a staff, get some feedback from coaches and move forward and see if there’s any tweaks that need to be made in terms of the schedule. But overall, we’re super excited about the number of fans we had. The atmosphere was great. Bismarck and (Bismarck Public Schools activities director) Dave (Zittleman) and his staff do a great job making sure this tournament is well-run.”
What the coaches are saying
Volleyball coaches had some varying opinions of the three-class system and what may need to be tweaked in the future.
For longtime Langdon Area-Munich coach Rich Olson, whose Cardinals
earned a repeat state title
in Division B, playing major semifinal matches early in the morning wasn’t ideal.
“I like (three classes),” Olson said. “I mean, I don’t like the format of the tournament having semifinal matches at 9 a.m. I don’t like that at all. I think they need to look at possible changes there, but I do like the three classes and I think it gives more kids and more coaches an opportunity to get to a state tournament.”
Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum
Valley City, who previously competed in Class A under the two-class system, was placed in the middle-tier Division A this season and made it to the title match before falling to May-Port-C-G, which
won its first title since 2002.
“It’s been amazing,” Hi-Liners coach Cynthia Klabo said. “Every single one of our matches that we’ve played have been close. It’s been awesome. Basketball did it two years ago and I’m like, why aren’t we right away? It’s been great.
“I know sometimes people look at us still as that bigger school and so there might be some of that. But we’re smaller than Central Cass and we’re probably going to be smaller than Kindred soon. We aren’t the big school anymore.”
Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum
May-Port-C-G coach Stacy Hanson didn’t feel much of a difference in year one of the system, but did notice the compete level increase in some regard.
“Yes it’s different but we’re still playing the same people,” Hanson said. “We’ve seen Class B and Class A (schools). It still kind of all feels the same. I think you’ve got to give it three or four years and then you’ll feel more of that separation.
“But competitiveness, I feel like it was very competitive and that was in our favor. I think it made us compete every single night whereas some (previous) nights, your competition levels may be up or down.”
Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum
Morast said he believes it was the correct decision to host the seventh-place matches off-site and will look at those again in the future.
“There’s no way to have all of those matches (at the Bismarck Event Center) on two courts, it’s just not feasible,” Morast said. “The only other option would be to eliminate those seventh-place matches and right now, we know that the coaches want to keep those. It’s important to them, it’s important to us and they get one more chance to play together. I think that’s important.”
As far as morning semifinal matches go, Morast said divisions will likely rotate the early time slots in the future.
“We’re open to everything,” Morast said. “We have several entities that are involved. We have TV that’s involved and they like the semifinals on one court. We will rotate that schedule so the Class B is not always going to be at 9 a.m. on those semifinals.
“It’s not the best time to play, we understand that. But afterwards, the winners, they’re excited they get to play for a state title tomorrow.”
Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum
Morast said the first step to any changes or improvements will be to meet with the NDHSAA’s Volleyball Advisory Committee. Olson and Hanson are members of that committee along with Bismarck’s Brianna Kline, Sargent County’s Jenna Anderson and Dickinson Trinity’s Breanna Sisson.
“We’ll start with them, get their feedback and we’ll take that to a (NDHSAA) staff meeting and then the board,” Morast said. “And start talking about what went well, what didn’t work well, are there any tweaks we think we should make?
“It will be a long process just to make sure that we’re trying to cover all of our bases and make sure we don’t make change just to say that we made change. We want to make sure we’re making change for the better.”
Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum
Location: U-M Indoor Track & Field Building | Ann Arbor, Mich.
Live Results
EAST LANSING, Mich. – Michigan State indoor track & field returned to action at the Wolverine Invitational Saturday capturing a pair of event titles.
In the men’s pole vault, Adam Blue finished first with a personal best vault of 5.13m. He cleared 4.90m and 5.13m on his first attempts, but was not able to clear 5.23m. His previous high was 4.97m at the Spartan Invitational in 2024.
Michigan State’s other event win came in the field events with Leila Barmore winning the women’s long jump. She reached her longest jump on her second attempt, reaching 5.78m. Gabrielle Jeffries finished 14th with a jump of 5.15m.
In the men’s long jump, Andrew Harding finished fifth with a long jump of 7.19m. Dylan Terryberry set a new PR in the high jump (1.88m), finishing seventh.
In running events, Logan Allen finished third in the final of the men’s 60m hurdles with a time of 8.05. Cameron Cheetam qualified for the final of the men’s 60m after qualifying with a time of 6.87. In the final, he finished third, crossing in 6.81. In the prelim, Carter Bissell set a new personal best in the 60m prelim with a time of 7.11.
In the women’s 300m, Elizabeth Anderson and Alexys Wilson both had personal bests. Anderson finished 11th with a time of 39.61. Wilson was 14th with a time of 40.38.
Michigan State will return to Ann Arbor next week for the Simmons Harvey Invitational on Saturday, Jan. 17.
Andreas Panagos set a new personal record in the weight throw at the Snowflake Invitational.
The Middlebury men’s track and field team opened the indoor campaign in strong form, accumulating 10 event titles during its annual Snowflake Invitational on Saturday from Virtue Field House.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Caleb Smith secured the top spot in the long jump with a leap of 6.73 meters, headlining a Panther sweep of the top-six spots. He also won the pole vault by clearing 4.25 meters.
- Toby Warmack posted a 1.97m effort in the high jump to grab gold. Sam McGarrahan and Smith followed in second and third place at 1.87 meters each.
- The 400m race saw Joey Caspar cross the finish line first with a time of 49.87 seconds. Emerson Kington followed in second place at 50.81, while Wyatt Lawton rounded out the podium finishers (51.03).
- Andreas Panagos logged a toss of 14.36m to earn top honors in the weight throw.
- Donnell Harvey Jr. opened the indoor season in style, taking first in the 60m race (6.90). The sophomore also finished in the top spot during the 200 with a time of 22.49.
- Jack Ulrich led the pack in the 800, clocking in at 2:03.42.
- Owen Johnson crossed the finish line in 8:54.45 to win the 3,000, while Felix Rogovin posted a time of 9:05.50 to earn second.
- The final top placing came for the Panther 4×400 relay team. Kington, Caspar, Nate Gardner and Sebastian Pantzer logged a combined clocking of 3:28.62.
- Pantzer also logged a runner-up effort in the 200 (22.83) with Gardner trailing in third by one-tenth of a second.
- Smith and Quinn Kennedy landed second and third in the 60 hurdles, respectively. Smith’s time of 8.63 seconds sat nine-tenths of a second off the winner, while Kennedy’s 8.64-second effort set a new personal best.
- Kennedy and Calvin Szoradi rounded out the top-three performers in the shot put at 12.76 meters and 12.56 meters, respectively.
- Tony Wang placed second in the triple jump, soaring 13.05 meters, while Caden Cote cleared 4.10 meters to finish as the runner-up in the pole vault.
NOTES
- Panagos moved the weight 1.44 meters further than his prior best effort in the navy and white.
Middlebury returns to the Virtue Field House to host its annual Winter Classic. The action begins on Friday at 2:00 p.m., followed by the second day of competition at 9:00 a.m. Saturday.
“I was very pleased with our effort this weekend,” said head coach Ed Beathea. “We broke 2 school records and had several outstanding performances. This was a very positive start to the season for us.”
The final day had a heavy focus on the track, starting with the sprints. Jasiah Rogers earned the first win of the day in the 60-meter sprint with his time of 6.77.
Several personal bests were broken in the men’s and women’s 300 meter. Kristina Vincic ran a 39.78 in the women’s contest. Trelee Banks-Rose continued to extend his school record time with his time of 32.89, winning the race. Tamer Saleh (9th) and Christian Woodson (11th) also set personal bests with times of 34.04 and 34.09, respectively.
In the 800, the Hoosiers had seven finishers in the top 15 in the women’s race, including Nola Somers Glenn (2nd; 2:08.77), Lily Myers (3rd; 2:08.86 PR), Catie McCabe (4th; 2:09.56 PR), Michaela Quinn (6th; 2:12.99), Ellia Hayes (2:15.85 PR), Joey Rastrelli (13th; 2:17.00), and Ava Jarrell (14th; 2:17.42).
Nico Colchico ran to the win as the lone Hoosier in the men’s 800 meter with his time of 1:49.50.
The Hoosiers had two finishers in the top 10 with Katelyn Winton (4:56.15) and Maddie Rocchio (5:02.11) finishing seventh and ninth, respectively.
Jessica Hegedus (9:53.68) and Mary Eubank (10:05.98) each recorded personal best times to finish fifth and ninth, respectively in the women’s 3,000-meter run.
The track closed with season best times in the men’s and women’s 4×400 relays. The quartet of Kristina Vincic, Veronica Hargrave, Ava Olomajeye, and Kiera Davis ran a time of 3:39.98, finishing sixth overall.
In the men’s race, the team of Cameron Mullens, Kalen Sargent, Tyler Tarter, and Daquan Tate recorded a fourth place finish with a time of 3:11.14.
In the field, Kelly Moran (12.14m/39-10) started the day with an eighth place finish in the women’s triple jump.
Tyler Carrell followed in the pole vault with a second place finish off a season best mark of 5.40m/17-8.5. Lukas Brauc (5.00m/16-4.75) also opened his first meet as a Hoosier with a sixth place finish.
In the shot put, Seth Brosseau claimed a fifth place finish with his distance of 17.03m/55-7.5.
The Hoosiers will be back at home next week as they host the Indiana Invitational. The meet will span two days from Friday, January 16, to Saturday, January 17.
Follow Indiana track and field and cross country via X, Facebook and Instagram.
#NeverDaunted
With only partial squads traveling from both Brown programs, the women’s team finished in second place in the meet, coming in behind first place Dartmouth, and ahead of third place Vermont and fourth place UMass Lowell.
The men’s team placed fourth behind Dartmouth, UMass Lowell, and Vermont, respectively.
WOMEN
Junior Alyssa Jackson led the way in the 60m dash with a time of 7.71 seconds, with freshman Anya Anderson also earning a point for her fourth place finish in 8.06. Junior Anna Pollak took runner-up at 26.77 in the 200 meters and freshman Sydney Ruckett (58.25) took first place in the 400m dash.
Brown took three of the top four spots in the finals of the 60m hurdles, with Simone Dunbar (8.89) placing second, followed by Jannah Maguire (8.97) and Kareema McKenzie (9.02) in third and fourth, respectively.
In the field events, senior Nene Mokonchu finished in a three-way tie for first place in the high jump at 1.65m. In the long jump, senior Rachel Bibiu (5.38m) took second place and freshman Clara Fan (5.26m) finished third. The Bears also picked up a win and nine points in the triple jump with freshman Joyce Olawalye winning the event at 11.53m. Fan (1.28m) took second and Bibiu (11.03m) finished fourth.
Sophomore Giana DeCesare took runner-up in the weight throw with her mark of 15.32 meters, and junior Amiya Hopkins finished fourth in the shot put with a 12.47m mark.
MEN
Leading the way for Brown on the track were senior sprinters Elias Archie and Solomon Miller, with Archie taking home first place in the 60m dash by crossing the finish line in 6.88 seconds, followed by Miller in third place in 6.93.
Junior Jake Haley scored a point with his fourth place finish in the 500 meters with a time of 1:07.18.
In the field events, junior Gabriel Liem Thai took second place in the pole vault (4.45m), freshman Jerald Evangelista placed third in the triple jump (13.27m), and freshman Sean Wilton finished third in the shot put (15.30m).
The Bears will return to action next Saturday, January 17 at the Beantown Challenge at Harvard.
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Mizzou track and field opened its indoor track and field season Saturday hosting the second annual Alexis Jarrett Invitational at the Hearnes Center Fieldhouse and claimed six event titles, despite competing a limited number of student-athletes.
Other schools competing included SIU-Edwardsville, Central Methodist, Kansas City, Iowa Western Community College, Barton County Community College and Cottey College.
TOP TIGERS
Senior sprinter Robert Hines was a two-time winner. He claimed the 200m dash with a time of 21.82 – just four-tenths of a second off his indoor personal best – and also won the 60m dash in 6.87.
Senior Anna Vedral won the women’s pole vault at the Alexis Jarrett Invitational for the second straight year clearing 3.90m (12-9.5) and sophomore Anna Ferguson (3.60/11-9.75) took second after tying for the runner-up spot a year ago.
Senior Petra Gombas secured the Alexis Jarrett Invitational title for the second straight year with a throw of 19.91m (62-11.5).
RECAP
Sophomore Marlena Tresnjo won the women’s high jump at 1.76m (5-9.25).
The Tigers were especially strong in the throwing events.
Junior Garik Pozecki had a spirited competition with SIU-Edwardsville’s Grant Milbrath in the men’s weight throw and finished second by a single centimeter, throwing 21.62m (70-11.25), a personal best and the sixth-best mark ever at Mizzou, to Milbrath’s 21.63m (70-11.75). Teammates Clayton Kamp and T.J. Wiggins followed Pozecki in third and fourth with respective throws of 17.92m (58-9.5) and 16.83m (55-2.75).
The Tigers swept the women’s weight throw, taking the top five positions. Gombas’ victory was followed by teammates Reagan Kimrey (19.12/62-8.75), Delilah Pippen (PR – 16.72/54-10.25), Ames Burton (16.62/54-6.5) and Kaitlyn Morningstar (PR – 16.60/54-5.5).
Junior Chase Crawford won the men’s shot put with a personal best throw of 17.62m (57-9.75). Teammates Sam Albert (PR – 15.83m/51-11.25) and Kamp (14.86m/48-9) were third and fifth, respectively.
In his Mizzou debut, Houston transfer Dillon Leacock was second in the 60m hurdles (8.29) and eighth in the 200m dash (22.44) – both events in which he had not competed before.
Multi-event athlete Sophia Wydra, a freshman, also made her debut in the black-and-gold and competed in three events: women’s long jump, sixth, 5.45m (17-10.75); women’s 60m hurdles, ninth, 9.24; and shot put, third (11.42m/37-5.75).
Former Tiger Arianna Fisher, competing unattached, won the women’s triple jump (12.81m/42-0.50), an event in which she holds the Missouri school indoor record (14.06m/46-1.5).
UP NEXT
Next week, Missouri hosts its second of five consecutive home meets – the Show-Me Showdown – inside the Hearnes Center Fieldhouse on Friday, Jan. 16.
FOLLOW THE TIGERS
For all the latest on Mizzou Track and Field, stay tuned to MUTigers.com and follow the team on Facebook, Instagram and X (MizzouTFXC).
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