PITMAN, NJ — Rowan University junior Jason Agyemang (North Plainfield, NJ/North Plainfield) has been selected as the NJAC’s Thomas M. Gerrity Most Outstanding Athlete to highlight the 2025 NJAC Men’s Outdoor Track & Field All-Conference Team.
 
Additionally, The College of New Jersey freshman Maxim Rychkov (Robbinsville, NJ/Robbinsville) was named Outstanding Track Athlete; Stockton University sophomore Ahmad Fogg (Egg Harbor Twp., NJ/Egg Harbor Twp.) was named Outstanding Field Athlete; and Rowan freshman Jamir Brown (Riverside, NJ/Riverside) was named Rookie of the Year. Rowan head coach Dustin Dimit and his staff were voted the Bill Fritz Coaching Staff of the Year by their peers.
 

All-Conference honors were determined by finish at the recent NJAC Outdoor Track & Field Championship and major awards were voted on by the league’s nine head coaches.
 
Agyemang swept the hurdles over the weekend, hitting personal bests and NCAA top-10 times in both the 110 and 400 hurdles events. He ran the second-fastest 110 hurdles time in NCAA Division III this season with a time of 13.74 seconds. That ranks as the third-fastest all-time in D3 history. His winning time of 52.69 seconds in the 400 hurdles ranks as the sixth-fastest in D3 this year. Agyemang was a Week 6 NJAC Track Athlete of the Week.
 
Rychkov completes the sweep of the indoor and outdoor Outstanding Track Athlete honors in just his rookie season. He swept the sprints, cracking 21 seconds in the 200 meters with a 20.98. That time is a personal best, TCNJ school record, and currently the fifth-fastest in NCAA Division III this season. He posted a winning time of 10.51 seconds in the 100 meters and currently sits 21^st nationally in that event. The two-time NJAC Rookie of the Week also ran a leg of the Lions’ 4×100 meter relay squad that posted a 41.77 for second place.
 
Fogg also sweeps the season honors as both the indoor and outdoor Outstanding Field Athlete. He won the long jump with a season-best 7.34 meter leap, which ranks eighth in D3 this season as he seeks a nationals qualification. He also posted a season-best mark of 14.54 meters in the triple jump, finishing third in a tough field as all three top placers were within the NCAA top 20. Fogg was a Week 5 NJAC Field Athlete of the Week honoree.
 
Brown adds to the sweeps, taking home the outdoor Rookie of the Year honor to add to his indoor top rookie honor. The freshman hurdles sensation clocked a 13.60 in the 110 hurdles preliminary, setting a new NCAA D3 record, conference meet record, and Rowan program record. That time was also the best by a freshman among all NCAA divisions this year. He came in under the old NJAC championship meet record of 13.64 that stood for nearly 25 years, set by Glassboro State’s Garry Moore in 1981. In addition to his top D3 time in the 110 hurdles, he also currently owns the #11 time in the 400 hurdles.
 
Dimit and his staff are named the Bill Fritz Coaching Staff of the Year for the tenth consecutive season as he guided Rowan to its tenth straight outdoor title. Their 2025 Profs garnered 10 event wins, nine second-place finishes, and 10 third-place finishes en route to 313 points, which included four podium sweeps. They guided two major award winners in Most Outstanding Athlete Jason Agyemang and Rookie of the Year Jamir Brown, coaching the duo to top all-time D3 times in the 110 hurdles.
 

ESPN mainstay Around the Horn is in its last shows after an incredible run on the network. And on Thursday, the program welcomed back two former panelists in Kate Fagan and Jemele Hill.

Both individuals had not been on ESPN or Around the Horn in multiple years but made one last cameo as ATH welcomes back some of its favorite former panelists to say goodbye.

Fagan, who worked at ESPN as a writer for much of the 2010s and appeared as a panelist on Around the Horn and Outside the Lines, was triumphant in her final appearance. She used her Facetime segment at the end of the show to talk about a topic that was important to her – standing up for the rights of trans kids playing sports.

“Trans kids deserve to play sports”

Kate Fagan uses the final moments of her return to ESPN and ‘Around the Horn’ to go outside the lines once again: pic.twitter.com/j2sUbRQqOr

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 8, 2025

“Being on this show has been a privilege and a platform and I know it’s my last time on it and I want to say something worthy of that privilege and platform and that is this, trans kids deserve to play sports,” Fagan declared.

“Think about what you remember from your time playing sports. Like 99% of it is finding that jersey for the first time, your favorite number, community, joy, those high fives. It’s that moment when you have a great play with a teammate, it’s the feeling of belonging and it does not know gender. And trans kids deserve that the same as everybody else does.”

Given Fagan’s work as an author and advocate it was no surprise to see her take what has become a politically sensitive and hot button issue head on. In fact, the ability to talk about such subjects honestly and openly is what has separated Around the Horn from other programs on ESPN and elsewhere in the sports world.

In closing, Kate Fagan gave a special shoutout to Around the Horn and host Tony Reali for allowing writers and sports media personalities from all different kinds of backgrounds and perspectives to appear on the program over the years and have a platform to share these messages.

“And Tony, this space on Around the Horn has been about diversity and inclusion, lifting up new voices, because sports is joy. And sports is humanity. And the more people who have that, the better. And Tony, I love you. So thanks for having me back on,” Fagan concluded.

Although it originally started as a place to hear from veteran sportswriters around the country, one of the things that has made Around the Horn unique is its ability to showcase a sea of diverse voices. Hopefully Fagan’s plea for the joy and humanity of sports being available to all people will be heard over a sea of incoming criticism for Around the Horn and ESPN going “woke” once again.

COMMERCE – East Texas A&M University department of athletics celebrates 65 student-athletes that are participating in May commencement activities this weekend, which is a new record for the department in the Division I era.
 
Fifty-four student-athletes received their undergraduate degrees this weekend, while 11 received graduate degrees.
 
The student-athletes were honored at a reception on Friday morning, followed by the graduate commencement ceremony on Friday afternoon, while the undergraduates take part in the commencement ceremony on Saturday.
 
The following list of current or former student-athletes are participating in May commencement activities.
 

 

-ETAMU-

Pittsburgh, Pa. – The Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League (WPIAL) set its brackets for the WPIAL/UPMC Sports Medicine Boys’ Volleyball Championships on Friday, with 26 teams qualifying across the two classifications.
 
Teams competed in four different sections in both Class 2A and Class 3A, and faced each of their section opponents twice. The top three teams in each section earned qualification into the WPIAL playoffs.
 
There was one split section title in Class 3A with Canon-McMillan (14-2, 9-1) and Mt. Lebanon (13-1, 9-1) sharing Section I, while Greater Latrobe (15-1, 9-1) won Section II, North Allegheny (12-1, 7-1) took Section III, and Gateway (10-2, 8-2) captured Section IV. In Class 2A, the section champions were Derry (11-6, 8-0) in Section I, Shaler (13-1, 8-0) in Section II, Seton LaSalle (16-3, 8-0) in Section III, and Ambridge (13-1, 9-1) in Section IV.
 
Last season, Shaler defended the Class 3A title with a 3-1 victory over North Allegheny, while in Class 2A, Mars won its first WPIAL boys’ volleyball title after topping Armstrong, 3-0.
 
The WPIAL/UPMC Sports Medicine Boys’ Volleyball Championships begin on Tuesday, May 13 with first round games in Class 2A and Class 3A. Championship games will be held at AHN Arena on the campus of Peters Township High School between May 22-24. The WPIAL champion and additional teams in both classifications will qualify for the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) Boys’ Volleyball Championships, which begin with first round games on Tuesday, June 3 and conclude on Saturday, June 14 with the championship games at Rec Hall on the campus of Penn State University.
 
CLASS 3A CHAMPIONSHIP CAPSULE
Start Date: Tuesday, May 13
Championship Info: May 21-24 at AHN Arena (Peters Township HS) – TBA
Number of Qualifiers: 14
Top Four Seeds: #1 North Allegheny (12-1, 7-1), #2 Seneca Valley (12-3, 6-2), #3 Greater Latrobe (15-1, 9-1), #4 Hempfield Area (11-4, 7-3)
Qualifying Teams: Baldwin, Canon-McMillan, Central Catholic, Gateway, Greater Latrobe, Hempfield Area, Mt. Lebanon, North Allegheny, North Hills, Penn-Trafford, Peters Township, Pine-Richland, Seneca Valley, Upper St. Clair
2024 Final: Shaler 3, North Allegheny 1
 
CLASS 2A CHAMPIONSHIP CAPSULE
Start Date: Tuesday, May 13
Championship Info: May 21-24 at AHN Arena (Peters Township HS) – TBA
Number of Qualifiers: 12
Top Four Seeds: #1 Shaler (13-1, 8-0), #2 Ambridge (13-1, 9-1), #3 Seton LaSalle (16-3, 8-0), #4 North Catholic (9-5, 6-2)
Qualifying Teams: Ambridge, Deer Lakes, Derry, Hopewell, Mars, McKeesport, North Catholic, Seton LaSalle, Shaler, South Fayette, South Park, Thomas Jefferson
2024 Final: Mars 3, Armstrong 0

BY THE NUMBERS

• 87: The number of seasons that the WPIAL has crowned a boys’ volleyball champion. Coraopolis was the first champion, claiming the crown in 1936. There were no champions crowned in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• 25: The number of schools who have boasted at least one WPIAL boys’ volleyball champion.
• 22: The number of WPIAL boys’ volleyball championships won by North Allegheny, which is a league record. The Tigers were champions in 1985, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1999, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, and 2022.
• 18: The number of teams in the 2025 fields that qualified for the WPIAL Boys’ Volleyball Championships last season.
• 15: The number of schools who are seeking their first WPIAL boys’ volleyball championship. Those schools who would join the champion club are Canon-McMillan, Central Catholic, Gateway, Greater Latrobe, Hempfield Area, Hopewell, McKeesport, North Hills, Peters Township, Pine-Richland, Seneca Valley, South Fayette, South Park, Thomas Jefferson, and Upper St. Clair.
• 12: The number of instances in which the WPIAL boys’ volleyball champion also won gold in girls’ volleyball. The schools who have accomplished this are Baldwin (1995-96), Farrell (1985-86), Mt. Lebanon (1997-98, 2000-01), North Allegheny (1993-94, 2008-09, 2013-14, 2017-18, 2018-19, 2020-21, 2021-22), and North Catholic (2022-23). Mars and North Allegheny are the two schools able to accomplish the feat this spring.
• 8: The longest streak of consecutive WPIAL boys’ volleyball championships, accomplished by both North Allegheny and Penn Hills. The Tigers won eight straight from 2007 to 2014, while the Indians reigned from 1970 to 1977. 

CLASS 3A SECTION CHAMPIONS
Section I: Canon-McMillan (14-2, 9-1); Mt. Lebanon (13-1, 9-1)
Section II: Greater Latrobe (15-1, 9-1)
Section III: North Allegheny (12-1, 7-1)
Section IV: Gateway (10-2, 8-2)
 
CLASS 2A SECTION CHAMPIONS
Section I: Derry (11-6, 8-0)
Section II: Shaler (13-1, 8-0)
Section III: Seton LaSalle (16-3, 8-0)
Section IV: Ambridge (13-1, 9-1)
 
#WPIAL

LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ – The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference released the 2025 MAAC All-Academic Team for Men’s and Women’s Track and Field on Friday morning.
 
A total of 173 student athletes were named to the 2025 MAAC Men’s and Women’s Outdoor Track and Field All-Academic Team, announced by the league office. To be eligible for the MAAC All-Academic Team, a student-athlete must complete two semesters at their institution and hold a cumulative grade point average of 3.20 on a 4.0 scale.
 
Representing the Jaspers on the Men’s side were Peter Athanailos (Chemical Engineering), Alexander Bilello (Chemical Engineering), Jaiden Bradshaw (Mechanical Engineering), Paul Brennan (Master of Business Administration), Thomas Dubnov Raz (Management), Jackson Haft (Electrical Engineering), Alexander Kristeller (Master of Business Administration), Shane McCorry (Exercise Science), and Brian Oduor (Electrical Engineering).
 
On the Women’s side, Bekah Bouton (Business Analytics), Alexandra Caraher (Criminology), Natalia Cieslak (Chemical Engineering), Makayla Dorvil (Psychology), Martina Martinez Serra (Digital Media Art), Ashlee Okuonke (Computer Science), and Isabella Sing (Psychology).