Veronica Rauch had a choice; attend her high school graduation at St. Ignatius College Prep, or play in the IHSA State Quarterfinals for girls’ water polo. Both were happening just an hour apart.

As team captain, Rauch chose the latter. Rauch said there wasn’t even a decision to be made when it came to attending graduation or playing water polo.

“I’m the goalie, and I’m on the team, and it’s my responsibility and my desire to be at that game,” she said. “It’s a huge accomplishment for the team, and because of the accomplishment, I want to be there. Because of the name of the game, I want to be there.”

St. Ignatius water polo head coach Nicole Lum said the game was a nailbiter.

“I’ve been coaching a long time, and I’ve never experienced anything quite like it,” she said.

“We had a player who got out there who had not played water polo before this season. She’s a junior, and she got in there, and she gave us a goal; and it was an incredible, incredible moment,” Rauch said.

That was followed by an incredible moment. Dr. Sterling Brown, the prefect of studies – or principal – at St. Ignatius, brought the graduation to Rauch.

“I knew it was far, but I didn’t realize what the timing would be,” he said.

The graduation was at 6 p.m. The game was at 7 p.m. Brown made the drive from the graduation in Chicago to Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, where the state quarterfinals were taking place.

“My experience for her has been four years of giving to this place, and I’m glad that in a very small way, we could give something back,” he said.

As for the game, the team didn’t win.

“They gave a Herculean effort, every last one of them. It was fantastic,” Lum said.

But Rauch said, in the end, one thing mattered most.

“The way we played was a win in itself,” she said.

Now that she has graduated, Rauch is heading to University of Alabama, where she’s going to study vocal performance. She wants to be an opera singer one day.

If her beautiful singing voice wasn’t enough, Rauch also speaks several languages, among them Mandarin.

Audrey MacLean and Zoe Wang of the Middlebury women’s track and field team opened competition at the three-day NCAA Championship taking place at the SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio.
 
HIGHLIGHTS

• Wang led off the day in the pole vault, finishing in 22nd place with a height of 3.60 meters. 
• MacLean was one of 12 athletes to qualify for the finals in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. The Panther led the way, crossing the line in first with a clocking of 10:33.39. 

MacLean competes in the final on Friday at 4:55 p.m. and participates in the 5,000 on Saturday at 4:25 p.m. Emily Rubio kicks off Friday competition with the high jump at 11:30 a.m.

MISSOULA — The Montana track and field program will send five athletes to College Station, Texas, next week for the NCAA West First Round. Ashley Carroll, Matthew Hockett, Kyle Iorg, Carson Weeden and Erin Wilde will represent the Grizzlies at the regional meet.

The top 48 athletes from the West Region qualify for the First Round, which will be held May 28-31.

Wilde, the now five-time Big Sky Champion in the women’s high jump, will be making her third straight appearance at regionals. She placed 38th as a freshman and 27th as a sophomore.

The Whitefish product is tied for 34th in the West with her mark of 5-10 set earlier this year at the Al Manuel Invitational.

Ashley Carroll reached the First Round in the women’s javelin. The runner-up at last week’s Big Sky Championship, Carroll has a season-best mark of 152-7 set at the Bengal Invitational on May 2. She ranks 47th in the region.

Carroll is making her first regional appearance. The sophomore from Shepherd placed fourth in the Big Sky as a freshman and followed it up with a second-place finish in 2025.

The Grizzlies will have two representatives in the men’s javelin competition. Kyle Iorg and Matthew Hockett will both be competing on Wednesday.

Iorg is ranked 21st in the West with a mark of 226-10 set at the Bengal Invitational on May 2. The true freshman improved in three straight meets during the regular season to reach the mark. He placed third at the Big Sky Championships last week.

Senior Matthew Hockett, who finished as the runner-up at the Big Sky Championships, will be going to his third career regional meet. He placed 41st in 2022 and 35th in 2023 before redshirting last season.

Hockett is ranked 28th in the region with his mark of 223-2 set in the season opening Al Manuel Invitational.

Carson Weeden locked up his spot in the First Round with a school-record performance at the Big Sky Championships. Weeden had a triple PR in Sacramento to finish second in the league with a mark of 17-4.5.

Weeden is ranked 27th in the region with his mark and will be making his first regional appearance.

Hockett and Iorg will compete on Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. Weeden will also be in action on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. The women’s javelin competition for Carroll begins at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, and Wilde will wrap up Montana’s meet at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday.

CHICAGO – The NCAA announced Thursday afternoon that DePaul Track and Field has a total of 11 athletes with qualifying marks for the NCAA Championships West Preliminary Rounds in College Station, Texas. The total marks a significant jump from last year’s program-record eight qualifiers. The Blue Demons will be represented in sprints, throws, distance, jumps, and hurdles in what head coach Dave Dopek calls the “most complete group” the program has ever brought to the national stage.
 
Among the returners are All-American Darius Brown (110m hurdles, 4x100m) who is making his fourth-straight appearance. He is joined by Alex Bernstein (hammer throw) and Jaiah Hopf (triple jump), each earning their third appearance, and Kash Allen (shot put), making her second. The remaining seven Blue Demon athletes are set to make their NCAA postseason debut.
 
On the women’s side, Jessica Beckman (discus), Jaiah Hopf (triple jump), and freshman Tessa Roe (steeplechase) earned bids, with all three securing top-40 regional rankings behind season-best efforts at either the BIG EAST Championships or the Gary Wieneke Memorial. Additionally, Kash Allen holds the No. 34 regional ranking in the shot put after winning the third BIG EAST title of her career.
 
Brown is joined on the men’s 4x100m squad by Dominic Cole, Charles Lewis, and Demetrius Rolle, who also qualified individually in the 100m. Dustin Hudak (800m), Jaiden Gary (shot put), and Bernstein round out the men’s qualifiers, with Paul Goins and Amaru Mazibuko traveling as relay alternates.
 

The NCAA West Preliminary Rounds will take place May 28-31 at E.B. Cushing Stadium on the campus of Texas A&M. The top 12 in each event will advance to the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Ore.
 
FOLLOW THE BLUE DEMONS

For all of the latest on DePaul Cross Country, Track & Field, stay tuned to DePaulBlueDemons.com and follow the team on Facebook, Instagram, and X.

BOCA RATON, Fla. – Florida Atlantic beach volleyball senior Sydney Schroder sat down with Assistant Coach Kristi Tekavec for this week’s Inside the Owl’s Burrow: Life’s A Beach segment.
 
Coach Tekavec has been an instrumental part of the Sandy Owls’ success over her five seasons in Boca Raton.
 
Tekavec joined Florida Atlantic in 2020 as a volunteer assistant before being elevated to Assistant Coach in the fall of 2022.
 
The Owls have had tremendous success over the past five seasons, winning three conference championships (2021, 2023, 2025), in addition to earning three NCAA Championship appearances, including the program’s first in 2022. FAU has also had three 20+ win seasons during that span, including a program record 23 wins during the 2022 season.
 
Coach Tekavec also currently competes professionally in the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP).
 
Enjoy getting to know Coach Tekavec on Life’s a Beach presented by Inside the Owls’ Burrow.

FOLLOW THE SANDY OWLS

For updates, follow @FAUBeachVB on X and Instagram, or like FAU Beach Volleyball on Facebook.

 

ST. MARY’S CITY, Md. – Stanford sailing won its second national championship of the season on Friday evening, capturing the ICSA Women’s Fleet Race Championship for the third consecutive season. 

The Cardinal paced a strong 18-team field with 198 points, holding off runner-up Tulane (209 pts) and third-place Harvard (223 pts) through 16 races. 

Friday’s victory marks the program’s seventh overall national championship, as Stanford became the first school to win three consecutive Women’s Fleet Race Championships since the United States Naval Academy from 1979-81.

The Cardinal has been particularly dominant since claiming the program’s first women’s national title in 2023, having now won five of the last six national regattas. 

“This championship required a full team’s effort. Our team came together, picked each other up and found a level required to take home hardware,” said head coach Chris Klevan, who has guided the Cardinal to six national team crowns. “This year’s team took the lessons learned watching legends of the past and applied them to the present. That speaks to something more than just two days of hard work and perseverance. Our competition made the challenge harder, but in turn, the victory seemed extra sweet. I could not be more proud.”

Stanford varsity teams have now won 171 national championships overall (77 men, 92 women, 2 coed). This is Stanford’s fourth national team title of the 2024-25 campaign. In addition to Sailing also winning the ICSA Women’s Team Race championship last month, the Cardinal has secured national crowns in Artistic Swimming and Women’s Water Polo.

Action kicked off on Tuesday and Wednesday with the Eastern Semifinals, where the Cardinal outperformed the likes of Cornell, Boston College and Harvard. Over two days of competition, Stanford tallied 69 points and secured four victories, finishing with an 18-point lead over the rest of the field.

Following a rain-shortened Thursday session which featured just three races across both divisions, the Cardinal stood in fourth place in the team standings, trailing leader Tulane by 12 points.

The action continued on Friday as the Cardinal flourished in the final 13 races of the championship, taking a lead it never surrendered after six races. Fueled by six wins in the A division and 10 top-10 placements in the B division, Stanford held strong to secure its third straight Women’s Fleet Race title.

Vanessa Lahrkamp and Alice Schmid led the A division with seven wins and 52 points in 15/16 completed races. Lahrkamp teamed up with Ashtyn Tierney for a fifth place finish in race 7 to put the A division trio at 57 points overall, clearing Harvard’s Cordelia Burn and Margo Silliman by 32 points.

“B” boat duties were handled by a combination of Cardinal duos, starting with Ellie Harned and Kit Harned, who earned 67 points through the first eight races. The remaining eight races were controlled by Sophie Fisher and Piper Blackband with the duo recording 63 points as the Cardinal “B” boat earned an eighth place finish with 130 points overall.