NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Southern Connecticut Men’s Track & Field was named an NCAA Division II All-Academic team, as announced by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. Nevan Burke, Natanael Barbosa Torres, Osaretin Osagie, and Dylan Torok also named All-Academic recipients. 

The Owls continued their historic streak of dominance, winning their eighth straight Northeast 10 Indoor Track & Field Championship and their ninth straight Northeast 10 Outdoor Track & Field Championship. They placed fourth at the NEICAAA New England Outdoor Championships, and saw three athletes total four All-American nods across the indoor and outdoor seasons. They qualified as an NCAA DII All-Academic team by recording a 3.124 team GPA. 

The four All-Academic Owls met the following criteria: 

1. Minimum cumulative grade point average of a 3.25 on a 4.0 scale through the end of the semester of competition. Institutions utilizing a different GPA scale must convert the GPA to a 4.0 scale using the standard conversion method [GPA/Scale x 4.0]. Data must be certifiable by the institution’s registrar.
2. Must have been academically eligible at the National Championships in the respective season that his or her athletic mark was achieved in.
3. Must have finished the season among the top 50 individuals as listed on the descending order lists on TFRRS. In addition, any athletes not among the top 50, but who participated at the Indoor OR Outdoor National Championships, are eligible.
4. Must have competed as a member of one of the top 35 relay teams as listed on the descending order list on TFRRS. In addition, any athletes not among the top 35 relay teams, but who participated in the relay at the Indoor OR Outdoor National Championships, are eligible. Finally, any competing relay team member on an expanded descending order list to include 35 institutions (1 relay team per institution) is eligible.
5. Transfer students and/or graduate students are to include only grades earned at the current nominating institution.

Nevan Burke, who is pursuing an M.S. in Human Performance, had a phenomenal season in the Javelin Throw. He won the NE10 Javelin Championship for the first time after medaling the previous three seasons. He also placed fourth at the New England Championships. He graduated last year from SCSU with a bachelor’s in Biology

Natanael Barbosa Torres recorded the best season of his career in 2025, capped off with a All-Academic nod. He finished second in the Shot Put at both the indoor and outdoor NE10 championships, also earning a silver medal at the New England Championships. He qualified for the NCAA DII Indoor and Outdoor National Championships this year while pursuing an MBA in Management. 

Osagie was dominant on and off the track during the 2025 season. Across the Indoor and Outdoor NE10 Championships, Osagie brought home four medals, including wins in the 110m Hurdles and 400m Hurdles at the Outdoor Championships, where he was named the Most Outstanding Track Performer. At the New England Championships, he won the 110m Hurdles and the 4x400m Relay, also placing second in the 400m Hurdles. Osagie also made the first national appearance of his career when he qualified for the 2025 NCAA Division II Outdoor National Championships, and earned All-American Second Team honors after placing 11th in the 110m Hurdles. He was also selected as a CSC Academic All-America finalist, and was named to the 2025 Northeast-10 Conference Outdoor Track & Field Academic All-Conference team while pursuing a B.S. in Studio Art. 

Dylan Torok saw plenty of success on and off the track this season. Along with his All-Academic honor, he helped lead the Owls to two championships. He was named the NE10 Most Outstanding Field Athlete at the NE10 Indoor Championships for the second straight year after winning gold in the Heptathlon, also grabbing bronze medals in the High Jump and Pole Vault. He also finished third in the Pole Vault at the Outdoor championships, helping the Owls to their eighth and ninth straight NE10 Championships while pursuing an MBA in Finance. 
 

From left, Perry High School junior Ethan Butters left, and Greyson Carter pray before the 16 Open division championship match of the AAU Boys Junior National Volleyball Championships at Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida on June 3. A week later, Butters strokes a short-range putt at the Uswing Mojing Junior World Golf Championships at Torrey Pines’ South Course in San Diego, California. (Photo courtesy of Lisa Butters)

PHOENIX – In Orlando, Florida, one week, in San Diego the next. Taking second in an AAU national volleyball tournament. Surging for second in a junior golf world championship.

Ethan Butters, a junior at Gilbert’s Perry High School, nearly reached the pinnacle in two sports that couldn’t be more different. And he did so within seven days, with volleyball ending July 3 and golf July 10.

Ryan Tolman, Butters’ club and high school volleyball coach, was candid when asked if he’d ever heard of an athletic feat quite like this.

“Not even close,” Tolman said.

The 16-year-old in January declared his intent to focus on golf, and didn’t even play volleyball for Perry in the 2025 spring season. However, Butters wouldn’t be the golfer or athlete he is today without marrying the two together.

“Volleyball helps me with golf because of the strength training that I get out of it and like the fast twitch-like dynamic movements I get out of it,” Butters said. “Golf is a very mental game and having a really strong head is actually one of the biggest things in volleyball.

“My perfectionist mindset from golf also translates to volleyball, making me a little bit more refined and sharper.”

Tolman said he watched Butters last November in the final round of the AIA Division I Golf Championships at Laveen’s Aguila Golf Course, in which he finished third. With a puncher’s chance at the individual title on the short par-4 17th hole, Tolman noticed Butters pull out his driver without any hesitation. The gamble didn’t pay off with a birdie or eagle, but it spoke to Butters’ mentality and physical shape.

“His swing doesn’t change as he gets late in rounds and in tournaments just because he’s conditioned to last, and a lot of golfers aren’t,” Tolman said.

Butters’ fascination with golf began with plastic clubs and putting balls into cardboard boxes. The game quickly became an integral part of his childhood as Butters played every weekend with three of his uncles.

He competed in his first tournament before he was five years-old and in the U.S. Kids Golf World Championships in Pinehurst, North Carolina before he was six years old.

In April at Mesa’s Toka Sticks Golf Club, he qualified for another world championship: the Uswing Mojing Junior World Golf Championships at Torrey Pines’ South Course.

“He just has had that tournament golf lifestyle forever,” Lisa, Butters’ mother, said.

His volleyball timeline started a bit later and more casually.

Butters, beginning in fourth grade, played at a local YMCA with his parents and three younger siblings. Fast forward to seventh grade, and Butters stepped up his game and visibility by playing for Tempe’s Aspire Volleyball Club.

“He walked in the door and instantly our coaches saw a kid with some crazy talent,” Tolman said. “We had our team kind of already picked out, and this kid shows up and he’s better than all of them. … It was a match made in heaven.”

At 5-feet-7 and 145 pounds, Butters is a libero and his practicing, or “peppering,” partner Everett Wagner is one of eight fellow Perry Pumas on Aspire. This continuity was a big reason the Tempe club team got runners-up in the 16 Open division of the AAU Boys Junior National Volleyball Championships (June 30-July 3).

Going to battle with your friends is a thrill but falling just short is hard to swallow – the Aspire 16 Spiderman dropped the third and final set 16-14 to California’s Pulse 16-G. All three sets were decided by two points.

“When they lost nationals, it was like somebody died,” Lisa said. “I think the expectation was that they were actually going to win this year.”

“Before our last game when we lost in the finals, he kind of initiated … a little prayer on the court,” Wagner said.

But Butters’ state of devastation from a team loss quickly wore off with perhaps the most important individual task of his life just five days away.

Even though the focus was all on volleyball during AAU nationals in Orlando, Butters still brought his golf clubs along to keep his game sharp enough to compete.

“I ended up being really, really sharp come the tournament day,” Butters said. “I love doing them both (volleyball and golf) so much. I think that if I didn’t have the love for the game that I do for both, I definitely would not be playing.”

He trailed the eventual champion, Scottsdale’s Dylan Boenning, by five strokes entering the back nine in the third and final round. With a birdie on the par-5 18th hole – where Tiger Woods famously made a putt to force a playoff in the 2008 U.S. Open – Butters got within one of Boenning. A bogey-free 34 compared to Boenning’s 38 certainly made for an interesting finish.

“After we got home (from volleyball nationals), he said, ‘I’m utterly devastated,’” Lisa said. “When he got second at World’s, he was utterly stoked.”

“I expect myself to do a lot of great things, but I mean it’s just like such a difficult game,” said Butters on where he sits at this point in his career. “I kind of just take everything one step at a time and try to limit expectations and just go have a blast and play my hardest.”

Scott Uyeshiro, who has coached high school golf since 2016, witnessed a prime example of what Butters was capable of late in his first season at the helm of Perry boys golf.

At last year’s CUSD Invitational (Oct. 24-25) at Maricopa’s The Duke – Perry’s final tuneup before the state championship – Butters held off Hamilton junior Joseph Nelson by one stroke at 7 under par. A couple of pars on 17 and 18 secured the individual victory and a final round of 4-under-par 68.

“That was one tournament that impressed me because when you’re in that situation where you’re behind and then you get ahead, do you make mistakes?” Uyeshiro said. “But that was one I was like he was on his game, fairways and greens and down on his putting.”

The Pumas as a team were also neck-and-neck with Casteel in the district tournament. Casteel narrowly won the title by one but, in the case of a tie, each team would have chosen one player to enter a deciding sudden-death playoff.

Butters’ clutch performance that day made that hypothetical situation an easy one for Uyeshiro.

“I go, ‘Well, if we have a playoff hole, do you want to be that guy doing the playoff hole?’” Uyeshiro said. “And he’s like, ‘Absolutely.’ So I’m like, ‘There you go. That’s the guy that I want.’”

Butters, over years of high-intensity golf and volleyball competition, has developed sound “technical” skills and created repeatable motions in the eyes of Wagner.

That consistency has yielded other tangible results besides tournament success. Butters, as of Sunday, was ranked No. 206 on the nationwide Junior Golf Scoreboard and fifth-best in Arizona (No. 1 in the class of 2027).

He isn’t ready to blaze past high school yet, but Butters beginning June 15 could start speaking with college coaches and quite a few conversations have taken place. About a month into this process, Butters said he is considering seven programs including Arizona State, Stanford, USC and UCLA.

“It’s going to be definitely a really tough choice to make later down the road,” Butters said.

“I want to say that 90% of the (Division I) coaches that we’ve talked to tell him, ‘We want you because you don’t look like a golfer. (It’s) because you look strong and really athletic and physically, that’s what we’re looking for,’ which I find fascinating,” Lisa said. “And really, we owe that to volleyball.”

Besides the physical supplement of volleyball, Lisa said Butters’ first golf coach, Kay Cornelius, saved him from experiencing any burnout as early as 5 years old. Butters saw her for lessons until about the age of 10 but still connects with Cornelius as a mentor.

“He took a hiatus from golf for like six months as a young kid,” Lisa said. “I don’t know if we would have gotten the same (advice) from a male coach.”

Through the many highs and lows of golf and volleyball, Butters documents it all on his Instagram. An increased social media presence is not unique among his peers, but Lisa, who has helped him with his social footprint, said his intent even at 16 is to show younger aspiring athletes that it’s OK to post more than just the good stuff.

Golf is undoubtedly Butters’ priority, but that won’t stop him from continuing with Aspire and playing volleyball for Perry his remaining two seasons.

“I got so much better at golf over this season, so I was really happy I did that,”Butters said about skipping Perry’s boys volleyball season last spring. “I’m excited to get to play volleyball again this year and my senior year.”

Greyson Carter, a fellow Perry junior and volleyball teammate, said Butters’ talent at libero was missed despite the Pumas winning the 6A state championship after a 17-0 regular season.

His quiet leadership and humor will be welcomed as well.

“He’s so focused and he’s so good at the sport, but he’s also so freaking funny, dude,” Carter said. “We’re lucky to have a pretty solid replacement for him but I’m excited for him to come back.”

Butters has to wait until March to don a Perry volleyball jersey but his golf calendar will be jam-packed with top amateur events and the high school matches off and running Aug. 19.

“Just kind of sticking to my plan and staying disciplined about it,” Butters said.

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa men’s swimmer Karol Ostrowski will represent Poland at the World Aquatics Championships on July 26 and 27, in Singapore. Ostrowski is set to make his World Championships debut, competing as part of Poland’s 4×100 meter freestyle relay team.

Ostrowski set records in this year’s NCAA Championships, Big West Championships and SMU Invitational.

He previously represented Poland on the international stage, including appearances at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, the 2022 European Championships, the FINA World Cup and the FINA World Swimming Championships.

The schedule and results for the World Championships can be found on worldaquatics.com.

Read more at Hawaiiathletics.com.

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Betsy Butterick a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Betsy , we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

My purpose was born from life experience… I began playing organized sports when I was 3 (soccer) and played competitive sports through college. My athletic experience has shaped the person I’ve become, and it was a natural progression for me to go from playing sports to coaching sports. During my coaching career I learned that “coaching” was something that existed outside of sports, and when I learned that I could coach people that fit perfectly with my desire to be of service and my passion for the field of psychology. My work as a communication specialist evolved out of a demonstrated need in the coaching profession – I now get to help shorten the distance between intention and impact by helping coaches and athletes improve the quality of their communication.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I’m an executive coach for coaches of all sports and work as a communication specialist with athletic departments, teams, and organizations. I support high-performance by working on the people side of sports, specifically by optimizing communication between coaches and athletes.

I love what I get to do because it’s dynamic, impactful, and always changing. There is no one “best way” to communicate, and since communication is a skill, anyone at any time is able to improve the quality of their communication. Small shifts in language facilitate big shifts in connection, understanding, learning and development – and its SO MUCH FUN to play in this space.

Much of my recent work focuses on helping coaches better understand, communicate, and connect with Gen Z and Gen Alpha athletes. Coaches of older generations experience a variety of challenges in coaching “kids these days” and my research in the field + work as a practitioner puts me in the field and at the forefront of a changing sports landscape.

My upcoming book, “Kids These Days: Effective Strategies for Coaching Gen Z and Beyond” will be available in October 2025, and serves as a resource for coaches of all sports to work collaboratively with today’s athletes.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

1. Seek to be of value before ever being asked to be of service. If you have something valuable to contribute to others, put it out into the world. Consistently providing value to others gives them the confidence to reach out when they are in need because you’ve “proven your worth” over time.

2. Curiosity is the key. Seek to learn from every experience and every conversation. Hold what you “know” lightly and leave space to unlearn, relearn, and be “wrong” often… a genuine curiosity will open doors to new experiences, insights, and opportunities.

3. Actionable is priceless. In everything I do I seek to transfer knowledge to people so that they have what they need to take immediate action on an area they desire. Theory is wonderful, but if you can build the bridge from theory to application in a way that helps folks take action – that’s the sweet spot for contribution!

Best advice: even if you’re not yet doing what you’d ideally like to do, look for opportunities to build skills that will add value to your vision. For years I held various jobs that enabled me to hone certain skills (facilitation, public speaking, written communication, navigating adversity, collaboration under pressure) that I now utilize in my daily work.

What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?

The most impactful thing my parents did for me was to love me and love each other. That may sound silly, but growing up in a home that was filled with love, open conversation, space for feelings, and genuine care and respect laid the foundation for me to take risks and pursue challenge without questioning my worth. I learned how to treat people well and the foundational skills my parents offered support the strong relationships I have in my personal and professional life.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

All photos are mine 🙂

SEARCY – Eleven members of the Harding University men’s track and field team have earned All-Academic Athlete honors from the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) for their outstanding performance both in competition and in the classroom during the recent season.

To qualify for the prestigious individual award, student-athletes must maintain a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.25 on a 4.0 scale through the end of the semester of competition. Additionally, they must have either finished among the top 50 individuals on the TFRRS descending order lists in their respective events, competed at the NCAA Indoor or Outdoor National Championships, or been a member of a top-35 ranked relay team (or participated in a relay at the national championships).

The 11 Harding Bisons recognized for their academic and athletic achievements are:

• Hayes Cox (Kinesiology & Health Education) – 3.44 GPA, No. 22 in Outdoor 4×100 relay

• Christian Erkert (Management) – 3.25 GPA, No. 50 in Javelin

• Casen Hammitt (Strength and Conditioning) – 3.37 GPA, No. 19 in Javelin

• Spencer Helms (Exercise Science) – 3.65 GPA, No. 14 in Discus

• Anton Kopytko (Kinesiology & Sport Administration) – 3.90 GPA, No. 7 in Outdoor Long Jump

• Vlad Malykhin (Kinesiology & Sport Administration) – 3.62 GPA, Indoor and Outdoor Pole Vault National Champion

• Donald Nwamere (Information Systems) – 3.56 GPA, No. 22 in Outdoor 4×100 relay

• Caledon Ruwende (Civil Engineering) – 4.00 GPA, No. 19 in Outdoor 200 meters

• Derick St. Jean (Management and Business Ethics) – 3.67 GPA, No. 35 in Indoor 400 meters

• Lukas Stiper (Teaching English as a 2nd Language) – 3.58 GPA, No. 14 in Discus

• Luke Walling (Kinesiology & Health Education) – 3.34 GPA, No. 45 in Outdoor 10,000 meters

Notably, Vlad Malykhin was named the 2025 NCAA Division II Men’s Indoor Track & Field National Scholar Field Athlete of the Year. Malykhin, who maintained a cumulative GPA of 3.62, further distinguished himself by winning the pole vault at the 2025 NCAA DII Indoor Track & Field Championships.

In addition to the individual honors, the Harding men’s track and field team earned the USTFCCCA All-Academic Team award, boasting a cumulative team GPA of 3.19. To qualify for this team distinction, programs must maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher.

About the USTFCCCA All-Academic Awards: The USTFCCCA annually recognizes NCAA Division I, II, and III student-athletes and teams for their academic achievements in collegiate cross country and track & field. These awards highlight the commitment of student-athletes to excellence in both their athletic endeavors and academic pursuits.

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – The University of San Francisco cross country program and Head Coach Jordan Carpenter have officially announced the schedule for the 2025 season.

“We are excited to begin the 2025 cross country season,” Carpenter said. “We wanted to put a significant emphasis on testing ourselves against the best teams in the country. This season will certainly challenge our runners, as we will face multiple top teams from the West region. These high-level opportunities will best prepare the groups as we build towards improved finishes at the conference and national levels for both the men’s and women’s squads.”

The 2025 campaign begins at home when San Francisco hosts the 32nd annual USF Invitational at Golden Gate Park on August 29. Both the men’s and women’s programs earned a sixth-place finish last season, highlighted by Zach Elam securing ninth out of 123 competitors, while Natálie Hluší earned 10th on the women’s side.

Traveling to Davis the following weekend, the Dons compete in the Stump Invitational on September 13 before heading south for the UC Riverside Invitational on September 27.

Returning home to begin the final month of the regular season, the team participates in the SF Invitational at Golden Gate Park on October 10 and then travels to Columbia, Mo., to compete in the Pre-National Invitational at Missouri for the first time in program history on October 18.

Wrapping up the regular season, the Dons travel to the South Bay for their final meet on October 18, when it takes part in the Bronco Invitational, hosted by Santa Clara, at Baylands Regional Park.

Postseason play begins on November 1 when San Francisco competes in the West Coast Conference Championship in Spokane, Wash.

The full 2025 San Francisco cross country schedule can be viewed here.

For more information on the San Francisco cross country and track and field programs, follow @donsxctf on Twitter, @donsxctf on Instagram, and @donsxctf on Facebook.