MILWAUKEE – Divine Aniamaka, Natalie Block, Jaelyn Reeves-Lile, and Olivia VanZeeland of the Milwaukee track & field teams have qualified to compete at the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds, taking place May 28-31 in College Station, Texas.
 

The West Regional athletes with the top 48 marks in their respective events will be competing at Texas A&M’s E.B Cushing Stadium across four days. The meet will be available to watch live on ESPN+ starting at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday, and at 5:00 p.m. the final two days.
 

 The top 12 athletes in each event will advance from the first-round sites to the NCAA Track & Field Championships, held from June 11-14 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.
 
Returning to the West Prelims in both the 100m and 400m hurdles for the second year in a row will be Block. After claiming Horizon League titles in both races, she will look to punch her ticket to Oregon for the second time in the 400m hurdles, and add her first trip in the 100m hurdles.
 
The only Panther making their second regional appearance, Block currently ranks 17th in the West in the 100m hurdles with a top time of 13.16, and 22nd in the 400m hurdles at 57.71.
 
Block will run in the first round of both events on Thursday, the 100m hurdles will begin at 6:00 p.m. then she will finish the day with the 400m hurdles at 8:20 p.m. The top 24 finishers in the first round will advance the quarterfinal round held on Saturday.
 
Reeves-Lile made the cut after a tremendous finish to the season saw him win league titles and set school records in the 100m and 200m dashes. His time in the 200m dash of 20.51 puts him at 14th in the regional rankings, while he checks in at 35th on the 100m dash leaderboard with a mark of 10.24.
 
Reeves-Lile is set to be the first Panther in action on Wednesday, starting in the 100m at 7:00 p.m. before finishing in the 200m at 8:45 p.m. Both quarterfinals are scheduled for Friday should he advance.
 
VanZeeland earned her spot in the competition back on Apr. 17 when she cleared 1.80m in the high jump to leave her tied for 23rd in the region’s rankings and topple the program record. She continued her stellar season at the Horizon League Championships where she claimed her second high jump title with a mark of 1.75m. She will compete for her spot at Nationals on Saturday at 3:30 p.m.
 
Rounding out the qualifiers will be Aniamaka, who recorded his best triple jump performance of the season at the league championships with a leap of 15.39m. The distance placed him 38th in the West and tied for the best jump in school history. He is slated to compete on Friday at 2:30 p.m.
 

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – When talking about all-time University of Hawaii at Manoa volleyball rivals, Long Beach State is right up there.

Caught in the middle is DiAeris McRaven.

“Coming back, I always feel the love from the fans, even when they were mad at me for scoring against UH,” said McRaven. “I still feel the love. I get the leis from all the aunties and uncles. As much as I’m the enemy, they make me feel like I’m back at home.”

The Honolulu native grew up dominating on the basketball court until his sophomore year at Moanalua, when he finally took his mom’s advice.

“My mom played volleyball back in Japan,” McRaven said. “She was on the junior national team in Japan as well. My mom always wanted me to play… Relative to a lot of my teammates, I started pretty late.”

Though with athleticism like his, it didn’t take long to catch up.

However, when it came to post-graduation plans, McRaven said, “Obviously every kid wants to go to Division I right out of high school, realizing I had to go the junior college route was challenging. Obviously not my first choice, but I just put my head down and kept working.”

After two years at Southern California’s Orange Coast College, he made the leap, not only to a DI program, but to a team that fought for a national championship the year prior against Hawaii.

Fast forward to this season, where he ended his collegiate career with his own national title run. He led the Beach with five blocks in their championship match sweep of the University of California, Los Angeles.

“Obviously you dream about those moments,” McRaven said. “You see it growing up, like ‘Wow, I wonder what it feels like to be there, to be a national champion.’ I still don’t really grasp the weight of it.”

McRaven says his playing days aren’t quite over yet, he plans to pursue opportunities overseas.

Then he wants to make a career out of filmmaking, a craft he also picked up in high school.

“I love movies and I love making small stories in my head, watching a film and going ‘Oh what if this happened,’” he said. “Or what if they took a different route, and I think subconsciously I always had that film-making passion in me, but didn’t realize it.”

McRaven says attending Long Beach State was a blessing for him. Being near Hollywood, he had the opportunity to meet other filmmakers in the industry.

Copyright 2025 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.

JACKONSVILLE – Austin Peay State University track and field junior Alexis Arnett was named to the Atlantic Sun Conference All-Academic Team, the league announced Wednesday.

In the classroom, Arnett earned a 3.92 GPA while working towards her nursing degree.

On the track, Arnett earned six top five finishes throughout the Governors’ outdoor season. She began the outdoor campaign by helping to lead the Governors to a third-place finish in the 4×400-meter relays at Georgia Tech’s Yellow Jacket Invitational, March 22. She then posted a personal best in the 200-mter at Ole Miss’ Joe Walker Invitational, April 4.

After posting a personal best in the 400-mter dash at the ASUN Outdoor Track and Field Championship, the Union City, Georgia native earned a fifth-place finish during the finals of the event and also helped Austin Peay secure a silver medal in the 4×400-meter relay.

Arnett’s ASUN All-Academic Team selection is her second of the year, as she received the same honor following the indoor season. 

2025 ASUN Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Postseason Honors

Track Performer of the Year: Smilla Kolbe, North Florida 

Field Performer of the Year: Joia Perry, Central Arkansas 

Freshman Performer of the Year: Edna Chelulei, EKU 

Scholar Athlete of the Year: Amelia Svidal, Bellarmine 

Academic All-ASUN Team 

Name School

Amelia Svidal Bellarmine 

Alexis Arnett Austin Peay 

Kylie Coleman Central Arkansas 

Irene Rubio-Miralles EKU 

**Mackenzie Barnett Lipscomb 

Liza Corso Lipscomb 

*Anna Richardson Lipscomb 

Hannah Wright Lipscomb 

*Celine D’Anna North Florida 

*Smilla Kolbe North Florida 

Héloïse Louiset Queens 

Halle Perry Queens 

Palm Desert grad Ben Braun had spent two unceremonious years on the Ohio State volleyball team that were marked by injuries, illness and no clear path to playing time, so he decided to do what so many college athletes do nowadays and enter the transfer portal.