NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Southern Connecticut Women’s Outdoor Track & Field brought home three NCAA Division II Regional Awards, as announced by the USTFCCCA. Hannah Caiola was named the East Region Track Athlete of the Year, Melissa Stoll Funaro was named the East Region Coach of the Year, and Brian Nill was named the East Region Assistant Coach of the Year. 

Caiola, who hails from Glastonbury, Connecticut, earned First-Team All-America honors in the 400 meters at the NCAA DII Outdoor Championships. Earlier in the season, Caiola starred at the NE10 Championships with individual titles in both the 200 meters and 400 meters, and a tote on the winning 4×100 relay. She also won the award for the 2025 indoor season. 

Stoll Funaro, in her 13th year as Head Coach at Southern Connecticut, led the Owls to the team title at the Northeast 10 Conference Championships, winning 11 events and scoring 246 points. Southern Connecticut also had one First-Team All-America at the NCAA DII Outdoor Championships – Hannah Caiola in the 400 meters.

Nill, in his 10th year as assistant coach at Southern Connecticut, coached the Owls’ middle- and long-distance runners to combined for 76 of the team’s 246 points in winning the team title at the Northeast 10 Conference Championships. Four of his athletes also earned All-New England honors at the NEICAAA Championships.

WATERVILLE, Maine (WABI) – Thomas sophomore Emma Burr finished in sixth place in the heptathlon at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships last month.

Burr landed in the top 20 as a freshman and made the podium and first team All-American in her second college season.

“Coming from a small school, I feel very helpful to growing the program and getting a lot of attention out there for MCI and for Thomas. Being able to be an athlete, I am very proud of that,” said Burr.

Burr graduated from MCI and is studying entrepreneurship during her Terriers career.

Copyright 2025 WABI. All rights reserved.

Courtesy canoeicf.com

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has confirmed 10 medal events in the Paralympic Games LA28 programme. 

The International Canoe Federation has welcomed the IPC Governing Board’s decision that will see gender equality achieved again in terms of medal events and athlete quotas.

Medals will be up for grabs in six kayak and four va’a events, with 100 athlete quotas — 50 male and 50 female — on offer for LA28.

Programme  

• Men: KL1, KL2, KL3, VL2, VL3

• Women: KL1, KL2, KL3, VL2, VL3

The move comes after the resounding success of Paris 2024, where five men’s and five women’s events made it the biggest Paracanoe programme at a Paralympic Games.

The continuity shows the global nature of Paracanoe, with all five continents featuring on the medals table of the Paralympic Games for the first time at Paris 2024.

Among the many firsts in Paris was the victory of Algerian Brahim Guendouz, who stormed to the men’s KL3 gold medal in France, a first at the Games for the African continent.

Joining Algeria in a first medal at the Games was China’s Yongyuan Zhong, who claimed bronze in the women’s VL3.

The ICF Canoe Sprint and Paracanoe World Cup in Poznan, Poland, last month saw the return of Paracanoe more than eight months after the Paralympic Games.

The integration of Paracanoe with Canoe Sprint at ICF events not only recognises the excellence of athletes with disabilities but also increases awareness and exposure, especially with the extensive TV coverage on offer.

“I’m pleased that the IPC has agreed to affirm the existing 10 medal event programme we had at the 2024 Paris Games,” John Edwards, Chair of the ICF Paracanoe Committee, said.

“Of course, we had asked for inclusion of the VL1 events which they have declined to include, and this is a disappointment.

“We must continue to expand our participation in our ICF competitions so that the IPC is persuaded to add more events for the 2032 Games in Brisbane.”

LA28 will be Paracanoe’s fourth successive appearance at the Paralympic Games after successful showings at Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020, and Paris 2024.

Paracanoe events at LA28 will be held at the Marine Stadium, Long Beach.

 
Ten Chargers represented Hillsdale in the USA Shooting National Shotgun Championship held at Hillsdale College’s own Halter Center from May 21 through June 1. The event both determined national champions in Olympic Trap and Skeet and selected USA Shooting Teams which are eligible to represent the nation at competitions across the world.
 
International Skeet was the first event of the match. Rising junior Madeline Corbin broke 232/250 targets, the 5^th highest score of any woman in attendance. Once finals were concluded, she earned the silver medal in the Junior Women’s category. Hillsdale athletes swept the Collegiate podium for this discipline with senior Jordan Sapp, Corbin, and senior Kyle Fleck taking 1^st through 3^rd respectively. Senior Davis Hay’s combined performance at this match and this past Spring’s selection match earned him a spot on the US Junior National Team.
 
In International Trap, junior Ava Downs had an incredible week. She tied for the 3^rd highest score of any woman at the match with 217/250 targets broken. When the dust settled, she was crowned the 2025 Junior Women’s National Champion as well as taking home the bronze in Open Women. She was selected to both the US National Team and Junior National Team. Senior Sophia Bultema earned the silver medal in the Para Trap category.
 
 
 
Skeet results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XqGnqOcHIX6powkBsv2FHq24S_k-yJS9/edit?gid=1675220492#gid=1675220492
 
Davis Hay – Selected to USA Junior National Team
Madeline Corbin – 2^nd Junior Women
Jordan Sapp – 1^st Collegiate
Madeline Corbin – 2^nd Collegiate
Kyle Fleck – 3^rd Collegiate
 
 
Trap: results https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nRTsF88tWU3lMbZ3-GsrcYXbr355_DE6/edit?gid=1675220492#gid=1675220492
 
Ava Downs – Selected to USA National Team, Junior National Team
Ava Downs – 1^st Junior Women
Ava Downs – 3^rd Open Women
Sophia Bultema – 2^nd Para
 

This story was originially published in February of 2025, but we wanted to spotlight Athlete Ally once again during Pride Month!

Over the past five years or so, student-athlete advocacy in the NCAA has grown by leaps and bounds. At Brandeis, the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), which has been an active part of student-athlete life for decades, has seen an increase in affinity groups. These smaller subsets of the SAAC enable student-athletes with shared experiences to have a place to grow within those groups and discuss issues that affect them. In addition to Student-Athletes of Color (SAOC) and Athletes Without Borders for international students, this year, Brandeis Athletics is sponsoring an Athlete Ally chapter for LGBTQ student-athletes.

The idea to bring an Athlete Ally chapter to Brandeis started in earnest during the spring of 2024 when Steven Bunson ’82 and his wife, Joy, who sits on the board of directors for the national Athlete Ally organization, reached out about a Brandeis student-athlete attending Athlete Ally’s annual Athlete Activism Summit.  Rani Balakrishna ’25 of the softball team, who currently serves as President of the Brandeis Student Union, eagerly accepted. 

For two-and-a-half days at the Summit in Louisville, Kentucky, last summer, Rani met with student-athletes, coaches and administrators from around the country and from all levels of the NCAA. 

“We brainstormed ideas and listened to speakers,” Rani said, including Dr. John Carlos, the bronze-medal-winning 200-meter runner from the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, known for his raised-fist protest along with gold medalist Tommie Smith on the podium. 

“We talked about how to be inclusive of queer folks through sports. One of the most important things I learned about being queer in collegiate athletics is that it doesn’t look like one thing at all.”

Inspired by her time at the summit, and with financial help from the Bunsons and other generous donors, and the on-the-ground assistance of staff members Dempsey and baseball coach Derek Carlson ’91. 

“I wanted to be involved with Athlete Ally because I think it is important for LGBTQIA+ athletes to compete as their authentic selves,” said coach Carlson. “It’s also important for us as coaches, administrators, and teammates to demonstrate the importance of inclusivity in sport.”

With a full plate on campus already, Rani worked diligently to find like-minded student-athletes who could help her start an Athlete Ally chapter at Brandeis.  Among those she enlisted were classmates and softball teammates Fiona Doiron ’25 and Anna Kolb ’25, and a pair of incoming first-years, Elle Yung ’28 of the track and field team and Jordan Wallace ’28, also of the softball team. 

Elle had been involved with advocacy at the Trinity School in New York City, serving as president of Trinity’s Gender Sexuality Alliance, where she was able to help educate the entire student body about her experiences living life as a queer person. She was also inspired by meeting another trans track student-athlete, Artemis Reynolds ’24. Jordan was drawn to Brandeis because of the level of acceptance she felt at Brandeis as a whole, through the University’s Gender and Sexuality Center. 

“Coming into college as a trans athlete, I felt the need to have a platform to educate people,” Elle said. “Not only that, considering the political climate we are in, queer athletes and queer people in general needed a support group and a sense of community in order to talk and get through the hard times.”

Since getting started last fall, Athlete Ally has focused on finding representation in the organization from all 19 of Brandeis varsity teams as well as the 22 club sports so that smaller moments can start to feel bigger and bigger.  The organization will hold its first big event on Friday, February 7, when it hosts a Pride Night during Brandeis’s basketball doubleheader against University Athletic Association rivals Washington University. The men face the Bears at 5:30 pm and the women at 7:30 pm. Both teams will be sporting rainbow tape on their uniforms and shoes. There will be raffles and food for all those in attendance as well as stickers with a Pride-themed version of Athletics’ new ‘B’ logo. Triskelion, the University’s long-time queer affinity group, and Intersection, the more recent group for queer people of color, will have informational tables.

“I view this as a huge visibility opportunity for Athlete Ally,” Elle said. “We can create more dialogue with students, starting with ‘Oh, that Pride game was cool.'”

As a whole, the 2024-25 college sports season is coming to an end. However, there are still a couple sports going. We of course have the NCAA Baseball Tournament getting into crunch time, with the Diamond Heels advancing to super regionals against Arizona. However next week in Eugene, Oregon, we’ll have the NCAA Track & Field championships taking place.

As a team, the North Carolina Tar Heels men’s or women’s track teams aren’t likely to compete for the overall team championships, but there are several Heels that will compete in individual events. Ahead of the action kicking off on June 11th, let’s take a look at the Carolina T&F athletes headed to Eugene.

On the men’s side of things, runner Ethan Strand has made arguably the biggest waves of any UNC T&Fer in recent years. Back during the indoor season, he won the national championship in the 3000m, while setting records both in that event and the mile.

Not surprisingly, he will also be in the running — pun somewhat intended — in some events at the NCAA outdoor championships. Strand has qualified for both the men’s 1500m and 5000m events. He will be joined in the 5000 by fellow Heel Colton Sands, who just snuck into the event as the final qualifier for the championships.

The other Tar Heel man headed to Eugene will be Tommy Kitchell. Having won the ACC Championship in the shot put, Kitchell has set school records this season, and will now look to continue that with a good performance at NCAAs.

On the women’s side of things, UNC’s biggest hope is probably runner Makayla Paige in the 800m. Having won the national championship in the indoor version of the 800, Paige qualified for the championship meet with the fourth best time for the outdoor version.

At the very next distance, senior Taryn Parks is into the prelims at the 1500m. Sydney Masciarelli is the ninth seed in the 3000m steeplechase, having finished third in the ACC this year. In the field events, Katie Joyce will compete in the finals of the javelin throw, having also won Bronze at ACCs.

Track and Field at the NCAA level features not only the best in up and coming American T&F athletes, but also a lot of the best from around the world. Winning the national title will be a difficult task for any of the Tar Heels headed out to Eugene, but we wish the best of luck yo all of them.