After an indoor season for the ages, former Tewks­bury High track and field star Makayla Paige continued to raise the bar in the spring.

Earlier this month, the University of North Caro­lina senior claimed silver at the NCAA Champion­ships with a blazing time of 1:58.97 in the 800. That mark was good for the fifth-best in NCAA history. Just this season alone, Paige has dropped her school record in the event a staggering four times.

Paige collected first-team All-America recognition this season. In the in­door campaign, Paige turn­­ed heads at the national championships with a first-place finish in the 800 to take gold.

At Merrimack College, junior Maci Chapman com­pleted a memorable season for the Warriors. High­lighted by a first-place fin­ish in the 3000-meter run (10:22.35) at the Crim­son Open, the former Tewks­bury High runner also placed 13th in the 5000-meter run at the MAAC Indoor Track and Field Championships in a personal-best time of 18:11.68.

Over in Lowell, Jayani San­tos completed a successful season with the River Hawks, capped off by a third-place finish in the 400 (55.94) at the MIT Final Qualifier last month.

The sophomore impres­sed at the America East Outdoor Track and Field Championship, placing se­cond in the 200-meter dash (24.23). Earlier in the season, Santos won the event (24.41) at the Ken O’Brien Pre-Conference Meet.

Baseball

Tewksbury’s Jack Men­ard (Tabor Academy) re­cently wrapped up a senior season at Saint Mi­chael’s. The left-handed pitcher made four appearances out of the bullpen this spring as the Purple Knights turned in an 8-29 season. Ahead of this season, Menard was a six-time recipient of the NE10 Academic Honor Roll.

Girls lacrosse

Erin McIntyre was a key cog in Bridgewater State’s best season since 2014 that yielded a trip to the MASCAC semifinals. In the 19-14 loss at Worcester State, McIntyre laced a goal and picked up two ground balls. This season, the sen­ior recorded 41 goals and 16 points in 17 games to pace the Bears’ offense. 

Elsewhere, Ashley Tal­bot wrapped up her junior season at Rivier, starting in all 14 games as a midfielder. She collected three points and caused 14 turn­overs as the Raiders finished the season with an 8-6 record.

Talbot attended Shaw­sheen Tech.

Softball

A handful of former Tewksbury High standouts enjoyed successful seasons on the diamond. 

At Bentley, freshman Bec­ca Harris batted .288 with 30 hits, 13 RBI and six doubles in her debut season in the collegiate ranks. The Falcons made an appearance in the NCAA tournament after a 26-21 season.

At Clark, Avery Della Pi­ana appeared in 25 games as a freshman while hitting .297 at the plate. The catcher recorded 22 hits and 22 RBI.

Sophomore Sam Ryan was tabbed to the NE10 Second Team after a solid season in the circle for Saint Anselm. She recorded 14th wins, the second-most in the conference, and led the team in inn­ings (127), WHIP (1.20) and ERA (2.54).

Samantha Perkins started 35 games for Gordon College this spring, hitting .260 with 27 hits, 20 RBI, four doubles and two home runs.

Men’s track and field

On the track, UMass Low­ell junior Derek Munroe, known for his gravitas in the decathlon, netted a se­cond-place finish in the event at the America East Outdoor Championship last month. 

Munroe totaled 6,801 points, ruling the discus for first place (37.82m) be­fore placing second in the pole vault (4.30m) and ja­velin (50.58m). Munroe then slashed his personal record in the javelin at the MIT Final Qualifier, mustering a mark of 4.70m to place second. Munroe holds the school record in the decathlon (6,655 points), which he set last season.

At URI, Alex Arbogast turn­ed in another solid sea­son at the Division 1 level. Most recently, the sophomore sprinter placed fifth (21.25) in the 200 at the Princeton Elite Invi­tational. He also netted a fifth-place bid in the 100 (10.47) at the New Eng­land Championship.

Arbogast took third at the Atlantic 10 Outdoor Track and Field Cham­pion­ship in the 200, netting a time of 21.30 seconds as the Rams finished in second place overall.

Lizzie Carr, left, believes every UK player is good enough to start. (Vicky Graff Photo)

Kentucky volleyball will open what it hopes can be a special season in just over two months and two transfers off NCAA Tournament teams – Molly Berezowitz of Marquette and Lizzie Carr of Purdue — love the overall talent that coach Craig Skinner has on his team.

Carr, the younger sister of former UK basketball player Andrew Carr, averaged 1.52 kills per match last season for 27-7 Purdue. The 6-foot-6 Carr had 87 kills in her two years at Purdue.

“It’s cool to see how hard we can compete and how good you can make the people around you,” said Carr, a middle blocker. “Everyone is constantly pushing you to be the best version of  yourself as a leader, a person, a teammate and player.

Carr has always believed a team can only be as good as its backup players are because “they are the ones competing against you every day.” She says Skinner mixes up players on Blue and White teams in practice and they consistently beat each other.

“Every single person is good enough to have a starting spot. It’s cool to see how each person is pushing others to be better and kind of make you uncomfortable in a good way because you have to figure out how to compete at the high test level every day in practice and that makes for a great team,” Carr said. “We’re just so deep and have so much stuff that we are really going to have a good team.”

Berezowitz, a libero, had a season-high 21 digs in Marquette’s NCAA Tournament win over Utah and hit double digit digs in 10 matches last season. Her older sister, Maddie, was on UK’s 2020 national championship team.

“I played for a high level team at Marquette, and when I got here, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this  is better than I ever imagined.’ I thought I was playing at the best level that I could be at and then getting here, these people just make you so much better,” Berezowitz, a junior, said.  I think that it starts off the court. This is just such a good group of girls.”

Kentucky had all 14 players, including three true freshmen, on this year’s team on campus the second semester to give the Cats a huge head start on this season.

“We all got to train and compete all spring and we didn’t want to take that opportunity for granted that we had with everyone here,” the Marquette transfer said. “Usually teams get six months to be together but we will have almost a whole year and teams don’t get that very often.

“I really see something different in this team. It really starts with how we act together off the court, and that just really transitions on the court. Obviously it helps just having so many talented players. It’s fun getting in the gym every single day and you’re battling every single day. I think that if we have that mindset in every single game, we’re going be hard to beat this season with the talent we have.”

The team’s leader will be junior All-American Brooklyn DeLeye, one of the nation’s top four players last season when UK reached the Elite Eight. Berezowitz played against her in club volleyball in high school but didn’t pay a lot of attention to her the last two years even though her Marquette teammates did.

“My teammates at Marquette would talk about BK (DeLeye) is. I don’t know how to really explain it, but you can just rely on her to get it done. She is super relatable,” Berezowitz said. “She just has that presence where we all trust her. It’s also cool because we also have (Purdue transfer) Eva Hudson on the pin, so it’s like having that combo out there that we can rely on to finish points. But I love playing with her (DeLeye) and she certainly has lived up to that All-American standard.”

Wilmington native Celia Kulis enjoyed a record-breaking season at Holy Cross this spring. She set two school records. 

Competing at the NEICAAA Outdoor Cham­pionship last month at UMass Amherst, the junior eclipsed the 100-meter hur­dles school record (13.66) to take second place at the event.

And after another school record performance — Ku­lis broke her own school record in the heptathlon at the Patriot League Out­door Championship by 353 points — she was named to the Second Team All-Pa­­triot League team.

Kulis placed second, posting 5,006 points. 

Baseball

Senior Tristan Ciampa made six appearances for UMass Boston (25-17) this spring, tossing 28.2 inn­ings and recording a 3.45 ERA. Posting a 2-1 rec­ord, perhaps his best outing came in an eight-strikeout gem against Ply­mouth State, where he scattered five hits in 7.1 innings en route to the win. Ciampa held the oppo­si­tion to a mere .214 batting average this season. 

At Franklin Pierce, fresh­­man Jacob Roque played in 19 games in his rookie campaign.

He hit .178, driving in five runs while stealing four bases. The Ravens fin­­ished the spring 35-22, advancing all the way to the NCAA Super Regional.

Men’s lacrosse

At Seton Hill, junior Ga­vin Erickson notched 31 points on 17 goals and 14 assists as the Griffins turn­­ed in an 18-2 season. Erick­son tallied a helper in Se­ton Hill’s 9-8 loss to Saint Anselm in the NCAA tournament after winning the G-MAC title.

In his freshman season at Franklin Pierce, Mi­chael Lawler posted four goals and eight assists for 12 points. In a 13-8 win over American Interna­tional on March 26, Law­ler erupted for two goals and two assists.

Bobby Cyr scored a goal for Embry-Riddle in his rookie season, starting in all 16 games.

Women’s lacrosse

Senior Shannon Murphy capped off a storied four-year career at Colorado Me­sa University between the pipes.

In four seasons, she ap­peared in 54 games and made 312 saves while boas­ting a 31-19 record. She made 15 saves in four games this season and entered this spring rank­ed second in program history in goalie wins.

Men’s track and field

Senior Patrick O’Mahony competed in one outdoor meet for Bryant this season, posting a 4:24.89 in the 1,500m at the Black and Gold Invitational. In the indoor season, he netted a personal best 4:30.32 in the mile at the America East Championships.

At Assumption, junior Col­by Medeiros finished fourth in the 800 (1:55.22) at the Northeast-10 Confer­­ence Outdoor Champion­ships last month. Assump­tion placed fourth as a team. At the Jack Maloney/Jim Barber Invitational, he netted a 1:55.08 in the event for first place.

Women’s track and field

At Springfield, junior Ma­dison Mulas placed fifth in the 100-meter dash (13.49) at the SC Outdoor Classic to have a hand in Spring­field’s team title at the event in April. At the NEWMAC Champion­ships, Mulas played a role in a third-place finish in the 4×100-meter relay (49.52).

A pair of Wilmington run­­ners made splashes at UVM. Junior Shea Cushing posted a fifth-place finish at the UMass Pre-Confer­ence Meet in the 5000, while junior Carmella Thomp­son came in third in discus at the George Da­vis Invitational. 

At Stonehill, freshman Mollie Osgood placed sixth in the high jump (1.57m) to claim points for the Sky­hawks at the North­east Conference Outdoor Cham­pionships. At the Ken O’Bri­en Pre-Conference Meet, Os­good came in fifth (1.53m). She set her personal best outdoor score (1.58m) earlier in the season at the Merrimack Col­lege Alumni Classic.

NORTHRIDGE, Calif.—CSUN Women’s Soccer head coach Gina Brewer as announced the 2025 schedule featuring nine home matches at Matador Soccer Field and three NCAA Tournament teams on the docket.
 
“We are excited for the 2025 season,” said Brewer. “We’ve scheduled some opponents who we know will be challenging and prepare us for the Big West. Saint Mary’s, Grand Canyon, California Baptist and Portland will all be extremely competitive games and we look forward to being tested, so we are ready to go when conference games start.”
 
Prior to the start of the regular season. The Matadors will host an exhibition match with Trinity Western University on Thursday, Aug. 7.
 
The 2025 season officially opens on Thursday, Aug. 14 with a road match at Saint Mary’s before CSUN heads to San Jose State on Aug. 17.
 
CSUN opens a three-match homestand beginning Thursday, Aug. 21 against Grand Canyon in the 2025 home opener. Three days later, the Matadors continue their homestand with a matchup with a California Baptist team that won the WAC championship and advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 2024. CSUN then wraps up the home stretch with Utah Tech on Aug. 28.
 
The Matadors make the trip to the San Diego on Aug. 31 to take on the Toreros before traveling up north the following week for road tilts at Portland State (Sept. 4) and Portland (Sept. 7). CSUN’s last non-conference matchup is set with future Big West team Sacramento State on Thursday, Sept. 11. The Hornets also played in the NCAA Tournament a season ago after winning the Big Sky Tournament.
 
Big West play kicks off on Sunday, Sept. 21 when the Matadors visit Cal State Fullerton. A week later, CSUN hosts its first two conference matches against UC Irvine (Sept. 25) and UC Riverside (Sept. 28).
 
The month of October kicks off with a road contest at UC San Diego (Oct. 5) while CSUN returns home for meeting with Cal State Bakersfield on Oct. 12. From there, the Matadors make the trek to Hawai’i on Oct. 16.
 
The second half of the Big West season includes a home meeting with UC Davis (Oct. 19) as well as a matchup with defending Big West champion UC Santa Barbara (Oct. 23. After a final road match at Cal Poly on Oct. 26, CSUN hosts Senior Night on Thursday, Oct. 30 against Long Beach State.
 
The 2025 Big West Women’s Soccer Championship kicks off on Sunday, Nov. 2 while semifinal matches will be held on Nov. 6 and the championship match is scheduled for Nov. 9.
 
#GoMatadors
 

A Chinese track and field sprinter has scored a staggering 462 in the national college entrance exam, or gaokao, earning her a place in the country’s top universities.

Liu Xiajun, 19, took the gaokao for the second time earlier this month after her score last summer fell short of admission to the country’s best school, Tsinghua University in Beijing.

Liu, who is from the city of Ziyang in southwest China’s Sichuan province, rejected an offer from the prestigious Fudan University in Shanghai in 2024, considered China’s second best, to chase a spot at the institution in Beijing.

“I was very surprised [when I got my results] and asked my teacher: ‘Is there a mistake in the results?’,” Liu said.

“I believe that the most important factor in achieving such results before entering formal education is perseverance.

“Despite the immense pressure of resitting the exam, you cannot think about giving up.