GENEVA, Ohio— The Wartburg men’s outdoor track and field team is tied for 20^th place after day two of the National Championships with 5 points.

Friday’s events:

110m hurdle prelims                Deyton Love   8^th          14.40

3000m steeplechase finals  Lance Sobaski             6^th          8:56.47

Notes:

• Love qualifies for Saturday’s finals
• This will be his fourth career All-American honor in this event
• This will be the program’s sixth total All-American honor in the 110 hurdles
• This was the 11^th All-American honor in the steeplechase for the program
• This was the fifth-straight year Wartburg has earned All-America honors in the steeplechase
• This was Sobaski’s second All-American honor in the steeplechase as he previously placed third in 2023

Up Next
The Knights will be back in action tomorrow for the final day of the NCAA Championships.

By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

MONTEVALLO – In a last-minute development, the lone senior from the Montevallo Bulldogs volleyball team is heading to college to help build a foundation for the state’s newest collegiate volleyball program.

Montevallo setter Jaida Heath signed to play volleyball at Reid State Technical College after receiving a scholarship from the program.

Heath officially signed her letter of intent at a special ceremony with her family in attendance along with former Montevallo volleyball coach Tena Niven, who coached Heath with the Bulldogs.

“Jaida is an excellent leader and I love her tenacity,” Niven said. “She is the type of player you want because she is not willing to give up. She is going to keep going until she is successful.”

Heath started every game for Montevallo at setter in the 2024 season and provided a crucial role for the offense as the Bulldogs played in the Class 5A South Super Regionals for the first time in school history, ultimately losing to Providence Christian to finish the year..

More importantly though, Heath provided crucial senior leadership as the only member of the Class of 2025 on the volleyball team. That leadership will be needed at the collegiate level as she takes on a new challenge at Reid State.

Reid State will play its first season of volleyball in 2025, and the Lions reached out looking for hard-working athletes who knew the game. Heath fit the bill and earned a last-minute scholarship to head down south to Evergreen and play collegiate volleyball at the junior college level.

Corki’s Embroidery took on a lot of custom jobs the other half-dozen or so other shops in the Newport Beach area wouldn’t, which meant that over the years the business had many clients approach them with special orders carrying deep sentimental value.

Employees recall one woman who came in carrying the wedding tuxedo of her husband, who had died at a young age.

“She wanted this inscription that we made inside the coat so he would be buried with her thoughts, that they would meet again. Stuff like that comes through the door, and you just sort of, ‘Oof!’” seamstress Linda Pierce exclaimed. “Yes, of course we’ll do it!”

Other memorable jobs were blankets customized with the names of children cared for by an orphanage and the sewing of American flags onto to the gear of beach volleyball pros April Ross and Jen Kessy ahead of their silver medal finish in the 2012 Olympics.

Their work has helped people commemorate weddings, graduations, as well as countless other special moments and people over the course of their decades in business.

Owner Barbara “Corki” Rawlings told the Daily Pilot she has reveled in her role in the Newport Beach community. After celebrating her 90th birthday in 2024 and running her shop for 59 years, she’s decided to close it at the end of June and settle into retirement.

But that doesn’t mean she’s done sewing. She’ll move her favorite vintage Singer 401A Slant-O-Matic from the store workshop to her desk at home alongside three other similar machines, she said.

Barbara “Corki” Rawlings peers over her workbench and favorite sewing machine Tuesday at her embroidery shop in Newport Beach. The store is closing at the end of June after 59 years in business.

(Eric Licas)

Rawlings has sold the building tucked away on Old Newport Boulevard she had been doing business out of. The commercial sized machine they used for high-volume orders will pass into the ownership of another local seamstress.

“I thought maybe somebody would buy the property and allow me to stay for a couple years while they’re getting permits for tearing it down,” Rawlings said. “And when I turned 90, I guess I just thought, ‘Why?’ And for me it was the right decision. No regrets.”

Long running thread

Sewing is something threaded into the core of the business owner’s upbringing. Some of Rawlings’ earliest memories involved making garments “at my mother’s knee.”

“I worked the pedals on her sewing machine,” she said. “She made all our kids’ clothes. I made all my kids’ clothes, drapes, everything.”

Her mother was a teacher who eventually settled in Santa Ana. Through sewing and living in Orange County, Rawlings became involved in the boating community.

She used to help the original owner of Nikki’s Flags with orders for many of the yacht clubs in the Newport Beach area, and eventually bought that business in 1966. Rawlings sold the flag shop in 1994, but continued the embroidery store under her own name.

“The nautical part of it, I won’t say came naturally; I had to learn it” Rawlings said. “But it was easy. I loved the water. I loved the boating. And then it kind of turned into coaching.”

She moved to a home at the Newport Sea Base in 1974, and became a scout leader for the Sea Scouts. She was also a volunteer for the Coast Guard, and has been a referee for NCAA rowing events for 26 years. She’ll be in New Jersey as a guest referee for the Division I Women’s championship in June.

Two of her sons, Billy Rawlings and Bob Rawlings, help run the Newport Aquatic Center and the Sacramento State Aquatic Center, respectively. Another, Brian Rawlings, helped design Icebreaker Argus, a 68.5 meter long vessel built to explore polar waters.

“Not very much of a businesswoman”

Yacht clubs have remained some of Rawlings’ most loyal customers. Other longtime clients include local fire and police departments, as well as rowing teams and other aquatics programs at practically every high school in Coastal Orange County. So it’s not unusual for Rawlings, Pierce and a third seamstress who has also been working with them for decades, Joyce Brownell, to find garments they personally stitched while they’re out and about in the community.

“With the Junior lifeguard backpacks — I live on the Peninsula, so I can see [junior lifeguards] riding by on their bicycles, and I can go, ‘Hey! I did that one!’” Pierce said.

Pierce, Rawlings and Brownell take pride in their work, and have personally sacrificed to ensure everything that leaves their shop meets their standards. They’ve eaten the cost to replace garments inadvertently damaged by equipment malfunctions. And even when a swimming or rowing team shows up with a couple hundred blankets and polo shirts that need to be finished in a week or so, it’s hard for them to say no and disappoint their clients.

“I spent many a night here, locked the doors and kept sewing,” Rawlings said. “And I still love sewing. It’s my own fault when that happens because I’ve said yes to something that was overwhelming or too much, and had to get it done.”

“But look at this! And look at these!” she continued while proudly holding up backpacks customized for the Newport Beach Junior Lifeguards and a folder of elaborately stitched designs in blue, gray, gold and practically every possible color of thread.

Rawlings said their personal investment into each piece they make, and the relationships she built with the people she serves have been the key to her shop’s longevity. She considers most of them her friends.

“I am obviously, and still, not very much of a businesswoman,” the founder of a store that has lasted almost six decades said.

“Friends brought in business, and it just expanded from there.”

Humble beginnings founded on meaningful connections led Rawlings to a finale in a career she can bow out of proudly. In some ways, her decades in business mirrored the process of crafting a fine garment.

“A lot of the finished project depends on how you start; how you hoop, the backing you use, the overlay you use, whatever the material you’re embroidering on requires,” she said. “… No puckering. you don’t want pucker.”

Bobbins of thread in a variety of colors sit on the workbench of Barbara “Corki” Rawlings Tuesday at her shop in Newport Beach.

(Eric Licas)

By: Hunter McKay

KENNESAW, GA. – Entry listings for the men’s and women’s NCAA Outdoor Championships were released Thursday afternoon.  The Kennesaw State track and field program has a program record 24 athletes qualified for next week’s (May 28-31) East First Round meet at Visit Jax Track at Hodges Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla.

KSU will send 15 men and nine women to the NCAA East First. The men’s events are scheduled for May 28 and May 30 while the women’s events will be contested on May 29 and May 31. 

Athletes with the top 12 times/marks and the best 12 relay teams at both the East and West preliminaries will advance for the semifinals/finals of the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Or. June11-14. There is no decathlon or heptathlon competition at this part of the NCAA Championships. The top 24 decathlon and heptathlon marks in the nation earn an automatic berth to the finals of the NCAA Championships.
 
Keep up with Owls track and field teams by following KSU on Twitter at @KSUOwlNation and @KSUTrackFieldXC, on Instagram @ksuowlstrackxc or by liking Kennesaw State Owls on Facebook.
 

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (May 23, 2025) — The 2025 USA Volleyball Open National Championship is set to bring a surge of energy and competition to the Colorado Convention Center in Denver from May 23-28.

As the longest-running adult volleyball championship in the United States, “Opens” welcomes athletes of all skill levels, ages and backgrounds for an unforgettable week of high-level play and camaraderie.

This year’s tournament is shaping up to be one of the largest in recent memory, with 531 teams registered—an increase of more than 100 teams from 2024. The growth reflects the continued strength and appeal of adult volleyball across the country.

One of the most exciting developments in 2025 is the return of the prestigious Open Division, which features elite-level competition and a $10,000 prize purse to be split among the top three finishers in both the men’s and women’s divisions.

Winners in all divisions will receive free entry into the 2026 USA Volleyball Open National Championship, which is scheduled for May 22-27 in Orlando, Florida.

First held in 1928, the Open National Championship remains the premier event for adult volleyball athletes in the United States, combining top-tier competition with the inclusive and spirited atmosphere that makes the event a highlight of the volleyball calendar.