Sports
Wilson Named Second Team All-American at NCAA Championships Breaking Program Record
Story Links EUGENE, Ore. – In his first NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championship at Hayward Field, combined events student-athlete Cole Wilson was named a Second Team All-American in the decathlon. The Canadian compiled a program record 7,662 points across the 10 events to finish in 11th place. Wilson became the […]

EUGENE, Ore. – In his first NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championship at Hayward Field, combined events student-athlete Cole Wilson was named a Second Team All-American in the decathlon. The Canadian compiled a program record 7,662 points across the 10 events to finish in 11th place.
Wilson became the first High Point combined events athlete to qualify and compete at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. In March, he was the first HPU combined events athlete to compete at the NCAA Indoor Championships where he placed 14th overall and earned Second Team All-American honors. Three months later, he made his second NCAA Championship appearance and improved by three placements for 11th overall after entering the competition with the 24th best score.
“Cole competed incredibly well,” Coach Hillary Holmes stated. “He was ranked last heading into this championship, and he moved up 13 places with a personal best score. That is not an easy task. With this being his first time in Eugene, and first Panther decathlete to compete at NCAAs, we are so very proud of how he represented HPU. Looking forward to more fun competitions in the future!”
DATE: June 12, 2025
SITE: Hayward Field, Eugene, Oregon
EVENT: 2025 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships
On day one, Wilson competed in the first five events and posted solid marks to finish the day in 11th place. He began the week with the 100m dash and recorded a 10.95 time. He moved on to the long jump and jumped 7.01m for 10th in the field. In the shot put, Wilson threw 13.67m. In the high jump, he had one of the best clears in the field with a new personal best 2.01m for sixth place. In the last event of day one, he clocked 50.57 seconds in the 400m.
Moving on to day two for the last five events of the week, he opened on the home straight away with the 100m hurdles and clocked a 15.11 time. In the infield, he had a solid throw in the discus with a 40.96m mark to place 10th in the field. In the pole vault, he cleared three bars after entering at the 4.51m height. He posted a 4.71m height to finish eighth in the field.
“Cole has been working so hard for so long and done such a great job,” Pole Vault Head Coach Scott Houston stated. “On the pole vault side, he’s worked on being consistent and he’s gotten his consistency up. It’s been a dependable event for him so we’re happy to see him keep improving. Coach Holmes has done a phenomenal job with him and they’re a force to be reckoned with, so we’re excited to have him back next year.”
He threw close to his personal best in the javelin with a 52.98m launch for 10th place in the field. Closing out the final event of the decathlon, he clocked a 4:38.58 time in the 1500m.
In the end Wilson compiled a program record 7,662 points in his final meet of the 2025 season.
Along with Wilson on the men’s side, Ricardo Montes de Oca qualified for the NCAA Championships in the pole vault. During the competition on Wednesday afternoon, Montes de Oca experienced an injury and was unable to attempt a jump to register a height.
“Warmups were going well for Ricardo and then he caught a calf cramp at the beginning of the competition,” Houston added. “As a freshman, we’re excited for his future and for his ability to qualify for both the indoor and outdoor NCAA championships. We’ve just got to get him healthy and teach him how to manage the travel and expectations with everything. He’s going to be a big hitter for us in the future and we’re looking forward to his success and that’s going to be something that all the High Point fans should really be looking out for.”
#GoHPU x #DefendTheTeam
Sports
Volleyball Welcomes 11 Newcomers to Campus
The Syracuse volleyball team is complete, and the 2025 squad has arrived on campus for summer classes and workouts. The Orange welcome 11 newcomers to the 2025 squad which returns seven from last year’s team than went 15-17 overall and 3-17 in the ACC. “We are very excited about this new group that is coming […]

“We are very excited about this new group that is coming in because we feel like it’s a good mix of really young and talented players and some athletes coming in with experience previously competing at a high level around the country,” Syracuse head coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam said. “We truly invested a lot of time and effort into this class, not just evaluating them based on how good they are as athletes but even more how good they are as people. We really paid attention to making sure we recruited the right characters.”
Syracuse welcomes five middle blockers in Marisse Turner, Kaliya Ndiaye, Oreva Evivie, Soana Lea’ea and Mari Lawton. Outside hitters Marie Laurio, Elizabeth Turner and Gabriella McLaughlin will help strengthen the Orange attack while SU also adds defensive specialist Reese Teves and Rana Yamada. Additionally, Syracuse added setter Tehya Maeva this offseason, a junior transfer from Nevada by way of San Diego, California.
Marisse Turner is a 6-foot graduate transfer from Long Beach, CA. Turner attended Marymount High School and joins the Orange from California State University – Fullerton where she appeared in 49 sets across 14 matches. Ndiaye is a 6-foot-4 middle blocker from Aliso Viejo, CA. She played at Santa Margarita Catholic where she helped SMHS to a 25-15 record a s a senior.
Evivie is a 6-foot middle blocker from Charlotte, NC, who began her collegiate career at Virginia Tech before spending her final two seasons of undergrad at FGCU where she helped the Eagles to a 27-5 overall record and a 15-1 mark in the Atlantic Sun Conference appearing in all 32 matches as a senior in 2024.
Lea’ea joins the Orange from UC Irvine where she appeared in 114 sets across 41 matches after redshirting the 2022 season. The 6-foot-1 Las Vegas, Nevada native was an All-WCAL Second Team honoree out high school at Saint Francis (CA). Lawton, a 6-foot junior transfer from San Jose State joins the Orange from Mililani, Hawaii, where she won an ILH and state championship as a senior en route to earning All-State recognition. At San Jose State she appeared in 32 matches over her first two seasons totaling 78 kills and 64 blocks.
Laurio is a 5-foot-10 middle blocker from Ann Arbor, Michigan, who earned All-Region and All-State recognition each year from 2022-24. She was named Saline High School’s Most Valuable Player a junior and senior. She’s joined by freshman Elizabeth Turner who hails from Pine Bluff, Arkansas and has spent time in Japan playing for Kizankino Sho Club the last four years. While attending Seiwa Joshi Gakuin High School in Japan, she helped her varsity team finish No. 1 in the Sasebo region in each of her final two seasons and was named the Best Hitter and MVP for the DODEA Pac-East in 2022.
The final middle blocker added for the 2025 season is Nevada transfer Gabriella McLaughlin. The 5-foot-8 senior played three seasons for the Wolfpack where she was named All-Mountain West in 2024. She is a College Sports Communicators Academic All-District honoree in 2023 and led the team in kills (443), kills per set (3.82) and was second in digs with 265 in 2024.
McLaughlin and Maeva will reconnect in Syracuse after having shared the court at Nevada the past two seasons.
Teves is a 5-foot-7 sophomore transfer from Waipahu, Hawaii. She appeared in 25 matches playing in 79 sets at Long Island University in 2024 and tallied 59 digs (0.75 per set) and secured 21 aces with five assists. Joining Teves as a defensive specialist and libero is Yamada, a 5-foot-6 junior from Kanagawa, Japan, who played most recently at Western Arizona.
“We want to build a team that the Syracuse community can see themselves in,” Ganesharatnam added. “We want to be a team that’s truly blue collar, has grit and works hard. We want the relentless pursuit of excellence not just on the court but also in the classroom and in our community. We want to be engaged, and I feel like this group will do that. We want to strengthen our core values and really pursue that.”
The first official practice of the 2025 season is slated for later this month on July 31.
For more on Syracuse volleyball, follow the Orange on social media @CuseVB.
Sports
Cuts to the soul of track and field
A track and field team is an eclectic bunch of athletes. You have skinny distance runners, training on their own, sometimes far away from the track. You have sprinters. These guys are fast, and sometimes it seems as if they spend more time fiddling with their starting blocks than practicing. You have pole vaulters, perhaps […]

A track and field team is an eclectic bunch of athletes. You have skinny distance runners, training on their own, sometimes far away from the track. You have sprinters. These guys are fast, and sometimes it seems as if they spend more time fiddling with their starting blocks than practicing.
You have pole vaulters, perhaps the quirkiest of the bunch — which might be what it takes to run down a path, plant a pole in a pit and try to hurl yourself over a bar 18 feet off the ground.
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You have the jumpers, versatile athletes who, in addition to jumping, often run relays and even the 100-meter dash, the 200, the 400.
You have the hurdlers, who aren’t quite fast enough to run the 100 and 200 but are skilled enough to run 110 meters and jump over 10 barriers without stumbling.
And you have the throwers. Big. Thick. Strong. Muscular. They’re usually uber competitive, but most are teddy bears once a competition is over.
I can tell you all about these dynamics because I was a college distance runner at Division III SUNY Brockport. And when I saw the recent news that Washington State will focus its track and field program on distance running only, I was dismayed. Sure, the Cougars will keep their track team, but this means they will no longer have a field team. They’ll recruit athletes who can run cross country, along with the 800, 1,500, 3,000 steeplechase, 5,000 and 10,000 meters in the winter and spring. If you run the 200 or are a long jumper, scratch WSU off your list.
There are several other schools that have track but no field, and with the House settlement now approved, look for more to make the same decision as Washington State. The situation could get even worse, and entire track and field programs could be eliminated as schools adapt to the world of revenue sharing and calculate what they must sacrifice to field competitive football and basketball programs.
Just look at Washington State, which seems to be using House to reduce costs in its athletic department. The Cougars, still reeling from being orphaned when the Pac- 12 collapsed, are desperate to find a home for football and basketball, and to do this with full fervor, their calculations may have told them that field should be dropped.
And now that Washington State has broken the seal, how many more schools will follow? Track and field is not a revenue sport; it costs universities money to keep it going. But every four years, at the Olympics, it’s the most watched competition, and team USA is expected to excel.
We want gold medals in the 100 and 200. We have dominated the 110-meter hurdles for decades, Al Oerter won the discus in four straight Olympiads (1956, 1960, 1964, 1968), and shot putter Ryan Crouser is the three-time defending Olympic gold medalist and the consensus greatest at his sport in the world.
It will be tough to dominate, however, if there are fewer programs to train future Olympians. But if this happens and the US fails to shine, the pundits will still ask what’s wrong. Most won’t have any idea that schools like Washington State no longer support field.
When I look back at my time as a track and field athlete, it’s not the competitions that stand out. It’s the bond shared with the sprinters, jumpers, hurdlers, throwers and vaulters. I remember chiding the sprinters, remember them saying they got tired watching distance runners do interval after interval on the 400-meter oval. Most of all, I remember the camaraderie that existed between an unusual cast of characters.
The bus rides were even more fun: 5 a.m. wake-ups on Saturday mornings to catch the bus to Alfred, to Cortland, to Geneseo, to Plattsburgh. The rides were quiet, with most of us sleeping or focusing on the upcoming events. We would stop, grab a quick bite and continue with a little more noise.
Rides home were much livelier — loud, fun and sometimes off-color. The sprinters and throwers usually sat in the back and were quite guarded about allowing visitors. I learned a lot about people and life on those bus rides, and that’s something that will stick with me much longer than how I did in the 5,000 meters at the Geneseo Invitational.
Sadly, that will no longer happen at Washington State. It’s unfortunate on so many levels. The focus in college is to get a degree, but character development and maturation are vitally important.
Sports like track and field are different from football and basketball. When you go to an invitational, your event can last anywhere from 11 seconds to 33 minutes, but you’re there for eight to 10 hours. When not competing, you’re talking with your teammates as well as with athletes from other schools. It’s a time to make friends, network and so much more.
That’s being taken away because football (and basketball) teams need more money. I think what Washington State is doing is shortsighted, but I understand. That doesn’t make it any easier to swallow.
Track and field isn’t the same without field.
Nicknamed “The Almanac,” by a fellow freshman at SUNY Brockport for his penchant for sports history, John Furgele follows every sport there is. When not following sports, he works in nursing and teaching to pay the bills and stays busy with his son and two daughters.
Sports
Princeton University
Full Schedule PRINCETON, N.J. – Highlighted by seven home matches and three tournaments, the Princeton University women’s volleyball team announced its 2025 schedule Tuesday afternoon. Along with three tournaments (James Madison, Towson/Coppin State/Penn State), the Tigers host seven matches inside Dillon Gymnasium. 2025 opens for Princeton at the JMU Tournament in Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Sept. […]

PRINCETON, N.J. – Highlighted by seven home matches and three tournaments, the Princeton University women’s volleyball team announced its 2025 schedule Tuesday afternoon.
Along with three tournaments (James Madison, Towson/Coppin State/Penn State), the Tigers host seven matches inside Dillon Gymnasium.
2025 opens for Princeton at the JMU Tournament in Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Sept. 5-6, where the Tigers will face Lehigh, Bellarmine and the Dukes.
Following the JMU Tournament, Princeton will play at the Towson/Coppin State Tournament from Sept. 12-13. Opponents include both Towson and Coppin State along with Iona.
Non-conference play wraps up in State College, Pennsylvania, from Sept. 19-20. The Tigers will take on defending National Champion Penn State, who ended 2024 with a 35-2 record, a 19-2 Big Ten record and its eighth national title in program history, along with Central Michigan.
Ivy League play opens inside Dillon Gymnasium on Oct. 3 and Oct. 4 against two opponents who joined Princeton at the 2024 conference tournament, Brown and Yale. The Tigers then travel north to face Dartmouth in Hanover, New Hampshire, on Oct. 10 then Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Oct. 11.
Princeton returns to Dillon Gymnasium to host Cornell on Oct. 17, Columbia on Oct. 18 and the University of Pennsylvania on Oct. 24.
Four consecutive road matches follow; Yale (Oct. 31), Brown (Nov. 1), Columbia (Nov. 7) and Cornell (Nov. 8). Regular season play ends at home against Harvard on Nov. 14 and Dartmouth on Nov. 15.
Postseason play begins with the Ivy League Tournament, hosted by the No. 1 seed, from Nov. 21-23. The NCAA Tournament starts with the first and second rounds from Dec. 5-7, then regionals from Dec. 12-15 and the National Championship from Dec. 19-22.
The Tigers, who won the 2024 regular season championship and earned the No. 1 seed at the Ivy League Tournament, will aim to return to the NCAA Tournament in 2025. Led by three-time Ivy League Coach of the Year Sabrina King, the Tigers return three-time All-Ivy selection Lucia Scalamandre, two-time All-Ivy selection Sydney Draper and 2024 All-Ivy selection Jackie Onyechi. The trio will be joined by seniors Valerie Nutakor and Ella Bunde, juniors Sydney Bold, Erin McNair and Ava Harrington, sophomores Sylvia Bunde, Ashtyn Sims, Ashley Duckworth and Nicki Gaito along with the incoming Class of 2029.
Sports
Big East, ESPN team up again on a 6-year digital media rights deal Big East, ESPN team up again on a 6-year digital media rights deal
The Big East Conference has signed a new, six-year digital media rights agreement with ESPN, conference officials announced Tuesday. The Big East Conference has signed a new, six-year digital media rights agreement with ESPN, conference officials announced Tuesday. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Under the agreement, ESPN will add hundreds of live […]

The Big East Conference has signed a new, six-year digital media rights agreement with ESPN, conference officials announced Tuesday.
Sports
University of Richmond
RICHMOND, Va. – Six University of Richmond student-athletes were named to the 2024-25 Virginia Sports Information Directors (VaSID) Academic All-State Team. To qualify, student-athletes must be sophomores in academic standing with a minimum 3.25 cumulative grade point average. The VaSID All-State Team recognized 216 student-athletes representing 36 institutions across the Commonwealth of Virginia. Richmond’s honorees […]

Richmond’s honorees include women’s basketball’s Addie Budnik, swimming and diving’s Katie Chignell, women’s cross country and track and field’s Laurel Kurtz and Morgan Lyons, baseball’s Brady O’Brien and men’s lacrosse’s Joe Sheridan.
Budnik earned her fourth straight VaSID Academic All-State honor. A master of business administration major, she led the Spiders to a historic season. Budnik helped Richmond win back-to-back Atlantic 10 regular season titles and earned the program’s first-ever NCAA Tournament win, a dominant 74-49 victory over Georgia Tech in Los Angeles. She was named to the A-10 All-Conference Second Team and All-Academic Team, the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team and was honored as the VaSID Defensive Player of the Year. Budnik closed her career ranked third on Richmond’s all-time scoring list with 1,897 points.
Chignell earned her first All-State laurel after helping the Spiders to a runner-up finish at the Atlantic 10 Championships. The health studies major won gold in the 400 free relay, setting a new program record with a time of 3:19.32, and placed fifth in the 800 free relay. She also contributed with several top-15 finishes in the finals.
Kurtz, a leadership and rhetoric & communication major, earned A-10 All-Conference First Team honors for the second straight year in cross country. During the indoor season, she helped Richmond finish second at the Atlantic 10 Championships with a seventh-place finish in the 5,000 meters. At the outdoor A-10 Championships, she placed seventh in the 10,000 meters. She capped her career with a gold medal in the 10K at the Outdoor IC4A/ECAC Championships.
Lyons, a health studies major, helped the Spiders to a runner-up finish at the Indoor A-10 Championships, contributing to medals in two relay races. She helped Richmond win silver in the distance medley relay with a time of 11:38.63 and gold in the 4×800 relay with a time of 9:03.23. At the Outdoor A-10 Championships, she again earned gold in the 4×800 with a time of 8:47.46. In her final collegiate race, she helped Richmond win gold in the 4×800 at the Outdoor IC4A/ECAC Championships.
O’Brien, a data analytics major, finished the regular season ranked ninth in the nation with a .777 slugging percentage and 11th in both home runs (20) and RBIs (72). A 2025 Dick Howser Trophy semifinalist, he ended the season with a 22-game on-base streak, 25 multi-hit games and 19 multi-RBI games. He was named to the A-10 All-Academic Team in May and also earned CSC Academic All-District and ABCA/Rawlings NCAA Division I All-Atlantic Region Second Team honors.
Sheridan, a biochemistry and molecular biology major, helped lead the Spiders to a regular season and Atlantic 10 Championship title. He also contributed to Richmond’s first NCAA Tournament win, a 13-10 victory over North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Sheridan earned USILA All-America Honorable Mention, Inside Lacrosse All-America Honorable Mention, First Team All-Atlantic 10, A-10 All-Academic honors and was named the A-10 Tournament Most Outstanding Performer.
Sports
Meet the Vandal: Koen Makaula
Story Links MOSCOW, Idaho – Summer is in session, the Vandals are coming back to town, and the schedule has been released. Live volleyball is closer than we think. As summer training rolls on, Vandal fans get the opportunity to meet the newcomers taking the court for Idaho Volleyball in time for […]

MOSCOW, Idaho – Summer is in session, the Vandals are coming back to town, and the schedule has been released. Live volleyball is closer than we think.
As summer training rolls on, Vandal fans get the opportunity to meet the newcomers taking the court for Idaho Volleyball in time for the 2025 season. Since the end of last year, ten newcomers have arrived in Moscow from the transfer portal and high school levels. Three of which enrolled in time for the spring, which leaves seven to make their Idaho introduction.
First up among the new members of the Vandal family is Koen Makaula.
MEET KOEN
A rising junior middle blocker originally from Kailua, Hawaii, Koen becomes the second Vandal on the 2025 roster to hail from the Aloha State. Finishing her prep career at Punahou School in 2023, she committed to the University of Nevada.
As a freshman with the wolfpack, Koen played in 32 total sets, earning an ATK% of .417 alongside six kills and four blocks against Boise State that November, all season highs. She finished her first college season with totals of 25 kills, 22 total blocks, 11 digs, and 36.5 total points, according to Nevada Athletics.
In her sophomore campaign, Makaula took it up a notch from ’23, appearing in 48 sets and helping the Wolfpack on offense and defense. She recorded a season-high three total blocks vs. Oregon State early in the year, followed by a career-high eight kills and nine points the next day vs. Cal State Bakersfield. She would end her second season in Reno with 31 kills, 19 blocks, and eight digs in 48 sets played.
Now a rising junior entering her first season in black and gold, Koen provides valuable Mountain West experience and looks to bring success to Moscow, a task she is excited for.
“I feel very grateful and excited to rep the Vandals, and I am so ready to be a part of this culture and make the most of this opportunity that [head] coach Romana [Redondo Kriskova] has blessed me with,” said Makaula.
A culture is building among Vandal Volleyball, and the newest members of the family are taking notice.
“I was drawn to Idaho because of the sense of belonging I felt after having many conversationgs with the coaches and girls on the team. Coach Ro got to know me on a personal level first, which I really appreciated.”
FOLLOW THE VANDALS
To stay up to date with Vandal Volleyball, follow the team on Instagram (vandalvolleyball), X (IdahoVolleyball) and visit govandals.com
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