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WSU Cougars making changes to track and field events

PULLMAN, WA -On Monday night, June 16th, it was announced by Washington State that there will be immediate changes to their track and field program. The WSU athletic leadership met with members of the men’s and women’s track and field teams to inform them of changes. These changes to the program will shift more towards […]

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PULLMAN, WA -On Monday night, June 16th, it was announced by Washington State that there will be immediate changes to their track and field program.

The WSU athletic leadership met with members of the men’s and women’s track and field teams to inform them of changes.

These changes to the program will shift more towards a distance-focused approach.

What it means is that the field events, as jumps and throws, will no longer be supported, effective immediately.

While the number of spring and hurdle opportunities will be limited moving forward.

As for the student-athletes affected by this change, WSU will honor their scholarships should they remain at WSU.

If student-athletes wish to change schools, WSU will provide transition support and services to help those student-athletes.

These changes will make a big difference to the Cougar track and field program in the future.



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LCCP’s fast rise to dominance

LCCP’s fast rise to dominance Published 1:13 pm Friday, July 4, 2025 Lake Charles College Prep has emerged as one of the state’s most dominant track and field programs in the last decade, building off the 400 meters and relays while developing other events to complement the Trailblazers’ strength, winning indoor and outdoor state championships. […]

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LCCP’s fast rise to dominance

Published 1:13 pm Friday, July 4, 2025

Lake Charles College Prep has emerged as one of the state’s most dominant track and field programs in the last decade, building off the 400 meters and relays while developing other events to complement the Trailblazers’ strength, winning indoor and outdoor state championships. (American Press)

In less than a decade, the Lake Charles College Prep boys track and field has become a powerhouse program with three state championships and a trio of runners-up.

The 2025 season was the Trailblazers’ most successful yet. A year after runner-up finishes at the state indoor and outdoor meets in Baton Rouge, they won the Class 3A outdoor state championship and the Division II indoor title in February. They are the first area school to win an indoor and outdoor state championship in the same season since the St. Louis Catholic girls team accomplished the feat in 2022.

“The kids naturally work hard,” said head coach Jackie Rhine. “Some of the programs you have to pull it out of kids to work hard. At Prep, almost every sport across the board, the kids understand what the standard is, and it’s going to be hard work on the track and off the track.”

Rhine attributes the success in his three seasons to building the team around the 400-meter run and relays. In the last three seasons, LCCP has won 14 relay state medals, including three consecutive golds in the 4×400 and back-to-back indoor 4x800s. Careion Franklin won three medals in the 400, including an indoor state runner-up in 2024.

“I believe everyone runs the 400, and when you have a program like that, it normally gives you success,” Rhine said. “I knew I had sprinters.

“Let’s build a 4×800 and let’s build some 800-meter runners and let’s see how that goes. And it meshed well. We had the sprinters, we had the distance runners and that was the recipe for a state championship.”

Rhine said track and field benefits all sports at the school.

“With the help of the football coaches, he (football head coach Erick Franklin) almost made it mandatory that his skilled position guys go run track,” Rhine said.

While LCCP has plenty of sprinters, distance runners and jumpers, he said the team will be even more formidable once it develops some throwers.

“That’s my next goal to build our throws, you know, to have a complete program, 360,” Rhine said. “We need to get out throwing our throws above the par and that’s our next project. So we’ll have field … we have jumpers, triple jumpers, high jumpers, we’ll have sprinters and we’ll have distance runners and we’ll have throwers and then we’ll be tough to compete with for a long time to come.”

Things started slowly for LCCP. The school opened in 2014 and started a junior varsity team in 2016. In its first varsity meet, the Barbe Buc Relays in 2017, the Trailblazers scored a single point. By the end of the 2018 season, led by head Charles Jackson, they qualified for the regional meet in four events.

Former Westlake High School and McNeese State standout Terance Cahee took over the program in 2019. LCCP qualified for the state meet for the first time and scored two points with a fifth-place finish in the 4×100 with three future Division I athletes in Dillon Simon, Trevonte Citizen and Solomon Lewis plus Caleb Robinson.

The COVID-19 pandemic derailed the 2020 season, but 2021 proved to be their breakthrough year. Under Cahee, who coaches safties at McNeese, the Trailblazers won the first team state championship in school history. They tied Madison Prep Academy with 60 points for the Class 3A title.

2021 also brought the team’s first individual state champion. Marcus Francis won the outdoor discus title. He was also the runner-up in the outdoor and indoor (Division II) shot put and was the program’s first Cagle Award winner along with Thaddeus Campbell. Campbell helped lead the Trailblazers to gold in the indoor 4×200 and 4×400 that season, plus the outdoor 4×200 and a silver in the 4×100. He was the outdoor 300 hurdles and triple jump runner-up.



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Cierra Ray had ‘unbelievable’ volleyball season – Times Herald Online

One of the most overused words in sports these days is “unbelievable.” If Shohei Ohtani hits a home run, it’s not “unbelievable.” He has already hit 255 in his career and his getting paid $700 million to hit bombs. No, unbelievable would be Ohtani hitting a home run without any arms, legs or eyes and […]

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One of the most overused words in sports these days is “unbelievable.” If Shohei Ohtani hits a home run, it’s not “unbelievable.” He has already hit 255 in his career and his getting paid $700 million to hit bombs.

No, unbelievable would be Ohtani hitting a home run without any arms, legs or eyes and to do it while while wearing ice skates and randomly quoting “Caddyshack 2” lines. That’s unbelievable.

However, the season St. Patrick-St. Vincent High School volleyball senior Cierra Ray had this past school year was, well, kind of unbelievable. When a St. Pat’s player called the Times-Herald in the fall of 2024 to report a match score against Albany and how many kills Ray had in the four-set win, our response was pretty much straight from Ron Burgundy in the film “Anchorman.”

“I don’t believe you.”

The number was just too insane for one match.

“Forty three,” Ray said, with a laugh before the question could even be finished by the Times-Herald this week. “Before that match one of the opponents family members told me, ‘Be great but don’t kill us. Do what you have to do, but don’t hurt anyone, don’t kill anyone.’”

She didn’t take the advice.

The next hour that evening resembled Billy Madison playing dodgeball with kindergartners — she was hurting people all over the place en route to a win.

To think of how astronomical 43 kills is in a single match, one must realize that 20 kills in a five-set match is considered very well played for an outside hitter. Thirty kills starts to raise eyebrows. Forty? Getting over 40 kills in only a four-set match is like your childhood friend saying they hit .900 during a baseball season with 200 homers or Napoleon Dynamite’s uncle saying he could throw a football over a mountain in Colorado.

St. Patrick-St. Vincent High volleyball star Cierra Ray brings in another dig at a recent Bruins' match.
St. Patrick-St. Vincent High volleyball star Cierra Ray brings in another dig at a recent Bruins’ match.

Forty-three kills in a single match?

“Did this really happen?”

Ray’s season is absolutely true. She kept right on rolling after the 43-kill match. She had more kills than James Bond, adding 594 in a season (sixth in California and 99th in the United States) that saw her get at least 20 in a match 13 times and at least 14 in a match 24 times. She also had 365 digs on the year. She finished with 992 career kills while at St. Patrick-St. Vincent.

Her Bruins went 29-10 overall, and won the Tri-County Athletic League with a 9-1 record, with the lone loss being a match Ray missed due to illness. The team eventually lost in the section semifinals to Hilmar.

So why there were great female athletes in the area in 2024-25, none were better than Ray. We salute the other candidates — Bethel’s Precilla Williams, Vallejo’s Zurrie Washington, Benicia’s Ava Rojas and St. Pat’s Aiani Prater — but Cierra Ray is our Times-Herald 2024-25 Female Athlete of the Year.

Ray’s success didn’t come overnight. St. Pat’s head coach Danette Domecus said earlier this year that the senior headed to Dominican University was one that constantly worked on her craft.

“She’s a student of the game. Every time she’s in the gym, she gets better and better at the things she works on,” Domecus said at Ray’s signing day. “We’re really going to miss her — just the presence she brings in the gym and the leadership she brings when she’s on the court playing.

“I’m so proud of her for being able to take that jump and get to a school with somebody that I also coached,” Domecus continued. “She’s going to do wonders for them. She’s such a great player on the court, worked super hard for her teammates, and I just can’t say enough about her and her efforts.”

St. Patrick-St. Vincent High players Danica Pagtakhan (21), Cierra Ray (middle) and Dior Duru talk Wednesday before the second set against St. Joe's of Alameda. The Bruins lost the playoff match in three sets. (Matt O'Donnell/Special to the Times-Herald)
St. Patrick-St. Vincent High players Danica Pagtakhan (21), Cierra Ray (middle) and Dior Duru talk Wednesday before the second set against St. Joe’s of Alameda. The Bruins lost the playoff match in three sets. (Matt O’Donnell/Special to the Times-Herald)

Those efforts really shined in the 43-kill game — a number Ray didn’t know about it until a day later.

“My uncle came up to me after the game,” Ray said. “He’s a dad of a player on the Albany team. He said, ‘Dude you are insane, you had to have broken some kind of record with the number of kills you had tonight.’ I don’t know why I had 43 in that game.”

Later in the year the Times-Herald asked St. Pat’s if the amount of kills was a record but the program didn’t know for sure.

Ray said that her ultimate goal was team-oriented.

“In order for myself to win the league MVP, our team basically need to win the league,” Ray said. “So when I won the MVP it was a joy because we had won the league and by the end of the season I started to realize how good our team was. But it was also a relief because in that moment I knew more work had to be done because I saw the work that had to be done in order to do well in the postseason.”

Ray was part of a solid one-two punch with soon-to-be junior Dior Duru, who had nearly 500 kills herself this past year. In a way, with a two-year age gap between the two, Ray was mentoring the next version of her.

“When I was a freshman I was so scared of everyone,” Ray said, with a laugh. “I was just this tall White girl that didn’t know anything. So three years later with Dior I knew how she felt. I knew her from middle school, but I had never played on a team with her. But I knew how good she was. She’s not quiet but weird and funny when she wants to be. Once I saw her skill and potential I knew I had to be a role model to her. Because if I started messing around, she would mess around. I needed to focus on the court, so she would focus on the court.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a sophomore do so much,” Ray continued. “For her to step up this year was so big. A lot of matches it was myself, Dior and Danica Pagtakhan leading the way and others following to form a great team.

“To see how much we increased our skill and drive to go as far, it was shocking,” Ray said. “I didn’t take as much time to reflect as I should have. We ended the high school season and the next day I was already in practice for my club team. So I didn’t take the time to reflect on what we had done. I took that time later at our end of the season banquet. That was when I realized how much we had accomplished and how we hadn’t had this kind of success in a while.”

Ray said she felt more comfortable being a vocal leader during her senior year.

“My junior year I let all the seniors talk and say everything because they’re older than me and I don’t want to boss them around. I didn’t feel like I had all the power,” Ray said. “I think that at some times I might put some players in their place if they were acting out, but I definitely felt more comfortable as a senior being more vocal because I was the oldest.”

It turns out she was also the best.



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Realignment still ongoing for UCA

The University of Central Arkansas athletic department is no stranger to conference realignment. Since UCA left the Southland Conference for the Atlantic Sun Conference in 2021, its teams have been a part of many different conference structures. “We’re in a time, in college athletics, where there’s a lot of instability, right?” UCA Athletic Director Matt […]

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The University of Central Arkansas athletic department is no stranger to conference realignment.

Since UCA left the Southland Conference for the Atlantic Sun Conference in 2021, its teams have been a part of many different conference structures.

“We’re in a time, in college athletics, where there’s a lot of instability, right?” UCA Athletic Director Matt Whiting said in an interview Wednesday. “The last five years have been about the most volatile time in college athletics there’s been, and I think the next five to 10 (years) are going to be equally as volatile.”

UCA’s latest venture will be to join, alongside the four other football-playing ASUN schools (Austin Peay, Eastern Kentucky, North Alabama and West Georgia), the remaining three Western Athletic Conference schools (Abilene Christian, Tarleton State and Texas-Arlington) to create the new United Athletic Conference. The move will be official July 1, 2026.

The new conference will feature eight programs with seven, excluding Texas-Arlington, playing football. The move was first reported Wednesday by Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports as part of a wave of Football Championship Subdivision conference realignment. That included two WAC schools, Southern Utah and Utah Tech, announcing they would be joining the Big Sky Conference in 2026.

UCA played in the UAC in 2023 and 2024 when it was a football-only league. Southern Utah and Utah Tech played in the nine-team league both seasons, but will move all of their sports in 2026. The remaining seven schools will fold their football, basketball, baseball, softball, track and field, cross country, tennis, volleyball, golf and women’s soccer programs into the same league.

Instead of UCA being the school furthest West in the ASUN, the new conference will see UCA right in the heart of the UAC map.

“We’re really excited about where this places us geographically within the footprint of what will be the United Athletic Conference,” Whiting said. “In the Atlantic Sun, we’ve been traveling to Florida, we’ve been traveling to Charlotte (and) across the Southeast. And so this is more of that South, a little bit of Southwest feel to it within our footprint.

“So we’re positioned well and excited about that, and I’m very excited it is reduced travel for our student-athletes, and I think that’s also a great thing for our fans. With reduced travel will be a greater experience for our student-athletes, and our fans will be able to follow us a little more closely as well.”

UCA’s ties with the ASUN will not cease on July 1, 2026. Its men’s soccer and beach volleyball teams will still compete in the ASUN. As part of the move, the UAC and ASUN announced a “strategic partnership” that will see the two work together to navigate the uncertain future of college athletics in the wake of the House v. NCAA settlement, which UCA has opted out of.

ASUN Commissioner Jeff Bacon will serve as the executive director of the newly formed group. WAC Commissioner Rebekah Ray will also have a leadership position in the consortium.

With college athletics changing by the day, this may not be the final set of schools the UAC features in 2026, when its football season kicks off. Schools like Tarleton State and Abilene Christian are rumored to be potential additions to Football Bowl Subdivision conferences. Whiting said the UAC is also open to the possibility of future expansion.

“I think this gives us an opportunity to consider some strategic expansion,” he said. “I think that’s something we as athletic directors and the presidents of these institutions will consider as we move forward, and I think there could be opportunities there for us.”

Whiting said he’s received a positive response from UCA’s coaches about the new conference. The UAC and ASUN will each retain their own automatic qualifiers for NCAA postseason play.

UCA’s future, like most programs in Division I athletics, remains uncertain. Whiting said he feels this is the best position the Bears can be in for the near future.

“I think it’s an ever-changing environment. And yes, I think there’s going to be more movement in college athletics,” Whiting said. “It’s kind of the cost to pay, and you want to make sure that you position yourself well within where you can be and what works best for the institution. There’s a lot of factors there. And ultimately, we feel very stable with this move, feel it gives us a great opportunity to be successful participating in a conference with like-minded institutions that also sponsor football.”



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N-Club Hall of Fame voting opens Tuesday with all former NSU letterwinners invited to participate

By: Doug Ireland, Special Assistant to the President Story Links NATCHITOCHES — Voting opens Tuesday for a 10-day period in the selection process for Northwestern State’s 2025 N-Club Hall of Fame class honoring some of the Demons’ most accomplished athletic figures, with participation open for the first time to all of […]

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NATCHITOCHES — Voting opens Tuesday for a 10-day period in the selection process for Northwestern State’s 2025 N-Club Hall of Fame class honoring some of the Demons’ most accomplished athletic figures, with participation open for the first time to all of the university’s former athletic letterwinners.
 
 
Voting will be conducted online through the N-Club link on the NSUDemons.com website. The 2025 ballot will be posted for review, and letterwinners will be able to cast their ballots for their top choices without having to compile a list.
 
 
Announcement of the start of the voting cycle will be made Tuesday morning. Deadline to vote will be midnight Thursday, July 17.
 
 
Previously, only paid members of the N-Club were able to vote.
 
 
Now, those N-Club members’ votes will be weighted on a 3-to-1 ratio. Paid members’ votes will count three times as much as an unpaid letterwinner’s vote, per a recommendation from the N-Club selection committee.
 
 
N-Club membership is free for just-graduated first-year athletic alumni. Dues afterwards are $120 annually ($10 monthly) with discounted longer-term rates available.
 
 
Anyone who pays N-Club membership dues prior to the voting deadline will have the 3-to-1 valuation applied to their ballot. Votes are compiled on a weighted point structure.
 
 
Selection of the N-Club Hall of Fame inductees is made by a combination of online voting along with assessment of the N-Club selection committee, which is comprised of over a dozen former competitors and staff members representing the range of sports contested at Northwestern. The online voting results are a primary factor.
 
 
Approximately a dozen former athletic standouts will be honored on Homecoming weekend, culminating with a morning induction ceremony Saturday, Oct. 4.
 
 



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Summer Sports Safari Festival returns to Ocean City

OCEAN CITY, Md. — The Summer Sports Safari, also known as the S3 Festival, is coming back to Ocean City. From July 12-13, the family festival, just off the boardwalk, involves a blend of sports activities. This includes sand lacrosse, beach volleyball footvolley, spikeball and teqball. Organizers say the festival emphasizes interactivity, health, wellness sustainability […]

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OCEAN CITY, Md. — The Summer Sports Safari, also known as the S3 Festival, is coming back to Ocean City.

From July 12-13, the family festival, just off the boardwalk, involves a blend of sports activities.

This includes sand lacrosse, beach volleyball footvolley, spikeball and teqball.

Organizers say the festival emphasizes interactivity, health, wellness sustainability and exposure to new sports.

To learn more about the festival, click here.





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U.S. Men Begin 2025 Dutch Tournament with a Pair of Sweeps

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (July 4, 2025) – The U.S. Men’s Sitting National Team opened the 2025 Dutch Tournament in style, posting back-to-back three-set wins on Friday in Assen, Netherlands. The defending silver medalists defeated the host nation, 3-0 (25-16, 25-17, 25-23) and Japan, 3-0 (25-20, 25-16, 33-31). MATCH STATISTICS vs. NETHERLANDSMATCH STATISTICS VS. JAPAN The […]

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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (July 4, 2025) – The U.S. Men’s Sitting National Team opened the 2025 Dutch Tournament in style, posting back-to-back three-set wins on Friday in Assen, Netherlands. The defending silver medalists defeated the host nation, 3-0 (25-16, 25-17, 25-23) and Japan, 3-0 (25-20, 25-16, 33-31).

MATCH STATISTICS vs. NETHERLANDS
MATCH STATISTICS VS. JAPAN

The U.S. dominated Japan in kills (47-25) and aces (15-5), while Japan registered four more blocks (8-4).

Outside hitter Zach Upp was the leading scorer in the match with 20 points, including a match-high 16 kills to go with a block and three aces. Middle blocker Roderick Green led all players with three blocks and shared team-high honors with Jason Roberts with four aces. Green registered seven kills to finish with 14 points.

Outside hitter Eric Duda also reached double digits in kills with 11 and added an ace. James Stuck scored 10 points on nine kills and an ace. Roberts added three kills to his four aces for seven points.

Three aces by Green and a kill by Upp put the U.S. ahead 14-9 in the opening set against Japan. After the lead was cut to three points, 20-17, Green recorded a block and a kill on back-to-back plays to put the advantage back to five points. The U.S. served eight aces in the set.

A kill by Upp and an ace from Green put the U.S. ahead 17-11 in the second set. After Japan closed the gap to four points, 18-14, Upp recorded a kill and served for two more points to push the lead to seven points. Roberts produced a kill off the block and followed with an ace for a 23-15 lead. After surrendering the next point, the U.S. took a two-set lead on a pair of Japan hitting errors.

Japan used a 9-3 run to take what seemed to be insurmountable 20-12 in the third set before a ferocious U.S. comeback evened the set at 24.

A kill by Stuck cut the lead to five, 23-18, and then John Kremer served for four consecutive points with another Stuck kill cutting the deficit to two points and a Japan hitting error bringing the U.S within a point.

A kill by middle blocker Green and a Stuck ace fought off two set points and evened the set at 24. After fighting off another set point, a kill by Zach Upp gave the U.S. match point at 26-25. The U.S. faced three more set points and had two more match points before a Green kill and a Duda kill after another strong serve from Kremer finally ended the set and match.

vs. Netherlands

In the win over the Netherlands, the U.S. used a 32-19 advantage in kills and 10-5 in aces to earn the sweep. The teams were even in blocks with nine.

“The Netherlands are an exciting team to play and a really emotional team to play, which is great. What I like about those matches is any big play the Netherlands has can be a huge momentum swing, so it was a good test and a good way to start the tournament,” head coach Greg Walker said.

Upp led all players with 16 points on nine kills, a match-best five aces and two blocks. Green shared match-high honors with four blocks, adding four kills and two aces to also reach double digits with 10 points.

Duda contributed eight points on six kills and two blocks, Stuck recorded six kills, and Roberts finished with five kills.

The U.S. started the tournament strong, jumping out to an 8-3 lead against the Netherlands in the first set. A 5-2 stretch already leading 16-10 helped the U.S. pull away in the set. Seven aces keyed the second set win. The U.S. recorded 12 kills in the final set and benefited from 10 Netherlands errors. The Netherlands made a late run the third set to cut a five-point deficit to one before the U.S. prevailed.

“It is an interesting tournament because every day we are playing two matches, so our regular scout prep is a little tougher. It reminds me of VNL (Volleyball Nations League) with everybody trying to get new athletes in, trying to figure out where they stand,” Walker commented. “We had some flight complications coming in, so it was awesome to see the guys get right off the bus to play at a pretty high level. Yesterday we had scrimmages with Poland and Türkiye, and it was pretty exciting.”

Roster

No. Name (Position, Height, Hometown)
Dan Regan (OH, 6-0, St. Louis, Mo.)
Nick Dadgostar (L, 6-0, Sidney, Neb.)
Ben Aman (OH, 6-5, Edmond, Okla.)
Eric Duda (S/OH, 6-5, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)
Alex Wilson (OPP/OH, 6-6, Saugerties, N.Y.)
James Stuck (S/OH, 6-5, New Kensington, Pa.)
10 Robbie Onusko(OH, 6-0, Daytona Beach, Fla.)
11 Roderick Green (MB, 6-3, West Monroe, La.)
14 John Kremer (L, 5-9, Buford, Ga.)
17 Zach Upp (OH, 6-5, Bartlett, Ill.)
20 Jason Roberts (OH, 6-3, Moncks Corner, S.C.)
22 Brett Parks(OH, 6-0, Miami, Fla.)
23 Will Curtis (S/L, 6-0, Cumberland, Maine)
49 Sam Surowiec (OH, 6-2, Everett, Wash.)

Coaches
Head coach: Greg Walker
Assistant Coach: Julie Allen
Assistant Coach: Dave Dantes
Assistant Coach: Kenzie Rombach
Performance Analyst: Sydnie Mabry
Athletic Trainer: Whitney Padgett

Schedule

July 4
USA def. Netherlands, 3-0 (25-16, 25-17, 25-23)
USA def. Japan, 3-0 (25-20, 25-16, 33-31)

July 5
USA vs Türkiye, 12 a.m., followed by playoffs

July 6
Playoffs



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