For the second year in a row, a Nebraska track and field athlete has won the national championship in the javelin.
For the second year in a row, a Nebraska track and field athlete has won the national championship in the javelin. This time, however, they also set a new collegiate record.
Rhema Otabor secured her second-consecutive NCAA title on Thursday night, launching the javelin 210 feet, 7 inches (64.19 meters), a record-breaking mark. That distance broke the collegiate record, the NCAA Championship meet record, the Nebraska school record, and the Bahamian record.
With the title, Otabor closes out her collegiate career as a three-time First-Team All-American, a two-time NCAA Champion, and a two-time Big Ten Champion. Otabor is also the first Husker to win back-to-back titles since 2003-04.
Nebraska sent three female throwers to nationals in the javelin along with Otabor. Eniko Sara added to the Huskers javelin success, tossing a personal-best 182 feet, 7 inches (55.66 meters) to finish fifth, earning First-Team All-America honors at her first-career NCAA Championship meet. This is also the fifth-best javelin mark in school history.
Mirta Kulisic finished 15th with a distance of 170 feet (51.82 meters), and Emanuela Casadei took 19th place with a throw of 164 feet, 10 inches (50.24 meters).
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The Nebraska track and field team won another title at the NCAA Championship on Friday night.
On Friday night, the Nebraska track and field team won another title at the NCAA Championships. Darius Luff took home the gold in the 110-meter hurdles, concluding his collegiate career on a high note.
Luff is the second Husker to secure a title, joining Rhema Otabor, who won the women’s javelin on Thursday night. Luff took the gold in the race with a personal best run of 13.19 seconds.
Luff completed the outdoor season after finishing 14th in the NCAA Indoor Championship in March. He also won the Big Ten Outdoor Championship in the 110-meter hurdles, running a 13.25 to earn the win.
He concluded his collegiate career at Nebraska with four First Team USTFCCCA All-America honors, two in the 60-meter hurdles and two in the 110-meter hurdles.
The champion will now compete in the USA Olympic Trials for a chance to represent Team USA in the 2024 Paris Olympics. The trials are set to begin on June 21. The men’s 110-meter hurdles is set to run on June 24 at 5:05 p.m. PST.
Tennessee men’s golf concludes season at NCAA Championships.
No. 5 Tennessee concluded its 2023-24 season on Monday at the NCAA Championships in Carlsbad, California.
The Vols finished 10th and failed to make a cut for quarterfinal play by three shots.
“It’s obviously not the end result we wanted this week,” Tennessee head coach Brennan Webb said. “Couldn’t be more proud of this team and what they fought for this year and how much they fought through a bunch of adversity.
“They never stopped fighting even all the way through today. We have been written off a bunch of times.”
Bryce Lewis finished with Tennessee’s top score and tied for 35th (-7) place.
The Ducks are flying on to the match play portion of the NCAA Championships.
The Oregon Ducks women’s golf team did what they needed to do on Monday, finishing strong in the third and final round of stroke play at the NCAA Championship and qualifying for the highly-anticipated match play, which begins on Tuesday.
The Ducks finished tied for sixth place in the stroke play, coming in at 19-over par. They will be the No. 7 seed in the match play, going up against 2-seed LSU in the first round of the match play.
True freshman Kiara Romero led the way once again for the Ducks, shooting an even 72 on the day and capping off a score of -4 for the stroke play. Romero finished in sixth place overall for the individual championship.
Ching-Tzu Chen and Minori Nagano combined to shoot 5-under par over their final nine holes of the day to help get the Ducks into position to make the cut.
The quarterfinals of the matchplay will take place on Tuesday morning, and the semifinals will be held in the afternoon.
Another trip to the NCAA Championships for the Oregon Ducks’ women’s golf team.
The Oregon Ducks women’s golf team is headed to the NCAA national championships once again after an impressive showing in the Auburn Regionals early this week.
This is the first time Oregon is back in the NCAA championships after missing out on a bid in 2023.
The Ducks used a stellar final round on Wednesday to secure a second-place finish in the Auburn Regional, shooting 14-over on the week, four shots behind first-place finisher LSU, and seven shots ahead of third-place North Carolina.
Two young Ducks led the way, with freshmen Kiara Romero and Ting-Hsuan Huang both shooting 2-over on the tournament and finishing in 10th place individually. Ching-Tzu Chen finished in 12th with a 4-over for the tournament, freshman Karen Tsuru shot 6-over for a tie of 16th place, and senior Minori Nagano tied for 40th place with a 16-over finish.
With the top-five finish, Oregon now looks ahead to the NCAA Championships at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, California. The tournament starts on May 17 and runs through the 22.
The No. 1 ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers entered the Final Four of the NCAA volleyball tournament on Thursday night, facing off against Pittsburgh.
The No. 1 ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers entered the Final Four of the NCAA volleyball tournament on Thursday night, facing off against Pittsburgh. The Huskers swept the Panthers (25-20, 25-23, 25-17) in dominating fashion to advance to its 11th NCAA Championship Game.
The Huskers held the lead for nearly the entire match, trailing for just four rallies. Nebraska hit .245 against Pittsburgh and limited the Panthers to a .137 attack percentage, which marked Pitt’s second-lowest mark of the season and its lowest since its season opener against BYU.
Harper Murray racked up the most kills for the Huskers, landing 13 off 33 attacks while also earning five digs. Merritt Beason followed with eight kills off 26 attacks and accompanied it with five blocks, four digs, and four service aces. Ally Batenhorst also tallied up eight kills off 21 attacks and added four blocks.
Bekka Allick led the block for Nebraska, putting up 10 in the win. Allick also racked up four kills off seven attacks. Andi Jackson added to the offense with five kills off nine attacks. Bergen Reilly once again delivered in set assists, serving up 31. Lexi Rodriguez finished as the team leader in digs with 14.
With the win, Nebraska advances to the NCAA Championship, where it’ll take on Texas on Sunday afternoon. The match is set for 2 p.m. and will be televised on ABC.
The duo will have a shot at a national title on Saturday! #GoBucks
The Ohio State men’s tennis team finished just a wee bit short of taking home a national championship, but one of the Buckeyes’ doubles teams has another shot to add a national title trophy to the case.
And it came in come-from-behind fashion.
The doubles team of Andrew Lutschaunig and James Trotter did battle with Pepperdine’s Daniel De Jonge and Tim Zeitvogel and had to pull off a thrilling comeback. The OSU duo started out losing the first set 6-3 and had to work hard to win the second set 7-6 in a tiebreaker by a score of 7-2.
That forced a super-tiebreaker for the third set to determine the winner and Ohio State capitalized on its momentum to win that pretty handily by a score of 10-4. Just like that, a ticket had been punched to the national championship game on Saturday opposite the team of Cleeve Harper and Eliot Spizzirri of Texas.
A comeback win for Trotter and Lutschaunig and they are headed to the NCAA Doubles Championship Match on Saturday #GoBuckspic.twitter.com/iwh66yzsSg
— Ohio State M Tennis (@OhioStateMTEN) May 26, 2023
“It’s been my life’s work on both occasions – my own child and my team.”
Olivia Stoll doesn’t think there was one specific moment when golf finally hooked her. But deep down, she admits walking around Cypress Point watching her parents play golf might have played a significant role. Her mother, longtime Michigan State head coach Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll, had taken the family to Northern California while she recruited at the 2018 U.S. Girls’ Junior at Poppy Hills.
Shortly after that trip, Olivia arrived at a high school volleyball camp and called her dad. She wanted to ditch volleyball and head to the golf course.
“I was like ‘What is going on?’ ” recalled Olivia. “I never thought I would want to play golf.”
Oh, but her mother had dreamed of such a day for so long. Olivia’s interest in the game went from 0 to 60 practically overnight at age 15, declaring at dinner one night that she wanted to play college golf.
“Olivia,” her mother said, “I’ve already offered girls full scholarships that are your age.”
Olivia was undeterred, however, and on Mother’s Day, she’ll head to Eureka, Missouri, with her Grand Valley State team for the NCAA Division II Women’s Golf Championship.
Slobodnik-Stoll, the winningest player in Golf Association of Michigan history with 18 titles, heads to Arizona on Tuesday for the NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championship. The Spartans claimed their first NCAA Regional title last week at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
Slobodnik-Stoll’s heart will be in two places as she guides her team around Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona, and reads text updates from husband Jim on Olivia’s performance in Missouri.
“It’s been my life’s work on both occasions – my own child and my team,” she said. “I’m thrilled that I have such a good problem.”
Now in her 26th season as head coach at her alma mater, Slobodnik-Stoll said what impresses her most about this group of Spartans is they keep improving as the season goes along. Their success comes despite the loss of Valery Plata, a former Big Ten Player of the Year who turned professional mid-year.
Michigan State men’s basketball coach Tom Izzo was headed to watch former Spartan Draymond Green compete in the NBA Playoffs on the final day of NCAA regionals.
“When he landed he called right in the middle of our celebration,” said Slobodnik-Stoll. “I said to the girls, ‘Look who’s calling!’ and they were screaming.”
Sophomore Brooke Biermann took a share of medalist honors at PGA National, the best regional finish in program history. The team’s GPA this semester, 3.984, set a school record for the Michigan State athletic department.
“When they say they’re going to do something,” said Slobodnik-Stoll, “they’re going to do it to the best of their ability.”
That’s a trait that’s also shared by Slobodnik-Stoll and her daughter, along with showing up early and a strong competitive gene that’s not outwardly shown.
“Deep down we know we want to beat everyone in the field,” said Olivia.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Olivia asked her mom whether they could head to Florida when the temperatures dropped. MSU players weren’t coming back to school until January, and Olivia’s high school work was all online.
So on Halloween of 2020, mom and daughter packed up the car and headed south. In two-and-a-half months they played 50 rounds of golf. Olivia was also able to compete in several tournaments, and the time together proved invaluable as she strived to make up for lost time.
As Olivia began to play in more tournaments back home in Michigan, the story of a late-bloomer began to get out, and coaches were interested. Slobodnik-Stoll is often asked: Why not Division I?
Her answer is simple: “For her to go somewhere and sit on the bench was pointless. She needed to go somewhere to play, play, play.”
— GVSU Women's Golf (@gvsuwomensgolf) May 10, 2023
During her freshman year, Grand Valley traveled to tournaments in Hawaii, California and Arizona. Olivia was recently named Player of the Year in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, despite a disqualification earlier in the season for signing an incorrect scorecard.
The lessons keep coming.
Slobodnik-Stoll doesn’t get to watch Olivia compete as much as she’d like, but their trips now consist of golf as a family – and knowing they’ll have that for rest of their lives is priceless. Husband Jim also played collegiate golf and has a deep passion for the game.
Mom and daughter celebrated Mother’s Day early on Saturday with a round of birthday golf for Slobodnik-Stoll’s father Dave before Olivia headed to NCAAs.
Michigan State head coach Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll with husband Jim and daughter Olivia tee it up together in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. (courtesy photo)
Olivia isn’t sure how far she wants to go in the game, but there will be plenty of options as her parents have purchased three daily-fee courses in Michigan over the past two years: Twin Oaks Golf Course in Freeland, Huron Breeze in Au Gres and Vassar Golf Club.
But first, there are national championships at stake.
“It’s just cool to have her as a role model,” said Olivia.
Everything you need to know for the final rounds of regional play.
College golf’s championship season is that much closer to crowning a national champ.
The six regional championship sites that featured 12 teams and six individuals (72 teams and 36 individuals, total) concluded play Wednesday, and there were plenty of stellar performances and even some upsets. The top five teams (30 total) and the top individual (six total) not on a qualifying team from each regional advanced to the national championship at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona, May 19-24.
Below you’ll find a recap, as well as a breakdown of what to watch for from each regional as the final round concludes from all six sites.
Results from 2023 men’s conference championships across the country.
Conference championship season is underway in men’s college golf, with all roads leading to the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona, in May.
Teams who win their conference titles score an Automatic Qualifying spot in NCAA Regionals, which is a big deal for any team that might find itself on the bubble for an at-large postseason selection. A win earns a postseason spot and gets you closer to a spot in the NCAA Championship.
Conference championships are listed below along with date and venue, and we’ll continue to update the list with winners and storylines as tournaments wrap up.
