Latest news with #JuniorOlympics
Los Angeles Times
12 minutes ago
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
5 O.C. players help SET 18U girls win USA Water Polo Junior Olympics gold
IRVINE — Corona del Mar High graduates Didi Evans and Reagan Weir weren't quite sure where to go after the high school girls' water polo season ended last winter. The club season before college, with Evans headed to Princeton and Weir bound for Stanford, amounted to a free agent period. But the young women soon found their destination in the Saddleback-El Toro Water Polo Club and coach Ethan Damato. 'SET welcomed us with open arms,' Evans said. 'Immediately, I felt like part of the team. There was no transition period. We just really, really blended with them. It was like we had been playing together for years.' The result was a gold medal, SET's third straight in the 18-and-under division. SET Black beat Regency 8-5 in the title match Sunday at Woollett Aquatics Center. Evans had a goal and three assists in the final, while Weir also scored. Laguna Beach graduates Siena Jumani and Kara Carver, as well as incoming Breakers senior Brooke Schneider, also contributed for SET. Carver, bound for USC, capped her junior club career by earning her eighth Junior Olympics gold medal. 'It's just an incredible experience,' she said. 'This team is like no other, and I just loved being a part of it. It was really nice to have this be our last game and our last club experience before college, and going out on a win.' Jumani, a goalkeeper bound for UC Santa Barbara, made six saves in the first half of the title match before Clarysa Sirls played goalie in the second half. She also helped the Breakers win the CIF Southern Section Division 1 title in February. 'It's like the perfect ending for everything,' Jumani said. 'We've just had fun throughout all of it.' Christina Flynn scored three goals in the final and earned MVP honors for SET, coached by Damato, the former longtime Laguna Beach coach who recently was hired to guide the JSerra girls' water polo team. SET had lost to top-seeded SOCAL in group play on Friday, but beat SOCAL 10-9 in the 18U semifinals earlier Sunday. Weir scored the equalizing goal, then Evans netted the game-winning counterattack goal after stealing the ball up top, helping SET beat SOCAL for the first time in four meetings this year. 'I saw the opportunity and I took it,' said Evans, who could say the same about joining SET for the title run. The Corona del Mar 18U girls finished with gold in the Classic Bracket on Sunday, beating San Clemente 12-5 for the title at Yorba Linda High. CdM went a perfect 7-0 in the tournament, including an 18-10 semifinal win over North Irvine Black.
Los Angeles Times
6 days ago
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
North Irvine prevents Newport Beach 18U ‘three-peat' at USA Water Polo Junior Olympics
IRVINE — Luke Harris called it a really hard decision to leave his brothers on the Newport Harbor High boys' water polo team, competing for a different club team before heading off to college. What made the decision a bit easier was knowing that his good friend and fellow goalkeeper, incoming senior Connor Clougherty, was more than capable of taking the reins in the cage. 'That's my true team, my alma mater,' said Harris, who helped the Sailors claim the CIF Southern Section Open Division title last fall. 'I will always love them to death and be supportive of them. All I want for them is for them to get better and succeed.' Harris left to play with a 'super team,' North Irvine Beast Boys, made up of players from different high schools, this summer. On Tuesday afternoon, he faced many of his Sailors teammates in the boys' 18-and-under gold medal match of the USA Water Polo Junior Olympics. Harris prevented Newport Beach Water Polo Club from winning the division three years in a row, though his own personal streak is intact. The USC-bound goalie made 12 saves as the Beast Boys beat Newport Beach 9-5 for the title at Woollett Aquatics Center. It's the third straight Junior Olympics title for Harris, who helped the Newport Beach 18s win it in 2023 and again last year. 'It felt like it was all or nothing,' Harris said. 'If we didn't win, we were going to feel like a bunch of dogs, honestly. Our whole persona was big, almost a little cocky, everyone kind of hated us. If we didn't win this, it was all for nothing. That was our mindset the whole time.' JSerra graduate Gavin Conant, who, like Harris, will be a Trojan next year, scored a match-high four goals and earned MVP honors. North Irvine, which avenged a loss to Newport Beach in the Junior Olympics quarterfinals on Monday, also featured Corona del Mar graduate Jackson Harlan and Newport Harbor graduate Santino Rossi. Harlan, the 2024-25 Daily Pilot Dream Team Player of the Year, had a field block and a drawn exclusion in the win. 'Coming together and training for three months, going out and getting the job done, there's no better feeling,' Harlan said. 'A surreal feeling.' Sean Anderson, an incoming sophomore transfer from JSerra, had two goals for team-high honors for Newport Beach. Coach Ross Sinclair said that Anderson and his older brother, Tyler, an incoming senior center who starred for the Lions last season, are now both officially enrolled at Newport Harbor. Kai Kaneko, Declan Bartlett and Fletcher Appeldorn added goals for Newport Beach. Clougherty made four saves. Harris said that North Irvine, which led 6-2 at halftime, effectively utilized an 'M-drop' zone defense. 'They just played a little faster, a little more intense, and they had some big moments from big-time players,' Sinclair said. 'I love Luke; I thought he was great. I've seen that before. I'm bummed that we lost, but I'm happy for the way that he goes out his last year. He was fantastic.' Newport Beach missed incoming senior standout Connor Ohl, who has been playing with the U.S. men's senior national team at the World Aquatics World Championships in Singapore. Team USA plays Italy in the seventh-place match on Thursday morning. The Sailors, who Sinclair has guided to the CIF finals in the top division for six straight years, will get back to high school water polo soon enough this fall. 'We have a good group, it's going to be fun,' Sinclair said. 'It's more, 'how do we stay focused, stay hungry and use experiences like this to get better?' It's going to be a fun high school season. There's a lot of good teams out there. We'll enjoy a little break, come back and chip away.' Session Two of the USA Water Polo Junior Olympics, featuring girls' and co-ed divisions, runs Thursday through Sunday in Orange County.
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
If you don't know UFC 317's Jacobe Smith, now's the time to pay attention
The first big knockout of the 2025 came from Jacobe Smith, a fighter fresh off the Contender Series, who blasted a left hand through the head of Preston Parsons at a UFC Fight Night on Jan. 11. We say 'through' because the shot was so clean that, well, it was like the proverbial hot knife through butter. In fact, that left hand just kind of kept going, as if Parsons' head wasn't even its final destination. Six long months later, Smith is finally making his return to action at UFC 317, where he'll face Niko Price on Saturday night's preliminary card. That punch to kick off the year, it turns out, was money. Smith finds himself as much as an 25-to-1 favorite on BetMGM over a foe with nine times as many fights in the UFC. Advertisement And if you talk to 'Cobe,' as he's known, you get the idea that he's one of the best-kept secrets in the welterweight division. 'I understand what [Price] is and I understand my capabilities,' Smith says, 'and if you know me — if you've followed me through my wrestling career — I could wrestle a trash-ass opponent or the number one guy in the country, and either one of those matches could be close. It's more so focusing on me and what I want to do — and once I figure that out, it ain't no stopping me.' Confident? Maybe, but bursting at the seams might be more like it. Smith is anxious for fans to see what Vegas already knows — which is that he's a dark horse to make some serious noise in a division already teeming with contenders. To understand that dark horse status, you have to work backward. Advertisement Smith lives in Crandall, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. He trains at Fortis MMA, which is half an hour from his house, and near enough to his combat roots, as he was a standout collegiate wrestler at Oklahoma State University. It was his wrestling buddy (and former Bellator fighter) Kyle Crutchmer who introduced Smith to Daniel Cormier, a fellow OSU Cowboy. The two became fast friends. Smith has trained with Cormier and the likes of Khabib Nurmagomedov up in California whenever he can. At one point he was even signed to fight in Nurmagomedov's Eagle FC, but the pandemic prevented him from ever debuting. Still, he has raced out to a 10-0 professional MMA record, including two wins thus far under the UFC umbrella, one of which came on the aforementioned Contender Series. The wrestling pedigree is in his back pocket. Advertisement But the hands might be the difference-makers. Those hands, he says, came from trading with his older brother, Lonnie Wilson, who was a Golden Gloves boxing champion. It was hang or be hung. 'He was three or four years older than me, too' he says. 'And my daddy was so hype, he was always, 'Get your ass up, let's train.' I'm like, dude, I don't train.' This is where we work backward some more to understand where Smith is now. Smith's father was a football player who was drafted by the Oakland Raiders, and his mother was a volleyball player in the Junior Olympics. Athletes all around him, but Smith didn't train because he couldn't. At least not until he was around 12 or so. He was born with asthma. It was so severe that the doctors told him he wouldn't be able to compete. Advertisement 'I couldn't walk up the stairs to go to my room as a kid a lot because it would f*** me up,' he says. 'My parents didn't know what to do. I was in the hospital pretty much my whole life, couldn't breathe. I remember being a kid and times were so hard that I would — I knew how to make myself go unconscious because I couldn't breathe in my normal state. So I knew how to basically put myself to sleep. And once I grew out of that, my body was just so conditioned to the hard life that this regular fighting was easy.' It was a gradual escalation from losing his breath just walking up the steps to getting to the point where he could run. Then he could hang with other kids in sports. Then he could box with his brother. Then he could find the wind to begin distinguishing himself as an athlete. Jacobe Smith strolls away after a knockout victory over Preston Parsons in his UFC debut. (Chris Unger via Getty Images) 'I started with football, and I did track, and then wrestling was the Christmas season and that was pretty much the last one of that year,' he says. 'But I did everything. As soon as the doctors released me, I tried football track, soccer, basketball and wrestling. And wrestling was what I fell in love with.' Advertisement These days Smith sees his early struggles with asthma as a silver lining to his supreme conditioning. He says it 'calloused' him up to where he's 'five or 10 steps ahead' of the field. It's been a wild ride going from not being able to breathe as a kid to outlasting opponents on wrestling mats. His path was hard enough that he sees professional MMA as almost a reprieve. 'Wrestling is way harder,' he says. 'It is just way more high-maintenance due to every weekend I'm making weight, every weekend I'm cutting that weight and cutting my body, depleting it. 'But outside of that, I feel like I've mastered fighting to a sense, where I can put that pressure on people without them being able to put it back on me. My biggest obstacle is dodging the strikes before I get into where I want to get. My instincts are f***ing fire.' Advertisement Confident? Maybe, but carrying a chip on his shoulder might be more like it. That knockout that he scored on Parsons — a thing of pure and violent beauty — didn't come with a bonus, after all. 'No sir, it didn't,' he says. 'I feel like that, I mean, first knockout of the year, 2025, I was the first knockout on the card, and they gave it to the other person (Cesar Almeida). I watched the card back and everything — it should have been me, but nobody looked as skilled as me. Everybody else was sloppy.' This weekend is another chance. Price has shown a propensity to stand in the pocket and trade. For a long stretch he was a feast or famine fighter. The opportunity will be there for Smith, who is close to showing up on the welterweight radar. Should he do to Price what he did to Parsons, people might be talking about the dark horse, Jacobe Smith. Advertisement 'I'm so used to being looked over and not given what I deserve, that I don't care what it is,' Smith says. 'I could take the hardest route. Nobody ain't going to be able to do nothing with me. I say you throw me one of them Russians and see if their wrestling can stick up with mine or if I got to rely on that. 'But I don't think any of these regular strikers are going to have anything for me. These regular jiu-jitsu guys aren't going to have nothing for me because I manage my energy so well. You ain't going to catch me gassed or f***ing struggling for something that I need, because I'm ahead of the curve.'
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Decorated Harding sprinter earns Student Athlete of the Week
WARREN, Ohio (WKBN) – Warren Harding senior sprinter Alexis Rodgers has been speeding her way to the finish line for the Raiders as a four-sport athlete. 'Get out, get up and get busy,' said Rodgers. 'That's what I'm thinking when I'm in the blocks, especially before the gun goes off, just a moment of silence and then it's power, let's go.' She was on the cross-country team for half a season and also has two varsity letters on the cheer team. Rodgers was also a captain on the varsity soccer team with two varsity letters. She helped her soccer team advance to the playoffs every season she was on varsity. Where she truly shines is in track & field with four varsity letters. As a team, she aided the Raiders to a Trumbull County title in her junior season. 'When I was little, I started on the playground racing the boys, and I was always told I was faster than the boys,' said Rodgers. 'So I got on the track — it's peaceful to run, just get out here and compete.' In 2023, she was also District Champion in the 100m and 200m. Rodgers won the All-American Conference and Trumbull County Championships in the 100m, 200m, and 400m. The Raider has not advanced to states yet, but said this season she plans to make it in the 200m and 400m. The sprinter has also been a regional finalist in her freshman and sophomore seasons. 'Competition, I love competition, I love competing against other people,' said Rodgers. 'I love the feeling of the burn in my chest when I run. Then also, when I cross the finish line and I PR, I won a big meet or something. I just love that feeling.' Rodgers had to battle adversity in her junior season with a complete ACL tear at the beginning of the school year, but just three months after the injury, she was back on the track as the county title runner-up. Then, just four months after the injury, she advanced to the district finals. 'An overwhelming feeling of excitement, and I tear up sometimes, but it's just a stand-still moment,' said Rodgers. 'Like, wow, it took a lot to get back here, especially after a big injury.' Outside of Harding, she is a three-time national qualifier in AAU and has competed in the Junior Olympics from 2021-2023. Rodgers is involved with many clubs, including Key Club, Our Voices Matter, and National Honor Society. She also holds leadership positions at Harding, including as student council president. The senior has amassed at least 200 service hours with blood drives, community clean-ups, and working with preschoolers. She also makes her own programs as she built a summit for teen networking and advocacy while tutoring K-5 at her church and helping kids at the public library. In the summer, she helps kids at Inspiring Minds and organizes church mentoring programs. 'You never know what people go home to …a lot of them are in hard positions, I try to make their days spent with me the best,' said Rodgers. 'When I see that they're having a good time, it definitely like makes me feel fuzzy inside.' The track star shines in the classroom with a 4.149 GPA as well. She has not decided where she will be attending college, but she will be running track collegiately. Rodgers also wants to major in biology, pre-physical therapy, to become a pediatric physical therapist. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
USA Today
26-04-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
WATCH: Chiefs Wire Podcast Video Interview: Chris Maxey
WATCH: Chiefs Wire Podcast Video Interview: Chris Maxey On the Chiefs Wire Podcast, we look back at one of the best interviews from the 2024 season! This week, we're reflecting on the Week 17 episode. Watch as Senior Writer Ed Easton Jr. spoke to Xavier Worthy's high school coach, Chris Maxey, about his special gift from the Chiefs' wide receiver before last year's NFL Draft and his humble beginnings. Maxey discussed the significance of Worthy's jersey number, his impact on the future, and how his humble personality aligns with the Kansas City community. Worthy surprised his mentor and childhood football coach, Maxey, who helped inspire him throughout his journey, with a 98-inch television. He posted his admiration and the incredible moment on his Instagram last year, days before the 2024 NFL Draft. While playing football at Central East High School, Maxey convinced Worthy to run track and stepped in as an added parent figure. He even made the six-day trip to Virginia for the Junior Olympics in the seventh grade when his mom couldn't take time off work. Maxey continues to work with youth athletes at Central East High School in Fresno, California. He uses Worthy's journey as a positive example of what can happen if you work hard and pursue your goals.
