Latest news with #NCAAs
Hamilton Spectator
3 days ago
- Sport
- Hamilton Spectator
American swimming star Lilly King announces farewell season, final US competition
American three-time Olympic swimming star and world record holder Lilly King has announced the upcoming Toyota National Championships in Indianapolis will be her final meet on U.S. soil as she prepares to call it a career at the conclusion of the 2025 season. The meet will run Tuesday through Saturday. A longtime breaststroke stalwart, King announced her plans Saturday on Instagram and said swimming her final race in the U.S. in her home state and a pool she's known since her youth 'has always been important to me.' 'Well, folks, my time has come. This will be my final season competing,' she wrote. 'I'm fortunate heading into retirement being able to say I have accomplished everything I have ever wanted in this sport. I feel fulfilled.' The 28-year-old King holds the world record in the 100-meter breaststroke with a time of 1:04.13, set at the 2017 world championships. She won an Olympic gold medal in the 100 breast at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games and also captured Olympic titles on relays in Rio and at her final Olympics last year in Paris. The U.S. women's 4x100 medley relay set a world record in 3:49.63. Regan Smith, Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske were her teammates in the Americans' victory over defending Olympic champion Australia. 'Just an awesome way to cap off the meet,' King said afterward. At the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics, King earned silver medals in the 200 breaststroke and 4x100 medley relay and a bronze in the 100 breast. She narrowly missed the medal stand in the 100 breast in Paris, with one-hundredth of a second separating bronze medalist Mona McSharry of Ireland and the fourth-place tie between King and Italy's Benedetta Pilato in 1:05.60. For King, being home in Indiana next week will mean so much. It was also in Indianapolis last June during the U.S. Olympic swimming trials that boyfriend and former Indiana University swimmer James Wells proposed to her just off the pool deck — and she said yes. 'I have been racing in the IU Natatorium since I was 10 years old,' she wrote. 'From state meets, to NCAAs, Nationals, and anything in between, this pool has been my home. I didn't quite make it 20 years (only 18) of racing in Indy, but this is as close as I'm gonna get! I look forward to racing in front of a home crowd one last time.' ___ AP Summer Olympics:
Winnipeg Free Press
3 days ago
- Sport
- Winnipeg Free Press
American swimming star Lilly King announces farewell season, final US competition
American three-time Olympic swimming star Lilly King has announced the upcoming Toyota National Championships in Indianapolis will be her final meet on U.S. soil as she prepares to call it a career at the conclusion of the 2025 season. The meet will run Tuesday through Saturday. A longtime breaststroke stalwart, King announced her plans Saturday on Instagram and said swimming her final race in the U.S. in her home state and a pool she's known since her youth 'has always been important to me.' 'Well, folks, my time has come. This will be my final season competing,' she wrote. 'I'm fortunate heading into retirement being able to say I have accomplished everything I have ever wanted in this sport. I feel fulfilled.' The 28-year-old King won a gold medal in the 100-meter breaststroke at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games and also captured Olympic titles on relays in Rio and at her final Olympics last year in Paris. The U.S. women's 4×100 medley relay set a world record in 3:49.63. Regan Smith, Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske were her teammates in the Americans' victory over defending Olympic champion Australia. 'Just an awesome way to cap off the meet,' King said afterward. At the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics, King earned silver medals in the 200 breaststroke and 4×100 medley relay and a bronze in the 100 breast. She narrowly missed the medal stand in the 100 breast in Paris, with one-hundredth of a second separating bronze medalist Mona McSharry of Ireland and the fourth-place tie between King and Italy's Benedetta Pilato in 1:05.60. For King, being home in Indiana next week will mean so much. It was also in Indianapolis last June during the U.S. Olympic swimming trials that boyfriend and former Indiana University swimmer James Wells proposed to her just off the pool deck — and she said yes. 'I have been racing in the IU Natatorium since I was 10 years old,' she wrote. 'From state meets, to NCAAs, Nationals, and anything in between, this pool has been my home. I didn't quite make it 20 years (only 18) of racing in Indy, but this is as close as I'm gonna get! I look forward to racing in front of a home crowd one last time.' ___ AP Summer Olympics:
NBC Sports
3 days ago
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Lilly King announces 2025 will be her last season in competitive swimming
Lilly King, a 2016 Olympic champion and world record holder in the 100m breaststroke, announced that 2025 will be her final season as a competitive swimmer. King, 28, said last year that she would retire some time between the 2024 and 2028 Olympics. 'Well folks, my time has come,' was posted Saturday on her social media. 'This will be my final season competing. I'm fortunate heading into retirement being able to say I have accomplished everything I have ever wanted in this sport. I feel fulfilled.' The Indiana native King's final domestic meet will be the Toyota U.S. Championships next week in Indianapolis, according to the post. 'It has always been important to me that my last meet in the US be at the pool that started it all,' the post read. 'I have been racing in the IU Natatorium since I was 10 years old. From state meets, to NCAAs, Nationals, and anything in between, this pool has been my home. I didn't quite make it 20 years (only 18) of racing in Indy, but this is as close as I'm gonna get! I look forward to racing in front of a home crowd one last time.' King, a six-time Olympic medalist, made the U.S. team for a major international meet every year from 2016 through 2024, save 2020, when there were no major meets due to COVID-19. Her biggest splash came that first year in 2016. After her freshman year at Indiana, King won the Olympic 100m breast over Russian rival Yuliya Yefimova. King captured a world title in all three breaststrokes — 50m, 100m and 200m — and has owned the 100m breast world record since 2017. At the Paris Games, King tied for fourth in the 100m breast, placed eighth in the 200m and was part of a gold-medal-winning women's 4x100m medley relay in her last Olympic race. Nick Zaccardi,
USA Today
25-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
After avoiding slow-play penalty at NCAAs, Michael La Sasso looking to win individual title
After avoiding slow-play penalty at NCAAs, Michael La Sasso looking to win individual title Show Caption Hide Caption Drone flyover video of Omni La Costa North Course par-3 12th hole Omni La Costa is hosting the NCAA mens and womens golf championships for a second year in a row. The North Course features a long par-3 12th hole. CARLSBAD, Calif. — On Monday, Michael La Sasso will play the biggest round of his life. The junior at Ole Miss holds the 54-hole lead at the 2025 NCAA Men's Golf Championship, sitting at 11-under 205 following three rounds of stroke play at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa. He's looking to become Ole Miss' second individual NCAA champion, following in the footsteps of Braden Thornberry, who accomplished the feat in 2017. And for La Sasso, his relationship with Thornberry has been critical to his strong play this week. The duo played golf together a couple weeks ago, and Thornberry told La Sasso the postseason was going to be the most fun he would ever have. "I can say I'm having an absolute blast out here," La Sasso said Sunday. "I know he talks about (his win) all the time back home. So if I can add that to my belt tomorrow, I think it would be the coolest thing ever." La Sasso has the lead heading into Monday's round, looking for the biggest win of his career. And it would come with plenty of benefits if he's able to hold on down the stretch. He would earn an exemption into the U.S. Open at Oakmont next month. A likely exemption into the 2026 Masters. Additionally, he would all but lock up his spot on the 2025 U.S. Walker Cup team, set for this September at Cypress Point, which is about seven hours north of Omni La Costa. As for added pressure? La Sasso says not so fast. "I kind of take the mentality golf is golf, you know, one shot at a time," he said. "You can say this is a bigger stage, but it's no different than if you were to go play with your buddies back home on a weekend. You can put excess pressure on yourself if you want to. Me personally? Not really. More: NCAA Men's Golf Championship live updates: Which teams are going to make first cut? "Golf is golf at the end of the day. So just kind of, I keep doing my thing, and, you know, just allowing myself to be confident out there. I don't really think much differently about it." La Sasso shot 2-under 70 on Sunday, but the most exciting part of the round was in the scoring tent after. His group was given warnings twice about slow play after the fourth and 13th hole checkpoints, and NCAA officials held a roughly 10-minute discussion with his group in the scoring tent to determine whether to penalize La Sasso, who received multiple bad times, and one of his playing partners, Oklahoma State's Preston Stout. In the end, neither received penalties after a lengthy discussion along with the third member of the group, Illinois' Max Herendeen. "I might pick it up a little bit tomorrow," La Sasso joked. Last year, Virginia's Ben James received a one-shot penalty for slow play and finished tied for second, one shot out of a playoff with eventual winner Hiroshi Tai.
USA Today
24-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
A year after missing NCAAs, Arizona State is dominating early at Omni La Costa
A year after missing NCAAs, Arizona State is dominating early at Omni La Costa Show Caption Hide Caption Drone flyover video of Omni La Costa North Course par-3 16th hole Omni La Costa is hosting the NCAA mens and womens golf championships for a second year in a row. The North Course's 16th hole is the final par-3. CARLSBAD, Calif. — Connor Williams estimates he has played roughly 100 rounds of golf at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa. The North Course is hosting this week's 2025 NCAA Men's Golf Championship, where Williams and his Arizona State teammates have raced to the lead at the halfway point of stroke play. The Sun Devils sit at 13 under after 36 holes, three strokes in front of Oklahoma and five ahead of defending national champion Auburn, and Williams is tied for the individual lead at 9-under 135. Williams grew up in Escondido, a little more than half an hour from Carlsbad, and he credit his comfortability at the course with his blazing start. "I've played this course a bunch of times. Obviously, it got redone a little bit, so it's a different look, but I still feel very comfortable," Williams said. "I feel like I'm playing within myself and picking the course apart in the right spots and trying to be safe on the right holes where they're playing pretty tough. So I think I've done a pretty good job that so far." More: NCAA Men's Golf Championship live updates: Arizona State races to lead; top teams rise Williams signed for a bogey-free 5-under 67 on Saturday, and he's tied with Ole Miss junior Michael La Sasso for the individual lead, with the duo four shots ahead of the closest chasers after the morning wave. Starting on No. 10, Williams got hot making the turn, birdieing Nos. 16-18 and then No. 1 for four consecutive circles. He added one more on the par-5 sixth. Add in 13 pars, it was a clean card and a big lead for Williams, who is enjoying his time close to home. "He works so hard, and he's been playing amazingly at home," ASU coach Matt Thurmond said. "In practice, he had a stretch this spring where he wasn't playing very well and kind of found himself again, and he's doing everything right right now. "He just played ridiculous today." Sun Devils respond after missing NCAAs a year ago The start is also pivotal for fifth-ranked Arizona State, which missed the NCAA Championship last year after failing to advance from the NCAA Rancho Santa Fe Regional, placing sixth. At the time, the Sun Devils became the fifth No. 1 seed to fail to qualify for the NCAA Championship. Omni La Costa is 7.3 miles from Rancho Santa Fe, and the Sun Devils were thought to be a title favorite last year before they failed to advance. This year has been one withered in patience, as ASU grinded through the regular-season schedule and first year in the Big 12 just waiting for the chance to get through regionals. "I think we had that monkey on our back all year," Thurmond said. "I know for me, personally, it's like all year, no matter what we did, it never felt that great because nothing really mattered until we got through regionals. And personally, for me, I felt just a huge just a huge relief after regionals. "We put way too much pressure on ourselves, and I know I shouldn't, but still at ASU, you're not supposed to miss regionals. So I was really happy with how we developed as a team all year." Thurmond credited seniors Josele Ballester, the 2024 U.S. Amateur champion, and Preston Summerhays for bearing the burden of pressure so their teammates could flourish. Ballester, Summerhays and Williams were all in the lineup at the regional last year and dealt with overcoming the failure of making the national championship. This year, ASU leads the field in par-5 scoring at 15 under through two rounds, and it's tied with Oklahoma State for the most birdies through two rounds (36). On Saturday, Michael Mjaaseth shot 1-under 71, and he was the drop score. The Sun Devils are finally at Omni La Costa, and they're taking full advantage. "Last year we put a bit too much pressure on ourselves to try and get here and just focus on winning golf tournaments," Williams said. "And I think that's where we messed up. It was a ton of pressure. We were obviously a good enough team to be here, but things didn't go our way. And I think this year we've we've kind of looked at the season as a whole and been a lot more focused on our process instead of just trying to win events. "If we control the small things as a group, we tend to compete very well and be in contention every week. So I think just having that mentality, especially at the national championship, obviously you're going to feel the pressure, but the less you can feel that and just go and play free, you're gonna play better."
