Utah Valley incoming freshman Smokey McClure finished as the runner-up at the 2024 U.S. Marine Corps Freestyle Junior Nationals on Wednesday night.

In the finals, he fell short to No. 4 Daniel Zepeda (California) in the final by a 13-4 score. Zepeda took a 5-0 lead after the first period, which was too much for UVU’s incoming freshman to overcome.

McClure, the No. 11 seed, got on a roll earlier this week that started with a defeat of California’s Braden Priest in the round of 128. He tallied up 13 and 18 points in victories in the round of 64 over Colton Hush (Wisconsin) and Nolan Ambrose (Minnesota) to move to the round of 16.

In the round of 16, he advanced with a 12-2 dominant win over Ohio’s Brodie Dominique to earn a spot in the quarterfinals. The Washington native pulled his first upset of the tournament by jumping out to a 10-3 lead after one period over the third seed Kyrel Leavell (Indiana) to move into the semifinals, where he switched course and used a strong second period to defeat Oklahoma’s No. 2 seed Jace Roller.

All competitors compete under the home states for the prestigious annual event at the Fargo Dome in Fargo. N.D.

The Wolverines had two other incoming freshmen in the event: Idaho’s Hudson Rogers (175) finished 4-2, and Jake Castanegeto (132) went 3-2 in the competition.

All three will remain at the Junior Nationals in Fargo for the Greco-Roman competition, slated to begin on Friday, July 19. The tournament is available for streaming via FloWrestling with updated brackets on FloArena.

Thomson promotes former Payson star Shelby Shurtliff to assistant coach for UVU softball

Utah Valley head softball coach Cody Thomson has announced the promotion of Shelby Shurtliff to assistant coach after spending the 2024 season as the program’s volunteer assistant coach.

“I’m excited to promote Shelby to a full-time assistant position,” said Thomson. “Shelby helped our team improve tremendously last year and I can’t wait to see what she can do next season.”

Shurtliff was on staff for the momentous 2024 campaign that saw the Wolverines win their most games since 2013 and post the second-best WAC win percentage since joining the league in 2014.

Prior to Utah Valley, Shurtliff spent four years on staff at USU Eastern in Price, Utah, including the last three seasons as the head coach. Shurtliff played two collegiate seasons — one at Salt Lake CC and one at USUE — and helped lead the Bruins to a SWAC title and a berth in the NJCAA National Championship in 2017. At USUE, she earned All-SWAC honors in 2018.

A native of Santaquin, Utah, Shurtliff prepped at Payson HS where she earned All-Region honors her final three seasons. Shurtliff earned her Associates degree from Salt Lake CC.

Wolverine women’s volleyball earns seventh straight AVCA Team Academic Award

The American Volleyball Coaches Association announced the 2024 Team Academic Award presented by INTENT. The Wolverines earned the designation for the seventh consecutive season and their 12th award since 2009.

More than 1,400 programs from the collegiate and high school ranks maintained a 3.30 GPA on a 4.0 scale or a 4.1 GPA on a 5.0 scale. I am very proud how our team takes their academics seriously each semester. It’s not easy being a student-athlete, but I am so grateful for their preparation and hard work. Their success in the classroom proves to me that they care!” said UVU head coach Sam Atoa.

We are pleased that the record-setting success of the 2023-24 season on the court has extended to the classroom, too, as evidenced by more programs earning the AVCA Team Academic Award than ever before,” says AVCA CEO Dr. Jaime Gordon. “This is a great example of how committed our coaches are when it comes to helping their players reach their full potential as both students and athletes.”

Utah Valley continues to set the standard for success in the classroom with a combined team GPA of 3.60. Hailey Cuff, Tori Ellis, Avery Shewell, and Caleigh Vagana were all recognized for their academic achievement in the fall by College Sports Communicators.

The Wolverines start the 2024 season next month when they host Eastern Washington, Kansas City, and CSU Bakersfield for the Utah Valley Invitational.