The O'Colly, Friday, May 10, 2024

Friday, May 10, 2024

Graduation edition

From masks to gowns

OSU seniors look back on their freshman year

Luisa Clausen Editor-in-Chief

Cara York never bought a prom dress.

The COVID pandemic kept York from going to her senior prom and forced her school to have a socially distant graduation.

York, a fashion merchandising major, spent summer 2020 dreaming about how her time at OSU would go: sorority recruitment, social events and meeting new people. But when she made it to Stillwater, the reality was different. Classes were hybrid, and sorority recruitment was done over Zoom. The uncertainty around when COVID would end was still floating around.

“College was not what I expected when I got here,” York said. “Everyone said, ‘I feel so bad for you because that is not what college looks like,’ and that was discouraging to hear. I was just trying to make the most of what I had been given.”

Sons motivate mom to return for degree

Kennedy Thomason News & Lifestyle Editor

Nessa Washam didn’t plan on returning to school.

At least not until her sons said it wasn’t possible.

Washam flunked out of two semesters at OSU before she decided to call it quits. It wasn’t working out, and she didn’t want to waste any more time or money. She joined OSU Athletics and worked there for 17 years, having three children along the way. On Saturday, she will graduate with a bachelor’s in psychology.

“It was a big discussion,” Washam said. “Because they weren’t doing well in school. And I remember my youngest telling me that I can’t really say anything about him not going to college because I never finished college.”

As a single mom working full time, she didn’t see a college degree in her future. When her sons started to get old enough to consider college, Washam said she encouraged them to go.

After many conversations with her sons, Washam said not having her degree was a sticking point.

That’s when Washam decided it was time to go back.

She re-enrolled at OSU as a psychology major, with dreams of becoming an art therapist. She started school again in January 2020. Three months later, the COVID pandemic hit, and Washam and her sons began doing school online.

“I think it was harder for my kids with their school than it was for me,” Washam said.

Washam continued to work full time, raise three children alone and take a mixture of online and in-person classes each semester while helping her sons with their work.

Nolan Bousquet, Washam’s boy-

Courtesy of Nessa Washam Nessa Washam, 40, will graduate Saturday with a bachelor’s degree in psychology.

friend, said she worked around the clock to make time for everyone and everything she had to get done.

She started her day at 5 a.m., went to work, used her lunch break to attend class and took care of her sons after work. Every weekend she would drive an hour to Arcadia to spend time with Bousquet.

“Looking back, I don’t know how I had the energy for all of it, but I was going to school full time, working full time, doing overtime and I was actually volunteering for Wings of Hope (a local domestic violence shelter),” Washam said. “So it was like my life never stopped.”

See Student on 4A

On Saturday, York and the class of 2024 will walk across the stage at Gallagher-Iba Arena four years after wondering if life would return to normal.

During her freshman year, York didn’t meet several classmates because some of her classes were in rotation, where part of the class would go in person one week, and the other would go the next. Faces weren’t familiar because they were hidden behind masks and after dropping her sorority two months into the semester, York said she felt lost and needed a community. Because students were limited on the face-to-face activities they could do, York said she spent a lot of time with her roommates in their dorm, and though it was fun, she still longed for more connections.

Although York loved her major, she said getting involved in certain leadership roles was challenging because most meetings were online, and she did not enjoy talking to a computer. As her first semester ended, York said she wasn’t certain she wanted to stay at OSU. In spring 2021, York decided to transfer, but

her decision didn’t last long. She has her mom and small positive events to thank for that. York said her mom kept encouraging her to be patient and give herself some grace.

“She would say, ‘What you are going through is not normal; no one has had this college experience before; things will get better,’” York said. “After I decided to transfer, there was something good every week, and God showed me bits and pieces of why I belonged at OSU.” York said she came to OSU full of expectations, and during the first part of her freshman year, they still needed to be fulfilled. York said the spring semester brought the sun back, more relaxed COVID regulations and friends she didn’t see coming. York got involved with BCM and the student council and will graduate with an orange gown, which is given to five distinguished students in the university in recognition for their academic achievements.

“I went from a girl to a woman,” York said. “ I’ve grown up in Stillwater. Everything worked out for a reason.”

Dealing with diabetes

Senior helps others with diagnosis

Raynee Howell Staff Reporter

One emergency room visit her junior year changed the way Harper Meehan would live the rest of her life.

Her shift at Northside Laundry & Cleaners, a local dry cleaners, started the same as it always had on a Friday before midterms. Before Meehan could tell what was happening, her heart rate became irregular.

With a quick phone call to her dad, a nurse, she decided to leave work and go to the emergency room. Meehan, with knowledge she acquired growing up with her father, knew something was wrong when the doctor mentioned her blood sugar levels. The question quickly changed from if she had diabetes to whether she was type one or two.

“I was checked into the ER that Friday, and I was admitted to the intensive care unit in diabetic ketoacidosis,” Meehan said. “And I was diagnosed with type one diabetes.”

Meehan spent the weekend in the ICU, yet she returned to campus the next Monday to take her midterms.

For some, a diagnosis can take a toll, both mentally and physically. For Meehan, it did, but it also brought a sense of relief. It was a way for her to explain the symptoms she felt during the past six months.

Before her diagnosis, Meehan lost large amounts of hair and weight. Her energy levels were always low, and she often missed class. Meehan searched for ways to feel better, and nothing was helping.

“Getting that diagnosis was scary, but the moment I got put on insulin, I instantly felt better,” Meehan said. “As much as it stunk, I thought I was never going to feel healthy again, and I started to slowly feel healthy from that (insulin).”

Learning a new lifestyle seemed intimidating, but Meehan said she knew it was for the better. To find community, Meehan turned to the internet. Meehan started a page about her journey with diabetes on TikTok to share her experiences and meet others with the same diagnosis.

In the early days of diagnosis, the community she made on TikTok, and then later in a Discord group, made her feel less alone.

Bella Casey

Four years after the COVID pandemic started, OSU seniors look back on their freshman year and the struggles COVID brought.

Payton Little

After being diagnosed with diabetes during her junior year, Harper Meehan decided to

‘Challengers’: Love triangles and tennis

Raynee Howell Staff Reporter

This article contains spoilers.

Luca Guadagnino, director of blockbuster hits ‘Call Me By Your Name’ and ‘Bones and All’ brought out one of his secret weapons for his newest movie: Zendaya.

The three-way romance in “Challengers” between Tashi (Zendaya), Art (Mike Faist) and Patrick (Josh O’Connor), told through the lens of a tennis match, brought in $15 million in the box office on the first weekend, according to Variety.

The movie ranked No. 1 the week it was released, but many were confused on how it ended. For movie critics, the main question they are asking online is whether the success can be blamed on the story or the attractiveness of the main actors.

The answer is both.

To understand the complicated ending, one must first learn the backstory on how the characters fit into each other’s lives. Art and Patrick were tennis partners and longtime friends. During a large junior tennis tournament, both boys meet Tashi, the newest star of the tennis world.

Both boys are infatuated with Tashi, and she decides to have fun with the boys pursuing her.

After an experience in a hotel room with Art and Pat-

rick, Tashi tells the boys whoever wins the singles match the next day can have her phone number. Patrick previously told Art he would throw the game for him, but all bets were off when Tashi was on the line.

Patrick won the match.

The next fall, both Art and Tashi attended Stanford on tennis scholarships. Patrick went pro but visited often to support his girlfriend. After a heated argument between the couple, Art missed the match. The match that changed Tashi’s tennis career.

After Tashi experiences a career-ending injury, Art is the one there to pick up the pieces. With the movie jumping around on the timeline showing the relationships between the three, the audience knew the relationship with Patrick was not going to last. In the future scenes, Tashi and Art are married.

When Art and Patrick meet in a small tennis competition, Tashi hopes Art will win to show she made the right choice all those years before. In the heated tennis match, with camera angles following the ball and crowd shots of Tashi watching the game, the audience is left out to dry.

The credits roll before the tennis match ends.

I’m sure many audience members were wondering at this point if it was worth the $20 tickets to see Zendaya and two conventionally attractive white men fight over each other.

I was conflicted with the rest of the audience. Who won the match?

The point is not who won the match. The point is the connections built long before

Editorial board

Editor-in-Chief

Luisa Clausen editorinchief@ocolly.com

Sports editor

Braden Bush sports.ed@ocolly.com

Assistant Sports editor Ashton Slaughter sports.ed@ocolly.com

Design editor Ben Holieway design.ed@ocolly.com

the match. O’Connor told Entertainment Weekly that each one of their characters found one other at the end.

“They’ve been all searching for a way and getting it terribly wrong, searching for a way to satisfy that need, that hunger for each other, and they’re all trying to find their way in different ways,”

O’Connor said. “For Art, maybe it’s getting out of tennis and being with the family, reconnecting with his wife. For Tashi, it’s finding that satisfaction in tennis that she lost by having her career stunted. For Patrick, it’s also finding that feeling of flow when he was playing tennis with Art as a youngster, or watching Tashi playing tennis as a youngster.”

At the beginning of the movie, it is a struggle to find a moral character to support. The struggle continues throughout, until you give up hope for any rational decisions to be made by all three characters. Connecting them without resolving any issues somehow made the most sense.

By reconnecting all three characters, the heartbreak each of them faced without each other meant nothing. Tashi felt her passion for tennis resurface when watching the boys compete. Art felt himself come full circle in his career, solidifying his haunting decision to move on. Despite his struggles outside of tennis, Art had his best friends back.

It is a beautiful showing of young love, for sports and others, with added spice for a more mature audience.

Guadagnino either created this ending because he’s a genius or he forgot to bring the rest of the script to set. Either way, it worked. news.ed@ocolly.com

News & Lifestyle editor Kennedy Thomason news.ed@ocolly.com

Assistant News & Lifestyle editor Bella Casey news.ed@ocolly.com

Photo editor Payton Little photo.ed@ocolly.com

Adviser

Brett Dawson (405) 744-6365

What is

your favorite

memory from the school year?

Kinsey Samuels

“I would say Spring Sing steering. All the people that I met and the connections that I made with people around the Greek neighborhood and in the OSU community, that was great.”

News & Lifestyle reporters: Ashton Miller Ava Whistler

Hayden Alexander Isaac Terry Jocelyne Perez Maddie Swain Raynee Howell

Newsroom

Tatum Louthon

“I’m in Greek Life, and I got to be a director for Homecoming, so getting to do that with my friends was really fun.”

“The weather’s been lovely, and I’ve had some really exciting projects. All the people I’ve worked with too, they’ve been great.”

Sports reporters: Photographers & Designers:

Alyssa Brandon

Bryant

Poncy

Arredondo

Andon Freitas

Ashlyn Bryant

Brock Mills

Bryson Thadhani

Cassius Davis

Connor Fuxa

Davis Cordova

Ethan Hilbert

Gabriel Trevino

Grace Galvin

Jazmine Robinson

Karlie Boothe

Lexie Higgins

Marcus Conrad

Michael Jane‘t

Philip Soliz

The O’Colly Staff

Ben Holieway

Art (Mike Faist) (left) and Tashi (Zendaya) are

‘The Fall Guy’ recognizes Hollywood’s stuntmen

over the year and recognizes their hard work.

“It’s about time, you know, that we sort of recognize that they’ve been making actors into movie stars for, like, a century,” Gosling said.

This article contains spoilers.

“The Fall Guy” is an actionpacked love letter to the unsung heroes of the film industry, stunt performers.

Ryan Gosling stars as stuntman extraordinaire Colt Seavers. After an accident, Seavers disappears from the industry, leaving behind a jilted camera operator, Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt).

A quick call from Diet Coke mainlining producer Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham) and the promise of winning Moreno back, and Seavers is back in the game.

Seavers is pulling off stunts for Moreno’s directorial debut, “Metalstorm,” but the star of the film, an actor high on his own fame, Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), disappears.

Hayden Alexander Staff Reporter Hayden Alexander Staff Reporter

It’s up to Seavers to find Ryder, win back his love and save Moreno’s movie. Ladies, note that if he will not chase down Aaron Taylor-Johnson to save your film, he’s not your man.

The stuntman finds himself caught in the action set piece of the century and framed for murder, taking the title of the movie “The Fall Guy” literally.

“The Fall Guy” is a movie that does not take itself too seriously. The sometimes goofy storyline allows viewers to sit back and enjoy the main event, the stunts.

The stunts are where this movie shines, and that’s on purpose. Inspired by the 1980s TV series “The Fall Guy,” director and former stuntman David Leitch opted for practical filmmaking, wanting to do right by the stunt community, he said an interview with NPR.

The actors shared Leitch’s vision. Gosling felt that recognizing stunt work across Hollywood was long overdue. In a soundbite from the South by Southwest Red Carpet, published on NPR, Gosling details his stunt doubles

Gosling did a few stunts during the film, but multiple stunt performers took over for the more harrowing action set pieces. Stunt performers Justin Eaton, Troy Lindsey Brown, Logan Holladay and Ben Jenkin brought Seavers to life. The stunt performers took to the red carpet for the film premiere to show off their skills.

The movie is a tribute to stunt performers and film nerds alike. If the epic stunts are not enough, the comedic take on movie production is movie magic. The stacked cast creates a hilarious atmosphere.

Waddingham and Johnson serve as over-the-top villains. Blunt, Adam Dunn and Zara Michales do justice in their roles as the hardworking creatives on set.

Gosling is excellent as Seavers, but the real stars are Winston Duke, Seaver’s best friend and stunt coordinator, and Jean-Claude, a stunt dog with a dangerous party trick. Duke is always hilarious, and together with Jeane-Claude, he gets his fair share of the action.

The romance in this film is adorable. It starts off a little rocky, but it’s endearing and enduring. I love seeing a romance where both characters want to make it work. Moreno’s defenses are up, as they should be, but Seavers is determined to win her back.

Nothing says rekindling like working on a movie, listening to Taylor Swift and seeing your ex be framed for murder. These two reunite in a blaze of glory. No, seriously, their big final kiss is during a massive explosion.

I love this movie, but the film could be better. There are some pacing issues and a couple of moments of confusion. The set-up plot line is a little hard to follow at first, and a scene involving a unicorn is hilarious but out of place.

“The Fall Guy” is an entertaining film and a great way to kick off your summer.

Embrace ‘Tulsa Time’ with parks, music

events are taking place such as Tulsa Pride, Tulsa Juneteenth Festival, the Tulsa Tough three-day bike festival and 4th of July festivities.

Summer is around the corner, and some students will experience the charm of living on “Tulsa Time” for the next three months during internships.

Tulsa, a city with its own charm, may be new territory for some. But fear not — it’s brimming with exciting activities that are sure to make your summer unforgettable.

Here is a list of fun things to do during your summer in Tulsa.

The Gathering Place

Named USA TODAY’s Best City Park of 2024, The Gathering Place has everything. Walk around the park, visit the boat house, tear it up at the skate park, play basketball or visit several interactive park areas. It’s a great way to stay active while having fun.

This summer, the park hosts “Global Gatherings” every Friday in May, June and July from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the ONEOK Boathouse to celebrate different cultures.

Drillers Baseball

The Drillers are Tulsa’s minorleague baseball team. The ONEOK field hosts multiple teams during the summer, bringing the ballpark experience to the downtown area. Depending on the game, tickets are affordable and accessible.

The best way to avoid spending too much is to buy tickets on the two stadium lawns.

Admiral Twin Drive-In

Take a drive-through time and visit the Admiral Twin Drive-In for a night at the movies. The drive-in is a great way to spend the evening, with plenty of snacks available and the latest blockbusters. The 73-year-old theater is open on the weekends, so plan and get there early for a good spot.

Downtown Scavenger Hunt

The Tulsa Downtown area is full of hidden gems and fun activities. The perfect way to experience it all is a scavenger hunt. You can research and make one yourself or look one up online.

Art Scene

The art scene in Tulsa is exploding in an array of vibrant colors. The best way to see this art is through going out and exploring the city. Downtown Tulsa is home to several murals showcasing the city’s talent.

Festivals

Tulsa and the surrounding towns like to pop off during the summer. Small town main streets fill up with food trucks and music. Downtown, some bigger

May Fest is this weekend at Guthrie Green from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.

Main Street(s)

There are several smaller cities surrounding Tulsa offering cute main streets with shops and good food. The Rose District in Broken Arrow is always a good time and Jenks Main Street is up and coming with new developments.

Food

If you can imagine it, then Tulsa has it. From fancy to festive there is a seat at the table for everyone. Personally, I’d check out Shuffles Board Game Cafe for good food, drinks and games.

Streets Hit the streets.

There are many streets across Tulsa that offer boutique shopping and unique food options. I’d say Brookside and Cherry Street are the place to be for a fun dinner, but if you are into afternoon shopping and pastries Utica Square is right up your alley.

Zoo

I am not a zoo girly myself, but the Tulsa Zoo is full of colorful creatures and exotic adventures. For those of you 21 and older, the Tulsa Zoo is hosting an adult-only night at the zoo, “Zoo Nights: On the Rocks.” The tickets are on the expensive side, but it’s still a fun concept.

Greenwood

Step outside and make your way to the historical Greenwood District downtown. Visit and learn about the rich history, tragedy and rebirth of “Black Wall Street.”

Music

Where there is art, there is music. There is always something musical going on in Tulsa, you just have to know where to look. Go to a concert at the BOK Center or the historic Cain’s Ballroom. Check out the local scene, and you will find your way to some tunes.

Oklahoma Aquarium Summer in Oklahoma is know as “Sharklahoma” at the Oklahoma Aquarium. Each summer, the aquarium celebrates sharks with showings of Jaws and other fun events.

Guthrie Green

Visit the beautiful park in the middle of downtown Tulsa to relax and enjoy the sounds of the city. Head across the way to the Woodie Guthrie Museum. Guthrie Green is a hot spot for music performances and festivals, so check out its calendar of events.

See you in Tulsa!

Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) (left) and Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt) explore interest in each other as Seavers works as a stuntman on Moreno’s movie.

Courtesy of Creative Commons

The Gathering Place, a top park in Tulsa, offers a large outdoor park to visitors.

‘Golden retriever energy’

Senior puts school to practice as EMT

Raynee Howell Staff Reporter

The sirens in the station woke Trinity Austin at 3 a.m.

As an EMT, Austin sprung into action. The ambulance arrived at a woman’s house, and she explained to Austin that her neck was hurting.

Austin thought nothing of it. The woman, 35, had no previous conditions. Austin began taking the woman’s vitals alongside the other EMTs.

The vitals showed the woman was having a heart attack. They immediately transported her to the hospital. Once inside, the woman went into cardiac arrest.

“She had gone overseas and came back with a blood clot in her leg, and it became a pulmonary embolism,” Austin said. “But we got her back, and they flew her out to the city (hospital) the next day, and she had a full recovery.”

This was the first time Austin realized people’s lives were in her hands. Experiences like these on the ambulance confirmed her interest in pursuing medicine.

Austin worked for LifeNet full time while also attending OSU full time for the next two years.

“One of the things the job really did, it hammered into me what medicine is because growing up watching ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ those things are an idealized version of what medicine is,” Austin said. “There’s just so much more involved in this; all the little things just really shaped my perception of medicine.”

Her journey to becoming an EMT at LifeNet, a local ambulance service, was not an easy one. The summer after her freshman year, she completed the EMT course.

The following semester, she contacted LifeNet to apply. The company was not hiring and turned her down, but Austin didn’t take ‘no’ for an answer.

“I really just kept emailing them and pestering them and eventually they’re just like, ‘Hey, you can come in and talk to us,’” Austin said. “Literally the next day, I got a call, and they’re like ‘We weren’t hiring, but we’ll offer you a position.’”

Because of her persistence, LifeNet hired her without an interview.

Katie Adkins, a co-worker and friend, said Austin is known for her outgoing personality, which often led her to new experiences, both at work and at school.

“She really wants to try everything in life; she wants to be a firefighter as well,” Adkins said. “She’s like a golden retriever with all this energy, and I don’t know where she gets it from, but she just wants to try everything.”

Her friends are not the only ones who took notice of Austin’s desire to try new things. Nicole Hart, the clinical manager of LifeNet, said Austin was one of the most eager workers when it came to helping others.

“Trinity always makes people feel appreciated and is one of the best partners I’ve ever had the privilege of working with,” Hart said.

Her friends and professors at OSU also saw Austin’s full potential.

She met one of her best friends, Allison Horne, in an oncampus ministry called RUF, the Reformed University Fellowship. From the beginning of their friendship, Horne said she saw the qualities of a future healthcare professional in Austin.

“She’s very engaging in conversation; she really makes the other person feel like they’re being listened to, and she draws you in when you first meet her,” Horne said. “And so for me, it was very nice, like, ‘OK, this person wants to talk to me;’ she’s not just here because she doesn’t care.’”

Austin also became a member of multiple other clubs including the Student Volunteer Center, the MMA/Karate club and iGem, a synthetic biology competition club.

She also spent time working in a research lab under Donald Ruhl, associate professor in the department of biochemistry and molecular biology.

Ruhl, as a mentor and teacher, watched Austin go from an aspiring freshman to a successful senior with real medical experience, ready to take the medical world on.

“I have known Trinity for four years; aside from being her academic adviser and research mentor, she was also a student in my laboratory course and an undergraduate teaching assistant in my general education course,” Ruhl said. “Through these interactions, I have learned about her wonderful family, her friends, her job at LifeNet, her participation and leadership in iGem, being a part of the Honors College, her interest in running half and full marathons and her propensity for crafting pipe-cleaner animals.”

It is not a secret to Austin’s friends and family that she cares about community and service.

Professionals like Hart and Ruhl also believe in her potential. Ruhl said anything he sets in front of her, she has achieved, and he sees her being a fantastic physician in the future.

“I hope she continues to cultivate and use her leadership ability; it is a power attribute,” Ruhl said. “With it, she has the potential to impact the health of a larger population of people, whether that be through hospital administration, public health policy or some other health leadership role.”

As for Austin, she is graduating with a degree in biochemistry and molecular biology. She recently took her MCAT, the medical college admission test, and she is taking a gap year while applying for medical school. Her goal is to become a trauma surgeon in an emergency room.

“I like having an impact on someone’s life, just being able to save them and just being able to help in times of need,” Austin said.

Harper Meehan worked with Student

about how to handle her diabetes. She

Diagnosis . . .

Continued from 1A

She now does the same thing for newly diagnosed kids who find themselves in the same position she was.

“At the beginning, I was alone with my questions, and they would help out, but now, a year later, I’m able to offer assistance to newly diagnosed people and answer questions and just offer support,” Meehan said. “We just support each other in everything; they know I’m graduating college and what my capstone project is; having that support system definitely helped.”

Meehan also received support from her endocrinologist, a doctor who specializes in diabetes. With her assistance, Meehan said she was able to learn how to manage her diabetes.

The transition wasn’t easy, but Meehan learned to maintain her diabetes while on campus and in class. The Student Accessibility Services at OSU provided Meehan the services she needed.

“Student Accessibility Services definitely helped me feel more comfortable and confident, like my teachers and I can communicate and create a plan of action if something were to happen, so I was never scared that my new disability would prohibit me from completing classwork,” Meehan said.

For students like Meehan, having accessibility services at OSU is the difference between academic success and academic failure. Regardless of the condition, SAS works with students personally to find the correct resources.

“After registering with our office, SAS conducts intake appointments with each student,” SAS department head Joshua Hawkins said. “At these meetings, a disability specialist discusses how the diagnosis affects the student personally, identifies specific challenges, and determines which accommodations are appropriate.”

For Meehan, the unpredictability of

Student . . .

Continued from 1A

After returning, Washam had to work double time to improve her grades.

Her low GPA almost kept her from being admitted again. Washam said she had to petition to erase one of her semesters. With a high amount of attempted hours, she didn’t qualify for scholarships or federal funding.

She also learned she would have to pay out of pocket. Washam was told she spent all her federal money during her first time in school. Because she worked for OSU, she was able to receive employee funding to help pay $1,000-$2,000 each semester.

The rest was up to her.

Washam worked hard to make connections during her second time at OSU. One of those connections, Mary Walker, a speech communications associate professor, said Washam was a driven student and “thought leader” in her conflict resolution class.

Although she was a non-traditional student and older than most of her peers, Walker said Washam didn’t let that stop her.

“She always says, ‘Forward motion, forward motion,’” Walker said. “And that’s the truth. That’s her in a nutshell. Forward motion. But also not, ‘I’m just gonna go forward. (It’s) I’m gonna go forward, and I’m gonna bring you along and help you too.’”

Washam, 40, said she felt as if she couldn’t connect with her classmates like she did 15 years ago.

“Most of the time, honestly, I didn’t tell anyone my age,” Washam said. Any awkwardness went unnoticed, Walker said. She was a leader when her peer groups wanted, but she also allowed others to lead, too. At the end of the semester, Washam asked to become a teaching assistant for Walker. Although Walker hadn’t previously had one, she agreed. Walker said Washam went “above and beyond” to help students and bring in a guest speaker who specialized in advocacy.

Although anticlimactic, Washam said, she is ready to graduate and start her next chapter when she moves to Piedmont. There, she plans to earn a master’s in social work. She is more of a role model than ever, her youngest son Nathan Washam, 17, said.

her diabetes allowed her to receive extra time on exams and extra absences for when her blood sugar was high or low. SAS is a department Meehan said she feels grateful for having during her time at OSU.

Hawkins said the department supports students through the facilitation of accommodations that can help them reach their fullest potential.

“All students experience difficulties,” Hawkins said. “Those with disabilities may experience a higher magnitude of challenges during their educational journey.”

Aside from medical assistance and accommodations, Meehan had her father, Kevin Meehan, to lean on for support. Their relationship has grown since her diagnosis.

“We were always close, but our bond grew stronger,” Kevin Meehan said. “Our talks and texts, innumerable over this last year, have introduced me to one of the most amazing humans I’ve ever met.”

With many challenges in her way, Meehan was able to overcome more than the average student. She said it has taught her about living with perseverance. Kevin Meehan said he is prouder than he’s ever been to be Harper’s dad.

“I remember holding Harper and watching OSU coach Eddie Sutton lead the Cowboys to victory and wondering how I was ever going to get Harper to and through college,” Kevin Meehan said. “I needn’t have worried, as the baby girl I held in my arms 22 years ago would go on to not only successfully complete her education, but become a shining light, in not only my life, but in the lives of all she touches.”

With her degree in political science, Meehan said she hopes to become a support system for others with diabetes. She said she wants to make a change for those who need it, specifically for those with diabetes in need of services.

“Having this new information I can share, especially with my political knowledge and minor in speech communications, I feel like I have an opportunity to go share information, make a change or share my story,” Meehan said.

news.ed@ocolly.com

at any age.

“I didn’t view it as an option too much whenever I was younger, but growing up, there’s been lots more opportunities, and I’m trying to look for the best way I could go to college,” Nathan Washam said.

After all the long days and 16-page essays, Nessa Washam said she is excited to finally have a degree to show her sons.

“My deal is I don’t really care if they go to college,” Nessa Washam said. “I just want to show them that it’s possible. It doesn’t bother me what they choose to do. I just want them to see that it is possible.”

news.ed@ocolly.com

Payton Little

Accessibility Services to communicate with professors

also started a TikTok page to share stories with diabetics.

Payton Little

After lots of persistence, Trinity Austin was hired as an EMT at LifeNet, a local ambulance service.

Courtesy of Nessa Washam Nessa Washam, a single mom, said she returned to OSU to show her sons that a degree can be earned

Graduating international students overcome obstacles, prepare for careers News

Bella Casey News and Lifestyle Assistant Editor

Some graduating international students see their parents for the first time in years as they gaze into the crowd at their graduation ceremony.

Others graduate without their parents’ presence, surrounded by their closest friends and professors instead.

For some international students, walking the stage is a reminder one has overcome adversity and dared to chase a dream.

Valentina Plata has three homes: Stillwater, Mexico and Finland.

Plata is from Mexico City, Mexico, and is graduating with a master’s in art history. This is not her first time studying away from home.

Plata spent eight months studying in Finland for an exchange program, and she planned to study abroad for her master’s program. She never considered studying at OSU.

During a trip to visit her

“It’s like a dream,” Plata said.

Plata said the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art was her favorite museum in the region. The internship provides housing, a stipend and a bike.

Plata’s career goal is to be a museum curator. She said the art history master’s program at OSU has been amazing, and OSU has offered resources many other schools do not. She said she is sad to leave OSU.

“I feel I belong to this place, even if I’m not from here,” Plata said. “But I feel this sense of belonging. Maybe it’s the Cowboy family that makes me feel like that.”

Some college students rely on their parents to manage their educational path.

Hemal Karmakar never had that option.

As a first-generation college student, Karmakar’s education is his responsibility.

“So the thing is, most of my decisions regarding my educational career, I took it upon myself,” Karmakar said. “All the decisions I’ve made since high school.”

OSU. Some of it had nothing to do with finance.

Karkamar did not know how to drive a car. He was unfa miliar with how to order a meal at a restaurant.

He formed a friend ship with the professor he worked for as a graduate assistant, Nancy Titus-Piersma. Piersma took Karkamar out for driving lessons on her ranch, and she took him to eat and order American food.

Karkamar recalled a recent visit to Piersma’s ranch, when she invited a group of stu dents to see the blue bird nests at her home.

Spears School of Busi ness allows students to choose which professor they would like to hood them at their gradua tion ceremony. Karkamar chose Piersma.

Karkamar formed other close friendships at OSU through his time spent on campus and involvement in the International Student Organization.

“The friends I made here, I feel like they’re like much more helpful and understanding certain aspects compared to the friends I had back at home,” Karkamar said.

“I wanted to do it (a master’s program) in Europe, so it (OSU) was not in my plans, but I saw the campus, and it was so beautiful,” Plata said.

Plata wanted to study indigenous art forms, and Oklahoma has a rich indigenous history. After doing some research on OSU’s program and classes, she decided OSU was a good fit.

Strangers became friends, and OSU became her home. Plata found a strong commu nity in the International Student Organization, becoming the presi dent in the fall, and she made friends outside of OSU.

As her time at OSU neared its end, Plata searched for job opportunities. One stood out: Crystal Bridges Museum of Ameri can Art. The museum offered an intern ship position focused on Latin American and Native American art, Plata’s main inter ests. She applied, but tried not to get her hopes up. She got a call back for the first interview.

kar said his parents have always trusted him to make the right decisions regarding his education, even if that meant moving thousands of miles away.

Karmakar is from Bangladesh. He is pursuing a career in academic finance research and wants to go into teaching. He came to OSU to get his master’s degree in quantitative finance.

“The U.S. uses the largest

Karkamar said his friends at OSU know when to give him space and are fun and support-

Karkamar was accepted into the PhD program at the University of Arizona. He plans to spend the summer in California with his sister before starting the program in the fall.

Everyone asked Ga briel Jezus the same ques tion when he moved to the U.S.: “Why Oklahoma?”

Jezus is from Brazil. When he interviewed for his visa to study in the U.S., the consular officer asked him why he would move to Oklahoma. When he chatted with the woman next to him at a McDonald’s in New York, she asked the same thing.

The answer: to get a master’s in agronomic engineering.

Jezus worked for a startup company in Brazil where his co-worker explained how he got his master’s in the U.S. Jezus was in his first semester of a master’s program in Brazil.

“When I got the first call, I was like, ‘OK, this is already a success,’” Plata said.

The success didn’t stop there. Plata got a second interview. Shortly after, she got the internship offer.

financial market in the whole world,” Karkamar said. “And I don’t see any other market (or) any other place to know about the financial market better than us.”

Although Karkamar excelled in his finance classes as an undergraduate, he still had a lot to learn when he arrived at

“I was like, ‘Oh, that’s super cool. You know, I would love at least do my PhD in the U.S. or something like that after graduating from my master’s,” Jezus said. “And then he said, ‘Why don’t you try to go now?’” He did. His friend put him in touch with a few professors at OSU, and he showed them his CV. The professors liked his work, and by May 2022, Jezus and his husband moved to

His friend warned him, but the Oklahoma weather shocked Jezus.

“So we have some Brazilian friends that live in other places around the U.S.,” Jezus said.

“And they say that Oklahoma, that Stillwater, has the Brazilian community is the strongest one they had ever seen.”

More than 50 Brazilians gather for a barbecue each weekend. A Brazilian professor and his wife began organizing the get-togethers long before Jezus moved to Stillwater.

“These people, they are like my mom and dad,” Jezus said.

Unlike some other international students, Jezus’s support system moved to Stillwater with him. Jezus’s husband, Vini Villar, made the move with Jezus when he decided to attend OSU.

Jezus said it has been tough but having a familiar

tough curriculum and competition in India gave her the competitive edge she needed to overcome hardships and challenges at OSU. Her peers at OSU continued to push her to grow professionally and personally.

“The cohort (at OSU) is very competitive, which gives you an edge and that spirit to work on and participate in different data tones or coding challenges, and they really help you excel by giving you monetary benefits,” Rane said.

Rane’s competitiveness did not go unnoticed. While at OSU, Rane was named one of the Creativity, Innovation & Entrepreneurship scholars at the Spears School of Business and received the Le’Claire Family Women in Technology Scholarship.

ence easier. Villar had to learn English and does not have a work visa. The pair is preparing to make another move and hopes to switch to new visa types.

They move to Des Moines, Iowa, next week to begin his year-long agronomy internship at Corteva, an agriscience company. He hopes he will be hired as a full-time employee after his internship is over.

*****

Chinmayi Rane always loved coding. She began competing in coding competitions in college. The more she coded, the more interested she became.

Rane turned her interest into a career at OSU. She is graduating with a master’s in management information systems.

“It was hot, and then it turned into super cold, and then the next week was super hot again,” Jezus said.

The weather was not Jezus’s only unexpected experience in Stillwater. A community of Brazilians welcomed him to OSU.

Rane is from Mumbai, India. She graduated with an undergraduate degree in electronics and telecommunications engineering. Rane said because of how densely populated India is, one must perform exceptionally well to stand out in the competitive school environment.

Rane also sought out opportunities to expand her social circle at OSU.

“I had decided that I want to join some community, which will help me, and it will basically help me pass my time but in a very productive manner,” Rane said.

The Interntional Student Organization stood out at the student organization fair.

Rane applied to join iSo, and she was selected as an intern in fall 2022. By 2023, she was selected to be part of the executive board as the culture coordinator. Rane’s responsibilities included leading the Mr. and Ms. International pageant 2023 and the Cultural Night 2024, and she received the President’s Recognition for Leadership and Impact at OSU for her work at iSo.

Rane is celebrating her achievements with a trip to a place she has dreamed of visiting since she was a child: Niagara Falls.

Rane’s parents are visiting the U.S. for the first time for her graduation. They also plan to visit New York.

Rane is searching for opportunities in technology, coding or business intelligence and analytics.

Hemal Karmakar

Chinmayi Rane

Valentina Plata

Gabriel Jezus

OSU graduate dives into drowning prevention

Day, like most college students, was suddenly back at home. It was during this time that she discovered a new passion.

As Cadlyn Day launched herself off the diving board, she expected to meet the familiar cool, pool water below.

Instead, a slight miscalculation caused her to come plummeting back down onto the unforgiving concrete edge of the pool. Upon impact, her chin split, staining the water crimson. For Day, the water was never her happy place.

“I always joke that if the kids saw me swimming like I were to do, they’d probably think I’m a fraud because I hated swimming growing up,” Day said.

A lot has changed since that fateful day at the pool. Although it’s not what she envisioned for her future, Day, now a pediaswim certified instructor, owns and operates the Cowboy Swim Academy in Stillwater.

“I would never have imagined me doing this,” Day said. “I just always wanted to be a teacher. I guess I am in some regards, but never had I thought I would be in the water like this.”

Day attended OSU, majoring in agricultural leadership. She said she was drawn to the psychological aspect of the major; it allowed her to explore an area of interest without additional years of schooling. She said she planned on using the psychology lessons to make herself a better leader.

During her sophomore year of college, the COVID pandemic swept the U.S., and

Day’s mom, Darcey Smith, grew up in Tempe, Arizona, where swimming is a way of life. When the pandemic brought her husband home from the oil fields, she and Day took up teaching swim lessons in their backyard pool for income. Although Smith was a swim instructor for years, she had recently become pediaswim certified.

This was the first time Day was exposed to pediaswim practices. Day said she watched her mom teach a lot of swim lessons growing up, but this was different. She said the children were much smaller, most still unable to speak.

Day watched as her mom sent a little girl out in the water by herself and asked her to perform a survival skill. Although she cried at first, the little girl rolled over onto her back and floated. Day said the process captivated her.

“I really didn’t understand the program prior to that and how all of these techniques would work together to reach that end result,” Day said. “So from start to finish to be able to see that I thought was really incredible.”

Although the lockdown ended and she had to go to school, Day continued to return home during the summer to help her mom teach swim lessons. She said she enjoyed applying what she learned in school to teaching swim lessons.

“I saw this as an opportunity of getting to pursue some -

thing that was very interesting to me in a much different way,” Day said. “Whereas my mom proceeded because she loves to swim and loves the water, I really liked the psychology and the brains part of it.”

Day graduated from OSU two years later in spring 2022. Shortly after her graduation, Day got her pediaswim certification. Four months after that, Day found a building to lease and she and her mom launched the Cowboy Swim Academy in March 2023.

Day said she’s passionate about providing swim instruction in Oklahoma because there is a clear need for better education. Drowning is the No. 1 cause of death in children ages 1-4, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Day said the danger of it is often overlooked in a landlocked state like Oklahoma.

However, the need for pediaswim instructors isn’t limited to landlocked states. Kathleen Nash, a California resident, said she struggled to find instructors in her area as well.

“We always kind of just took it upon ourselves as parents just being one on one keeping a close eye on them,” Nash said.

“We always thought that it would be a wiser decision to get some lessons like this but never really had the opportunity.”

Day and her mom are working on providing opportunities for parents to get their kids in as early as possible, accepting children as soon as they can walk.

Smith, Day’s mom, became the first pediaswim certified instructor in Okla-

I REMEMBERED THE LORD!

“When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.” (Jonah 2:7NIV)

This was one of the most hopeless situations found in the Bible. Jonah had been running from God. He had boarded a ship and a great storm came up on the sea. He admitted to the sailors that he was fleeing from God and he was the cause of the storm. The crew threw him overboard, and he had been swallowed by a large fish. What a mess! What a hopeless mess caused by his own disobedience. Maybe you can relate to Jonah?

Another translation reads; “When my heart fainted within me, I remembered the Lord.” There seem to be no way out. He was completely helpless, and he had caused the whole thing. When all hope was gone; when my heart was fainting; when my life was slipping away, I remembered the Lord.

Listen to me! God is ruler over hopeless situations. He is ruler over our self made problems. He is God no matter what the situation. I want you to remember the Lord. No matter how terrible your sins, the magnitude of your failure or the greatness of your difficulty, God is bigger. There is hope,for the hopeless, in Him.

“...the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.”(2:10) Everything turned around for Jonah when he remembered God, humbled himself and began praying. God has put these true stories in the Bible to encourage us all and give us hope. He wants us to come to him; admit our hopeless condition and call on him for help. Be serious about it, and look to the Lord. This is the time of his grace; his unmerited favor. Christ gave his life for the ungodly, the weak, the needy. So reach out to him, call on him and hold on to the Lord. See what he will do!

homa after several drownings occurred in her area. She said the incidents inspired her to get certified and be proactive.

“Since having worked with parents that have lost their children to drownings, it just gave me a whole different perspective about how much more work needs to be done in educating,” Smith said. “Which is why we became so passionate about this and growing programs that are year-round.”

Although Day never imagined she’d open up a swim academy, she doesn’t regret attending college first. She said her time spent at OSU has set her up for success not only in the pool, but also as a business owner.

“I think had I decided to go a different route, I would not be as prepared and knowledgeable about what I’m trying to introduce in the pool,” Day said.

Day frequently uses her background in psychology to better teach her students. She said teaching them survival skills is a process based on negative and positive reinforcement. The reward is air when a skill is performed correctly.

“We’re going to reward that good behavior,” Day said. “We’re going to try to remove the stimuli from that bad behavior and get them to where they’re independent on their back for that reward of air.”

Although the work itself is rewarding, it isn’t without trial. Day said her work can be challenging on the hard days. Oftentimes the children struggle and get incredibly frustrated, which is a hard process to watch.

“I always try to remember

that and even when the days are hard, and they’re long, and we’ve been doing a lot and you just want to go home, I know that at the end of the day, I’ve done something that’s rewarding and life-saving to these children,” Day said. “And I do feel very fulfilled.”

Her fulfillment often extends to the parents of the children she teaches. Lauren Cline was one of Day’s psychology professors and now takes her kids to the swim academy for lessons. She said the first week of lessons was difficult because her son fought it the whole time, but the second week made up for it.

“It was like she had done some sort of magic and all of a sudden everything just clicked and he rolled over and started floating,” Cline said. “And I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, this is working.’”

Cline has worked with Day as a student and a swim instructor. She said though she never imagined Day would one day be her children’s swim teacher, she knew she would be successful in whatever she chose.

Looking back, Day said she can’t believe how far she’s come to get here. It isn’t at all the path she imagined for herself, but she is right where she’s meant to be.

“I know it can be really overwhelming right now, but know that you’re on the path that you’re supposed to be on,” Day said. “If you just keep saying ‘yes’ to opportunities, you’ll get to where you want to be.”

news.ed@ocolly.com

Harli Gomes

Cadlyn Day became a pediaswim certified instructor, following in her mom’s footsteps. The pair owns the Cowboy Swim Academy in Stillwater.

Harli Gomes

O’Colly Contributor

Powerlifting All-American brings Native culture, Cowboy spirit to competition

Hayden Alexander Staff Reporter

Everything is riding on this last lift.

It’s OSU senior Ethan Winn’s last chance to place at nationals.

The bar is loaded, and Winn is ready to lift 686.7 pounds, his final lift of the meet. He steps up to the platform, knowing nothing will stand in his way.

“There was something in me that said, ‘Even if there was 1,000 pounds on the bar, I can lift it,’” Winn said. “As soon as I stepped on the platform, I think everything told me that I’m going to get this.”

The cheers of his teammates got him fired up.

“The atmosphere was one of the best because it was so compact in there that, you know, you could just hear everybody yelling and hear the support,” Winn said.

Winn gets into position for the deadlift, ready to make history. The center judge gives the signal, and Winn pulls. He brings the weight up, locking out his body. The judge gives the signal, and the weight goes down as the crowd roars in excitement.

Winn left the platform to victorious celebrations from his teammates, officially securing third place at the USA Powerlifting National Collegiate Competition (USAPL) and the title of All-American.

“I didn’t believe I got there until I stepped on the podium,” Winn said. “I just soaked in the moment for as long as I could, you know, knowing that at least in the collegiate setting, I’ll never get this again.”

Winn’s powerlifting journey began during his childhood when he heard stories about his dad’s time as a powerlifter. As a kid, Winn said he wanted to be the one people told stories about someday.

He picked up weights at 12 and never looked back. Winn tried to beat his dad’s totals, discovering his love for the sport. After reaching his goal, Winn continued lifting for his high school team.

“I had finally gotten stronger than my dad, and in the process of doing so, I realized that I really enjoyed the progression,” Winn said.

After graduating from Sequoia High School in Tahlequah, Winn continued powerlifting in college.

“It wasn’t as demanding as football or basketball, but it’s something I really enjoy,” Winn said. “So when I got to OSU, I decided to seek out the Barbell Club and continue doing it competitively.”

Winn found a home with the OSU Barbell Club and eventually became its president. As president, he increased club membership and brought back

Bedlam meets. Winn has seen the club undergo many changes and said he is excited about its future. Many younger members invest their time and energy into the club, and Winn said he feels good about leaving it in their hands.

“When I first started, I was the only freshman involved, so seeing that younger people are involved with this club is great,” Winn said. “I think it’s in a good spot to leave, and I’ll always support the club.”

Being a member of the OSU Barbell Club changed the trajectory of Winn’s college experience. Winn said he applies the same motivational methods for powerlifting to his studies, reminding himself to work through every challenge.

“It was showing up for myself, you know, just showing up because if I didn’t, I would miss out on a lot of opportunity to get better and to grow,” Winn said.

The club gave him a group of friends, a support system and a way to distinguish himself.

“I was going to power lift regardless, but I think it gave me a chance to represent myself and spurred me forward because I was around like-minded

people who helped me figure out who I am,” Winn said. “Being able to have a community in college and being surrounded by people that enjoy the same I do has helped me grow into who I am in this sport.”

Winn made sure to give back to the club and his fellow lifters. After being asked to volunteer to help work at a competition, Winn found himself signing up for more.

Joining the OSU Barbell Club, helping to put on competitions and being dedicated led Winn to compete in eight competitions across his college career, including his win at Nationals in April.

Winn’s win at the USAPL Collegiate Nationals will stay with him forever. It is a defining moment in his powerlifting career.

“I just soaked in the moment for as long as I could, you know, knowing that at least in the collegiate setting, I’ll never get this again,” Winn said. “I was shaking my competitor’s hands, and I was taking in shaking the president of USAPL and just saying that, ‘Right now, this is everything that I’ve worked for.’”

Winn won for himself and his fellow Cowboys. Growing

up an OSU fan, Winn loved the school’s underdog element — the scrappy team that fights for and celebrates every win. He channeled that same energy as he competed, getting to show up and show out for OSU one last time.

“I think there’s just something about seeing a school you are representing right next to your name, and it’s a lot bigger than yourself,” Winn said. “Powerlifting is a very individual sport, but I think something about bringing home an AllAmerican award to Oklahoma State University, it gave me a sense of pride.”

Winn didn’t only represent OSU on the national stage as a member of the Cherokee Nation; he carried his Native American roots with him on every lift.

“I get excited knowing that almost everywhere I go, I get to represent being Native, I get to represent the Cherokee people, and I get to be something,” Winn said. He said he understands he is one of the few bringing Native American representation to powerlifting.

Winn said he hopes his passion for lifting will inspire other young Native Americans

to take up the sport. Winn wants to show Native American youth that there are multiple avenues for pursuing sports; it doesn’t have to be a big-name sport.

“Sports is such a big thing in Native communities,” Winn said. “I think it is my job to spur on the Native youth to continue practicing and representing their cultures, and if I can get even one other Native to powerlift, I would feel happy about it.”

Winn is working toward putting meets together in his hometown, Tahlequah. In the meantime, Winn is preparing to start his new career in marketing, working in the Cherokee Nation’s communication department and producing photography and videography. As Winn prepares to graduate on Saturday, he leaves behind a legacy in the OSU Barbell Club and promises to create a new legacy representing Native Americans through lifting.

“It’s not just a thing of the past; you are Native daily,” Winn said. “Wherever you are, whoever you are, if you’re Native, that is your responsibility, and that is the responsibility I carry.” news.ed@ocolly.com

Courtesy of Simonetti Photography

Ethan Winn placed third at the USA Powerlifting National Collegiate Competition (USAPL) and earned a title as an All-American.

In 2020, Cassidy Wisneski spent the last few months in high school hanging out with her best friends through FaceTime. Four years later, she celebrates with new college friends in person. For Wisneski, a chemical engineering major, everything has changed.

Like York, Wisneski said she spent much of her freshman year with the people who lived in her dorm. At first, people who wanted to hang out would leave their door open so others could sit in the hallway and talk. Little by little, they spent time in one another’s room or the lounge until the sense of loneliness was gone.

“Even during COVID, there was this sense of community there,” Wisneski said. “It was one of the most helpful things.”

Wisneski said COVID exposed something that students now don’t experience. She said masks were initially meant for safety only, but with time, they became political statements on how people felt about the pandemic.

“It was interesting to have this public display for thoughts and opinions,” Wisneski said. “That helped me early on to find a group of friends that was supportive and cared about others.”

Wisneski got involved with the President Leadership Council and SGA’s Sustainability Committee. Although meetings were online at first, she said it was not a bad thing because it was a way to understand what students were getting involved with while not having to go through in-person meetings. Wisneski said COVID made her first year different but not negative, and she is grateful for her college experience.

During her first year, Wisneski ate her lunch at home every day, but that changed dur-

ing her sophomore year when she felt as if she could finally sit at the Student Union and spend quality time with her friends. She said it has changed tremendously since. Initial conversations were mainly focused on whether people had COVID and how they navigated it. As time passed and COVID became less life-threatening, Wisneski said college became less stressful. “There was such a fear that we were going to miss out socially, and that was different,” Wisneski said. “If I had been in high school, I wouldn’t have felt such a social impact.”

For the freshmen coming in this year, Wisneski said they should focus on building a community to help them through challenging times. She said it’s through clubs and organizations that students get to meet friends with similar values and challenge them to see the world with different eyes. During her four years at OSU, Wisneski achieved several things through PLC and SGA, including opening two pantries at OSU as the SGA health and hygiene director.

Elly Campbell, a graphic design major, said the spring

COPPER CREEK NOW

2020 was a moment to grieve all the things seniors didn’t have, such as prom and a normal graduation. Campbell took the summer before her freshman year to spend quality time with her family and said time helped her slow down before starting a busy college routine. During Welcome Week, Campbell said she tried to figure out who was who behind the masks and they would keep a distance when bringing the masks down to introduce themselves. Campbell said she had difficulty making friends at first, but met several of them

through a campus ministry, and that though the world wasn’t normal, she didn’t feel alone. Things changed in fall 2021. Campbell said she noticed the world was going back to normal during football season, when social distancing for the games was over and students were able to take over Boone Pickens Stadium.

“It’s wild the amount of differences between now and then,” Campbell said. “I’m just really proud of the growth I have had.”

Courtesy of Cassidy Wisneski, Cara York and Elly Campbell

Although seniors started off their college careers during COVID, they now finish their time at OSU with positive memories.

Elly Campbell

Cassidy Wisneski

Cara York

OSU showed it’s ready to win at all costs with Taylor hire

Monday night, Oklahoma State announced the hiring of David Taylor as its wrestling program’s head coach, and Taylor has much of the pedigree of

his tough-to-replace predecessor, John Smith.

Taylor, 33, takes over the Cowboys at the end of a decorated international career with no head coaching experience, just as Smith did when he became coach in 1991 at the age of 26.

Smith is a two-time Olympic gold medalist. Taylor has one.

Smith won six World Champion-

ships. Four for Taylor. Each are two-time NCAA champs. Smith is largely considered the greatest American wrestler of all time, and Taylor was the No. 1 poundfor-pound wrestler in the world leading up to his recent loss at the Olympic Team Trials.

Not many carry a resume that comes close to rivaling Smith’s. Taylor’s is right there.

But there’s one big difference: Taylor isn’t an OSU guy. And that’s OK.

The toughest part of finishing a master’s degree for Bryson Hudgens has been fitting in group projects around a baseball schedule this spring. He has class from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Mondays – often after just returning from a weekend series – with a small midday gap between where he gets in a quick lift and throwing session before running back to class. That’s been Hudgens’ life in his lone season as a relief pitcher for Oklahoma State this season.

And it’s been all he’s hoped for. Playing baseball and earning a degree have a new meaning after the past seven years.

Hudgens’ aunt, Megan Elmore, started an orphanage care center in Mansa, Zambia, in 2015, and Hudgens was one of the first to visit in 2017. It was an experience that shaped his outlook on the world, got him through setbacks and injuries in college and prepared him to leave his mark with the OSU baseball team on and off the field in his one season in Stillwater, as he graduates with a master’s in business administration.

“Your perspective changes. I feel like it changes dramatically,” Elmore said. “And just seeing the impact that it has had on Bryson, him sharing his testimony with others, it’s just amazing to see that.”

It took 2 ½ days to get there from Texas, but Hudgens could finally see the orphanage care center, For the Love of Orphans, in the distance.

The roads turned into paths, then they had to walk the rest of the short distance. Once the kids saw Elmore and Hudgens walking up, they spilled out of the center and swarmed them in hugs and laughter.

Jilyen Poullard still feels like this isn’t real life, as if she’s floating through a dream.

Sitting in the lobby of the Oklahoma State softball clubhouse, the senior outfielder exudes thankfulness. Thankful for the opportunity she was given to play at a national powerhouse. Thankful of her newfound Cowgirl family. Thankful that she didn’t hang up her cleats in the winter of 2023, even when the coach at her former school, McNeese State University, took the joy of the game from her.

Poullard’s leadoff hitting, defensive athleticism and energy have been requisites for the No. 2 Cowgirls in her lone season in Stillwater. She’s embraced the energizer-bunny role for a team that craved a spark.

That spark was almost taken away by a grim tenure at McNeese, where she felt degraded by a coach who nearly pushed her to walk away from softball.

“Honestly, it took me years to realize the difference between

blatant disrespect and coaching,” Poullard said. “... I still can’t believe it, because I never really saw myself making it away from there. And so to be here every day, it’s just like a completely new life, and I could not possibly be more blessed.” *****

Jilyen threw too fast for 3- or 4-year-old girls.

In wee ball, where Jilyen played shortstop and third base, most girls her age couldn’t prepare for a ball to be fired across the diamond.

“They would make her throw it to make it bounce to the first baseman so that it wouldn’t come full throttle straight at a 3 or 4-year-old kid that’s trying to catch the ball,” said Marcella Poullard, Jilyen’s mother.

But it made sense; Jilyen grew up around softball fields. Her older sister, Braylynn Poullard Spikes, played, meaning Jilyen spent her weekends at the ballpark, even if she wasn’t on the field.

And when Jilyen wasn’t grabbing attention on the diamond, she’d try and capture it elsewhere — it was the younger sibling in her, always wanting to stick out.

“Everybody’s there to watch the game, but her and my youngest daughter wanted everybody

to watch them play,” said Mister Edwards, one of Jilyen’s former travel ball coaches. “So they were in the stands, behind the dugout, under the dugout, on top of the dugout, doing whatever they can do to get as much attention as they could.”

This happened a lot in the Poullard house. Jilyen called Poullard Spikes — the lowkey and four years older sister — the “angel child,” who rarely got into trouble compared to her little sister. The family calls them polar opposites.

It was hard for Jilyen to learn from Poullard Spikes’ mistakes because she made so few. So Jilyen “took a lot of the heat” for the way she would “test the limits,” Poullard Spikes said.

“It was really interesting to just watch her and, like, kind of live vicariously through her,” Poullard Spikes said. “Because I was never the one to do that. I was just the safe one.”

From an early age, Jilyen’s competitive fire was apparent. Marcella coached her daughter in basketball — one of the many sports that Jilyen played growing up — and remembers an 8-year-old Jilyen struggling to rationalize her mother’s instruction not to score late in a game with a 40-point lead. She didn’t yet grasp the concept of not embarrassing an opponent.

OSU Cowboy Wrestling (X)

Olympic gold medalist David Taylor was hired Monday as OSU’s wrestling coach.

See Taylor on 6B

Courtesy OSU Athletics

Jilyen Poullard, a transfer from Mcneese State, said she “could not possibly be more blessed” to play for OSU softball.

Courtesy of Bryson Hudgens OSU pitcher Bryson Hudgens visited his aunt’s orphan care center in 2017.

See Hudgens on 3B

Daugherty taking over

Braden Bush

Braden Bush Sports Editor

Gajewski confident after 7-2 loss against BYU in Big 12

Ashton Slaughter Assistant Sports Editor

CITY —

OKLAHOMA

Luckily for Oklahoma State coach Kenny Gajewski’s son, his father will relieve his weedeating duties.

Gajewski, whose No. 2 Cowgirls lost their opening game of the Big 12 Softball Tournament 7-2 against BYU on Thursday in the quarterfinal, plans to mow his 18 acres and then weedeat after returning home from OKC. Usually, he passes that duty to his son, but after his team’s performance, he’ll take on the chore that he calls the “best therapy ever.”

And fill up his Yeti, but he didn’t specify with what.

“I’ll just tell him, ‘You get the day off today. Since we were so poor today, I’ll weedeat,’” Gajewski said.

Gajewski was light after his team’s loss. Disappointed? Sure. He didn’t want his team to have five errors and only score two runs, but coming off a Bedlam series victory, he knows what his team is capable of. He’s not sweating it. In his mind, that’s the worst his team can look.

“I was counting on my scorecard; we had 11 pop-ups, six Ks, a pretty poor base running error and five errors. You can’t beat teams in this league or anywhere in the country playing like that.

“The positive I can take out of this is I don’t think we can play worse, and hopefully we got a lot of this stuff out of us,” Gajewski said.

BYU’s dominance started in the circle as senior pitcher Chloe Temples threw a complete game on 106 pitches, resulting in seven hits and two runs. Her off-speed pitches had Cowgirl batters

out of sync and getting the bat around slowly. Gajewski said it looked like his team was “swinging a telephone poll.”

But OSU didn’t fare much better on defense; as Gajewski said, he was unsure if he ever had a team that recorded five errors.

Even other uncharacteristic mistakes — like when Megan Bloodworth got tagged out between second and third after a Jilyen Poullard single that had Bloodworth primed to reach third before she unexpectedly stopped — stood out. The Cowgirls just looked sloppy. But not because of a Bedlam hangover, Gajewski and players Lexi Kilfoyl and Caroline Wang said.

Gajewski’s team knows how to bounce back, and so do the “grandmas” who sat to his left postgame — Kilfoyl and Wang.

“These two guys here; they’ll have our team ready,” Gajewski said. “I’m not going to go to the bus and light ‘em up. I don’t think that’s gonna do anything; that’s not the way I am.

“...If you’re gonna lose, I wanna lose in the first day. These are my grandmas here; I gotta let them rest. Take care of them. So we’ll get recovered and give these guys a couple of days off. They need it for this stretch.”

Looking ahead, Gajewski believes his team should be a top-eight seed, cementing the opportunity to host two rounds of postseason softball. If Thursday’s loss changes that, so be it; he can handle it.

But a loss won’t derail the Cowgirls, as they still know what they’re capable of, even after a poor showing.

“We’re just gonna come out with the mindset that we’re gonna blow past people in the postseason,” Kilfoyl said.

sports.ed@ocolly.com

Tournament SPORTS

sixth-ever

Cowgirl tennis to host Tennessee

Saturday in NCAA quarterfinals

Gina Foster Staff Reporter

After a season of making history, the Cowgirl tennis team is heading into the program’s sixth Sweet 16 appearance. With a dominating 4-0 sweep against SMU, OSU will host No. 16 Tennessee (20-7) at the Greenwood Tennis Center Saturday at 3 p.m.

The Cowgirls remain undefeated through the postseason with hopes to continue their success.

Head coach Chris Young said the team is taking it one match at a time and sticking to their routine because it has seemed to work for them thus far.

Tennessee has lost six top-25 matchups and has won only four against top-25 opponents. No. 6 Georgia (22-4) has defeated the Volunteers twice this season, 0-4 and 1-4, therefore they will need to play their best against Oklahoma State.

Young said getting the doubles point is crucial in each remaining matchup.

The Cowgirls could have their work cut out for them, as the Lady Vols have

secured the doubles point against every SEC team in the spring. Tennessee’s Sofia Cabezas and Elza Tomase are the No. 11-ranked duo who will face OSU’s No. 3 duo of Anastasiya Komar and Ange Oby Kajuru on court one.

OSU graduate transfer Alana Wolfberg has played steadily on court three for Tennessee, bringing in a little rivalry for this matchup. Wolfberg went 28-22 in singles during her time as a Cowgirl. Lucia Peyre is consistent on court three for the Cowgirls, so after one season of being teammates, being competitive has turned into being competitors.

The Cowgirls can also prepare to take on her and teammate Esther Adeshina on court two in doubles. No. 18 Komar will battle No. 14 Cabezas again in singles. Cabeszas is 20-9, making this court-one matchup one to watch.

This is the 11th Sweet 16 appearance for Tennessee. The stakes are high for both teams, but Young said the Cowgirls continue to feel no pressure and just enjoy each match they get to play.

Gina Foster Staff Reporter

The Cowgirl golf team earned runner-up in the NCAA regional and advanced to the NCAA Championship.

A consistent performance from OSU has landed it its fourth consecutive tournament appearance, but first, the team had to make it past the par-72 Forest Akers Golf Course in Lansing, Michigan.

The eighth-seeded team needed to place at least fifth to proceed to the next tournament.

On Wednesday, the team posted a program record of 9-under 279 to land in second place at the East Lansing Regional. This score is the Cowgirls’ best placement at a regional since 2007.

Maddison Hinson-Tolchard led the field for the Cowgirls and finished her final round on the podium in third place. She carded a steady eight pars to begin her day but added a handful of birdies in her round. Hinson-Tolchard’s 70, 70 and 68 led to her being one of four players to shoot under par in each round.

Freshman Marta Silchenko was another Cowgirl in the top 10 after carding a 71, 74 and a 5-under 67 in her final round, including a bogey-free back nine — tying for the day’s lowest score,

Silchenko tied for seventh. Thitaporn Saithip tied for 27th with rounds of 76, 72 and 73. With two birdies near the end, she gave the final push the Cowgirls needed to make it onto the podium.

Ellie Bushnell was shortly behind Saithip as she tied for 31st after carding rounds of 74, 73 and 75. Bushnell also carded the lone eagle for the Cowgirls and a career fourth on the par-4, hole No. 5.

Angelica Pfefferkorn carded seven birdies in her final round, tying for the most on the day, and carded a 1-under 71 after shooting and 81 and 75 in the first two rounds. Her third-day effort moved her up nine places to tie for 50th.

The third-round boost from the Cowgirls included 21 birdies, whereas the team only carded 25 in the first two rounds combined.

Coach Greg Robertson said his team needed to find ways to get the ball into the hole. According to their scorecards, they had the consistency he said was necessary to make it to the championship.

The Cowgirls will compete at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, California, in the NCAA Championship from May 17-22.

sports.ed@ocolly.com

Bryson Thadhani

OSU coach Kenny Gajewski believes his team can’t play worse than it did on Thursday in the Big 12 Tournament.

OSU Cowgirl Golf (X)

OSU freshman Marta Silchenko carding a 71, 74 and 5-under

Kaytlyn Hayes

Cowgirl Tennis will play in their

Sweet 16 Saturday against No. 16 Tennessee in Stillwater.

It was more than any greeting Hudgens, a senior in high school, could have imagined. He was overwhelmed with joy, and all he could do was sit there and take it in.

“In my head, I’m like ‘How are these kids having so much fun and just the joy that they have?’” Hudgens said. “And it’s because that’s just what they know. And they are just blessed in their situation that they’re at. I had to sit there and just be like, ‘Oh my gosh, how could I not be full of joy every day here?”

For the Love of Orphans is a care center, not a home. The children often live with grandmothers or aunties, as many of the children’s parents died from malaria or HIV. The center runs six days a week and offers meals, Bible study, pays for school and school uniforms and other clothes twice a year.

It also teaches life skills, such as tailoring and brick laying, and chicken, guinea pig and goat farming.

“We say thank you for loving these kids and providing them shelter,” Elmore said. “Let us take care of their necessities.”

One of Hudgens’ projects while there was helping build a kitchen, which was harder than expected. With no electricity or running water, a kitchen operates very differently.

“Just getting dirty water out of a pipe is one of the greatest parts of their day,” Hudgens said.

He spent 10 days with the kids, going to Bible studies, teaching English, and playing games. Soccer was the big game, and he spent hours chasing around the kids, who time and time again made a fool of him and burst out in laughter as the 6-foot-4 Hudgens struggled to keep up.

“I remember going home so sore that day because I had just kicked balls for like three hours,” he said.

The laughter was universal he said. And as he looked around in all the happiness, it always reminded him of the conditions the children’s happiness was in. No parents. No running water. Electricity twice a week. Extreme poverty.

Yet, every day, he saw smiles.

“And they’re out here with everything they have, just worshipping God,” Hudgens said. “And it’s like, how do we get so overwhelmed here and they can

SPORTS

do that in the least of everything?”

After three weeks, Hudgens returned home, but his mind was still in Africa. He had a few days before he went back to school and just a few months before college. He took the time to reflect.

“‘What am I not taking time for?

What is out of order in my life?’” he said. “And at that time, baseball was one, school was two, girls were three, God’s maybe like five or six. It was like, I have all this at the touch of my fingertips, and I still don’t have my priorities straight. So, I was definitely able to kind of get my life in order at that point.”

Hudgens went through many struggles in his baseball career before Stillwater.

He spent his first two seasons at Weather College, but his second year was cut short with COVID. Then, he went to McNeese State, and 12 days after showing up in 2020, Louisiana was hit by two Hurricanes, and he had to move home until November.

In 2021, Hudgens pitched 48 innings and was getting back in rhythm. But in 2022, he underwent Tommy John surgery after only one start. Then, when he planned to return in 2023, Hudgens tore his knee.

But he pushed through and pitched enough innings to transfer before undergoing surgery. Hudgens had one year left and wanted to make it count after all the setbacks. That’s when OSU coach Josh Holliday called.

“I thought he had a really good makeup and just had been through some things in life and seen some things that separated him and made him not just another guy,” Holliday said, “but rather maybe a guy who could come to Oklahoma State and make us stronger.”

Hudgens was all on board. He knew his baseball clock was ticking, so he talked with Holliday about how he could have the biggest impact.

That’s when Holliday had an idea.

The sixth-year senior could room with some older guys and have a chill final season, or he could live with younger pitchers and serve as a role model. Hudgens chose the latter.

“My biggest impact in the nine months isn’t going to be from baseball. It’s going to be from those relationships off the field and helping to mentor other guys,” Hudgens said. “I’ve had three surgeries now in three years. And so if I put my identity in baseball, that’s three years of nothing.”

Hudgens rooms with Brian Holiday, Tommy Molsky, Gabe Davis and Aaron Weber, and all but Davis are newcomers to the program. Hudgens gets the grandpa jokes and is often reminded of how some of his teammates were 9 when he started driving.

But he plays into the “old man persona.” Every morning, Hudgens starts his day with a cup of coffee, and he’s always dropping tidbits of wisdom or scripture in the room and reminding them to stay on top of schoolwork.

“You could kinda say he’s like the dad of our house,” Molsky said.

Baseball has limited Hudgens’ ability to return to Zambia, but he plans to go back as soon as he can. It’s a part of life that’s stayed with him.

If he’s not sharing his testimony in Africa, he wants to share it in places he can, like the locker room.

“I feel like one of the hardest mission fields people say is getting inside a locker room,” Hudgens said. “Especially from working with just different youth pastors and college ministers that are like, ‘Hey, I can’t go in your locker room. But you can go.’ That’s just one of the things I wanted to take away was like how I can spread the gospel and spread my relationship to other guys on the team.”

Catcher Ian Daugherty started a Sunday morning devotional with the team, and Zach Ehrhard and Jaxson Crull got in on it, too. When Hudgens showed up, he wanted to be part of it as well. Setbacks and his time in Zambia showed him there’s more to life outside of baseball.

“He’s a very faithful man,” Ehrhard said. “He’s a really good dude to be around, honestly. Super nice, super caring to other people. He’s like a father figure to some of us, honestly.”

Thanks to an orphanage care center in Zambia, Hudgens found a faith and identity that will outlive college baseball. He said he’s thankful for the chance to close out his career at OSU and leave an impact on a new generation of baseball players.

“I know he’s impacted our team in a positive way,” Holliday said. “I still think there’s probably a big moment or two on the diamond for him as well. So hopefully in the next month and beyond, a lot of exciting things happen for our team and for Bryson as well.”

Courtesy of Bryson Hudgens

In time, though, Jilyen’s kind heart for others became as defining as her athleticism. Her father, Jeffery, calls Jilyen his “knucklehead,” who plays by her own rules. But even as his daughter picked up sports “like a fish to water,” Jeffery said, she also lifted those who were put down and never let the bullied feel alone.

“She always took care of those people that she thought was either being mistreated or those people that weren’t popular,” Marcella said. “She was a popular kid in school, but all of her friends, you’d be like, ‘Oh my God, she’s friends with them?’ She just was that kind of kid. She just gravitated to people like she was a caregiver.”

But sometimes you have to be the annoying little sister.

Jilyen lettered in basketball and softball all four years of high school, but her love was reserved for the latter.

Choosing between the two, once she was “brought down to reality,” as she said, was easy.

This aligned with her future plans. She was already committed to play softball at McNeese, which was the local school, only 12.5 miles away from her hometown of Moss Bluff, Louisiana. Jeffery played football at McNeese. Poullard Spikes attended McNeese. It was an easy choice and a smooth recruitment, as her family sifted through the mostly regional universities and landed on the one 17 minutes away.

Looking back, Jilyen said she was a “small-town kid” with “tunnel vision” for the local program.

“I didn’t really know anything outside of where I was from,” Jilyen said. “And that offer was like everything to me and not that it shouldn’t have been, but it was.

“...I wasn’t really wooed or wowed, but it was just kind of like, ‘Oh, this is where I’m supposed to go.’”

This was good for her parents, who felt like Jilyen wasn’t mature enough to move far away. It allowed Marcella, a self-proclaimed mama bear, to cook her a meal and tidy up Jilyen’s apartment if needed.

In hindsight, the decision might have been too easy.

The Poullards heard doubts about McNeese from others. A lot of people who knew Jilyen didn’t necessarily want her going to the school right down the road, as she had been playing in the area all her life but hadn’t received interest from McNeese until she attended a camp in high school when she was offered.

“People were talking about the coach, and they were talking about this and that, and I’m like, ‘Well, until you experience it for yourself, you’re not going to know if that is your story,’” Marcella said.

*****

By the time Jilyen got around to the Instagram direct message, it was three weeks old. Madysin Girouard remembers the embarrassment of seeing Jilyen in class for those three weeks.

Girouard, Jilyen’s now-girlfriend for more than three years, had a communications class at McNeese with Jilyen, who has no idea why she was in that class looking back; it’s the only communications course she’s ever taken. Girouard knew Jilyen was an athlete and was taken by her confidence.

It was one of those dreadful 8 a.m. classes, especially for a student-athlete (which both were; Girouard played soccer). Jilyen would rush there after morning weights and a shower, often pulling a hood over her head in the back of the class while trying to get through the morning. Jilyen wasn’t looking for anyone, but the two kept looking at each other, catching each other’s eye — like in the movies — but she didn’t think much of it until she saw the DM.

“It was a bit awkward, going to class and kind of being like, ‘Oh my goodness, I wonder if she actually read the DM, like that’s actually embarrassing,’” Girouard said.

The embarrassment didn’t last. After a midweek game, Jilyen messaged Girouard back, telling her that she’d be back in Lake Charles, Louisiana, around 1 a.m. if she wanted to meet.

Girouard accepted, and the two met up at Jilyen’s place and talked. And talked. And talked. They talked the whole night like they had already known each other, as conversation eventually bled over to Girouard’s morning shift at CC’s Coffee House. Her shift started at 4:30, and they talked until the last minute she could leave.

“We talk about this all the time — we knew each other in a past life,” Jilyen said. “The way that we just hit it off and just felt like we’d known each other before, that’s just kind of the feeling.” On the field, Jilyen redshirted after

16 games her freshman year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The following season — still a freshman — she played in 59 games and earned second-team All-Southland Conference honors with impressive runs, hits and stolen base totals. In her sophomore season, she became the star, leading McNeese in almost every statistical category and starting in all 56 games en route to first-team All-Southland Conference honors.

Jilyen was figuring out who she was on and off the field her first couple of years at McNeese. After establishing herself as one of the top players in the Southland Conference, she was primed for an extraordinary junior year.

Until she couldn’t take it any longer.

*****

Her knees didn’t go high enough, as she remembers him saying. He, meanwhile, doesn’t remember that.

James Landreneau, Jilyen’s coach at McNeese, kicked her out of practice one day for not raising her knees high enough while running during warmups. In a meeting the following day, Jilyen said she brought this up to him, asking for an explanation of the incident, and he told her he had no memory of it happening.

Landreneau told Jilyen “I just blacked out, and I don’t even know what was going on,” she said, adding that Landreneau told her, “Let’s just keep this between me and you.”

Jilyen felt constantly manipulated, she said, during her time at McNeese. She and Landreneau didn’t get along “from Day 1,” she said, and she struggled to figure out why “the vibe was kind of off.”

She said Landreneau told her, “You’re who everyone looks up to, so I can be harder on you.” Jilyen calls it “the scapegoat of ‘You are the example.’”

“And over time and as I got older and as I just started to realize, ‘OK, I understand that I’m like someone who people look to and all that, but there’s a certain line that needs to be drawn because I feel like I’m just your punching bag to a certain extent,’” Jilyen said.

As Jilyen grew older and confronted Landreneau more in public and closeddoor settings, she said, she fought against treatment that continued to amplify, which she said came with learning her self-worth.

In her eyes, Landreneau’s program was run with him always being validated, no matter how ugly the comment or how blatantly disrespectful she felt it was. Tough coaching is one thing, but she felt like it was more than that.

“He almost tries to make it seem like those two things are interchangeable or the same thing,” Jilyen said. “And so I honestly think a lot of those girls see it, but they were also kind of just like, ‘Oh, well, that’s just how he is,’ or kind of making excuses for his actions, which isn’t our job, and that’s just kind of how his program is ran.”

In her junior season, Jilyen appeared in nine of 11 games. She hit gamewinning home runs in two of her last three games, which never got her a pat on the back, she said, and she had finally been worn down after years of feeling so small.

Jilyen said she tried to set up a meeting with Landreneau after he “blew up” on her in front of everyone. She wasn’t in a good place and needed to talk with him before a Friday game against Stephen F. Austin. She reached out on that Wednesday, and he couldn’t set up a meeting. Same thing for Thursday. Then Friday came around.

“I was like, ‘I need to meet with you before this game. I’m not OK. We’re not OK. We need to talk,’” Jilyen said.

Landreneau told her to meet in his office at noon, Jilyen said. She was there at noon. Then she waited and eventually left at 1:30, she said, because she needed to go home to get ready for the game. When she was almost home, he texted her and told her to come to his office, which is when she met with him.

“Finally, the meeting came, and there was just zero accountability he was taking for his actions, and he said something about, ‘We don’t need you here’ or ‘You don’t have to be here’ or something like that, and I was like, ‘OK, good, because I’m not gonna be here any longer,’” she said.

She called Marcella, who had planned to attend the game with Poullard Spikes, and told her the news. Her family had no idea what she was going through. They saw the harsh coaching, and as a former athlete, Jeffery could understand that.

“Some of the things that I saw as a parent, as a father, I didn’t agree with, but being an athlete, I understand coaching, and so I know that there’s a level of respect that has to be had as it relates to coaches in how they do things…,” he said. “But it was me being unaware of everything that was really going on, and I believe that she did that for a reason. She protected me in the process of everything that she had gone through because there was some things that she didn’t want me to know.”

Jilyen didn’t regret leaving the team,

but she felt bad for her teammates, which is why she sent them a long message after the game explaining the situation. She had to take care of herself. And they didn’t blame her. Everyone saw it happen.

McNeese’s sports communications department did not respond to The O’Colly’s requests to interview Landreneau or for the department to provide a statement on Jilyen’s transfer.

After Jilyen’s departure from the team, Landreneau told reporters that in their meeting, he and Jilyen “agreed to disagree on a few things” before she left the team. He declined further questions regarding her leaving. *****

After Jilyen left the team, she and Girouard went to The Bekery, their favorite coffee shop in Lake Charles. Jilyen felt light. She felt free.

“It was the best time of my life,” she said.

She didn’t want to talk about softball; she was ready to give it up. But a day or two after, Girouard brought up the idea of transferring. Jilyen had never entertained the thought; she said “it wasn’t popular” at McNeese, but her girlfriend thought it would be a good idea. So Girouard made an Excel sheet with all of the Power 5 schools, ranking them from the largest softball programs to the smallest.

“When I saw those names, I was like, ‘There’s no way. Let’s just put smallerscale schools down, like, let’s pipe down. I don’t know about that. I don’t know if that’s realistic,” Jilyen said.

“And (Girouard) was like, ‘No, you can do it.’”

After a few days, Jilyen built up the courage to start reaching out to the program contacts that Girouard had found. Schools started to make contact, and then, one day, when Jilyen was leaving the gym, she got a phone call from Stillwater, Oklahoma.

“I only know one school in Stillwater,” she said with a laugh. “I picked it up on the second ring. I was like, ‘Hello.’ And it was him, to my surprise, and he (OSU coach Kenny Gajewski) was like, ‘Jilyen! What’s up? It’s Coach G.’”

When she made it back to her 700-square-foot apartment, she showed Girouard the phone, and the two started jumping for joy. Literally.

Gajewski and Jilyen talked again after that

the same weekend.

*****

Gajewski told Marcella he was peeling back the layers of Jilyen — he was starting a relationship with a new partner.

But he assured the Poullard family not to worry.

“He just really took care of her from the first day on,” Marcella said. “He’s a really genuine guy, and I just love him.”

And Gajewski loves Jilyen, too, as seen in the smile he wears when he talks about her or when she rounds third base after a big play — like the three-run home run in Bedlam she hit to secure OSU’s first series victory in the rivalry since 1997. Her energy is undeniably contagious.

“If you follow this team and you haven’t seen that, you’ve missed the whole story,” Gajewski said. “As she’s gotten going, I think she is the spark that this team has been waiting for the whole year.”

After establishing her on-the-field role in early April, Jilyen hasn’t looked back. Her road to success and finding joy in softball again has been grueling, but she considers going from a McNeese Cowgirl to an OSU Cowgirl the best decision she’s ever made.

“Being here is the kind of Cowgirl that I want to be, and I’m happy that I was able to bring the Cowgirl that I was to the Cowgirl that I am now, because I want to always keep that humility and that grit and that fight and that from-thebottom mindset.”

Her passion for softball and competitive fire never wavered — she still cries after losing sometimes, though she’s “gotten a lot better,” but now she’s found a home. A place where she receives love, not mistreatment disguised as tough love.

And she’s competing at the highest stage, all while floating through a dream.

“I saw a comment on social media the other day; it kind of made my heart drop,” Marcella said. “Three-threeseven is our area code for Louisiana, and somebody said, ‘The whole 337 is behind you; you are a legend.’”

sports.ed@ocolly.com

initial phone call before he booked a flight for her and Girouard to visit Stillwater. Jilyen was sold. She committed to OSU

Courtesy Marcella Poullard

Jilyen Poullard with her family (from left to right: Marcella and Jeffery Poullard, Jilyen and Braylynn Poullard Spikes), who she wasn’t far from at McNeese State University.

Courtesy Madysin Girouard

Jilyen Poullard credits her girlfriend, Madysin Girouard, for pushing her to enter the transfer portal and eventually land at OSU.

Classifieds

Business Squares

Come check out the wide variety of elegant clothing at Formal Fantasy!

Located on 121 E. 9th Ave, Downtown Stillwater

The best selection of beer, wine and liquor that Stillwater has to offer! Perfect for all your game day needs, come to Brown’s Bottle Shop located on 128 N. Main

“The Original Hideaway, located on the corner of Knoblock and University. Serving quality pizza and more since 1957.”

Murphy’s Department Store

815 S Main, Downtown Open 10-6

Monday thru Saturday

Houses for rent

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Patti Varol

Cowboy Calendar

Friday, May 10

Adventuring Academy: A Pathfinder Campaign @ 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.

Location: Stillwater Public Library

https://stillwaterok.gov/Library

Classic Cinema At the Center: Women of the Year @ 7 a.m. - 9 p.m.

Location: Stillwater Community Center https://www.sccfoundation.org/classic-cinema-2024/woman-of-the-year

Concert in the Garden w/ Red Dirt Rangers @ 5:45 p.m.

Location: The Botanical Garden at OSU https://botanicgarden.okstate.edu/ Cowboy Baseball: Oklahoma State vs. Texas Tech @ 6 p.m.

Location: O’Brate Stadium

https://okstate.com/sports/baseball/schedule Karaoke Fridays @ 9 p.m.

Location: The Midnight Bar

National Nurse Week: ‘Nurses Make the Difference’ w/ Nurses Light Up The Sky Campaign - All Week & Night

https://www.nursingworld.org/ana-enterprise/nurses-week/#toolkit

OSU College of Veterinary Medicine Commencement Ceremony @ 1 p.m.

Location: Gallagher-Iba Arena

https://vetmed.okstate.edu/student-life/commencement.html

OSU Graduate Commencement Ceremony @ 7 p.m.

Location: Gallagher-Iba Arena

https://calendar.okstate.edu/?trumbaEmbed=view %3Devent%26eventid%3D170432254

OSU Graduate Graduation Commencement Ceremonies

Location: Gallagher-Iba Arena

https://registrar.okstate.edu/commencement/

OSU Museum of Art: Friday Flix

Location: OSU Museum of Art

https://museum.okstate.edu/

T.A. Brauer Live @ 8 - 11 p.m.

Location: Zannotti’s Wine Bar

https://www.zannottiswinebar.com/zannottisevents/t-a-brauer/

Saturday, May 11

9th Annual Cops Bobbers @ 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.

Location: Boomer Lake Park

Adam Miller Live @ 8 - 11 p.m.

Location: Zannotti’s Wine Bar

By David B. Ritterskamp

Daily Horoscope

Nancy Black Tribune Content Agency Linda Black Horoscopes

Today’s Birthday (05/10/24). This is your year to shine. Build and strengthen collaborative efforts to win big. Take a summer pause to reorient plans, before social fun lights up the autumn. Resolve winter health challenges, before falling in love again next spring. Personal dreams can come true. To get the advantage, check the day’s rating: 10 is the easiest day, 0 the most challenging.

Aries (March 21-April 19) — Today is a 7 — Domestic comforts pull with magnetic attraction. Pamper yourself and family with small luxuries like flowers or candles. Bake something fragrant. Relax with great music.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) — Today is an 8 — Dig into the research. Discover fascinating information and let others know about it. Share breaking news. Get the word out. Talk gets farther than action.

Gemini (May 21-June 20) — Today is a 9 — Produce valuable work one step at a time. Have faith in your own imagination. Make deals and keep them. Keep your customers satisfied.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — Today is a 9 — Discuss personal plans. Work out the practical details. Check your course. Ensure that foundational structures are sturdy before adding weight. Imagine the possibilities.

Leo (July 23-Aug. 22) — Today is a 7 — Consider where you’ve been and are going. Meditate on what results you’re after, to clarify your direction. What would you love? Organize for that.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) — Today is an 8 — Teamwork helps navigate unexpected opportunities. Don’t get frustrated by obstacles. Slow and steady wins the race. Coordinate communications and actions. Revise plans and try again.

Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) — Today is an 8 — Your work is gaining attention. Focus on advancing despite complications or distractions. An important job needs doing. Stay flexible with expectations. Adapt and learn.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) — Today is a 7 — Explore possibilities. A brilliant idea inspires your investigation. Dig into the research for an amazing development. Unexpected deviations along the trail reveal hidden treasures.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) — Today is an 8 — Manage financial obligations for positive cash flow. Surprising circumstances may require adaptation. Work with your partner. Don’t push. Talk things over. Listen generously.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) — Today is a 7 — Collaborate with your partner to manage an unexpected situation. Stay flexible. Shift directions gracefully to adapt. Support each other without getting pushy. Relax and discuss.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) — Today is an 8 — Maintain physical routines despite complications. Slow to avoid accidents. Adapt around unexpected changes gracefully. Keep providing excellent service. Prioritize your work and health. Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — Today is an 8 — Let romance develop naturally. When the timing is right, you’ll know. Focus on having fun. Share creative ideas and curiosities. Relax and enjoy.

To get OSU back to the top and past the monopoly of Penn State, hiring the world’s best wrestler from the Nittany Lions’ backyard is the right move. And it shows OSU is serious about winning at all costs.

The OSU wrestling program began in 1916, and the likes of Smith, Ed Gallagher, Myron Roderick and Tommy Chesbro – OSU people –have led the program well.

Taylor, OSU’s seventh coach, doesn’t fit that homegrown billing that the wrestling team and other OSU programs (see Mike Gundy with football, Josh Holliday for baseball and Eddie Sutton for men’s basketball) have utilized.

Coleman Scott left his post as head coach at North Carolina after eight seasons to join Smith’s OSU staff as associate head coach this season and was seen as the heir apparent to the post. He checked all the boxes. He was young (38), part of Smith’s last two NCAA team titles in 2005 and ’06, and he was an individual national champion in 2008. He won an Olympic bronze medal in 2012, then built up a coaching resume before returning to Stillwater and was named interim head coach after Smith’s retirement in April.

Scott was the logical next man up, and he does fit the classic OSU coaching lineage hire. Yet athletic director Chad Weiberg went a different direction.

That’s not to say Scott wasn’t deserving of the job or wouldn’t have done a great job. He took the Tar Heels to new levels of success and was a big part of the Cowboys’ turnaround season this year. And had Taylor not been available for the job, there’s a good chance Scott does get it.

But OSU was willing to go away from an OSU hire this time.

Known as the school that keeps it in the family and that produces head coaches for other programs, OSU hired a coach without Stillwater ties and from one of its fiercest opponents. A splash hire that rocked the wrestling world and could help take some of the catalysts of success from Penn State – which has won 11 of the past 13 national championships – and bring it to Stillwater. It’s an atypical hire for the Cowboys, but it was the right one.

Taylor has been on top of the world stage for the past decade, and current college and high school wrestlers have watched him dominate the sport and be where they want to be. Come with Taylor to the nation’s most historic program and try to knock off his alma mater’s stranglehold, which he helped build? There are not many pitches better to recruits or transfers than that.

He was instrumental in the development of Penn State’s dynasty even after his college wrestling days. He stayed around Happy Valley with his high school wrestling program, M2 Training Center, and he trained with the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club. And having an Olympic champ around to train with and learn from was a boost to recruiting.

The lack of coaching experience outside the club level shouldn’t create fear among Cowboys fans. Smith didn’t have it.

In many ways, their profiles as young coaches fresh off world dominance are similar. Plus, great wrestlers seem to have a knack for being great coaches, such as Smith, Cael Sanderson at Penn State and Tom Brands at Iowa.

There’s no guarantee it works, but OSU made the right move. It wants that 35th NCAA title after a schoolrecord 18-year drought. A shakeup was needed to do it. OSU wants to win. And it hired a winner just like it did with Smith 33 years ago.

sports.ed@ocolly.com

Daniel Allen Staff Reporter

The moment Beau Sylvester collapsed to the ground near the first base line at Globe Life Field, a new opportunity arose within Oklahoma State’s dugout.

After a collision with Michigan’s first baseman, Sylvester, OSU’s starting catcher, grasped his knee in pain. When it became evident Sylvester’s injury was substantial, coach Josh Holliday glanced at junior Ian Daugherty in the home dugout.

“Go get ready.”

Just like that, Daugherty was slotted into action. Although he didn’t log a hit, Daugherty’s veteran presence and complementary defense played a paramount role in an eventual win.

That late-February game wasn’t a standalone incident in Daugherty’s three-year OSU career. Being thrust into action has been a commonality for him.

“Nothing new,” Daugherty said. “I just play to help my team win. Playing time is satisfying but however I can help my team win is in my best interest.”

As a freshman in 2022, Daugherty battled for the starting catcher role with Chase Adkison before Adkison eventually overtook the majority of the starting duties.

Gradually, Daugherty progressed. Soon, he was back in OSU’s lineup, splitting reps with Adkison. He finished the 2022 season with a .309 batting average and one home run.

His hot end to his freshman year carried hype heading into his sophomore season. A productive fall season earned him a starting spot ahead of OSU’s 2023 season opener.

But things change.

In the middle innings of OSU’s Feb. 25 series opener, Daugherty took a fastball from ace pitcher Juaron Watts-Brown. The pitch hit an awkward part of his glove. And as he threw the ball back toward Watts-Brown, a sharp pain in his left hand — his catching hand — ensued.

Daugherty played through the pain for the rest of Game 1, but was withheld from Game 2 of the doubleheader. The follow-

ing week, the team’s medical staff informed Daugherty that he would miss extensive time due to a broken left hand.

“Watching Ian go through what he went through last year, man, it sucks,” first baseman Colin Brueggemann said. “He’s such a fighter. He works so hard. He’s always pushing everyone to do their best. And for him to have to go through that last year, it’s pretty crappy.”

By the time Daugherty was healthy enough to be back in the lineup, Adkison had solidified himself as an All-Big 12 catcher, boasting a plus-.350 batting average for most of the season.

“Getting hurt sucks. But the guy that played in front of you was an all-league catcher and arguably one of the best catchers in the conference,” Holliday said. “So, he understood that. He and Chase were a great pair.

“And by the time Ian made it back, Chase had become a truly everyday player. “(Chase) was arguably probably one of our most important players on the team.”

Now, reality has come full circle. After battling with freshman Charlie Carter for most of

the year, Daugherty has overtaken starting duties, logging starts in 13 of OSU’s past 14 games.

“It’s what he’s supposed to do,” Holliday said. “It’s what he expected of himself. He expected that of himself, and that’s what he wants for his role on the team is to step forward and be a good leader behind the plate and play good. So, I compliment him for it. He’s doing what he intended to do, which is playing better.”

After a poor start to the season, which saw his batting average dip as low as .226, Daugherty has since reached .275 and now holds a .265 average with a career-high seven home runs.

And with that, his teammates and coaches realize the iron warrior they have starting behind home plate.

“He’s been playing well, really well for us,” Holliday said. “Just needs to continue to take what he’s figured out and been doing lately and keep applying it day in and day out.

“But I’m proud of him for the progress he has made this year. No question. He’s done very well for us this year.”

SPORTS

OSU Cowgirl Golf (X)

Hinson-Tolchard’s rise as a top amateur golfer

Gina Foster Staff Reporter

At 2 years old, Maddison Hinson-Tolchard’s dad would bring her to the golf course to keep her entertained.

From there, two particular days they spent on the course together stick with her “The first time I beat him,” Hinson-Tolchard said.

“Another one of my best memories is when dad had his first hole-in-one, so that was pretty cool.”

This father-daughter bonding led to the senior, 20 years later, leaving a legacy at Oklahoma State and beginning a new experience on the Epson Tour circuit.

During Hinson-Tolchard’s junior year of high school, coach Greg Robertson began to take notice of her game when she competed in the U.S. Junior Qualifiers, U.S. Junior and San Diego Junior World tournaments.

Robertson said that since then, she has exceeded a lot of expectations.

“She was ranked about 650th in the world amateur rankings, and now she’s a top 30 player in the world,” Robertson said. “She had high goals, and she’s done everything to reach those goals.”

Hinson-Tolchard has had memorable moments as a Cowgirl golfer, one of the top occurring in her freshman year.

“Nothing kind of beats freshman year when we came second at the National Championship,” Hinson-Tolchard said. “That was a pretty awesome experience.”

She said winning the team and individual Big 12 title in 2023 was another special moment because her family was there with her.

Before coming to the United States, she had only been away from her family for three weeks. Due to COVID-19, she spent about a year without seeing her family. So, she turned to golf.

“I kind of had a good balance between the schooling and the golf,” HinsonTolchard said. “We had a great team at that point as well, and everyone was so competitive and pushed each other. There was no room for bad golf at that point.”

Although she is far from her family for much of the year, she recalls lessons and advice her parents have given her.

Hinson-Tolchard said her mom would always tell her it’s one shot at a time and to take the good with the bad.

She said this has helped her stay levelheaded through every round.

Throughout her four years as a Cowgirl, HinsonTolchard’s consistency and work ethic have earned her a plethora of accolades, such as two-time Big 12 Player of the Year, First-Team WGCA All-American, Second-Team WGCA All-American, Big 12 Championship All-Tournament Team, two-time All-Big 12 First Team, three-time WGCA All-American Scholar and two-time Academic All-Big 12 First Team.

Although these awards are significant, HinsonTolchard’s experiences in the Arnold Palmer Cup, the 78th U.S. Women’s Open and the 2024 Augusta National Women’s Amateur are a different honor.

Hinson-Tolchard reminisced on her time at Augusta and said, “It was all my favorite moment.”

“The chairman’s dinner that we had was really cool because we got to be in the clubhouse,” Hinson-Tolchard said. “Actually, getting to go and play Augusta was really cool. My favorite hole was No. 12; I love that hole.”

And her family was there to support her.

Read full story at ocolly.com

Daniel Allen Staff Reporter

The final stretch of the 2024 regular season has arrived.

With two weekends of Big 12 play left, No. 19 Oklahoma State (32-16, 15-9 Big 12) is on the outside looking in for the conference title race. The Cowboys are coming off a series loss to Texas last weekend, which created a more imperative scenario for coach Josh Holliday’s squad in a home series against Texas Tech this weekend.

Not to mention, the potential path to a conference title becomes more difficult when factoring in what must fall in the Cowboys’ favor. First-place Oklahoma is three games ahead of OSU in the conference standings and has swept five Big 12 opponents.

A season ago, when OSU split a three-way share of the Big 12 title with Texas and West Virginia, the Cowboys sat two games behind the Mountaineers heading into the final weekend of the 2023 regular season. Fast-forward: a series win over Oklahoma in Norman and a Texas sweep of West Virginia in Austin made the three-way split come to fruition. Over the next couple of weekends, OSU fans will need to hope for similar fortune.

Let’s take a look at what needs to transpire for the Cowboys to attain any chance at a Big 12 regular season title:

The road ahead

Sitting three games behind firstplace OU, the Cowboys will likely need to sweep their final two series for any chance at a conference title. And the opponent this weekend doesn’t make it easier.

Texas Tech has had OSU’s number during Holliday’s tenure. Since 2016, the Cowboys have one series win against the Red Raiders (2017) and have been swept four times, three of which happened in Stillwater. Texas Tech is 20-8 against OSU

in that span.

But this year’s Texas Tech team is no vintage Tim Tadlock team. Defensive blemishes and recurrent errors, along with a grim 5.41 team ERA, have cost the Red Raiders a plethora of leads this season.

Finally, OSU gets last-place Houston on the road to end its regular season. Although the Cougars hold a dreadful 6-17 Big 12 record, OSU is 1-4 in road series this season.

Not to mention, OSU wouldn’t just need a series win at Houston, but a sweep. And while attaining such a feat against a below-average Cougar lineup might not be the most daunting task, OSU’s numbers in road series this season would make even the most optimistic fan cautious.

A little help from some conference friends

OSU needs OU to drop three of its next six games.

The Sooners have Baylor at home this weekend and then Cincinnati on the road next to close out their schedule. The Bearcats would be the most likely foe to take two of three from OU, given their offensive firepower and current hot hand. However, OSU would still need one more Sooner loss. Can Baylor take a game? Analytics would say no. But sweeping a team in baseball is a tall task, regardless of the opposition’s talent level.

Just win

This might be rather obvious. But OSU will need to do a little more than just winning; it’ll need to win out.

Even if OU were to drop three of its next six contests, that won’t matter if OSU loses any of its final six. It’s not quite to the point where the Cowboys control their own destiny, but in a sense, that still holds true.

To put it simply, win and you’re alive.

Maddison Hinson-Tolchard is No. 49 in the women’s World Amateur Golf Rankings.

Cowboy tennis season recap SPORTS

Best year under Dustin Taylor, losing key players

Baylor Bryant Staff Reporter

Oklahoma State men’s tennis season is over, and the future is bright, despite losing key players.

The Cowboys had their best season in coach Dustin Taylor’s three years at the helm. They finished the regular season 16-8 with a 3-4 record in the Big 12, had impressive wins over No. 5 USC and No. 11 Illinois.

In the postseason, the Cowboys defeated UCF, 4-2, in the Big 12 Championships. In the second round, the Cowboys were defeated by Texas, 4-1. In the NCAA Championships, the Cowboys defeated No. 44 Vanderbilt, 4-1, and lost to No. 1 Ohio State, 4-1.

Taylor said the team wanted a little bit more out of this year.

“This team was really set up as much as possible, as you can build a program in two years to really look to be here on the final courts in the final eight,” Taylor said. “Happy and proud of the year that we had, but at the same time, we certainly believed and certainly wanted to still be playing.”

After this season, the Cowboys lose key pieces of their success, with perennial Court 1 players No. 24 Tyler Zink, No. 109 Alex Garcia and Leighton Allen graduating.

OSU’s No. 82 Isaac Becroft will lead the charge for the Cowboys next season. Taylor said Becroft is a natural-born leader.

“He leads by example with his work ethic and how he conducts himself on

and off the court,” Taylor said. “Especially in the competitive environment. He’s one of the best competitors in college tennis. He’s certainly waited his turn as a verbal leader and a captain. And he really has the respect of all of the guys.”

In the first two years of Taylor’s time at OSU, the Cowboys were made up of mainly veteran players. This season, many younger players impacted on the team. Sophomore Alessio Basile, freshmen Erik Schiessl and Goran Zgola made big impacts in the locker room and on the court. Taylor said they’ve shown their worth.

“They’re all guys that were well-established juniors that know how to win,” Taylor said. “They really needed to see how the college environment is and gain some experience, which they did. We got

a great mix of good youth and veteran leadership.”

Taylor said they will also look at the transfer portal for some more experience.

The Cowboys are entering a new era. Taylor said the younger players don’t quite carry the burden the seniors did in the past couple seasons.

“Creating a comradery and a culture that’s already built,” Taylor said. “You got guys coming; the program’s way more set up for success. The staff is well established, and the expectations and the standard is there. I’m excited to see the young guys that came in here for Oklahoma State and for Cowboy tennis to relish in the opportunity and be proud Cowboys moving forward.”

Larry Gosney

OSU men’s tennis had its best season under third-year coach Dustin Taylor, with an 18-10 record and pair of top-15 wins.