Baylor tennis makes quite the racket
Baylor women’s tennis received regional rewards from the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. Junior Na Dong earned Rookie of the Year – the first bear to do so since 2008! The newcomer made waves all season, finishing strong with a 15-match winning streak and proving she’s a force to watch.
Baylor men’s tennis tennis trio Devin Badenhorst, Oskar Brostrom Poulsen, and Marko Mildainovic all scored an award as said by the ITA Texas Region Awards. Badenhorst for the second year in a row received the Player to Watch in the Texas Region. He posted up a 22-17 overall record for the 2024-25 season, including a 12-13 dual match record. Brostrom Poulsen was honored with the Arthur Ashe Leadership and Sportsmanship Award. As doubles partners and co-captains, Brostrom Poulsen and Mildainovic went 13-3 in dual matches, ranking No. 3 in the beginning of the season, ending as All-Big 12 First Team honors.
Full-court press
Darianna Littlepage-Buggs was invited to the 2025 USA Basketball Women’s Americup Team trials, kicking off June 17 in Colorado Springs. Littpage-Buggs averaged 13.8 points and posted 11 double-doubles last season, including a dominant 20-point, 20-rebound game.
Pay to play
Baylor plans to distribute the full $20.5 million allowed in NIL funding to student-athletes in the first year following a $2.8 billion settlement finalized Friday. The judge’s decision to approve the House v. NCAA settlement ends three separate antitrust lawsuits that claimed the NCAA was holding back the earning power of college athletes.
Season kickoff for Baylor football
Earlier this week Baylor announced its theme–Blackout on the Brazos–for its season opener against Auburn, really honing in on the whole “FNL” vibe. As the announcement states, fans who purchase blackout ticket blitz, will be entered into a random drawing for prizes from upgraded seats and autographed footballs from head coach Dave Aranda.
See watt we did there?
Swinging away from the sports, Baylor physicists Jay R. Dittman, Ph.D., Kenichi Hatakeyama, Ph.D., Andrew Brinkerhoff, Ph.D., and Jonathan Wilson, Ph.D., were recognized with the prestigious Breakthrough Prize in Fundamentals of Physics for their contributions to CERN’s ATLAS, CMS, ALICE, and LHCb experiments. As the article refers to the awards as the “Oscars of Science,” basically meaning researchers are rewarded with deepening the understanding of the universe. As part of Baylor’s Experimental High Energy Physics group, the team has played a key role in cutting-edge research since Baylor joined CERN in 2010. It’s their universe and we’re just living in it.
Fly through security
Baylor University is bringing TSA PreCheck back to campus. From July 7-11, 2025, travelers can enroll or renew at the Mark and Paula Hurd Welcome Center – no long lines or airport chaos required.
