Story by Big 10 Communications
ROSEMONT, Ill. – The Big Ten Conference on Wednesday announced the dates and host sites for 2025-26 Olympic sports championships and tournaments. A complete schedule is below.
The fall season kicks off on October 31 in East Lansing, Michigan, where Michigan State will host the 2025 cross country championships and, on November 6-9, Indiana hosts the Big Ten Field Hockey Tournament. Women’s soccer will crown its tournament champion on November 9 at Energizer Park, home of MLS side St. Louis CITY SC, while the men will do the same on November 16 on the campus of the tournament’s top seed.
The winter championships begin with Minnesota hosting women’s swimming and diving February 18-21, and Wisconsin welcoming the conference’s men’s swimming and diving squads from February 25-28. Indoor track and field, in which Big Ten schools claimed both the 2025 men’s and women’s NCAA championships, returns to the Indiana Farm Bureau Fall Creek Pavilion in Indianapolis on February 27-28.
The 2026 Big Ten Wrestling Championships will take place at the Bryce Jordan Center in State College, Pennsylvania, home of the four-time defending NCAA champion Nittany Lions. The Big Ten Ice Hockey Tournament will shift to a two-week, single-elimination format beginning in March 2026, with all games played on campus, and the championship hosted by the highest remaining seed during the weekend of March 20-21.
The University of Nebraska will host both the women’s and men’s gymnastics championships, with the women heading to Lincoln on March 20-21, and the men a week later on April 3-4. The Big Ten Women’s Lacrosse Tournament returns to Ann Arbor, Michigan, for the first time since 2018 on April 22-26, and the men’s tournament title will be handed out in Piscataway, New Jersey, on May 2 as Rutgers hosts for the first time since 2019.
Defending champion Ohio State will host the women’s tennis tournament in Columbus on April 23-26. On that same weekend, the 2026 men’s tennis tournament will take place in Ojai, California, which made its Big Ten debut in the spring hosting the women’s tournament.
The Big Ten Golf Championships head west for the first time, with the women’s championships taking place April 24-26 at Oakmont Country Club in Glendale, California, and the men teeing it up at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in North Plains, Oregon, on May 1-3.
The University of Maryland will host the Big Ten Softball Tournament for the first time from May 6-9. The 2026 outdoor track & field championships will take place May 15-17 in Lincoln, Nebraska, while the 2026 rowing championships unfold that same weekend at the Indianapolis Rowing Center.
For the seventh straight year, the final Big Ten tournament title of the season will be handed out in Omaha, Nebraska, where the Big Ten Baseball Tournament presented by IFS.ai will be played at Charles Schwab Field Omaha from May 19-24.
Additional information about the 2025-26 Big Ten Championships will be distributed as it becomes available. To ensure you are among the first to receive updates on tickets and other details, please signup here or visit BigTen.org/Tickets.
**SPORT
**DATES
**HOST
Cross Country
Oct. 31
Michigan State
Field Hockey
Nov. 6-9
Indiana
Women’s Soccer
Oct. 30-Nov. 2
Nov. 6-9
First Round/Quarterfinals at Purdue
Semis/Final at Energizer Park (St. Louis, Mo.)
Men’s Soccer
Nov. 12-16
Semis/Final at #1 Seed
Women’s Swimming & Diving
Feb. 18-21
Minnesota
Men’s Swimming & Diving
Feb. 25-28
Wisconsin
Indoor Track & Field
Feb. 27-28
Indiana Farm Bureau Fall Creek Pavilion
(Indianapolis, Ind.)
Wrestling
March 7-8
Penn State
Ice Hockey
March 11
March 14
March 20/21
Quarterfinals at #2, #3, #4 Seeds
Semis at #1 and Highest Remaining Seed
Final at Highest Remaining Seed
Women’s Gymnastics
March 20-21
Nebraska
Men’s Gymnastics
April 3-4
Nebraska
Women’s Lacrosse
April 22-26
Michigan
Women’s Tennis
April 23-26
Ohio State
Men’s Tennis
April 23-26
Libbey Park (Ojai, Calif.)
Women’s Golf
April 24-26
Oakmont CC (Glendale, Calif.)
Men’s Lacrosse
April 25
April 30-May 2
Round 1 at #3, #4 Seeds
Rutgers
Men’s Golf
May 1-3
Pumpkin Ridge CC (North Plains, Ore.)
Softball
May 6-9
Maryland
Outdoor Track & Field
May 15-17
Nebraska
Rowing
May 16-17
Indianapolis Rowing Center (Indianapolis, Ind.)
Baseball (presented by IFS.ai)
May 19-24
Charles Schwab Field Omaha (Omaha, Neb.)
Kearney, Neb. - Five former student-athletes and a former staff member will be inducted into the Nebraska-Kearney Athletic Hall of Fame during ceremonies on Homecoming weekend this Oct. 10-11.
The 2025 Hall of Fame members are tennis player Kristen (Messbarger) Day (UNMC '10), track and field team member Dr. Leah (Lewis) Stade ('02), basketball player Janelle Miratsky ('99), wrestler Brandon Pfizenmaier ('03), football player Luke Van Matre ('85), and Dr. Daniel Slawski.
The Athletic Hall of Fame Banquet begins at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 10, in the Gala Room in the Regional Engagement Center with a social hour. A dinner follows at 6:15 p.m. with the induction ceremony afterwards. To purchase a ticket for the Athletic Hall of Fame Banquet, visit unkalumni.org/homecoming by Oct. 1. Tickets are $40 per person ($45 starting Sept. 27), $15 for children aged 12 & under.
On Saturday, Oct. 12, the class will be recognized at the Homecoming parade and at half time of the football game vs. Missouri Western State (2 p.m.).
A Kearney native, Day is among the top players in Loper women's tennis history. Her play helped the program reach new heights as UNK qualified for the NCAA Tournament between 2008-10. The Lopers won three Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) tourney titles during her career and advanced to the NCAA "Sweet 16" in 2009 and 2010.
Graduating with a B.S. degree in Nursing from UNMC, she overcame some injuries to win a then school-record 130 matches. Day was a three-time All-RMAC selection in singles, the 2007 RMAC and Central Region Freshman of the Year and the 2010 RMAC Player of the Year and the 2010 Central Region Senior Player of the Year. Day currently is a CRNA with CHI Health St. Francis.
Dr. Stade, a Kearney native, was a three-time All-American in the triple jump between 2000-02. She finished sixth, eighth and seventh at the NCAA Indoor Championships and is one of just nine Loper women to be at least a three-time All-American at the Division II level.
One of six UNK women to have won at least five RMAC individual titles, she currently holds the school record in the indoor triple (40-2) and ranks second in the outdoor triple (40-1.50). Dr. Stade also ranks in the Top 10 in both the indoor and outdoor long jumps and was a member of three teams that were RMAC runners up. Finally, in 2002, UNK won the RMAC outdoor title, the first team crown in program history.
Dr. Stade currently is an assistant professor at UNMC in the Occupational Therapy program. She serves as the Academic Fieldwork Coordinator and is the chairperson for the Occupational Therapy Admissions Committee.
Miratsky, from Schuyler, is one of just three UNK women's basketball players in the Division II era (since 1990) to be a four-time all-conference selection. Currently holding school-record for career blocks (235) and career field goal percentage (54.1), she was part of teams that won 97 games and reached three NCAA Tournaments.
The forward currently ranks 13th on the career scoring list (1,343) and is in the career Top 10 in both rebounds and double doubles. She was a key member of the 1996-97 squad that won a school-record 28 games and reached the program's first NCAA "Sweet 16". Finally, Miratsky later served the program as a graduate assistant coach. She currently is an educational assistant in Lake Oswego, Oreg.
Pfizenmaier is one of 15 three-time All-Americans in UNK wrestling history as he placed fifth, third and second at 149-pounds at the NCAA Championships. The Green, Kan., native and is one of 25 Lopers to be a national runner up; at the time of graduation, he was only the sixth runner up at the D2 level.
A member of the 2002-03 National Runner Up squad, he had 99 career wins and won two RMAC/West Region individual titles. Finally, Pfizenmaier was part of three RMAC Championship teams and helped the Lopers beat rival Nebraska-Omaha to win the 2003 National Duals in Columbus, Ohio.
He currently serves as a Construction Technology teacher at his alma mater of Clay Center High School.
Van Matre is one of the top running backs in school history as he still holds the record for most rushing yards in a game (307). He achieved that at Washburn in 1982 with the milestone featuring a 94-yard scoring scamper.
The Gibbon native was tabbed All-Central States Intercollegiate Conference (CSIC), All-Region and All-American as a senior in 1982. Currently ranked ninth on the career rushing list (2,355), Van Matre is one of only 13 Lopers to post a 1,000-rushing yard season. That effort (1,126/1982) came in just 10 games.
Twice leading the Lopers in rushing, he also was a starting punt and kick returner, helped Kearne State win three CSIC titles and was on the 1980 squad that won the program's first-ever NAIA playoff game. Finally, he was a pole vaulter on the track team.
Dr. Slawski was a founding partner and president of New West Sports Medicine & Orthopedic Surgery in Kearney. He had a two-decade association with Loper Athletics, serving as Head Team Physician for all sports and Medical Director of the Athletic Training program/Human performance lab.
Also a UNK adjunct assistant professor, he was an Athletic Trainer supervisor for over 50 Central Nebraska and Northern Kansas High Schools. Dr. Slawski has published scientific journal articles and been a frequent speaker at local, national and international medical societies and won numerous accolades such as the Kearney Hub Freedom Award for Humanitarian Service and UNK's Ron & Carol Cope Cornerstone of Excellence Award.
A former Air Force Major, Dr. Slawski retired in 2019 after being a part-time sports medicine specialist at the Missouri Orthopedic Institute at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He now devotes his time as President of Guardian Hills, which he and his wife, Jo, co-founded the previous year. They have been married for over 40 years and have three adult sons, three daughters-in-law and three grandsons.