From the Desk of Dan Radakovich
Dear Canes Community,
I hope your summer is off to a great start. We have one last contingent of Hurricanes competing to wrap up the 2023-24 school year and then it’s time to start gearing up for the fall!
Finishing Kick
Amy Deem’s track and field squads are sending 12 student-athletes to Eugene, Ore., for this week’s NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Our men’s team is ranked 18th in the nation heading into nationals and has four individuals ranked in the Top 10 in their respective events, including Russell Robinson, who will be looking to replicate his indoor triple jump national title at the outdoor meet. Our women’s team qualified three individuals plus our 4x400m relay team. Good luck to the Canes at NCAAs!
National Champion
Speaking of national champions, we have another one to add to Miami’s illustrious list as Alexa Noel captured the NCAA women’s tennis singles title on May 25 in Stillwater, Okla., defeating Georgia’s Anastasiia Lopata in three sets. Alexa is the third Cane to win the NCAA singles crown, joining Audra Cohen (2007) and Estela Perez-Somarriba (2019). She is also the 85th NCAA individual national champion overall in our history. By virtue of her championship win, Alexa received a wild card into the main draw at this year’s U.S. Open. Congratulations to Alexa!
Miami Tennis
Paige Yaroshuk-Tews has coached all three of those NCAA singles champions and we were excited to announce last week that she has been elevated to Director of Men’s and Women’s Tennis. Paige will have oversight of both the men’s and women’s programs and continue serving as the head coach of our women’s team. Alex Santos has been promoted to head coach of our men’s tennis team.
Paige is one of the most accomplished coaches in college tennis and she has a clear vision for how Miami tennis should collectively look, feel and function. I am excited to see how she helps the student-athletes in both of our tennis programs maximize their talents. Alex is an energetic leader, sharp tactician, and tireless recruiter, and I am confident he will help build our men’s program into a consistent winner.
Football Kickoff Times
Kickoff times have been announced for four of our first five football games. The Canes kick off the season in Gainesville to face the Gators on Saturday, August 31. The game will be televised on ABC at 3:30 p.m. Our first home game of the season is Saturday, September 7 vs. Florida A&M at 6 p.m. on ACC Network Extra. We return to Hard Rock Stadium the following Saturday for a 3:30 p.m. kickoff against Ball State on ACC Network. We kick off ACC play on Friday, September 27 at home against Virginia Tech, which will be televised on ESPN at 7:30 p.m.
Season tickets are on sale now! Call 1-800-GO-CANES or visit miamihurricanes.com/tickets for more information.
Academic Success
I want to congratulate our student-athletes for a banner semester in the classroom! They set a department record by posting a 3.23 cumulative grade point average in the Spring 2024. The department’s overall GPA for the spring semester was 3.28 – which was the highest except for the COVID semester in Spring 2020 — and 16 of our 18 sports posted semester GPAs of 3.0 or higher. Women’s tennis led all teams with a 3.75 GPA, while men’s cross country paced the Miami men’s teams with a 3.56 GPA.
Among our 392 student-athletes, 283 student-athletes (72.1 percent) posted a 3.0 GPA or higher; 172 student-athletes (43.8 percent) posted a 3.5 or higher; and 37 student-athletes recorded a perfect 4.0 GPA. We are proud of our student-athletes’ dedication to their academic pursuits. I would like to thank our academic support staff for their efforts with our student-athletes and our head coaches for continuing to place an emphasis on academic achievement.
Canes Connection
Canes Connection is the Official NIL Collective of Miami Athletics and helps develop partnerships to benefit student-athletes with the goal of building the most impactful NIL program in college athletics.
Canes fans, alumni, and corporate partners have the opportunity to support student-athletes through Canes Connection. As a benefit of that support, Canes Connection members receive exclusive access to a wide variety of benefits including direct interaction and engagement with student-athletes. There are six membership plans to choose from. Click here to learn more about Canes Connection.
In closing, I want to thank you for your support throughout the 2023-24 school year, a year that has thus far produced two individual national champions (Alexa and Russell), eight ACC individual champions and seven All-Americans. We did not meet our expectations in terms of overall NCAA postseason appearances, but rest assured we are working hard to give our coaches the resources and support they need to compete at the highest level in 2024-25 and beyond.
Our Canes Community remains stronger than ever thanks to your generosity. Go Canes!
– Dan Radakovich
2023-24 Canes ACC Champions
Brodie Scapens (men’s diving); Edgar Campre (men’s indoor track); Kennedy Sauder (men’s indoor track); 4x400m relay (women’s indoor track) ; Edgar Campre (men’s outdoor track); Devoux Deysel (men’s outdoor track); Milton Ingraham (men’s outdoor track); Deisiane Teixeira (women’s outdoor track)
2023-24 Canes All-Americans
Russell Robinson (men’s indoor track); Kennedy Sauder (men’s indoor track); Mohamed Farouk (men’s diving), Brodie Scapens (men’s diving), Giulia Carvalho (swimming), Alexa Noel (women’s tennis), Sara Byrne (golf)
