Knowing When to Pass the Mic with Erica Edwards O’Neal

Sarah Spain (0:01)

Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where everyone watches women's sports, even Pope Leo. It's Tuesday, November 3rd, happy election day. Make sure you get out and vote if you haven't already. On today's show, we celebrate another incredible New York City marathon by talking to New York Road Runners Chief Diversity Officer, Erica Edwards O'Neal. She joined us before this year's race to talk about how DEI work shows up on race day, why she visited Kenya with her colleagues, and what smaller organizations can do to create inclusive events. Plus, wee-wee, grappling for gold, and welcome to the team. It's all coming up right after this.

Welcome back, Slices. Here's what you need to know today.

Starting with college hoops, which mercifully arrived just in time to prevent us from spending a single day without top level ball. The 2026-27 NCAA season initially got underway over the weekend with 13th ranked Notre Dame besting Villanova 99-75 in the Eternal City tip-off in Rome on Sunday. Preseason All-American Hannah Hidalgo led with 32 points, 7 rebounds and 8 assists, while sophomore Leah Macy had 27 points in her Fighting Irish debut after missing last season to a knee injury. A day before the game, both teams had a meet and greet with Villanova grad Pope Leo, aka Chicago Bob, at the Vatican. So when we say everyone watches women's sports, yeah.

More College Hoops on Monday, the season really got going with more than 100 games on the calendar, including two at the We Play Classic in Paris, France. That competition kicked off with number one, South Carolina defeating number 20, Maryland 101-93. Now we're recording this before the other We Play Game of the Day between number 12, North Carolina and number 21, Oklahoma. So we'll link to the full list of NCAA Hoops scores so you can catch up. And we'll also link to a nice ESPN season preview in the show notes to get you fired up for another year of college ball. To wrestling, where this past weekend, the US Women's Freestyle Team captured team gold at the 2026 Senior World Championships in Kazakhstan. The US were led by 19 year old University of Iowa freshman, Everest Ladecker, who took gold at 55 kilos, and US Army Specialist, Adugo Nwachku, who took gold in 62 kilos. Team USA also boasted a silver medalist, three bronze medalists, and top ten placements in all but one weight class. It's just the second team title in US women's wrestling history.

To swimming, and a few things to catch up on from the weekend. The US trials for the World Short Course Championships wrapped up on Saturday. Short course meets are held in 25 meter pools rather than the 50 meter pools used at major meets like the Olympics. Some of the top swimmers don't typically compete in short course races, so Katie Ladecki, for example, wasn't there. But other Team USA stars were there, including Kate Douglas, who crushed her own world record in the 100 meter freestyle with a time of 49.64 seconds. It was Douglas' fourth win of the weekend. She also got to the wall first in the 50 meter free, the 200 meter breaststroke, and the 200 meter individual medley. Claire Curzan also had a great meet breaking the first individual world record of her career by swimming the 100 meter backstroke in 53.92 seconds. Catherine Berkoff had a record breaking weekend as well, clocking 25.21 in the 50 meter backstroke. Team USA now heads to the World Short Course Championships in Beijing with the competition running from December 1st to 6th.

Sticking with the NCAA, cross country runners have their sights set on the biggest race of the year, the National Championships in Tarahota, Indiana later this month. You'll remember the name Jane Hedingren. She's a BYU star who burst onto the scene last year as a freshman, ultimately placing second in the National Championships last fall and having a banger track season in early 2026 Hedingren is at a strong cross country season this fall as well, despite a brief illness causing her to withdraw from pre-nationals. And this past weekend, she solidified herself as the top contender going into nationals by defending her title at the Big 12 Conference Championship, crossing the line a solid 10 seconds ahead of second place. BYU took home the Big 12 team title too, with all 10 Cougars finishing in the top 35 As for Hedingren's competitors for the national title, her rival and the NCAA champion from last year, Doris Lemongole, recently ended her collegiate career at Alabama and turned pro. The national championship is on Saturday, November 21st. We'll keep you posted on top contenders as the race draws closer.