When the Tommies make their first trip to Idaho on Saturday to play the University of Idaho Vandals, they will be led by a Boise, Idaho, native, who traveled halfway across the country to fulfill his dream of playing Division I football.

St. Thomas quarterback Andy Peters, circa Aug. 2025. (courtesy of the University of St. Thomas)

Had things worked out just a little bit differently, however, graduate transfer Andy Peters would be lining up against the Tommies on Saturday, instead of for them.

One of Peters’ former teammates and good friends at his previous school, the College of Idaho, works in the equipment room for the Vandals. They had a conversation in the offseason about Peters’ football plans, with Peters making it clear that he hoped to sign on with the Division-I team.

“He said he’d talk to some people (in the Vandals program) about it,” Peters said. “He came back a couple weeks later and told me the situation. They were looking at (Joshua Wood), a transfer from Fresno State. If they couldn’t get him, they wanted me.

“A couple days later he called and said, ‘Sorry, buddy, the guy committed.’”

As happy as he is to have landed in St. Paul, Peters acknowledges that it would have been special to play for the Vandals.

“It would have been awesome to stay home,” he said, “and family and friends would have loved it.”

Instead, Peters estimates that 15 family members and friends will make the five-hour trip north to attend the game. One person who won’t be there is Peters’ fiancé, Ilah, who has a relatively unique reason for missing the game.

“She’s a game warden, and that’s the opening day for archery,” Peters said. “She’s the only game warden for 6,500 square miles, so she has to be there.”

Peters had a strong debut last week in the Tommies’ 35-13 victory over Lindenwood. He threw for 172 yards and two touchdowns, but just as importantly emerged as a much-needed stabilizing force for the Tommies’ offense.

“The more hearty and stable that position is, it allows you to do different things with the other positions,” Tommies head coach Glenn Caruso said. “He’s playing with a belief in his ability and his brothers that makes everyone around him feel comfortable.”

Peters will be looking to build on what he was able to do in his debut.

“I felt like I left a little bit on the table,” he said. “But it’s just going to come with time. That’s what I’m excited for this week and the next how many weeks it is; just continue to learn and grow.”

Peters, who said he always gets nervous before games, acknowledges that things will be ramped up on Saturday.

“I want to feel the emotion of the situation,” he said, “but not let it overtake me. You just can’t let the emotions get too high or too low. It’s been since July that I’ve been back to Idaho, so it will be nice to go back.”

Peters and his teammates figure to have their hands full with the Vandals, No. 11 in the FCS Coaches Poll. The Vandals (0-1), who play in the Big Sky Conference, nearly pulled off a major upset in their opener, losing at Washington State on a late field goal.

The Vandals will be the toughest opponent the Tommies will have faced since 2021, when they lost 44-3 at Northern Iowa. Caruso likened the Vandals to North Dakota State and South Dakota State, two of the perennial powers in the FCS.

For what it’s worth, the Tommies can enter the game feeling good about themselves after last week’s success.

“Coming off a nice win should give us a pretty good platform for which to build,” Caruso said, “but this team is a whole different beast. They play in an environment that is electric. The Kibbie Dome is know to be intense and raucous. “They’ll put 15,340 people in there, and it’s going to be gold and black from corner to corner.”

Caruso entered the non-conference portion of the schedule wary of the physical toll it could take on his team, and, indeed, the Tommies took a hit in that department in Week 1.

“We went into the game as healthy as we’ve ever gone into Week 1,” Caruso said. ‘We came out of it a little more banged up than I wanted us to be. Now, we’re going have to have some young guys, some freshmen, to step up.”

A St. Paul man faces state and federal charges in a Thursday morning carjacking and high-speed chase in Minneapolis that ended when he crashed into a sedan, killing two 25-year-old women and seriously injuring a 6-year-old boy.

Troy Mike Payton, 45, carried out a violent crime spree before running a red light at Penn Avenue and Olson Memorial Highway while pursued by Minneapolis police and t-boning a Ford Fusion driven by Marisa Ardys Casebolt of Minneapolis, according to authorities. Casebolt and her front-seat passenger, Liberty Borg, also of Minneapolis, died at the scene.

The boy, who is the son of one of the women, is being treated at Hennepin County Medical Center with injuries that include a traumatic brain injury and two broken legs, authorities said.

Payton is charged in Hennepin County District Court with two counts of fleeing a police officer resulting in death and one count of fleeing a police officer resulting in great bodily harm. More charges are expected as the investigation plays out, according to prosecutors.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office of Minnesota on Friday charged Payton, who also goes by the name Edward Tiki Arrington, with carjacking and firing a gun during a crime of violence. A statement by the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Minnesota said carjacking “resulting in death is a death penalty-eligible crime” upon conviction.

Payton is hospitalized with injuries from the crash and has a court appearance on the state charges Monday. An attorney for him is not listed in either court case.

Court records show Payton has an extensive criminal history that includes state convictions for assaults with firearms, illegal possession of a firearm and two convictions for fleeing police in a motor vehicle in 2000 and 2006. He has a 2009 federal conviction for possession with intent to distribute cocaine.

“Two young women should be alive today,” Acting U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Joseph Thompson said in a Friday statement. “Instead, their lives were cut short by a senseless crime committed by a career criminal.”

According to the charges, Payton’s crime spree before the double-fatal crash was caught on surveillance video. Around 8 a.m., he drove a Ford Explorer SUV recklessly toward Lake Street — speeding, swerving into oncoming traffic and driving on the sidewalk. He drove through a red light at the Lake Street and Fourth Avenue intersection, crashing into a sedan.

Payton got out of his SUV, ran toward an Infiniti SUV stopped at the red light and allegedly pointed a gun at the driver. He tried to open the door, but the driver sped away.

Payton then ran toward a Volkswagen Passat and pointed the gun at the driver, the charges allege. He ordered the driver out of her car at gunpoint, got inside and drove the car against traffic to his SUV, where he retrieved his two dogs that were inside. As a woman driving a Jeep SUV approached the intersection, Payton pointed the gun at her. She ducked and sped away.

Payton then ran up to a woman walking on Lake Street and allegedly pointed the gun at her before getting back into the Passat. As he drove away, he fired a shot out of the car toward a work van.

About 8:15 a.m., Minneapolis police sent out a citywide alert on the Volkswagen. Officers saw Payton driving the Passat in north Minneapolis. They tried to pull him over, but he fled and drove toward downtown Minneapolis. “Recognizing that (Payton) was an immediate threat to public safety and to human life, officers followed,” the federal criminal complaint says.

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Surveillance cameras showed Payton speeding through the intersection of Penn Avenue and Olson Memorial Boulevard, running a red light without stopping and crashing into Casebolt’s Ford Focus.

The pursuit by officers lasted approximately three minutes, according to Minneapolis police.

“This is an outcome we never want — a devastating incident with very heartbreaking and permanent consequences,” Police Chief Brian O’Hara said in a Thursday statement.

Violent carjackings have “permeated Minneapolis for far too long,” FBI Minneapolis Special Agent in Charge Alvin Winston Sr. said Friday in the statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He said the federal charges show the commitment by the FBI, its law enforcement partners and the attorney’s office to reduce violent crime in Minnesota.

“The FBI will bring every resource available to ensure a safe community where its residents can thrive,” he continued. “Our thoughts are with the victims and their families.”

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By GRAHAM DUNBAR, Associated Press

GENEVA (AP) — The names of experts appointed to an Olympic panel looking at female gender issues ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics are not being revealed, the IOC said on Friday.

A working group on “Protection of the Female Category” in sports was promised by the International Olympic Committee’s first female president Kirsty Coventry when she was elected in March.

A key campaign theme was the IOC taking more strategy-setting responsibility in fallout from the furor around women’s boxing at the Paris Summer Games that was widely used then and since as a culture war issue, including by U.S. President Donald Trump.

The governing bodies of boxing and track and field now require female athletes to take sex tests, and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee in July effectively banned transgender women from Olympic sports to comply with an executive order by the Trump administration.

“The names of the members of the working group will remain confidential for now to protect the integrity of the group and their work,” the IOC said in a statement.

The female protection panel was announced on Friday among four expert groups — the others are reviewing Olympic sports programs and calendars, commercial issues, and the Youth Olympics — but the only one in which the list of members was kept secret.

No timetable was given for the panels’ work which is intended to start “as soon as possible,” the IOC body said, under the project banner “Fit for the future.”

Olympic program and dates

The panel for Olympic sports will look at the global calendar at a time of changing climate and a widespread expectation the 2036 Summer Games will move from the traditional July-August slot.

Candidates to host then include India and Qatar, though the panel’s stated remit on Friday did not include details of who, how and when to evaluate the 2036 bids. Many IOC members are known to want more input in a process that was opaque before Brisbane was selected as the 2032 host.

“It will also consider the suggestion that traditional summer or winter sports could cross over, the timing of the Games, and the sports calendar,” the IOC said.

The panel includes two members who successfully organized Olympics: Sebastian Coe in London in 2012 and Tony Estanguet in Paris last year.

The group could be tasked to look at more efficiently adding or removing sports and events from the Olympic programs.

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Sponsor value

The working group on commercial and marketing issues, including IOC vice president Juan Antonio Samaranch, will review how the Olympic Games “engages with partners, and how it can evolve and ensure that it is fit for today’s competitive market.”

Olympic venues are currently almost entirely clean of the names of IOC sponsors, who include equipment providers, though product placement was a growing trend in Paris.

The IOC also suggested it wants to generate more revenue from its Olympic Channel and in-house broadcasting production operation in Madrid.

The Youth Olympics panel has been asked to “look at the potential and relevance” of the event, and shape the process of picking a host for 2030, the IOC said.

No. 14 Minnesota has lost junior libero Zeynep Palabiyik for the remainder of 2025 with a knee injury, the program announced Friday.

A magnetic image resonance exam this week diagnosed Palabiyik with a torn anterior cruciate ligament and she has been scheduled for surgery next week. She will take a medical redshirt and has two years of eligibility remaining.

“We’re obviously heartbroken for Zeynep at this moment,” head coach Keegan Cook said in a statement. “But we’re also extremely confident in how she will heal, recover and ultimately grow from this. She has met every adversity of college volleyball with enthusiasm and determination. She will remain an emotional leader for the team this season and we will all look forward to having her back on the court with us.”

An Istanbul, Turkey native, Palabiyik started all 32 matches last year and four this season for the Gophers (3-1, 0-0 Big Ten). She ranked seventh in the Big Ten last year with 3.86 digs per set and third this year with 3.73. She has played in 56 career matches, including four NCAA Tournament games.

Women’s hoops schedule

Dawn Plitzuweit’s women’s basketball team released a nonconference schedule featuring 11 games, seven at home, on Friday.
The Gophers open the season Nov. 4 at home against North Dakota and start a home-and-home series against Big East program Marquette on Nov. 11. They will start a home-and-home series with Big 12 school Kansas in Lawrence, Kan., on Nov. 19.

On Nov. 24, Minnesota will play defending ACC champion South Florida in the Baha Mar Hoops Pink Flamingo Championship in Nassau, Bahamas. Two days later, the Gophers will play either Alabama or Harvard. All were NCAA tournament teams last season.

2025-26 nonconference schedule

Television, streaming coverage and tipoff times will be announced at a later date.

Nov. 4 — vs. North Dakota (Williams Arena)
Nov. 7 — vs. Manhattan (Williams Arena)
Nov. 11 — vs. Marquette (Williams Arena)
Nov. 14 — vs. NJIT (Williams Arena)
Nov. 19 — at Kansas (Lawrence, Kan.)
Nov. 24 — vs. South Florida (Nassau, Bahamas)
Nov. 26 — vs. Harvard or Alabama (Nassau, Bahamas)
Dec. 1 — vs. Samford (Williams Arena)
Dec. 10 — vs. Alabama A&M (Williams Arena)
Dec. 14 — vs. Wyoming (Williams Arena)
Dec. 21 — at Drake (Des Moines, Iowa)

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