Local Sports News: December 25, 2024

Kurtis Rourke Named Winner of the Jim Cornish Trophy The Jim Cornish Trophy, honoring the top Canadian performer in NCAA football, has announced Indiana quarterback Kurtis Rourke as the 2024 recipient of the award. In the eight year of the award, Rourke is the first Hoosier and second Big Ten player to earn the award (Chase Brown, Illinois; 2022) and the second member of his family to win the award, joining his brother, Nathan, who won the award while at Ohio in the awards first two years (2017 & 2018).

A finalist for the Manning Award, Rourke set the Indiana single-season record for passing touchdowns (29) and produced just the fifth 3,000-yard passing season in program history with 3,042 yards. He finished among the top 10 in single-season total offense (3,007) and is just the seventh IU player – eight occurrence – to reach 3,000 yard of total offense in a single season. Rourke finished No. 9 in the Heisman Trophy balloting, earned second-team All-Big Ten pick and was a semifinalist for the Maxwell Award, Walter Camp Award and Davey O’Brien Award.

The only Big Ten quarterback since 2000 to throw for 250 yards and at least 3 touchdown passes in their first three conference road games, Rourke completed 246-of-361 passes for 3,042 yards and 29 touchdown tosses to just five interceptions. He added two rushing touchdowns to account for 31 total scores on the season. He finished his career with a 31-15 overall record as a collegiate starting quarterback between four seasons at Ohio and one season at Indiana. Rourke finished his career with 10,693 yards passing and 79 touchdown passes to go along with 13 rushing scores.

University of Maryland Running Back Roman Hemby transfers to Indiana University Indiana has solidified its running back room for the 2025 season. Maryland transfer Roman Hemby will play for the Hoosiers next season. Hemby led the Terps in 2024 in carries (134), rushing yards (607) and touchdown runs (six). He also caught 40 passes for 273 yards and one score. Over four seasons at Maryland, Hemby played in 42 games and amassed 2,347 yards on the ground with 22 touchdowns. He averaged 4.9 yards per carry.  He has also caught 112 passes for 921 passing yards and five touchdowns.  Hemby is eighth all-time in Maryland program history with 22 career rush TDs, 12th on the career rushing yards list, and he’s tied for fourth in total TDs (27). The running back room is emerging as a strength of next year’s team, even as Indiana looks to replace Justice Ellison and Ty Son Lawton.  Hemby will join UAB transfer Lee Beebe, Jr. in IU’s 2025 backfield, along with returners Kaelon Black and Khobie Martin, and incoming freshman Sean Cuono. The 6-foot and 208-pound Hemby has one year of eligibility left. Hemby tallied 165 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns at Indiana on Sept. 28.

The Indiana Pacers Extend their Winning Streak to Five with a win at Golden State Myles Turner made a 3-pointer from the top of the arc with 16 seconds left and had 23 points and 10 rebounds, Pascal Siakam added 20 points, and the Indiana Pacers beat the Golden State Warriors 111-105 on Monday night for their fifth straight win. Jonathan Kuminga came off the bench to contribute 26 points and eight rebounds for the Warriors on a cold night by Stephen Curry. Curry finished with 10 points on 2-for-13 shooting, missing his initial five tries before hitting a 3-pointer for his first field goal with 41 seconds remaining in the third quarter. He missed a 3 for the lead with 47 seconds left. Indiana has won six of seven overall, completing a winning back-to-back after a 122-95 road rout of the Sacramento Kings on Sunday. Curry didn’t even have his first attempt until the 10:35 mark of the second quarter and his first points on a pair of free throws at 9:51. The Warriors honored baseball Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson with a moment of silence and photo on the big screen three days after the former Oakland Athletics star died at age 65.  Indiana is the only team with a perfect record at 5-year-old Chase Center (6-0). Golden State Guard Gary Payton II missed his first game of the season because of a bruised left calf, leaving Buddy Hield as the lone Warrior to play in every contest. … Moses Moody returned from a four-game absence with a left knee injury. Golden State successfully challenged a foul call against Draymond Green what would have been his third personal with 7:29 left in the second quarter as replay review showed the foul actually was by Andrew Wiggins. The Warriors’ bench kept them in it with 53 points, 13 of those from Hield against his former team. Indiana will host the Oklahoma City Thunder tomorrow night at 7pm.

Indiana University Men’s Tennis signs Adian Atwood   Indiana Men’s Tennis head coach Jeremy Wurtzman has announced the signing of Aidan Atwood who is a transfer from Georgia and will compete in the 2025 spring season. A native of Suwanee, Ga., Atwood was ranked as the No. 28 player in the country in the class of 2024 according to Tennis Recruiting Network. He was ranked fifth in the United States Tennis Association 18U rankings and comes from Darko Byrd Tennis Academy. As a junior, Atwood won the Section L1 18s team title and the Southern 18U events. He also finished fourth at the USTA Boys’ 16 National Clay Court Championships and fifth at the 18U National Doubles tournament. Atwood holds 13 wins against other five-star prospects and was named the 2022 Forsyth County News Boys Tennis Player of the Year after going undefeated while playing in Region 6-7A at Lambert High School.

Olympic Gold Medalist Caspar Corbeau joins the Indiana University Men’s Swimming Team   A two-time Olympian and 2024 Olympic bronze medalist in the 200-meter breaststroke, Caspar Corbeau will join the Indiana men’s swimming and diving team as a mid-year graduate transfer this spring. Corbeau joins an IU men’s breaststroke group bursting with talent and experience – Hoosiers own four of the top 15 times nationally in the 100-yard breaststroke this season and two of the top four times in the 200-yard breaststroke. Indiana’s group now features the third place and seventh-place finishers in the 200-meter breaststroke from the 2024 Paris Olympics in Corbeau and senior Josh Matheny. Corbeau competed four seasons at Texas from 2019-23, where he was a two-time NCAA Champion, 22-time All-American and 16-time Big Ten Champion. Corbeau helped the Longhorns win the team national title in 2021.

Outside the pool, Corbeau was a four-time CSCAA first-team Scholar All-American, three-time first-team Academic All-Big 12 honoree and eight-time member of the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll. A Dutch American from Portland, Oregon, that represents the Netherlands on the international stage, Corbeau also competed in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as well as the last three long course World Championships. At the 2024 World Championships in Doha, he earned a silver medal in the 200-meter breaststroke. IU senior Kai van Westering was Corbeau’s Netherlands teammates in Paris.

Indiana University Volleyball Graduate Morgan Geddes to start her Professional Volleyball Career in Sweden Morgan Geddes, a five-year contributor to the Indiana volleyball program, signed her first professional contract on December 19. A native of Grove City, Ohio, Geddes will head to Sweden and join Örebro Volleyball. The club is located in the town of Örebro, just two hours west of Stockholm. Örebro is one of 11 teams in the Elitserien, the top volleyball league in Sweden. “We are adding length and capacity to the net in Geddes,” Örebro head coach Jonas Håård said. “She is a competent and well-schooled player with an important winning attitude. She comes from a strong college career where she played an important role in the team in recent years. Morgan will have a key role in our team immediately.:

Geddes played in 110 career matches for the Hoosiers and was part of the No. 15 overall recruiting class in 2020. She contributed 743 kills in her five seasons including a career high 18 in a win at Rutgers in 2023. She added 165 digs, 141 blocks and 36 aces. Geddes earned her undergraduate degree in exercise science in 2024. She will join Örebro at the beginning of the new year following Sweden’s winter break. Örebro is currently third in the table on 25 points with eight wins in 11 matches. The first match she will be available for is an important contest away to Lund on January 6th. Örebro are the defending Super Cup and Grand Prix Champions of Sweden.