Local Sports News: February 14, 2024

#14 Indiana University Women’s Basketball travels to Wisconsin to start the home stretch of Big Ten Play
The #14 Indiana Hoosiers will face the Wisconsin Badgers at 8pm this evening in the Kohl Center in Madison with the game streaming on Peacock. Unlike the IU Men’s Basketball team who has won in Madison since 1998. The Indiana Women are looking for their fifth straight win against the Badgers. Indiana leads the all-time series 53-24 and have 9 straight against Wisconsin dating back to 2016. Wisconsin last beat Indiana 73-69 on December 31, 2015, in Madison. The Hoosiers have won 11 of the last 12 against Wisconsin.

The Hoosiers are 20-3 and 11-2 in the Big Ten and coming off a 95-62 beat down of their arch rivals the Purdue Boilermakers Sunday afternoon in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. Mackenize Holmes scored 17 points and became the school’s all time leading scorer with 2,365 points surpassing Tyra Buss who had 2,364 points from 2014-2018. Holmes need 17 points to break the record and she got midway through the fourth quarter. Holmes on Tuesday was named to the Jersey Mike’s Women’s Midseason College Player of the Year Team along with 29 other players from across the country.  Holmes is averaging a team leading 20.3 points, 7.2 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game. Holmes has 939 rebounds, 239 blocks and 26 double-doubles for her career. The Gorham Maine native has school records with 972 career field goals made and 120 wins in 138 games played.

Chloe Moore-McNeil had a season high 22 points on Sunday going 5-5 from downtown. The Greenfield, Tennessee native averages 10.5 points along with a team leading 4.8 assists and 1.4 steals per game. Sara Scalia scored 19 points on Sunday and averages 16.3 points per game. Yarden Garzon averages 11.8 points per game. Sydney Parrish who has missed the last six games with a foot injury is averaging 10.8 points per game. Indiana Head Coach Teri Moren said after the game on Sunday that Parrish did participate in shoot-around Sunday Morning and is doing better but is uncertain that she will be available for this game. The Hoosiers are leading the country in field goal percentage with 52.2%- and three-point field percentage with 41.1%. Mackenzie Holmes is fourth in the nation in field goal percentage with 65.6% and Sara Scalia is fifth from beyond the arc at 44.2 %.

Wisconsin is 11-11 overall and 4-8 in the Big Ten after a 69-64 win over Penn State on Sunday at Home. The Badgers were led by Serah Williams with 31 points and 15 rebounds. The Badgers trailed 40-26 at halftime and outscored Penn State 43-24 in the second half including a 24-7 third quarter run. Williams leads the team with 18.1 points, 10.6 rebounds and 3 blocks per game. Ronnie Porter averages 10 points along with a team leading 4.4 assists and 2.2 steals per game. The Badgers average 63 points and commit 19 turnovers per game. Marisa Moseley is in her third season at Wisconsin with 30-51 record and overall record of 74-80 in six seasons after three seasons at her alma-mater Boston University with 45-29 record from 2018-21. Moseley played at Boston University from 2000-04 and was an assistant coach at Denver, Minnesota and the University of Connecticut from 2005-18 before she became a head coach.  

Chloe Moore-McNeil tabbed as one of USWBA Ann Meyers Drysdale National Players of the Week
Senior Guard Chloe Moore-McNeil was one of five players who was named one of five United States Basketball Writers Association Ann Meyers Drysdale National Players of the Week on Tuesday. The USBWA women’s awards, organized under Mel Greenberg, the USBWA Vice President for women’s basketball, are drawn from weekly conference honors as well as at-large additions.

The Greenfield, Tenn. native averaged 16.0 points, 8.0 assists averaged 16.0 points, 8.0 assists, 7.5 rebounds and shot 63.2 percent from the floor as she recorded her first triple double as No. 14 IU won games against Michigan State and Purdue. In a thriller against the Spartans, Moore-McNeil became just the second IU player to record a triple-double with 10 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists. It was the fourth overall triple-double in Indiana women’s basketball history as she joins Grace Berger as the only two Hoosiers to ever reach the feat. Moore-McNeil poured in a game-high 22 points by going 8-for-11 from the field and a perfect 5-for-5 from the 3-point line versus the Boilermakers. She also pulled down five boards and dished out five assists while picking up two steals as IU won its 11th-straight game over Purdue.

Indiana University Linebacker Aaron Casey invited to the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis
The NFL released the 2024 NFL Scouting Combine list Tuesday, which included Indiana linebacker Aaron Casey. Casey was the lone Hoosier invited, and he’s one of 30 total linebackers that will perform in front of NFL scouts in hopes of boosting their draft stock. Two former Hoosiers, quarterback Michael Penix Jr. and tight end AJ Barner, were also invited to the combine after competing against each other in the 2024 national championship for Washington and Michigan, respectively.

The combine will take place in Indianapolis from February 26 through March 4. Live coverage of the 2024 NFL Scouting Combine begins Feb. 29 on NFL Network and NFL+. NFL Network will air live drills with linebackers on Feb. 29 at 3pm. The media selected Casey to the first-team All-Big Ten defense in 2023, while the conference’s coaches picked him to the second team. He was also chosen by the Indiana staff to wear the No. 44 jersey during the 2022 and 2023 seasons in honor of George Taliaferro, who played at Indiana from 1945-48 and later became the first African American drafted by the National Football League.

Casey was picked as a team captain heading into his sixth year at Indiana in 2023, and he led the Hoosiers in a variety of ways. Casey recorded a team-high 109 total tackles, which is the most tackles in a single season by a Hoosier since Tegray Scales in 2016. It’s also the second consecutive year that he led Indiana in tackles. Casey led the Big Ten and ranked second nationally with 20 tackles for loss, which is tied for fourth in Indiana history in a single season. For his career, Casey made 36 tackles for loss, which ranks eighth in program history and one shy of his former teammate, Micah McFadden. And now, Casey will attempt to join the likes of Scales, McFadden, Marcelino McCrary-Ball and Cam Jones as recent Indiana linebackers to earn snaps in the NFL.

IU Junior Swimmer Junior Rafael Miroslaw takes 5th place at the World Aquatics Championships
Indiana University’s Rafael Miroslaw finished in 5th place Tuesday in the Men’s 200 Meter Freestyle event at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha Qatar. Miroslaw is a 6-2 Junior from Hamburg, Germany and he finished with a time of 1:45:84 which was his best time in all three of his swims. On Monday Miroslaw finished 2nd in the heats behind his fellow countrymen Lukas Martens with a time of 1:45:89. In the Semifinals Miroslaw finished 6th with a time of 145:95 as the top 8 made the final. In the finals Hwang Sun-woo of South Korea on the gold with a time of 1:44.75, Danas Rapsys of Lithuania took home the Sliver with a time of 1:45:05 and American Luke Hobson won the Bronze with a time of 1:45:26. Miroslaw’s teammate Lukas Martens finished fourth with a time of 1:45.33. Duncan Scott of Great Britian finished 6th with a time of 1:45:86 followed by Australia’s Elijah Winnington with a time of 1:46.20 and Brazil’s Guilherme Costa with a time of 1:46:87.

Kai van Westering is a Junior who competes for the Netherlands even though his hometown is in France Is back in the pool on Thursday Morning in the prelims of the Men’s 200 Meter Backstroke should he make the Top 16 he will advance to the semifinals Thursday Night with the Finals on Friday Night. Van Westering finished 9th in both the prelims and the semi finals of the Men’s 100 Meter Backstroke just missing out on the final on Monday.

Bloomington North wins the Conference Indiana Girls Gymnastics meet at home
Bloomington North took home the Conference Indiana Gymnastics Championship with a score of 107.475 Monday Night which was held at Bloomington North. Columbus North finished second with a score of 103.025 and Bloomington South finished 3rd with a score of 102.25.  Reece Euler of Columbus North took home three individual event titles and the all-around title. Jessica Floyd of Bloomington North won the Floor Exercise with a score of 9.450 beating out her teammate Sofia Garcia who had a 9.400 and Euler finished fifth with a score 9.150. Euler won the Vault with a score of 9,400. The Beam with a score of 9.500 and the Bars with a score of 9.500. Euler took home the all-around title with a score of 37.550 as Garcia came in second with a score of 37.075 followed by Bloomington South’s Maddie Kawanishi in third with a score of 35.475 and Bloomington North’s Jessica Floyd with a score of 35.025.

IHSAA announces new enrollment figures for the next 2 school years
The IHSAA released its official enrollment numbers for the 2024-26 school years and in conjunction with the new 20-25-25-30 classification formula announced last June, it could mean some big changes in the postseason, especially for Edgewood. The new splits will see the biggest 20% of schools in 4A, then the next 25% in 3A, the next 25% in 2A and the remaining 30% in 1A. These will be consistent across all sports with four classes of competition (volleyball, basketball, baseball, softball) save for soccer, which has just three classes. The IHSAA will announce the official classifications for each school in each sport in the coming weeks, a press release said. After that, sectional assignments will be doled out and put up for approval at the IHSAA Executive Committee’s April meeting.

Bloomington South checks in 52nd at 1,681 students while Bloomington North is 55th at 1,589 and solidly in the lower half of Class 5A for football and middle of the pack 4A for other sports. In Conference Indiana, Southport is the biggest school now, 23rd at 2,368 with Columbus North 26th at 2,267. Terre Haute South is 53rd at 1,609 and Terre Haute South is 60th at 1,467. Class 5A in football will have 32 schools, with Whiteland now the biggest at 2,074. Valparaiso and Lafayette Harrison both bumped up to 31st and and 28th, which would put them in 6A. Fort Wayne South, Kokomo and Mt. Vernon (Fortville) are dropping to 5A, so the only southern sectional lineup change likely comes in Sectional 9 where Harrison was playing. Mooresville grew from 70th to 68th (1,398) and Martinsville was 75th (1,315). Bedford North Lawrence dropped from 69th to 79th at 1,242, making it one of the smallest in 4A.

As for Class 4A, Sectional 13 could be losing Greenwood, which came in 82nd and would be the largest 3A school. At 20%, the math puts 81 of the state’s 407 teams in 4A and 25% means 3A should have 102 schools. Also slated to move down to 3A: New Palestine, Cathedral, Crispus Attucks, Jennings County, Evansville Central, Shelbyville and Roncalli. Edgewood came in 133rd at 761 students keeping them in 3A but it could also bump the Mustangs back down to 3A for football with the cutoff between 3A-4A last last year at 127. Owen Valley is 150th with 650. Northview remains the biggest school in the Western Indiana Conference at 112th (894). With 2A-3A cut off around the 183rd biggest school, dropping to 2A would be West Vigo (189th), Monrovia (196th), Brown County (205th at 488 students) and South Vermillion (213th). Sullivan (503) climbed from 215th in 197th. Soon to be former WIC members, Cascade (178th) will jump to 3A while Greencastle (201st) and North Putnam (225th) remain in 2A. Cloverdale, however, dropped to 305th (283) and ended up in 1A. That leaves Cascade, Tri-West, Danville, Speedway, Indian Creek and Greenwood as the closest 3A neighbors to the north and Washington, Vincennes and Jasper to the south, but those schools are more connected to the Evansville area.

Linton is 250th (387) and Eastern Greene 274th (351) and Mitchell 226th (430) to firmly stay in 2A. Lighthouse Christian came in 398th out of 407 schools with an enrollment of 74, one of 16 schools with fewer than 100 students. Seven Oaks Classical, which will become a fully participating IHSAA member in the 2026-27 school year, was listed at 106. A complete list of school enrollments is posted at IHSAA.org.

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