Local Sports News: May 31, 2024

First three kickoff tmes are set for Indiana University Football
The Big Ten Conference and its television partners have announced kickoff times and networks for the first three weeks of the college football season. The times include the home debut for head coach Curt Cignetti, a Friday night contest, and the Big Ten opener at UCLA. Cignetti will begin his Indiana tenure on Saturday, August 31, with a 3:30pm kickoff against FIU at Memorial Stadium. The 2024 meeting will be the fourth all-time between the two programs and the first since a 38-28 Indiana victory in Miami, Florida, during the 2018 season.

The Hoosiers will square off with Western Illinois under the Friday night lights on September 6 at 7pm for the first meeting between the two programs. This will be the seventh Friday night contest in IU history with a 4-2 overall mark in those games. In the first Big Ten game to feature one of the four new members of the conference, UCLA and Indiana meet for the first time in the historic Rose Bowl at 7:30pm on NBC and Peacock. Indiana will make a trip to Pasadena, California, for the first time since its 1968 Rose Bowl appearance that followed a 1967 Big Ten championship and culminated with a final ranking of No. 4 in the Associated Press rankings.

Indiana University Rowing to Compete at the NCAA Championships
No. 14-ranked Indiana will make its second-straight appearance in the NCAA Rowing Championship Today through Sunday (June 2) at East Fork State Park in Bethel, Ohio. Racing begins at 9:48am this morning and fans can stream the championship all weekend at NCAA.com. Indiana will race at 10:24 a.m., 11:12 a.m. and 11:48 a.m. on the first day. The Big Ten runner-up Hoosiers have the No. 12-seeded Varsity Eight and Second Varsity Eight crews as well as the No. 14-rated Varsity Four boat. IU has appeared in the last two national regattas, placing No. 17 nationally last year, as well as eight of the last 10. The Hoosiers are led by head coach Steve Peterson, who earned Big Ten Coach of the Year honors for the second-straight season – sharing this year’s honor with Michigan head coach Mark Rothstein. Peterson has led Indiana to a program record finish at the Big Ten Championships in consecutive seasons, this year taking second place.

Indiana’s Varsity Eight earned silver at the Big Ten Championships for the second consecutive season, just one second behind first-place Michigan, and own a 23-7 head-to-head record on the year. The crew is led by Big Ten Freshman of the Year Nico Daly and three more All-Big Ten performers: seniors Piper Maaka (first team) and Abbey Armstrong (second team) and graduate transfer Annabel Oertel (second team). The Indiana 2V8 placed third at the Big Ten regatta, just 25 hundredths of a second behind Michigan. The April 30 Big Ten Boat of the Week has earned a 20-11 head-to-head record. The Varsity Four was among the top group of performers at Big Tens, finishing fourth in its race and 12 seconds ahead of fifth-place Iowa, and has a 21-10 record this season.

Indiana University Baseball Kicks off the Road to Omaha with Southern Miss in the NCAA Regional in Knoxville, Tennessee
After sweating it out on Selection Monday, the Indiana Baseball team (32-24-1) earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Baseball Tournament for the second-straight season. It’s the third regional the Hoosiers have reached under head coach Jeff Mercer and the eighth that the program has made since 2013. IU earned a spot as the No. 3 seed in the Knoxville Regional, home of the NCAA’s top-overall seed in Tennessee. The Hoosiers will meet the Sun Belt Tournament Champions, second-seeded Southern Miss, in the first round this afternoon (1:00 PM) in Knoxville. This will be first time IU plays in a regional with the No. 1 overall seed. The Hoosiers are 0-4 all-time against Southern Miss and beat Northern Kentucky earlier this season. This will be the fourth time in program history that IU has played in an NCAA Regional hosted by a school from the SEC (Kentucky – 2, Vanderbilt).

Sixth-year senior Ty Bothwell will get another chance to pitch for the Hoosiers as he approaches 200 career innings pitched for the program. He will start Today’s game against Southern Miss. He’s currently seventh in school history with 231 strikeouts. He pitched 8.2 innings in last year’s Lexington Regional across two appearances. Junior third baseman Josh Pyne is currently riding a 30-game reach-based streak. He had a similar streak of 29 games in 2022 as a freshman but becomes the seventh player since 2010 to reach in at least 30-consecutive games. First pitch this afternoon in Knoxville will be at 1:00 PM at Lindsey Nelson Stadium against Southern Miss. The winner of that game will play at 6:00 PM on Saturday. The loser of the first game will be forced into an elimination game on Saturday at 12:00 PM.

IHSAA Girls Track and Field State Finals kick off the weekend at IU
Monroe County is well represented as the 50th Annual IHSAA Girls Track and Field State Finals are today at the Robert C. Haugh Track and Field Complex on the Indiana University Campus. The competition will get underway at 3 pm with Pole Vault, Long Jump and Discus. At 4:15pm the 3200 Relay Finals will get underway with the 1600-meter relay to finish the evening beginning at 8:30pm.

Bloomington North Finished 4th in last year’s state finals and is looking for more individual hardware but a chance to lift the State Championship Trophy for the first time in school history. Hadley Lucas is looking to win her third straight state title in the Shot Put and her second State Title in the Discus after taking home the title as Sophomore in 2022. The Wisconsin Commit is seeded first in both events and there no question she is one the rest of the state is trying to catch as Noblesville’s Hannah Alexander who won the Discus last year is seeded second and fifth in the shot put. Dede Eberle is the top Seed in the 100 meters hurdles and seeded 8th in the 300-meter hurdles and 10th in the Long Jump. Nola Somers-Glen is seeded 4th in the 800 meters.  The Cougars won the Sectional and Regionals Championships at home and will have all three relays competing in the state finals. The 4x 100 relay is seeded 9th while both the 4 X 400 and 4x 800 Meter Relay Teams are Seeded 24th.

Bloomington South tied for 10th with 20 points in last year’s meet. Ellie Barada is seeded 3rd in the 800 Meters, Anna Barnes is seeded 14 in the Discus. Eden Bailey is seeded 26th in the 200 Meters and Lexi Kollbaum is Seeded 26th in the 1600 Meters. The Panthers are seeded 21st in the 4x 400 Meter Relay and 22nd in the 4×800 Meter Relay.  Edgewood scored 6 points and finished 34th last year will have Emma Edwards as the 3rd seed in the 400 Meters. Ashley Abram is seeded 22nd in the Pole Vault and 4 X 400 Meter Relay team is seeded 27th.  Noblesville won the State Title for the first time with 45 points hanging on with one Point margin over Warren Central as Carmel finished 3rd with 33 points followed by Bloomington North and Center Grove rounding out the top five with 28 points. 

Bloomington North and Bloomington South Set to compete in Unified Track and Field State Finals on Saturday
The 10th annual IHSAA Unified Track and Field State Finals will be held Saturday at 11am at the Robert C. Haugh Track and Field Complex on the Indiana University Campus. There will be six events with the Long Jump, Shot Put, 100 Meters, 400 Meters and 400 Meter Girls and Boys Relay. Unified Track and Field is collaborative effort between the IHSAA and Special Olympics Indiana that gives students with an intellectual disability an opportunity to partner with students without intellectual disabilities and level the playing field for all student athletes. 

Bloomington North will be making its fourth appearance in the State Finals and second in a row. The Cougars finished 10th with 77 Points in 2019, 5th with 91 points in 2019 and 6th with 95 Points in 2023. Bloomington South qualified for the second year in a row after finishing 11th place with 64 points in 2023. Both Bloomington North and Bloomington South Finished in the Top Six of the Edgewood Regional to Qualify for the State Finals. Bloomington South won the Sectional for second year in a row and third overall and Bloomington North won last year’s regional. The Cougars Andrew Cockerham and Justin Lovell won the Mental Attitude Award in 2023.  Edgewood who did not qualify for this year’s state finals finished 8th with 71 points in 2014 which was the first year of the Unified Track and Field State Finals and 11th with 65 points in 2016. 

IHSAA Boys State Track and Field Finals are Saturday at IU
Bloomington North and Bloomington South are ready to welcome the rest of the state to Monroe County on Saturday for the 120th Annual IHSAA Boys Track and Field State Finals at the Robert C. Haugh Track and Field Complex on the Indiana University Campus. The competition will get underway at 3 pm with Pole Vault, Long Jump and Discus. At 4:15pm the 3200 Relay Finals will get underway with the 1600-meter relay to finish the evening beginning at 8:30pm.

Bloomington North who tied with Fishers for 4th place with 31 points in last year’s meet is looking for bigger and better this year. The Cougars won the 3200 Relay with three of the four Returning this season with Seniors Dominic D’Onofiro and Reed Pierce along with Sophomore Caleb Winders. Kyle Clark is now competing at the University of Illinois. The Cougars were the only non-Indianapolis area team to finish in the top ten a year ago. University of Louisville commit Jaydin Johnson is seeded first in the 100 and 200 Meters. Stephon Opoku is seeded 10th in the 100 Meters, Caleb Winders is seeded 4th 800 Meters, Calean D’Onoforio- is seeded 4th and Jack Holden is seeded 9th in the1600 Meters.  Jacob Mitchell is seeded 26th in the 3200 Meters, Alan Hays is seeded 24th and Ben Boland seeded 25th in the110 Meter Hurdles. Amare Draughn is seeded 17th in the High Jump, Will Steiner is seeded 26th in the Long Jump, Evan Cheng is seeded 28th in the Long Jump and Max Wynalda is seeded 10th in the Shot Put. The Cougars are seeded 3rd in the 4 X 800 Meter Relay and seeded 12th in the 4 X 400 Meter Relay.

Bloomington South Finished 15th with 16 Points last year. Gabe Taylor is seeded 26th in the 200 Meters, Josh Tait seeded 24th in the 400 Meters, Ryan Rheam is seeded 6th and Joe Zinkan seeded 14th in the 3200 Meters. D’Andre Black is seeded 5th in the 110 Meter Hurdles and 21st in the 300 Meter Hurdles. Noah Liell Beyene is seeded 27th in the 300 Meter Hurdles and Alex Shaevitz is seeded 29th in the Long Jump. The Panthers are seeded 27th in both 4 X 100 Meter Relay and the 4 X 400 Meter Relay. Brownsburg won the State title for the first-time last year with 55 points followed by Carmel with 50 and Plainfield with 48 points. Brownsburg was State Runner Up in 2021 and 2022. 

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