Local Sports News: June 21, 2026

2027 4-star LB Jalaythan Mayfield commits to the Indiana Hoosiers Football Team Indiana picked up a commitment from class of 2027 linebacker Jalaythan Mayfield on Friday afternoon. Mayfield picked IU over Georgia and Miami (Florida). “It’s a great place. Coach Cig does a great job with the players,” Mayfield said on a live commitment on CBS Sports. “They take 3, 2-star guys, unranked guys, and make them national champions, so that’s the place to be developed. Miami, Georgia, great programs, they develop players as well, but nobody does it like Indiana.”

Based on the average of the national recruiting outlets, Mayfield is a 4-star prospect, the No. 229 overall player in the 2027 class, and the No. 20 linebacker in the rising senior class. Rivals pegs him as the No. 12 overall linebacker. The 6-foot-1 and 235-pound Mayfield attends Lincolnton, H.S. in Lincolnton, N.C. As a junior he posted 152 tackles (includes 26 tackles for a loss), six sacks, six forced fumbles, a blocked punt and a blocked field goal. He also contributed 13 rushing touchdowns and 343 rushing yards on offense. Mayfield is now the 13th commit in Indiana’s developing 2027 class. He’s the fourth 4-star and the second linebacker.

Indiana University Field Hockey Announces the 2026 Schedule Indiana Field Hockey head coach Kayla Bashore has announced the team’s 2026 schedule. The schedule includes 16 regular season games and two exhibition contests. Of the 16 games, there are eight Big Ten games and eight non-conference matchups. Including exhibition competition, Indiana will host eight home games at Deborah Tobias Field. The Hoosiers’ exhibition games including one at home against Miami of Ohio (Aug. 14) and one at Ball State (Aug. 20).

Indiana’s opening weekend will feature a neutral-site opener against Miami of Ohio (Aug. 29) at Louisville before facing Louisville in a road contest the next day (Aug. 30). Next, the Hoosiers will host a three-team round-robin on Labor Day weekend. Indiana hosts New Hampshire on Friday (Sep. 4) and Central Michigan on Monday (Sep. 7). New Hampshire and Central Michigan will play against each other on Sunday (Sep. 6). Indiana will hit the road the next two weekends with a neutral site game against Cornell in Columbus, Ohio (Sep. 11) and a Sunday matchup at Ball State (Sep. 13) before heading to Iowa City to play two against the Hawkeyes. The Friday game against Iowa (Sep. 18) will be a conference game while the Sunday matchup (Sep. 20) is a non-conference game.

In the second half of the season, Indiana will play five more home games: Michigan (Sep. 26), Ohio (Oct. 11), Northwestern (Oct. 16), Penn State (Oct. 23) and Maryland (Oct. 25). Sandwiched between there, Indiana will travel to face Michigan State (Oct. 2) before facing Ohio State (Oct. 4) later that weekend. The Hoosiers will close out the regular season at Rutgers (Oct. 30). The Big Ten Tournament will take place from Nov. 5-8 in Columbus, Ohio. Dates and times are subject to change between now and the start of the season.

Indiana University Football’s Curt Cignetti has a simple answer when players ask for more money at the wrong time There is a time and a place to renegotiate money with the head coach at Indiana. That’s in December, when the regular season ends, and at least for the last two seasons, before the College Football Playoff begins. As part of what sounds more annual corporate review than college football, Cignetti, his personnel staff, the players and their agents work out terms for the next season. And that’s been a very successful process for the Hoosiers over the last two years. Cignetti said recently the only player he’s lost at Indiana he wanted to keep was quarterback Alberto Mendoza. In addition to his head coaching duties, Cignetti is the final decision maker on who gets paid what. He has a multi-member personnel staff similar to a professional front office that deals with the minutia. Cignetti says he doesn’t deal with agents directly. And he says he never has players come to him directly and ask for more money.

But he does sit in the CEO chair, as the final decision maker. And if a player makes a request to renegotiate terms at the wrong time of year, those conversations are pretty short. “Every once in a while my recruiting guy will walk in my office and say, ‘I heard from so-and-so and Johnny is wondering if…,’” Cignetti told Rich Eisen this week. “And it’s pretty easy. ‘No.’” Over the last couple months Cignetti’s production over potential mantra has been put to the test. The staff has had the opportunity to recruit a caliber of elite talent not previously available to the program. They moved swiftly in the transfer portal, assembling one of the nation’s best classes in January. But the 2027 high school class hasn’t been so smooth. Indiana has what is currently around a national top-30 class, but based on the caliber of players they’ve been involved with, you get the sense the 16-0 defending national champions could have a better class if that’s where their priorities were.

Instead, Cignetti has had to say no a bit more often. If given a choice between an elite high school prospect and a proven college player, it seems fairly clear which way IU is leaning. Especially as the market for top-end high school talent soars. Cignetti didn’t win the national title with the resources of Ohio State, Texas, Miami and others. It seems fairly clear the program still doesn’t have unlimited funds, which is forcing difficult decisions along the way. “You gotta be smart too, because the market is always changing, and this high school market, it’s out there,” Cignetti told Eisen. “So you can’t really go all the way with everybody you’d like to. Because you gotta be able to keep your good players and add a few guys in the portal where you’ve got critical needs.”

Kate Douglass Breaks the Women’s 50-Meter Freestyle World Record in 23.59 at Indiana University Natatorium Kate Douglass broke the world record in the women’s 50-meter freestyle at the TYR Pro Swim Series meet Friday night. Douglass won the final in 23.59 seconds, bettering the mark of 23.61 set by Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden in July 2023. Sjostrom previously owned the seven fastest times in history. “Wow, that’s crazy. I think I’m still in shock,” Douglass told NBC Sports in an on-deck interview. “That’s a lot faster than I ever thought I would go tonight or ever.” Gretchen Walsh was second in 23.78, making her the fourth-fastest performer ever. Anna Moesch was third in 24.30 at the Indiana University Natatorium. Douglass had already won the 200 individual medley and 200 breaststroke at the meet, while Walsh had won the 100 free. Douglass, a 24-year-old from Pelham, New York, is a five-time Olympic medalist. She earned silver in the 50 free at the 2024 world championships but didn’t compete in the event at the 2024 Paris Games.

The Atlanta Dream Beats the Indiana Fever as Angel Reese Reaches 1,000 Career Rebounds Rhyne Howard scored 24 points, Allisha Gray added 22, and the Atlanta Dream earned a 113-96 victory against Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever on Saturday. Angel Reese became the fastest player in WNBA history to reach 1,000 career rebounds, reaching the milestone in her 79th game. Reese finished with 18 points and eight rebounds. The Dream earned their third straight win in front of a sold-out crowd of 17,044 at State Farm Arena, home of the NBA’s Hawks. Saturday’s game is one of five the Dream are playing at State Farm this season. The Dream usually play at the Gateway Center Arena in College Park which has a capacity of 5,000 fans.

The win for the Dream (11-4) was the second in three days against the Fever after a 108-101 road victory on Thursday. Saturday’s game featured South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley, the Hawks’ Jalen Johnson and C.J. McCollum, the Falcons’ Avieon Terrell and Grammy nominated singer Latto. Staley was welcomed with a standing ovation as she watched seven of her former players between the two teams. Clark scored a team-high 26 points for the Fever (9-7). Kelsey Mitchell had 16 points and Aliyah Boston and Sophie Cunningham each had 13 points. Trailing 59-56 at the half, Atlanta outscored Indiana 28-15 in the third quarter to hold an 84-74 edge heading into the fourth. Jordin Canada scored eight of her 12 in the quarter. Naz Hillmon added 19 points for the Dream. Mitchell contributed to Indiana’s strong start with 16 points in the first half, helping the Fever to a 59-56 lead at halftime. The Fever return home to host the Phoenix Mercury on Monday Night

Guerin Catholic Wins the IHSAA Class 3A Baseball State Championship for the first time in School History History has officially been made for the Guerin Catholic Baseball team. The Golden Eagles won the IHSAA Class 3A state championship with a 9-3 win over Andrean on Friday, securing the first baseball state title in program history. Guerin Catholic loaded the bases with one out in the first when senior Karson Smith plated the game’s first run with a fielder’s choice off pitcher Kaden Maxwell’s glove. The Golden Eagles made it 2-0 when junior Ben Canada scored from third on a wild pitch, then senior Grant Beard drove Smith home with a triple to right center for a 3-0 lead.

Starting with the top of the order in the second, Canada followed a Nolan Ratcliff single with a double to right, then Ratcliff, also a senior, scored on a wild pitch and Canada came home on a sacrifice fly by Ian Taylor. The Golden Eagles loaded the bases again in the third, leading to a pitching change for Andrean. Chase Nelson hit Ratcliff, the first batter he faced, with a pitch, bringing home the sixth Guerin run, but retired the next three batters to end the rally.

After the 59ers got on the board to make it 6-1 after three innings, the Guerin Catholic bats went back to work, with Ratcliff smacking a bases-loaded, two-out double down the left field line to build the Golden Eagles’ lead to 9-3. Andrean scored two runs in the seventh on a one-out double by Luke Goben, but Harrison Haq recorded the final two outs, striking Maxwell out to clinch the state championship. Ratcliffe went 2-for-3 in the title game, driving in four runs and scoring twice, while Canada went 2-for-4 and also scored a pair of runs. Senior Tate Troxell pitched six innings for the win, striking out 12 and allowing just one run. Troxell improved to 9-0 on the season with the victory and also went 1-for-2 from the plate and drew a pair of walks. “It means everything,” Troxell said. “We worked our tails off the last four years, this senior group. We had expectations to go to this field and this game and just to be here is a blessing. It means a lot to our families, the players, the coaches and just to get it done and bring it home for the school means a lot.”

In just his second season leading the program, head coach Dave Schrage guided Guerin Catholic to a breakthrough year. The Golden Eagles entered the postseason with momentum and capped off a remarkable run by bringing home the school’s first baseball championship trophy. “I’m so happy for the school, the community and our players,” said Schrage. “It’s pretty emotional to do it for the first time. These guys deserve it, I’m so happy for them, I couldn’t be happier that it happened to this group. They’re going to look back on their lives; they just created a great memory for the rest of their life.”

The title comes nearly two years after Schrage, a longtime college coach with nearly four decades of experience, took over a program that had never advanced beyond the semi-state round. The Golden Eagles fell in the semi-state championship in Schrage’s first season last year. Guerin Catholic Luke Gremelspacher was named recipient of the L.V. Phillips Mental Attitude Award.

Kouts Wins the IHSAA Class 1A State Baseball Title over Northeast Dubois for the Schools First State Championship in Any Sport Sometimes, you just run into the better team — or pitcher. That happened to Northeast Dubois baseball in the IHSAA Class 1A state championship game against Kouts on Friday, June 19. While the Jeeps’ starting pitcher, Eli Schroering, was good, Kouts sophomore Billy Miller was just that much better. One of the top prospects in the Class of 2028 threw a complete game in a 2-0 win for the Mustangs, winning their first state title in any sport. Miller was efficient. He only needed 87 pitches — 61 of which were strikes — to get through all seven innings, striking out eight batters. The only walk he issued came with two outs in the top of the seventh inning. Northeast Dubois had singles from Sam Beck in the first inning and Keyton Jones in the sixth, but neither could advance to second base.

Kouts scored its first run in the bottom of the second. Cooper Whitaker started the frame with a double. He advanced to third base on a groundout, then scored on a sacrifice fly from Collin Breitzke. The Mustangs took advantage of two Jeeps errors in one play to double their lead in the third. Ben Finney reached on a fielder’s choice with one out. He stole second base, with the throw by the catcher going high into center field. The ball then rolled under the glove of the centerfielder, allowing Finney to score all the way from first base. It was a tough-luck loss for Schroering. The lefty pitched six strong innings, allowing five hits and two runs (one earned) while striking out five. Kouts had runners on in almost every inning, but the junior was able to pitch around the damage most of the way. Kouts finished 32-1. Its only loss was in the season opener to Guerin Catholic, which won the Class 3A state title earlier Friday. Northeast Dubois finished with a 23-6 record. It was the first time any boys team in school history has reached the state finals. It will return the bulk of the roster next season, as the only senior on the team was Keyton Jones.