On the last day of a forgettable year, particularly from a sports perspective, The News-Gazette sports staff offers up 10 noteworthy stories on the local scene from 2020
Oscar Hicks, whose name adorns Unity's football field, died last week. The former Unity football coach was 93 years old.
The Paxton-Buckley-Loda junior is close with several other distance-running standouts, both locally and beyond, and he relishes those relationships amid the strain of cross-country.
Dorjahn directed the Knights to their second consecutive regional title and first-ever sectional crown, and ALAH's club team placed second at unsanctioned state.
Get to know a little bit more about the area's top seven boys' cross-country athletes of 2020.
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Check out our 2020 All-Area boys' cross-country first team, second team and honorable mention team.
The Monticello sophomore led the area all season long, finishing a 3-mile course in fewer than 18 minutes on seven different occasions.
The repeat girls' Coach of the Year oversaw a pandemic-condensed schedule in which his athletes didn't finish atop the team leaderboard just one time.
With no high school athletics likely to occur in Illinois for the rest of the calendar year, Colin Likas begins taking a look back at how the preps scene appeared just one year ago.
Get to know a little bit more about the area's top seven girls' cross-country athletes of 2020.
Check out our 2020 All-Area girls' cross-country first team, second team and honorable mention team.
The Bulldogs were the lone area boys' and girls' representative's in Saturday's unsanctioned Division II state showcase.
The unsanctioned small-school cross-country state races transpired Friday at Three Sisters Park, and numerous locals came away with strong performances.
The Friday-Saturday-Sunday format is not IHSA-sanctioned, but it will give athletes in one fall sport a chance to close their season with state action.
No IHSA state races are being held this school year in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bulldogs pace 2A field during IHSA finale
Four high school newcomers will toe the line for coach Kara Leaman's Rockets at Saturday's Class 1A St. Teresa Sectional in Forsyth.
Unity's girls and Arthur-Lovington-Atwood-Hammond's boys also topped their respective regional fields.
The freshman and junior emerged as top local finishers at the recent Big 12 Conference Meet, which preempted Saturday's Class 2A Taylorville Regional.
In girls’ tennis
PEKIN — Danville and Centennial on Friday combined to qualify three doubles teams for the Class 2A Pekin Sectional semifinals, keeping those athletes' respective seasons going one more day.
Each week through the rest of the school year, we’ll highlight especially outstanding performances from area athletes and show them with their biggest supporters — their family.
A Clinton boys' cross-country runner won his conference meet as well.
Champaign Central girls' golfer ends season in Class 2A sectional tournament.
Monticello won the girls' team championship and ranked second on the boys' side, while the Unity girls and St. Joseph-Ogden boys also had strong efforts.
Craig Anderson told The News-Gazette that sectionals will mark the end of the IHSA seasons for golf, cross-country, girls' tennis and girls' swimming and diving.
Centennial's Aaron Hendron, Uni High's Kate Ahmari capture individual titles at Champaign's Dodds Park.
Prairie Central, Sullivan and Iroquois West all captured boys' golf team regional championships on Tuesday.
BETHANY — The Arthur-Lovington-Atwood-Hammond boys’ cross-country team won Friday’s Lincoln Prairie Conference championship meet, finishing with 19 team points and well ahead of second-place Okaw Valley (73) and third-place Cumberland (90).
Mahomet-Seymour is trying to find its groove amid a light schedule, while both St. Thomas More and Clinton are receiving statewide attention.
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