In high school sports, Marquette and Newark competed in Jacksonville over the weekend in baseball and Softball.
The Crusaders remained undefeated at 5-0 after defeating Illinois Valley Central 5-4 and Ridgewood 9-0 on Saturday in Baseball. Taylor Waldron struckout 18 over six innings in the victory over IVC.
In the shutout over Ridgewood, Logan Nelson went 4 innings with 5 strikeouts and Hayden McKenna completed the victory with 2 innings pitched and 3 strikeouts.
The Lady Crusaders defeated Batavia 2-1 in softball. Makayla Backos doubled and drove in a run with Eva McCallum driving in the other run. Kaylee Killelea pitched a complete game with 17 strikeouts.
The Lady Cru came up short to Riverdale 9-4. Lindsey Kaufmann threw 4 innings with 5 earned runs and 2 strikeouts in the loss.
Newark earned a couple victories in Jacksonville in softball by defeating Riverdale 2-1 and Genoa-Kingston 8-4. Winning pitchers for the Lady Norsemen were Taylor Kruser going 7 innings 1 earned run and 8 strikeouts against Riverdale and Kaitlyn Schofield also pitched a complete game with 4 earned runs and 14 strikeouts over Genoa.
The Marquette Track and Field team competed at the Reed-Custer Comet Classic Invite over the weekend with the girls finishing 5th and the boys team placing 7th, out of 13 teams competing.
Highlights for the Lady Crusaders, the team of Lilly Craig, Keely and Morgan Nelson and Mary Jo Lechtenberg won the 800 relay. Lechtenberg also finished 3rd in both the high jump and long jump. Maddy Howard finished 4th overall in the 60 meter hurdles, and Lindsey Kuykendall made it to the finals in the 60 meter dash.
In the boys division, Jimmy Lawsha led the Cru with a 2nd place finish in the 800. The team of Nate Kuykendall, Jurnee Reed, Peter McGrath and Caden Eller finished 3rd in the 400 relay. Eller also placed 5th in the long jump.
The Men’s NCAA Tournament was a thriller over the weekend. One-seed Arizona was taken to the limit in an 85-80 overtime win against nine-seed TCU to advance to the Sweet 16. Also on Sunday, there were upsets all day long as 10-seed Miami pounded two-seed Auburn 79-61 and 11-seed Iowa State took down three-seed Wisconsin 54-49.
Fourth-seeded Illinois lost to 5-seed Houston 68-53 in Pittsburgh. There are now only Michigan and Purdue left in the tournament from the Big Ten Conference.
Matchups for the Sweet Sixteen starting Thursday
Gonzaga will face Arkansas, Duke versus Texas Tech, Arizona will play Houston and on Friday Michigan will take on Villanova, North Carolina versus UCLA, Purdue will face St Peter’s, Kansas will face Providence and Iowa State versus Miami.
Duke head basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski is the first NCAA Division One coach to reach 12-hundred wins. His Blue Devils beat Michigan State 85 to 76 to earn a trip to the Sweet 16 and to get Coach K the milestone. Krzyzewski is in his final season as he is planning to retire from coaching.
Results from yesterday in the Women’s NCAA Tournament.
Stanford defeated Kansas, Miami lost to South Carolina, Louisville beat Gonzaga, Texas over Utah, Baylor lost to South Dakota, Iowa lost to Creighton, Iowa State defeated Georgia and Maryland were winners over Florida Gulf Coast.
Games scheduled today in the women’s division
Kansas State at NC State, Notre Dame is at Oklahoma, Michigan hosts Villanova, Belmont at Tennessee, Ohio State travels to LSU, Indiana is home to Princeton, UCF is at UConn and Arizona will host North Carolina.
The Chicago Bulls host the Toronto Raptors at the United Center tonight after a three-game losing skid.
The White Sox defeated the Rockies 4-2 and the Cubs ended in a 2-2 tie with the Dodgers yesterday in the MLB Spring Training Cactus League.
The Blackhawks play the Anaheim Ducks on the road Wednesday night. The Hawks are 22-32-and-9 after losing three in a row.