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Sports Editor Matt Daniels with a look at what’s going on around the area:
Urbana boys’ diver Max Kooper and his teammates will host a four-team meet this upcoming Monday that will benefit Cunningham Children’s Home in Urbana.
Three reasons we love sports today
➜ 1. Sporting events with a bigger cause attached to them.
➜ 2. Like this from the Urbana boys’ swimming and diving team. The Tigers will host a quadrangular meet with Centennial, Champaign Central and Mahomet-Seymour starting at 4:30 p.m. on Monday at the Urbana Aquatic Center. But it’s more than just a swim meet between four Champaign County programs.
➜ 3. Swimmers and divers from all four teams are bringing items to the meet — aptly named the H2Bros Charity Swim Meet — for a service project. All items brought to Monday’s meet will then be delivered to Cunningham Children’s Home in Urbana the following day. Well done, Urbana, Centennial, Central and M-S.
Champaign native and former St. Thomas More standout Caroline Kerr earned her third straight AVCA All-American honor on Wednesday.
Numbers game: 3,313
career assists with the Tennessee volleyball program that Champaign native and former St. Thomas More standout Caroline Kerr has in three seasons with the Volunteers. Kerr, who dished out 945 of those assists this fall to help Tennessee finish 20-8 and reach the NCAA tournament, received AVCA honorable mention All-American honors on Wednesday. It marks the third straight season Kerr has earned All-American status, and she joins Nikki Fowler as the only two Tennessee players in program history to do so for three consecutive seasons.
Logan Kurtz and the undefeated Tuscola boys’ basketball team plays at Altamont on Friday night in what should be a competitive nonconference team between two successful programs.
Crowd control
Three events I’m paying attention to
➜ 1. Illinois State at Southern Illinois men’s basketball. St. Joseph-Ogden graduate Ty Pence is averaging 11.3 points and 4.9 rebounds for the Redbirds (8-3) before they meet the host Salukis (6-5) at 8 p.m. Thursday at the Banterra Center in the Missouri Valley Conference opener for both teams.
➜ 2. Unity Christmas Duals. The Unity wrestling team will host Benton, Camp Point Central, Carterville, Chatham Glenwood, Oakwood/Salt Fork, Olympia, Peoria Notre Dame, Peotone and Washington on Friday evening before the 15-team Unity Invitational takes place on Saturday.
➜ 3. Tuscola at Altamont boys’ basketball. These two programs staged an epic Class 1A sectional title game in 2023. Expect another good one Friday night, with Logan Kurtz trying to keep the visiting Warriors unbeaten after an 8-0 start.
Armstrong-Potomac senior Luke Townsend is a three-sport athlete for the Trojans, playing golf, basketball and baseball. A-P boys’ basketball is back in action on Friday night at Oakwood.
Ask an athlete
Three questions with Armstrong-Potomac senior Luke Townsend, who plays golf, basketball and baseball for the Trojans:
➜ 1. Three athletes I’d like to have dinner with are … Larry Bird, Bryson DeChambeau and Kevin VanDam.
➜ 2. The movies I most like to binge-watch are … “Top Gun,” and “Top Gun: Maverick.”
➜ 3. My biggest pet peeve is … iPhone battery life.
