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Beavers advance eight to semifinals
AUSTINTOWN -- Beaver Local's wrestling team advanced eight to the semifinals of the Eastern Ohio Wrestling League tournament on Friday at Austintown Fitch.
Beaver Local freshman Jordan Bates (23-2) will meet Brookfield's Brayden Reed (1-0)in a 106-pound semifinal. Beaver sophomore John Burkett (16-8) advanced to the semifinals at 120 and will meet Hubbard's Logan Balla (30-5) in a semifinal.
At 132, Beaver Local junior Leo Wilkes (20-6) will take on Louisville's Liam Montgomery (22-6) in a semifinal. He will be joined by Beaver Local freshman Matthew Tomaino (16-8) in the 144-pound semifinal where he will met Louisville's Aric Criss (22-5).
Beaver Local senior Bobby Buchheit (12-0) secured his place in the 150-pound semifinal against Howland's Aidan O'Donnell (29-4). Beaver sophomore Jake Hughes (27-3) had no trouble reaching the semifinals at 157. He'll take on Alliance's Johnny Beltz (32-7).
At 165, Beaver Local senior Braedon Landfried (12-2) punched his ticket to the semifinals. He'll take on South Range top seed Tyson Seesholtz (29-2) in Saturday's semifinal.
At 175, Beaver Local junior Evan Ours had two wins to advance to the semifinal against Girard's Vinnie Ragozine (23-9).
The top seed at 215, West Branch senior Gavin Hang (24-3) will take on Xzavior Mayo (33-6) in that semifinal.
Action continues Saturday with the championship finals set for 4:30 p.m.
NASCAR adjusts Clash schedule
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) -- NASCAR has adjusted the schedule for this weekend's exhibition race at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem in anticipation of more ice and snow blanketing the Winston-Salem area of North Carolina.
The Clash was supposed to be a two-day event beginning Saturday with the main event held Sunday evening. But the roads in the area are not yet totally clear from last weekend's ice storm, and more inclement weather is scheduled for the next few days with as much as 12 inches possible for Saturday and the area under a winter storm watch through 1 p.m. EST Sunday.
To adjust, NASCAR has postponed all of Saturday's on-track activity and will run the Clash as a one-day program Sunday. The hope is to begin with practice at 2 p.m. on Sunday.
NASCAR believes even with cold temperatures, its Goodyear tires will produce enough grip on the quarter-mile Bowman Gray Stadium track to run Sunday at 6 p.m.
If the event goes off at all will depend on how much snow falls Saturday. If The Clash can't run Sunday, NASCAR seems prepared to run the event on the next possible clear day; teams head to Daytona Beach, Florida, around Feb. 9 to begin preparations for the season-opening Daytona 500.
Because The Clash is now one day only, the format will be:
-- Drivers will be split into three practice groups, and each group will get three practice sessions. Times in the final session will determine their starting lineup for the main event and the last chance qualifier.
-- Saturday heat races are canceled.
-- The Sunday 75-lap last-chance qualifier will offer two spots in the main event for those who didn't finish in the top-20 in qualifying.
-- The final 23rd spot in the main event will go to the driver highest in points who hasn't made the race. Two-time NASCAR champion Kyle Larson is the only driver guaranteed a spot in the race.
-- The main event will be 200 laps with a midway break at Lap 100. Only green-flag laps count.
Chase Elliott won the event last year.
WNBA, players to meet
The WNBA and the players' union will meet Monday in New York for the first time in several weeks to try to move the stalled collective bargaining negotiations forward.
Kelsey Plum, who is vice president of the players union, mentioned the meeting to reporters while she was preparing for a game in Philadelphia with the 3-on-3 league Unrivaled.
"I think we'll learn a lot from this meeting. I'm not trying to put it on the meeting, but this is a meeting that I think everyone understands what's at stake," Plum said. "The league has their timelines; we as players understand what's at stake. I always come into anything that I do with a great attitude, and I'm going to see the best in this."
Plum will be joined at the meeting by other members of the executive council, including Nneka Ogwumike and Napheesa Collier, as well as union leadership.
The league will have its regular negotiating team, including WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert, the labor relations committee and a few other owners, according to a person familiar with the situation.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity Friday because of the sensitive nature of the negotiations.
The person said the league had been asking for the meeting for a few weeks and it was agreed upon by the union Thursday.
Players said union leadership had been coming to chat with them frequently, including this week.
"Both sides want to get something done, we just got to make moves to get there," Rachel Banham said. "It's got to be an actual negotiation with compromise."
Natasha Cloud took a more hardened stance.
"It would be the worst business decision of any business to not literally pay the players that make your business go. Without us, there is no W season," she said.
Talks to reach a new CBA haven't had much traction over the last few weeks as the union says it is waiting for a response to a proposal it sent around Christmas that included a 30% gross revenue share for the players. According to another person familiar with the negotiations, the league didn't feel that proposal was much different then the previous one that the union had sent.
That person spoke on condition of anonymity also because of the sensitive nature of the negotiations.
The league's most recent offer last month would guarantee a maximum base salary of $1 million in 2026 that could reach $1.3 million through revenue sharing.
That's up from the current $249,000 and could grow to nearly $2 million over the life of the agreement, the person told the AP.
The two sides have been in a "status quo" period after the latest extension of the current CBA ran out on Jan. 9. They agreed to a moratorium a few days later that halted the initial stages of free agency in which teams would seek to deliver qualifying offers and franchise tag designations to players.
If a new CBA isn't agreed upon soon, it could delay the start of the 2026 season. It's already delayed the expansion draft for Toronto and Portland. The league did release its schedule last week with the regular season set to begin May 8.
The last CBA was announced in the middle of January 2020, a month after it had been agreed to. It could easily take two months from when a new CBA is reached to get to the start of free agency, which was supposed to begin Sunday.