Buck Bailey on Saturday

WELLSVILLE — The annual Buck Bailey Memorial Wrestling Tournament will be held Saturday at Wellsville High School.

Twenty-four schools are scheduled to compete in the one-day tournament that begins at 9 a.m. Saturday. It is expected to run through at least 5 p.m.

Local teams include host Wellsville, Beaver Local, Columbiana, East Palestine, Leetonia, Minerva, Oak Glen, Salem, South Range and United.

Other schools entered are Boardman, Brookfield, Central Valley (Pa.), Chippewa, Conotton Valley, Dover, Indian Valley, Liberty, Magnolia, Norwayne, Toronto, Tuscarawas Valley, Tri-Valley and Youngstown Chaney High.

Hitting the road again

There are several cross country races coming up in the area.

The You Complete Me 5K is a “couple race” on Feb. 14 at the Canfield Fairgrounds.

The inaugural Shamrock Run will be held March 8 at Salem’s Waterworth Memorial Park with donations going to the dog park there.

The Donut Dash 2 Mile will be held March 22 at Canfield High School with donations going to the school’s cross country team.

The second Bunny Hop will be held April 4 with a 5K race starting and finishing at the Columbiana County Park District garage.

Register online for races at runsignup.com.

Women’s flag football coach

ALLIANCE — The University of Mount Union named Rick Hairston, Class of 1985, as the first head coach of its new varsity women’s flag football program.

A decorated athlete, M Club Hall of Fame inductee and veteran educator and coach with than 30 years of coaching experience, Hairston will guide the women’s flag football team that will be Mount Union’s 26th intercollegiate sport beginning in the spring of 2027.

He was a four-year letterman in both football and track for the Purple Raiders. He ran on the 1983 NCAA Division III national championship 400-meter relay team and earned seven All-American honors in track. In football,, he was a two-time All-Ohio Athletic Conference and a 1983 AP Division III All-American as a wide receiver.

He was a varsity and head freshman football coach for in the Alliance and Canton City school districts, was head coach of the Canton McKinley boys track team from 1990-2000 including an Ohio Division I state championship in 1997 and was head basketball coach at Canton Timken (2000-15) and Canton McKinley (2016-18), beging named the Ohio 2008 Division I Coach of the Year.

United freshman wins

AKRON — United freshman Leighton Birmingham won the 200-yard individual medley in 2:20.06 to lead area swimmers on Friday at the Div. II sectional meet at the University of Akron.

The top two finishers in each event earned automatic berths in the Div. II district meet set for Feb. 20 at Cleveland State. The other positions will be determined by at-large bids.

Birmingham was also fourth in the 100 butterfly (1:04.28).

Salem senior Ryan Folger led the Quakers by placing third in the breaststroke (1:02.37) and third in the 100 butterfly (54.33). For the Salem girls, freshman Macy Pieniazek was fifth in the 100 butterfly (1:06.75).

Junior Victoria Buckingham led Columbiana with a fifth place finish in the 100 breaststroke (1:13.02), fourth place in the 200 individual medley (2:27.34)

Crestview freshman Zach Harbour had a strong showing by taking third in the 100 backstroke (59:17) and eighth in the 200 individual medley (2:12.01).

Crestview sophomore Kyla Pancake was fourth in the breaststroke (1:12.53) and fifth in the 200 individual medley (2:28.48).

For Heartland Christian, senior Logan Miller was ninth in the 100 backstroke (1:03.31).

Masters show off their skills

GENEVA, Ohio — Three local masters athletes won awards last Sunday at the USA Track and Field Lake Erie Association Indoor Championship at the SPIRE Institute.

Southern Local coach and Hall of Fame member Kathy Randolph won gold medals in the women’s 60 60-meter dash (10.66 seconds), 200 meter dash (37.79) and shot put (22-2 1/2).

Former Crestview standout Don Groubert took gold in the men’s 65 weight throw (23-feet-1) and super weight (12-11 1/2) throws as well as silver in the shot put (23-10).

Former Beaver Local athlete Sheri Liebschner captured silver in the women’s 55 shot put (17-8) and silver in the weight throw (15-9 3/4).

First win for Team USA over Canada in curling

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — The U.S. women’s curling team was surprised to learn that their defeat of Canada on Friday marked an Olympic first.

“If that’s true,” caveated Minneapolis native Taylor Anderson-Heide said after the 9-8 nailbiter, “I think we just played a really good game. They’re No. 1 in the world.”

Tara Peterson of Shoreview, Minnesota, chimed in: “It just always feels really good to beat (Canada skip) Rachel Homan. So any team to beat them, that’s pretty impressive.”

Until Friday, the American women had never beaten Canada — a perennial favorite that has medaled in every Winter Games since curling was added to the Olympics in 1998. The U.S. men beat the Canadians for the first time in the 2018 round-robin and again in the semifinals en route to their gold medal victory in Pyeongchang.

Canada’s Team Homan has for years been considered the best in the world.

In Friday’s match, the U.S. managed to capitalize on a few weak shots by Canada. After the win, the Americans walked together down the ice and back to their coaches, raising fists in triumph.