The IHSA’s board of directors this week finalized expectations for the 35-second shot clock, which will be required for varsity boys and girls basketball contests beginning with the upcoming 2026-27 IHSA season.

Stacey Aber Richardson said her mother’s illness started as “clumsiness” and tripping and escalated to not be able to eat, drink, move or speak. Linda Aber of Sheffield passed away in 2024 within three months of an official bulbar Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis diagnosis at 67.

Recent Sandwich graduate, distance ace and Class 2A state champion Sunny Weber is the 2026 Times Girls Track and Field Athlete of the Year.

Here are The Times area’s state qualifiers and their postseason accomplishments, the 2026 Times Girls Track and Field All-Area Honor Roll.

In the short term, when the Marquette baseball team won the Class 2A St. Bede Supersectional, it sent the Crusaders back to the IHSA State Finals. In the long term, it also guaranteed Marquette will remain in Class 2A for baseball through at least the 2028 season.

After an uncharacteristically quiet performance the night before, Marquette baseball's offense came out swinging Saturday with three runs in the home half of the first inning. It proved to be the difference in Marquette’s 4-1 win over Freeburg in 2A's third-place game.

Marquette defeated Freeburg 4-1 in the IHSA Class 2A State third-place game on Saturday, June 13, 2026, at the University of Illinois in Champaign.

The Marquette baseball team managed just four hits off St. Joseph-Ogden's Asher Pruemer in a 6-1 loss in Friday night's IHSA Class 2A State semifinal at Illinois Field in Champaign. The Crusaders play Freeburg for third place at 4 p.m. on Saturday.

Marquette fell 6-1 to St. Joseph-Ogden in the IHSA Class 2A State semifinals on Friday, June 12, 2026, at the University of Illinois in Champaign.

The Marquette baseball team hopes to stay hot when it faces St. Joseph-Ogden (38-2) in Friday’s IHSA Class 2A semifinals at 7 p.m. on Illinois Field in Champaign. The Crusaders, which are coming off back-to-back 1A state championships, enter the contest with a 37-3 record.

The Illinois Coaches Association this week announced its lists of ICA All-State selections from the recently completed 2026 softball season, with numerous Times-area standouts honored.

The Marquette baseball team earned a third consecutive trip to the IHSA State Finals with a 9-6 victory over Brimfield in Tuesday's Class 2A St. Bede Supersectional. The Crusaders entered the season back-to-back Class 1A champions.

The Putnam County baseball team beat Galena 7-4 on Tuesday to win the IHSA Class 1A NIU Supersectional and earn its first trip to state since 2013.

Congratulations to The Times Athlete of the Week, Marquette baseball's Anthony Couch!

Seneca seniors Lexie Buis, Camryn Stecken and Tessa Krull led the Fighting Irish softball team to a runner-up finish at the IHSA Class 2A State Finals at Peoria's Louisville Slugger Sports Complex.

The Seneca softball team battled to the very end but came up just short in a 3-1 loss to Carterville in Saturday's IHSA Class 2A championship on OSF Healthcare Field inside the Louisville Slugger Sports Complex in Peoria. The Fighting Irish ended the season 39-3.

The Marquette baseball team racked up 16 hits in an 11-2 win over Wilmington in Saturday's IHSA Class 2A Herscher Regional championship, clinching the 11th sectional title in program history and third in a row following a pair of 1A titles.

Marquette pulled away from Wilmington for an 11-2 victory in the IHSA Class 2A Herscher Sectional championship on Saturday, June 6, 2026.