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LIONS TRAIL NONE
MINERVA -- The Minerva girls golf team is picking up where it left off last season.
The Lions -- which went 18-0 in the regular season and advanced to the state tournament a year ago -- repeated as the team champion at the Great Trail Invitational on Thursday.
Junior Peyton Beaumariage was the individual medalist again with an eight-stroke victory. She shot an 18-hole score of 75 at Great Trail Golf Course.
Minerva topped the 10-team field with a 376, 12 strokes ahead of West Holmes.
Minerva will play West Branch today at Westville Lake.
STANDINGS
1. Minerva (376), 2. West Holmes (388), 3. John Glenn and Tri-Valley (401), 5. Carrollton (402), 6. Vincent Warren (406), 7. Marietta (408), 8. Beaver Local (412), 9. Tuslaw (434), 10. United (460).
INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
1. Peyton Beaumariage (Minerva) 75; 2. Maggie Evans (Vincent Warren) 83; 3. Regan Shirer (Tri-Valley) 85, 4. Mattie Shankel (West Holmes) 86; 5. Emery Sell (Minerva) and Kenadee Strauss (Marietta) 88, 7. Aubrey Burchfield (West Holmes) 94.
POTTERS SELLING PASSES
EAST LIVERPOOL -- East Liverpool is selling 2026-2027 athletic passes from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday at the Westgate Treasurer’s Office (Door 6). Family pass is $220. Adult pass is $90. Student pass is $40. Call ticket manager Kim Allen at 330-385-7132 ext. 30432 for more information.
CIGNETTI WANTS MORE FOR IU
CHICAGO (AP) -- Indiana coach Curt Cignetti says he’s “stalking complacency” as he makes sure there’s no championship hangover now that he’s orchestrated one of the most remarkable turnarounds in college football history.
Cignetti took over a program that had gone 9-27 the three years before his arrival and led it to College Football Playoff appearances in each of his first two seasons, including a 2025 national title.
He wants his program to maintain the same edge it carried while working its way up.
“We have a way of doing things,” Cignetti sad. “We’ve got guys that have been together, and all we do is win.”
Indiana’s stunning two-year run under Cignetti already has allowed the traditional Big Ten also-ran to shed its status as the Bowl Subdivision program with the most losses in history. That dubious honor now belongs to conference rival Northwestern.
The Hoosiers obviously have bigger long-term goals than that.
A Cleveland.com poll of reporters that serves as the unofficial Big Ten preseason media forecast had the defending national champions finishing third in the conference, behind Ohio State and Oregon.
Cignetti understands the challenge ahead after beating both Ohio State and Oregon on the way to the title last year. Cignetti, who worked as an assistant at Alabama from 2007-10, closed his news conference Thursday by explaining why he believes the Big Ten is college football’s best conference.
“We don’t run a hype machine up here in the Midwest,” Cignetti said. “We believe everything is earned, not given. When we fall short, we say, ‘We fell short.’ We don’t cry a river, whine and complain. That’s why we’re the best.”
BIG TEN SEEKS CLARITY
CHICAGO (AP) -- The Big Ten appears to be in no hurry to change its status as the only major conference that doesn’t require its schools to schedule at least one nonconference game against another Power Four member each year.
Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti said this week at the Big Ten media days event that any proposed scheduling decisions would have to wait until a final decision comes on playoff expansion. The Big Ten is pushing for a 24-team approach to replace the current 12-team format.
That’s fine with many of the conference’s coaches and athletic directors.
“We’ve talked a lot about scheduling in our AD room and with our coaches about what’s coming next and what’s the right way to do things,” Petitti said. “I will tell you that our focus now is seeing clarity around the playoff and access and how that’s going to work before we make the next decision.”
Scheduling moves by other conferences have left the Big Ten as the lone holdout in this regard. The Big Ten has won the last three national championships, and none of those teams -- Michigan in 2023, Ohio State in 2024 and Indiana last year -- played a nonconference regular-season game against a Power Four program.
In the past, the Big Ten could point to its nine-game conference schedule as a reason it didn’t need to force tougher standards in nonconference scheduling since some other Power Four leagues were only playing eight conference games.
DELPIT GETS THREE YEARS
BEREA (AP) -- Safety Grant Delpit signed his three-year, $48 million extension with the Cleveland Browns on Thursday.
The two sides agreed to the extension on Wednesday right before the first practice of training camp. General manager Andrew Berry told Delpit that everything was completed right as individual drills were about to start.
“It says a lot to make it to this third contract and to be locked in for the long haul,” Delpit said before Thursday’s practice. “I knew it could probably happen at any moment, but AB came jogging on the field and told me it was done and that if I wanted to practice, they’d honor my deal since I had not signed yet.”
The 27-year old Delpit is going into his seventh season in Cleveland after being a second-round draft pick in 2020. He had 80 tackles, three sacks and an interception last season. Delpit had a career-high 108 tackles in 2024, which led the Browns defense.