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Sports Editor Matt Daniels with a look at what’s going on around the area:
Former Unity standout Ashlyn Denney will run on Thursday at the USATF U20 National Championships in Eugene, Ore.
Robin Scholz/The News-Gazette
Three reasons we love sports today
➜ 1. Monticello native Lizzie Stiverson is one of 11 finalists for the Ohio Valley Conference Female Athlete of the Year, the OVC announced on Wednesday. Stiverson earned OVC Softball Player of the Year honors in the 2026 season with a .373 average, four home runs and 29 RBI for the OVC tournament champion Panthers.
➜ 2. Another former area standout excelling at EIU, Ashlyn Denney, will get the chance to compete on Thursday at historic Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.
➜ 3. Denney is a 2025 Unity graduate and is part of the field in the 800-meter run in the USATF U20 National Championships on Thursday. The top three finishers in each of the two heats and the next three best times advance to Friday’s finals.
Bret Bielema enters his sixth season as Illinois football coach. The team opens the 2026 season against UAB.
Numbers game: 11
weeks until the Illinois football team opens its season at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 3 against UAB at Gies Memorial Stadium in Champaign. Bret Bielema is undefeated in his first five season openers with the Illini. UAB will mark the sixth different team Bielema will open the season against at Illinois after beating Nebraska in 2021, Wyoming in 2022, Toledo in 2023, Eastern Illinois in 2024 and Western Illinois in 2025.
Arthur-Lovington-Atwood-Hammond graduate Kenzie Brown shined in the pitcher’s circle for the Arizona State softball team during the 2026 season and is now playing professionally in the Athletes Unlimited League.
Arizona State athletics
Crowd control
Three events I’m paying attention to
➜ 1. The U.S. Open. Former Illini Adrien Dumont de Chassart and Nick Hardy are part of the 156-man field that tees off Thursday at Shinnecock Hills in Southampton, N.Y., before the second round continues on Friday.
➜ 2. Spark vs. Cascade softball. The Athletes Unlimited League game that airs at 8 p.m. on Thursday on ESPN2 could see 2021 Arthur-Lovington-Atwood-Hammond graduate Kenzie Brown in the circle for Cascade. Brown is 2-0 with a 2.33 ERA in her first two pro starts.
➜ 3. The UI Open. The annual golf tournament that dates back to 1953 gets underway on Saturday and concludes Sunday at the UI Golf Course in Savoy.
Champaign Central senior boys’ tennis standout Daniel Canivez.
Ask an athlete
Three questions with Champaign Central senior boys’ tennis player Daniel Canivez, a First Team All-Area pick by The News-Gazette this season:
➜ 1. Three athletes I’d like to have dinner with are … Kyle Fan, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.
➜ 2. The TV show I most like to binge-watch is … “Suits.”
➜ 3. My biggest pet peeve is … when people get tons of coaching at changeovers.
Matt Daniels is sports editor at The News-Gazette. His email is mdaniels@news-gazette.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@mdaniels_NG).
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