A mad scramble for playoff spots
It may seem as if Week 9 in Little Illini Conference football is anti-climactic. After all, Mt. Carmel has already wrapped up the championship, and the Golden Aces carry a two-game lead into the final night of the regular season. However, Week 9 will be anything but ho-hum. Because as many as seven LIC schools […]
Olney, Marshall repeat as XC champs
(ROBINSON) — Olney and Marshall repeated as Little Illini Conference cross country champions on Tuesday at the league meet in Robinson. Boys Race Olney edged Paris in a hotly contested 2.96-mile boys race decided by only seven points. The winning Tigers total of 28 points came on the basis of a 1-2-4-6 finish. Paris was […]
Newton wins LIC girls tennis title by 1/2 point
(OLNEY) — Newton won the Little Illini Conference girls tennis tournament on Friday by the narrowest of margins: one-half point. The Eagles won the crown with 18 1/2 points, just ahead of defending champion Paris,next with 18. Robinson (15 1/2 points) edged Mt. Carmel (14) to finish third in the final standings. Olney (11) and […]
Mt. Carmel wins first title since 2023
Mt. Carmel is celebrating while the rest of the Little Illini Conference is contemplating. The Golden Aces wrapped up their fourth football title in six years in the league with a 40-0 victory over Marshall on Friday night. As for the rest of the conference, it is now a dead sprint to the regular-season finish […]
IHSA releases Regional volleyball brackets
(BLOOMINGTON) — The Illinois High School Association has released the pairings for the upcoming girls state volleyball series. Regional play begins on Monday, Oct. 26. Little Illini Conference teams are split among two classes and six regional sites. In Class 2A, Newton and Olney will both host a Regional tournament. Here are the Regional schedules […]
How many more teams will join the post-season party?
With just two games left in the regular-season, there is a mad scramble among Little Illini Conference football teams to gather enough wins to qualify for the newly-expanded IHSA state tournament series. The magic number of necessary wins appears to be four. Already three LIC teams are in: Mt. Carmel, Newton, and Paris. One more […]
LIC girls tennis tournament a wide-open affair
(OLNEY) — The field is set for the 2026 Little Illini Conference girls tennis championship tournament to be played in Olney on Friday. There are 12 entries in both singles and doubles, two from each of the six tennis-playing LIC schools. A seed meeting was held on Wednesday, and the top four seeds receive automatic […]
Newton’s Haley Ochs medals, heads to State
(ROXANA) — Haley Ochs of Newton won the Class 1A Sectional golf championship on Tuesday at Belk Park Golf Course in Roxana. The senior now gets to top off her high school golf career with a trip to the IHSA state tournament, which begins on Friday at Red Tail Run Golf Course in Decatur. Ochs fired […]
Casey-Westfield heading to State
(SAVOY) — The Casey-Westfield boys golf team has qualified for the 2026 IHSA Class 1A state tournament. The Warriors finished third at the Sectional tournament hosted by Monticello on Tuesday. Teutopolis won the Sectional title with a team round of 299, 10 shots better than Williamsville. Casey-Westfield claimed the third and final qualifying spot by […]
Marshall, Newton on a collision course
Marshall and Newton have been undefeated Little Illini Conference volleyball front-runners for the last couple of weeks. That is about to change. First-place Marshall (4-0 in LIC games, 17-6 overall) heads to Newton (3-0, 20-2) on Thursday night with first-place in the LIC on the line. That’s assuming Newton is still undefeated by then. The […]