Midwest
Illinois HS athlete suffers horrific injury while warming up for triple jump
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An Illinois high school track athlete suffered an unimaginable injury while warming up for the triple jump at a meet last month.
Dylan Wescott, of Rock Falls High School, broke his neck in a freak accident that left him paralyzed from the chest down. The 18-year-old has been rehabbing at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab and has been able to sit in a wheelchair since about a week after the March 15 catastrophe.
A high school track and field athlete was left paralyzed after a freak accident. (Fox News)
Rock Falls High School head track coach Eric Bontz shared the horrific details in an interview with KWQC-TV.
“He was warming up in the triple jump, just doing run throughs, and as he was going through the sand, he tripped either over his own feet or over the sand, and kind of stumbled, and was kind of running as he was stumbling, and just fell head first into the wall,” Bontz said.
Wescott went through 12 hours of surgery immediately after the accident, according to the Daily Gazette. He had two cages inserted to stabilize his neck with a vertebra was replaced with a titanium plate.
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“You go from being a normal, happy family with, everybody talking about future plans and graduation, prom — he just got accepted to study to be a vet tech after high school — and then seeing him in a wheelchair, not able to do a lot of the things that he used to do,” Wescott’s aunt, Kim Wescott Kilday, told the station. “It really hurts.”
A general look at the triple jump. (IMAGN)
Wescott’s family and coach have praised his resiliency.
A GoFundMe has raised more than $22,000 to help with medical expenses.
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Kansas
Kansas City, Missouri, police searching for 30-year-old missing man
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department is asking for the public’s help locating a missing man.
Jacob Phillips, 30, was last talked to around 10:17 p.m. Wednesday.
Phillips is 5 feet, 2 inches tall and weighs 130 pounds. He has brown hair and hazel-colored eyes, according to KCPD.
Police said his family is concerned for his well-being.
If anyone sees Phillips, they are urged to call the KCPD Missing Persons Unit at 816-234-5043 or 911.
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Michigan
UCLA baseball scores four runs late for win over Michigan State
No. 1 UCLA baseball handled business over the last two innings against Michigan State to secure a 4-1 win in their series opener at Jeff Ishbia Field at McLane Stadium in East Lansing, Mi. on Friday.
The Bruins found themselves in a much more low-scoring outing than their 15-3 midweek affair against UC Santa Barbara. Against the Spartans, UCLA’s explosive lineup was held to just four hits over all nine innings, but the Bruins pitching staff fared better than Michigan State’s by only allowing two hits.
Scoreless start
Both UCLA and Michigan State had just one hit in the first three innings, as both teams attempted to find success at the plate. The result was the game being runless heading into the fourth.
Spartans strike first
Michigan State got their second hit of the game in the bottom of the fourth with a single, but it was enough to get their base runner across home plate for the first run of the game.
Offense continued to struggle
UCLA had their second hit of the game in the top of the sixth, but despite the rare hit, and multiple other runners getting on base, the Bruins nor Spartans could increase the score until the eighth inning.
Taking the lead late
In the top of the eighth, the Bruins’ batters awoke with a go-ahead two-run homer strike by junior first baseman Mulivai Levu and putting UCLA in the lead for the first time in the game.
Two more for good measure
The Bruins tacked on two more runs in the top of the ninth off of a double and a sacrifice fly to give them two more inusrance runs. The Spartans were held scoreless in the bottom of the ninth to give UCLA the win and keep their undefeated Big Ten Conference streak alive.
UCLA will play their second game against Michigan State on Saturday with an anticipated start time of 12:35 p.m. PT.
Minnesota
Kids in Need Foundation provides $1 million in school supplies to Minnesota teachers
The Kids in Need Foundation gifted $1 million worth of school supplies to teachers in need.
Taking place at the Kids in Need Foundation’s headquarters in Little Canada, the “Thanks a Million” event brought together teachers from across the state, who were each gifted around $1,000 in school supplies to take back to their classrooms.
The group said the supplies went to teachers at higher-needs schools, districts where 50 percent or more of students would qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.
Rachelle Oxborough, the foundation’s director of public relations, said school supplies can make a major difference for students, some of whom do not begin classes with the materials they need.
“School supplies can be completely transformative for a child and their education, when a student can walk in on that first day of school,” Oxborough said. “A majority of students in these schools do not start the school year with school supplies, so when they can start with everything they need, they can step into their education in a totally different way.”
Sabrina Jones, a social worker at Harambee Elementary School in Maplewood, came to pick up supplies for teachers at her school on Saturday.
“But a lot of just writing materials, from the markers to the crayons to just the writing pads, which is just amazing…and also cleaning supplies, because you can’t have enough cleaning supplies for all seasons,” Jones said.
Programs like “Thanks a Million” support teachers financially by providing free classroom materials, rather than having teachers pay out of pocket for their students.
The National Education Association said teachers spend an average of $500 to $900 a year out of pocket on classroom supplies.
“I mean it’s one in a million, this really shows the support that Kids in Need have for teachers in general, school, everything…you can’t like buy this….this is just amazing,” Jones said.
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