Illinois

College Achievers: Huber, Boldt help Illinois Wesleyan to dual CCIW wins

Published

1 year ago

March 9, 2025

College Achievers: Huber, Boldt help Illinois Wesleyan to dual CCIW wins

Illinois Wesleyan junior Nathan Boldt, a graduate of Barrington High School, operates in the post during a game earlier this month against Carroll University.
Courtesy of Illinois Wesleyan University Sports Communications

Familiar faces at Illinois Wesleyan University helped the Titans win the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin women’s and men’s basketball tournaments.

Beating Carthage 79-60, the men’s team won the tournament for the first time since it was held in 2003. Nathan Boldt (Barrington High School), a 6-foot-10 junior forward, came off the bench to grab a season-high 8 rebounds to go with 5 points. Starting senior guard Hakim Williams (Round Lake) and senior forward Marko Anderson (Maine South) were top contributors, and readers may also recall key Titans guards Josh Fridman out of Glenbrook North and Karlo Colak of New Trier.

Junior swingman Griffin Daun (Wauconda) and Carthage saw their season end Friday in an NCAA Division III tournament loss to St. Norbert College, 92-89.

Ranked ninth nationally by D3hoops.com, Illinois Wesleyan (24-5) on Saturday advanced into the tournament’s Sweet Sixteen with a 75-73 win over St. John’s University (Minn.) at the University of Chicago’s Ratner Athletic Center. Colak scored on a putback with 0.3 seconds left. The Titans will visit No. 5 Wisconsin-LaCrosse on Friday.

The Illinois Wesleyan women beat Carroll University (Wis.) 95-86 to win their 11th CCIW tournament title. Star senior guard Lauren Huber’s (Glenbard East) season-high 28 points and game-high 11 rebounds led the effort but she got plenty of help from juniors Sawyer White (Montini) with 17 points and 3 steals and Ava Bardic (Stevenson) with 13 points. Senior Kate Palmer (Geneva) scored 8, and when Carroll pressured early, junior Sara Balli (Lake Park) hit a big 3.

Ranked fourth nationally, Illinois Wesleyan’s women (28-1) advanced to the women’s Division III Sweet Sixteen. On Saturday the Titans beat Trine University (Ind.) 82-50 behind Bardic’s five 3-pointers and 26 points. Wesleyan will host Wisconsin-Oshkosh on Friday at the Shirk Center.

Take the Hintz

A former East Suburban Catholic Conference baseball pitcher of the year, University of Arizona junior Casey Hintz (St. Viator) earned a win in dramatic fashion against then-No. 1 Texas A&M on Feb. 28 in Houston. Hintz pitched 5 innings of relief and got the win when Arizona scored twice in the top of the ninth inning. In the bottom of the ninth with two outs, he allowed the tying runner to reach base before getting a swinging strikeout to end the game. Entering Friday, Hintz had a 2-0 record with a 2.13 ERA and 14 strikeouts in 12⅔ innings pitched.

Back to the Garden

The Great Lakes Valley Conference named Lewis University senior Delaney Garden (Jacobs) its softball pitcher of the week for a second straight week and for the fourth time overall. On the season the left-hander is 7-4 with a 1.59 ERA, 3 shutouts, and in 70⅓ innings has allowed 46 hits while striking out 90 batters. She was also second on the Flyers with a .434 batting average and led the team in runs and total bases while going 11 of 11 in stolen base attempts.

MVFC MVPs

To commemorate its 40th season, capped by North Dakota State’s Football College Subdivision title early in 2025, Missouri Valley Football Conference fans voted for the league’s 40th Anniversary Team.

The results included the following players from Daily Herald turf: quarterbacks, South Dakota State’s Mark Gronowski (Neuqua Valley) and Western Illinois’ Russ Michna (Conant); Southern Illinois running back Tom Koutsos (Marmion), and Western Illinois receiver Don Beebe (Kaneland); tight ends, North Dakota State’s Tom Babicz (Barrington) and Illinois State’s James O’Shaughnessy (Naperville North); and North Dakota State punter Ben LeCompte (Barrington).

Smartie

Speaking of the Missouri Valley, Drake guard Mitch Mascari (Geneva), a graduate student featured previously for his 3-point shooting, made the MVC Scholar-Athlete first team and third-team all-conference. He had a 3.98 grade-point average in finance as an undergrad and now owns a 3.80 GPA in graduate accounting.

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Illinois

Illinois has already broken the record for number of tornadoes in a year — and it’s only June

Published

7 hours ago

June 19, 2026

Press Room

Illinois has already broken the record for number of tornadoes in a year — and it’s only June

Illinois has seen more tornadoes in 2026 than in any year on record.

Following several more tornadoes confirmed this week across the state, Illinois has recorded 143 tornadoes so far in 2026, beating the previous record of 142 tornadoes set in 2024. With reliable records dating back to 1950, Illinois averages just 54 tornadoes per year. But in recent years, the state has experienced many more:

2023: 121
2024: 142
2025: 126
2026: 143 and counting

Unlike 2024, when a record two-day tornado outbreak accounted for a large share of the year’s tornadoes, the activity in 2026 has been spread out across several months.

On Thursday, June 11, a tornado outbreak brought at least 21 confirmed tornadoes to northern Illinois and northwest Indiana, 13 of them in Illinois. Two tornadoes that day — in Streator, Illinois, and Hebron, Indiana — reached rare EF-3 intensity, with winds over 135 miles per hour. Numerous injuries were reported from the storms, but there were no fatalities.

Confirmed tornadoes from June 11:

Long Point to Streator, IL: EF-3
Wenona/Osage Township, IL: EF-1
Graymont to Dwight, IL: EF-1
Lee, IL: EF-U
Harpster to Elliott, IL: EF-0
Pembroke Township (Leesville), IL: EF-U
St. John to Schererville, IN: EF-0
Paxton/Loda, IL: EF-1
Merrillville to Hobart, IN: EF-2
Ludlow, IL: EF-1
Cedar Lake, IN: EF-0
Schneider to Hebron, IN: EF-0
Watseka, IL: EF-0
Hebron to Kouts, IN: EF-3
Wellington/Prairie Green Township, IL: EF-1
Bartlett, IL: EF-1
Boswell to Atkinson, IN: EF-1
Ade to Mount Ayr, IN: EF-0
Naperville to Lisle, IL: EF-0
Hickory Hills to Garfield Ridge: EF-2
Morocco, IN: EF-0

Though most of the Chicago area dodged severe weather from storms this week, the National Weather Service confirmed a brief tornado touchdown Wednesday night in Lake County near Grayslake. The EF-0 tornado had estimated winds of 80 miles per hour and was on the ground for about a quarter-mile. Damage consisted of several downed or split trees and sporadic minor roof damage along a narrow corridor in the Saddlebrook Farms subdivision.

Four more tornadoes were confirmed Wednesday in western and central Illinois. NWS crews are still surveying damage in central Illinois, and more tornadoes may be added to the count in the coming days.

With 143 tornadoes so far this year, Illinois leads the nation in tornado count for the third time in the last four years — a remarkable statistic for a state not typically thought of as being in Tornado Alley.

The recent increase in tornado activity across Illinois and the Midwest fits research showing a shift in tornado-favorable environments away from parts of the traditional Plains Tornado Alley and farther east into the Midwest and South. Climate change is one likely factor, as warming temperatures are expected to make the Plains hotter and drier overall, shifting tornado ingredients eastward toward the Mississippi River.

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Illinois

Pedestrian fatally struck by Metra train in Palatine, Illinois

Published

18 hours ago

June 19, 2026

Press Room

Pedestrian fatally struck by Metra train in Palatine, Illinois

Updated on: June 19, 2026 / 7:10 AM CDT
/ CBS Chicago

A person was fatally hit by a Metra train in Palatine, Illinois, early Friday morning.

Around 5:10 a.m., Metra said Union Pacific Northwest train No. 602 hit a pedestrian at Baldwin Road and Northwest Highway.

Metra confirmed the person died at the scene. The victim has not been identified.

Metra said train service on the Union Pacific Northwest line is suspended.

This is a developing story. CBS News Chicago will continue to provide updates.

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Illinois

Beecher City farm suffers heavy damage following ‘wicked storm’

Published

1 day ago

June 18, 2026

Press Room

Beecher City farm suffers heavy damage following ‘wicked storm’

BEECHER CITY, Ill. (WAND) – Farms were damaged in Effingham County Wednesday evening when a powerful storm swept through at around 8 p.m.

The McKay Farm in Beecher City was heavily damaged when the rapidly moving storm hit.

“Two buildings were totally destroyed,” Dan McKay told WAND News on Thursday. “We’ve got five grain bins and they’re all damaged.”

The buildings collapsed onto farm equipment and a semi that were parked in the structures. A utility pole was snapped and ripped out of the ground.

In nearby Shumway, another farm was hit. A barn collapsed, with a grain bin being ripped apart and debris traveling several hundred feet through a nearby corn field. A house on the property was also damaged.

There were no injuries on either farm.

“It was a really wicked storm,” McKay stated.

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