The UNC football program is knocking on the top 10 door after being slid up two spots to No. 12 on this week’s Associated Press Poll Top 25.
The Tar Heels handled business this weekend by delivering a statement win against Syracuse, leaving their ranking only to increase. However, despite sliding up two spots, UNC did not move into the top 10 even with three teams ahead of them losing and USC struggling to beat a 3-2 Arizona team at home.
The ACC still has strong representation in the Top 25, with Louisville sliding up 11 spots to move to No. 14 and Miami hanging on for dear life at No. 25 after their nightmare loss against Georgia Tech. FSU still leads the race for ACC schools, currently ranked at No. 4. Meanwhile, Duke, who enjoyed a bye week, moved up two spots to No. 17.
UNX has a great shot at making a case for a playoff spot if they can finish the job in the remaining games. They have dates against Miami and Duke that can help boost their ranking, and with wins against those two programs, a shot at FSU in the ACC championship game will be on the cards.
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CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WNCN) — As temperatures soared to 102 degrees in the Triangle Saturday afternoon, North Carolina Trooper E.M. Haynes was already dealing with his third crash of the day along a troublesome stretch of Interstate 40 in Orange County.
Crews are adding a lane in each direction along nearly 11.5 miles of I-40 in Orange County from the Durham County line to the Interstate 85 split.
As construction continues in its third year, wrecks along the zone are skyrocketing, Haynes said.
Vehicle crashes in the stretch are up 200 percent from last year, Haynes said Saturday after working a three-car crash at one of the “bottlenecks” along the construction zone.
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In Saturday’s wreck around 2 p.m., the driver of a Lexus SUV crashed into completely stopped westbound traffic, sending two people to the hospital, according to the North Carolina State Highway Patrol.
The driver of the Lexus was driving with his family of five in the SUV at the time — and Haynes suspected “distracted driving” was to blame in the crash near Erwin road.
The Saturday wreck was somewhat typical of the crashes Haynes said he sees.
“It bottled necks right there,” Haynes said about the area of I-40. “We see a lot of people coming from different states — they don’t know the bottleneck is there. Many local people are beginning to realize it.”
Two wrecks earlier in the day were in the eastbound lanes of the construction zone — where the project is expected to continue into 2025, according to Haynes and the North Carolina Department of Transportation.
The earlier crashes Saturday weren’t as serious, but still stopped traffic along the construction zone, which is lined with concrete barriers and various lane shifts.
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With the limited lane areas, wrecks are harder to clear and move traffic past, leading to major back-ups. Some drivers have resorted to using two-lane roads near I-40 such as N.C. 86, Whitfield Road and Mount Moriah Road.
Some motorists are even taking I-85 and continuing through Durham on interstate-style highways to eventually rejoin I-40.
The massive widening project also includes re-working various interchanges along I-40, the NCDOT said.
Parts of I-40 that are being widened have more than 80,000 vehicles per day, according to 2019 numbers from the NCDOT.
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Before the widening project began, the NCDOT said special efforts would be taken to deal with crashes — including extra traffic cameras and message boards for drivers about wrecks. However, it’s unclear if some of the plans are working or being fully implemented.
According to the NCDOT: “the department will deploy Incident Management Assistance Patrol (IMAP) and towing resources in the vicinity of the Interstate to quickly respond and remove wrecked, abandoned or disabled vehicles. These initiatives will ultimately reduce congestion and delays in the work zone.”
The widening project is expected to be completed in late 2025.
RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — A North Carolina Central University student will represent North Carolina at this Miss America Pageant.
Carrie Everett says she will spend the next year pushing more girls to compete for the title despite obstacles they may face to win the crown.
“I was so shocked, and you could tell it on my face,” said Everett, her eyes sparkling with joy and surprise at the opportunity.
The rising sophomore at N.C. Central, Everett is on the brink of realizing her dream. She will represent North Carolina on the Miss America stage in a few months, a dream she has nurtured and is now ready to turn into reality.
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She will spend the next year promoting her community service initiative, We Need Equity to Build Communities.
“We are advocating for recruiting more girls from different backgrounds into this organization. I am advocating for wardrobe classes funding for accessibility in this organization,” said Everett.
Everett said she only had $40 in her pocket when she signed up to compete.
“You have to pay for gowns and the miscellaneous purchases, but my community surrounded me and backed me,” said Everett.
Everett is looking to pay it forward and encourage more girls to learn the game of competing on a budget with the goal of earning scholarship money.
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“Regardless of what you have in your pocket, you belong here, and your presence is necessary; therefore, I say ‘come on, and let’s do this’,” she said.
In addition to her scholarship, Everett won a car to travel the state this year. She was also awarded another $3,500 for winning preliminary talent, evening gown, vocal talent award, and rookie scholarship.
Everett is the fourth African American female crowned Miss North Carolina in the pageant’s 87-year history.
(CNN) — When not leading sermons, the Rev. Daniel Cenci is quite the history buff.
Cenci’s two passions coincided when a plethora of centuries-old items were found June 20 in the yard of Christ Episcopal Church in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, where Cenci has served as rector since 2019.
He said the church’s construction crew was digging up a century-old magnolia tree when the mundane quickly turned into something extraordinary around lunchtime. The crew had hit something while digging up a pit for drainage underneath the stump.
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When Cenci saw the almost dome-like shape of the structure the crew had hit, he thought it was a crypt or an unmarked soldier’s grave given the many battles fought in eastern North Carolina during the Civil War.
Cenci enlisted the help of a nearby parishioner to poke around. Soon, the two had pulled out a bone that was eight inches long.
“I thought, ‘Oh gosh, maybe that’s a crypt after all,’” Cenci told CNN.
After telling the construction crew to go home for the day, artifacts like pottery, old and broken dishes, glassware, bottles and more bones were unearthed from the loose, sandy terrain filled with bricks.
With guidance and inspection from a local museum and a specialist in early porcelain dating, the items were roughly dated from the early 1700s up through the mid-1800s. The bones didn’t belong to human bodies but to animals – including a possible jawbone from a wild boar.
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“The guess right now is maybe (the spot) is either a root cellar that was associated with an early home or a cistern for water storage, again associated with another early home in the city,” Cinci said.
After the state office agreed with the artifacts’ initial dating estimate, they were labeled and placed on plates in the church’s kitchen until they can be sent to the state office’s conservation laboratory for testing.
Cenci was told that either a team from the Raleigh or Greenville archeology offices would return to the site, a graduate student from a local university would be tasked with continuing the excavation or the church could hire an outside archaeological firm.
CNN has reached out to the state office of archaeology in Raleigh for comment.
Christ Episcopal Church was founded in 1825 but the building it currently occupies wasn’t built until 1856, according to Cenci.
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From research done by church parishioners Ian Lowry, Robyn Nix and Sam Mancla, who dug into deeds, wills and estate documents at the Pasquotank County courthouse, the group has discovered a Black man named George Davis used to own the property in the early 1800s that the church sits on – on two of the most premier lots in the city.
His daughter Charlotte was married in the Episcopal church in 1833, according to church records and as posted by Lowry on Facebook. Nothing is confirmed yet, but some of the artifacts are thought to have been owned by Davis, Cenci explained.
“(Davis) did very well for himself based on the items that have come out of the excavation site,” Cenci said. “We’ve found bottles of French wine and we found imported porcelain from China … It seems we have uncovered the history of an early African American in our community that was quite influential (and) quite affluent in the town which I think is really interesting.”
Cenci said all he did was stop the construction; Lowry, Nix and Mancla are “really the heroes in this story as far as finding out what was in there and why it matters.”
With the church being founded in 1825, this discovery comes just in time for its 200th anniversary.
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“As a Christian, I believe it’s God’s providential timing that it would happen right as we’re coming into our 200th anniversary,” Cenci said. “We’re getting this – almost like a time capsule – back to when the church was founded.”