IHSA

The Panthers cruised past Chatham (Glenwood), 60-45, on Saturday in the IHSA Class 3A state final at CEFCU Arena in Normal. It’s Washington’s first state title in program history.

The Illinois state high school baseball tournament isn’t coming back to Peoria’s Dozer Park for the foreseeable future.

The change adds 16 schools to the brackets of each of the eight classes, determined by student enrollment, that make up the IHSA Football Championships.

With a win in the final game of the season Friday night, the Richwoods High School boys basketball team heads back to Peoria with a third-place trophy in tow.

The Richwoods Knights are 29-4 and carrying a 16-game winning streak into their IHSA Class 3A semifinal game against DePaul College Prep on Friday in Champaign.

Freshman Emy Wardle scored the tiebreaking basket in the final second to give the Irish a 48-46 victory over Nashville in the IHSA Class 2A state championship game in Normal.

Peoria Notre Dame and Illini Bluffs are in the IHSA state semifinals for the first time and guaranteed to come home from CEFCU Arena with a trophy. The Irish and Tigers now hope that trophy is the championship variety.

IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson would see a little over 1000 eligibility rulings a year pre-pandemic. That number has increased to about 2000 a year.

The Illinois High School Association is grappling with a shrinking number of game officials, largely due to the increasingly poor treatment they've endured from fans, athletes and coaches. The IHSA has entered a new partnership aimed at reducing the negative behavior, but skepticism remains about how effective these efforts will be.

A recent IHSA vote eliminates the boys' gymnastics and debate state series.