Daily Reporter, Hanco*ck County, Indiana B2 Sports Wednesday, April 24, 2024 Deal Continued from Page B1 hotbed Continued from Page B1 over four years from Adidas, with both including a signature shoe, according to the WSJ. Clark earned about $3 million in NIL money at Iowa with deals she has had with State Farm, Gatorade and others, ac- cording to On3.com. agents were working on the new Nike contract even before she announced she would turn pro instead of return to Iowa for a fifth season under the COVID-19 exemption offered to players in college during the 2020 pandemic season. After averaging 31.6 points and leading the Hawkeyes to a second straight national championship game, Clark was drafted No. 1 by the Indiana Fever on April 15.
earn a $76,000 salary as a rookie. been the main driver for the dramatic uptick in wom- basketball interest with her mix of deep 3-point shots, flashy thread-the-needle passes and overall court presence. A basketball-record 18.9 million viewers watched loss to South Carolina in the NCAA title game, and a WNBA-record 2.45 million watched the draft. Of the 40 games this season, 36 will be nationally televised, and ticket sales have skyrocketed around the league. Her marketability is enhanced by her polished per- formances in media settings, and her surprise appearance on Night two weeks ago was widely acclaimed and exposed her to an even wider audience.
The reported eight-year contract with Nike shows the sportswear com- mitment. At 22, Clark could play well over a decade in the WNBA and she could be on the U.S. roster for the Olympics in Paris this year, in Los Angeles in 2028 and Brisbane, Australia, in 2032. enna ryer The Associated Press IndyCar, after just two races, is suddenly rife with rumors about driver free agency with its biggest month coming up. Blame it on a mountain bike trail out West and a mistake by David Malukas back in February.
The Arrow McLaren driver dislocated his wrist and tore tendons in a mountain biking crash a month before the In- dyCar season opener that was supposed to be his debut race with his new team. At the time, McLaren officials thought he would miss the first two races of the season. Unfortunately not. When the 22-year-old Malukas misses race at Barber Motor- sports Park in Alabam, he will have been out of the car for six outings that includes an exhibi- tion race and an Indianapolis 500 test. McLaren has no idea if he will remain part of the future.
The team announced Tuesday that reigning F2 cham- pion Theo Pourchaire will race this weekend at Barber after finishing 11th in his IndyCar debut at Long Beach. team has been very supportive of David, but more unfortunate is his injury is much more serious than we thought McLaren team principal Gavin Ward said over the weekend. big part of our focus has been trying to help him in every way in his recovery, but also been spending an awful lot of time to make sure we have competitive drivers in the No. 6 car. Unfortunately, just a lot of uncertainty right Ward said.
having to make difficult deci- sions. doing our best to try and take care of him, but at the end of the day, we also have to look after the performance of the They alone. Contract talks among all teams will be in full swing by the time the Indy 500 rolls around next month. Newgarden Two-time IndyCar champion and reigning Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden is in a contract year with Team Penske. He is the most accom- plished free agent of the group and if winning is all that mat- ters, then Newgarden would be nuts to leave.
Still, he may have noticed the multimillion-dollar pay raises recently given to Colton Herta at Andretti Global and Pato at McLaren. Newgarden who statistically outranks both likely wants to be in the same pay bracket. do not discuss contracts in Newgarden said at Long Beach. matters to me is winning races. That is the genuine answer.
Everything else follows from Can he win outside of Team Penske? Rossi 2016 Indy 500 winner Alex- ander Rossi of McLaren is also in a contract year, too. He won the 500 as a rookie and has seven victories since, but none since 2022 in what was his final season with Andretti. And that victory followed two winless seasons. In desperate need of a change of scenery, he found it at McLaren, but the success has not come. He had just one po- dium finish and led just 12 laps last year.
He opened this season eighth at St. Petersburg and rallied to a 10th-place finish Sunday at Long Beach after teammate ran into him early. He acknowledged that tract conversations always start before they probably but he feel like he needs to show some exceptional performances over the next few weeks to keep his seat at McLaren. feel like kind of in that zone where you just live and die by your race Rossi said. try to build currency.
So the state in and just trying to win races. The sport is stressful if you have a 10-year deal or a 10-day deal and you are only as good as your last With status uncertain and a looming decision on Ma- lukas, McLaren with possibly two seats to fill is in the thick of things. is kind of weird that two races into the season and I have 18 drivers quipped McLaren CEO Zak Brown, who ended up with Malukas when reigning In- dyCar champion Alex Palou walked away from a deal to join McLaren this year. Callum Ilott, who has twice filled in for Malukas and ran the Indy 500 open test for McLaren, also wants back into the series. Lundgaard The biggest prize in free agency just might be Chris- tian Lundgaard, a 22-year-old Danish driver brought over from F2 by Rahal Letterman Lanigan.
Although he has just one win in 37 career starts, teams think he has a ton of po- tential and is one of the fastest young drivers in the field. RLL routinely com- pete for wins and all four of its cars struggled to make the Indy 500 last year. Lundgaard, in a contract year, said he is looking beyond weekly results as he evaluates the market. think that the plan stays the same you do the best you can with the material that you have he said. not at all worried that what we have at the moment is good enough to win.
We just have to put the puzzles of the pieces of the puzzle together Graham Rahal believes Lundgaard would be foolish to leave the organization, particu- larly since sponsor Hy-Vee is invested in the young driver. got to make their own decisions. Everybody provides something Rahal said. Christian needs to make his own decisions. I stand by it in my opinion, it would be a mistake to look elsewhere.
Because really, where is he going to go? If he goes to McLaren is he going to get favorable treatment over Pato? No. I would just say that I think in a pretty damn good VeeKay Rinus VeeKay is up for re- newal at Ed Carpenter Racing, The Dutchman has one win in 65 starts driving for Carpenter, which a team that consis- tently challenges for victory. VeeKay has spent his entire IndyCar career with ECR and, although he has shown promise and speed, he has yet to really put together a full season. Plus, a mistake he made in 2021 crashing into Palou at Gateway could have cost Palou his first championship; his crash with Palou on pit road at last Indy 500 did cost Palou that victory. VeeKay said he does not have a non-compete clause prohib- iting him from talking with other teams, but it is his goal to return to ECR on an extended contract.
Tom Russo Daily Reporter Eastern Hanco*ck head coach Shari Doud talks with her team during a timeout against Triton Central during the IHSAA Class 2A Sectional 42 semifinal at Scecina Memorial High School. Season has just started but free agency is in full swing after only 2 races Indycar Terrence Hayes Jr. of Gary 21st Century, sophom*ore Reginald Hinton of Gary West, freshman Elijah King of South Bend Saint Joseph, sophom*ore Steven Reynolds III of South Bend Washington, sophom*ore Ethan Roseman of Indianapolis Bishop Chatard and sophom*ore Dikembe Shaw of Crown Point on the North squad. Brent Dalrymple of North Daviess is head coach for the South Team. He will be assisted by Paul Ferguson of Columbus North.
The Futures Games, one each for boys and girls, are a second-year part of the Indiana All-Star basketball program. The Futures Games will pair teams of current Indiana freshmen and sophom*ores in a North-South format last year it included all underclassmen. In March, Eastern Hanco*ck freshman Kenzie Koch was selected to play in the game. She will play for the South Team. Hanco*ck County players and coaches will be featured throughout the week of all-star games leading up to the annual Indiana-Kentucky All-Star series.
It begins with the Indiana Juniors vs. Kentucky Juniors games at Scottsburg on Sunday, June 2. Both Mullins and New Pales- Julius Gizzi will be part of the 12-member Indiana boys team that will play following the 2 p.m. girls game. Mt.
Ertel and Smith, Eastern Koch and New Whitaker will be part of the Futures Games on June 3 at HSE. The girls game begins the doubleheader at 6 p.m. On June 5, at Kokomo the Junior-Senior All-Star games will take place. Minch, who has signed to play at DePaul Uni- versity, is part of the Indiana Girls Senior All-Star team that will play in the 6 p.m. game.
Mullins, a member of the core Junior group of six, will play against the Indiana Senior All- Star team. The Indiana-Kentucky All- Stars series is June 7-8. On June 7, the all-stars will play at Lexington Catholic High School in Lexington, Ky. On Saturday, June 8, the stars face off at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in India- napolis. Minch will be in both of those games.
Games in Ken- tucky begin at 5:30 p.m. The games in Indiana are scheduled to start at 5 p.m. More prestigious all-star games take place this Saturday in Knightstown. The 19th Annual Hoosier Gym Classic All-Star Game features a number of senior girls and boys all-stars from throughout the state. They will play, like in the movie for either Terhune or the Hickory Huskers.
The girls game is scheduled to start at noon with the boys to follow. Minch is slated to play in the girls game and Eastern Shari Doud will be one of the coaches. It will be final game as a head coach, as she re- cently retired from coaching at Eastern Hanco*ck. It is the second straight year Hanco*ck County has had coaches and players in the Hoosier Gym Classic. Greenfield- boys basketball coach Luke Meredith coached a team that included Greenfield-Cen- Dylan Moles (Marian) and New Ian Stephens (Indiana).
New Isa- bella Gizzi (St. Francis) played in the girls game..
