[naviga:h3]Several county athletes receive honor at Clarion[/naviga:h3]

CLARION — A number of former Butler County athletes have earned scholar-athlete honors this year at Clarion University.

More than half of Clarion’s athletes (51 percent) overall reached that distinction, marking the third consecutive year the university has accomplished that feat.

An athlete must have a cumulative grade point average of 3.2 or higher or attain that level for consecutive semesters to be a Clarion scholar-athlete.

The list of area athletes among Clarion’s 174 scholar-athletes include:

Butler — Jake Anderson (senior Sports Management) men’s basketball, Jon Hansotte (sophomore Finance) men’s swimming and diving

Chicora — Emily Hegedus (sophomore Secondary Education-Mathematics) women’s basketball

Cranberry Township — Skyllar Spears (freshman Nursing) cross country/track and field

East Brady — Alyssa Stitt (freshman Rehab Sciences) softball

Emlenton — Olivia Boocks (junior Speech Pathology) women’s basketball

Evans City — Nickita Muto (senior Rehab Sciences) women’s cross country/track and field

Fenelton — Maverick Kelsea (junior Criminal Justice) football

Freeport — Matt Charlton Jr. (freshman Business Economics) football

Parker — Bradon Bastian (freshman Accounting) football, Jake Whitenight (junior Management) football.

[naviga:h3]NASCAR has virtual race free of drama[/naviga:h3]

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Nobody did anything to get fired or lose a sponsor in this week’s edition of NASCAR virtual racing.

William Byron won his second consecutive NASCAR virtual race on Sunday by holding off Timmy Hill — the driver who moved him out of the way to win an earlier iRacing event — in a race low on dramatics.

Matt DiBenedetto was parked after twice crashing at virtual Richmond Raceway with Ryan Preece, the second incident clearly intentional. It triggered a Twitter spat between the two with DiBenedetto demanding Preece’s address to go to his house to fight, and Preece replying he’d give it to him if DiBenedetto showed up in the giraffe costume he wore while competing Sunday.

Jimmie Johnson manually disconnected his simulator rather than wait out late-race repairs, and Kevin Harvick ate his lunch from the seat of his rig as he was in a 20-minute hold for repairs.

[naviga:h3]500 watch soccer match in Turkmenistan[/naviga:h3]

Soccer has resumed in Turkmenistan with spectators as the Central Asian nation lifted a suspension of its national league.

Around 500 people attended Sunday’s game between Altyn Asyr and Kopetdag in a 20,000-capacity stadium in the capital, Ashgabat. It was the first fixture played in the Yokary Liga since March 20.

[naviga:h3]NBA to withhold 25 percent of players’ pay[/naviga:h3]

Commissioner Adam Silver said it remains impossible for the NBA to make any decisions about whether to resume this season and that it is unclear when that will change.

But in a sign that at least some of the 259 remaining regular-season games that were not played because of the coronavirus pandemic will not be rescheduled, the league announced Friday it will withhold 25 percent of player pay starting with their May 15 checks.

The salary decision was made in concert with the National Basketball Players Association.