Distance Runner Loses Half-Marathon Title and $20,000 Prize After She… — and more

NEED TO KNOW

• The runner leading the U.S. Half Marathon Championships was guided off the race's course less than two miles from the finish line
• Jess McClain finished ninth, while Molly Born — who was more than a minute off McClain's pace — claimed the top spot and won the $20,000 prize
• USA Track and Field's jury of appeals ruled that it found no reason to alter the results to finish

Distance runner Jess McClain was poised to win a crucial race — until she was mistakenly guided off the course.

On Sunday, March 1, McClain was among scores of runners competing in the 2026 U.S. Half Marathon Championships in Atlanta, all vying for a top-three spot to qualify to represent Team USA in Copenhagen later this year.

That goal appeared well within reach for McClain as she approached the last two miles from of the race, The Athletic reported.

As the frontrunner, McClain was following the lead vehicle supplied by the race's host, Atlanta Track Club.

But then the vehicle erroneously veered off the course, and when McClain realized and returned to the established path, she had run an extra 400 meters (about one fourth of a mile).

McClain arrived at the finish line in ninth place, well behind the race's winner Molly Born — who had been more than a minute off McClain's pace at the time of the error, The Athletic reported. Born was given the $20,000 prize, awarded to the men's and women's winners.

Behind McClain were runners Emma Grace Hurley and Ednah Kurgat, who had also veered off course. Hurley and Kurgat came in 12th and 13th place, respectively, according to Athletics Illustrated.

Following protestation filings by the impacted athletes, the jury of appeals for USA Track and Field said that it found the half marathon violated a rule that the path should be adequately marked at the point where the lead vehicle and the three runners were misdirected. But the error bears no impact on the results, their statement read.

"However, the jury of appeals finds no recourse within the USATF rulebook to alter the results order of finish. The results order of finish as posted is considered final," the jury of appeals concluded.

Runners are responsible for knowing the course, The Athletic reported, citing the race's rules.

USATF emphasized that Atlanta Track Club was charged with supplying and managing the lead vehicles. In its own statement, also released March 1, track club CEO Rich Kenah claimed "full responsibility" for the error.

"Athletes should never have to make a split-second decision between following a pace vehicle or trusting the official course," Kenah stated, adding, "Atlanta Track Club will make best efforts to ensure the affected athletes — Jess McClain, Emma Grace Hurley and Ednah Kurgat — are made whole."

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Both Atlanta Track Club and USATF are reviewing the events of the half marathon, each organization's statement said.

The final selection for runners representing Team USA in Copenhagen will not officially take place until May, USATF stated. McClain previously represented the United States last year in the World Championship Marathon in Tokyo, where she finished in eighth place.

Read the original article on People

It’s another week of the Mountain West Recruiting Roundup.

To officially close the book on the 2026 recruiting class, our cover photo winner needs to be mentioned. For the 2026 cycle, Boise State and Hawaii share the title of having the most cover photo appearances. Congrats to the Broncos and Rainbow Warriors.

Now it’s full steam ahead to the 2027 class. Teams have been handing out 2027 offers for quite some time and continue to do so at a high rate, with San Jose State leading the way. No commits this week, but UNLV already has a decommit, bringing their class from two players to one.

This post does feature our first Mountain West team rankings release, or at least the four teams that have signed a player thus far.

And San Jose State will kick off the 2027 cover photo series after recording 25 offers this week.

Class of 2027 Cover Photo Total:

• San Jose State: 1

Recruiting Calendar:

Starting today and going through mid-April, we are in a quiet period. On-campus contact is permitted, while off-campus contact is limited to text, calls, and DMs.

Next College Student Athlete says:

The NCAA defines the quiet period as a time when “a college coach may not have face-to-face contact with college-bound student-athletes or their parents off the college campus and may not watch student-athletes compete or visit their high school.” To break it down, the NCAA Quiet Period is a time you can talk to college coaches in-person on their college campus. However, the coach is not allowed to watch athletes compete in-person, visit their school, talk to them at their home—or talk to them anywhere outside of the college campus. Coaches can still text, call, email or direct message coaches during this time.

Commitment Spotlight:

Visit Recap:

2027 Mountain West March Team Rankings:

For this initial month, we also include the names of the commits to illustrate what each team has done so far. Only four Mountain West teams have a verbal pledge at this point in the cycle.

1) UNLV

• OL Phoenix Pollard

2) New Mexico

• DB Tayven Collins

3) Wyoming

• WR Alijah Landrum-Hamilton

4) Nevada

• QB Blake Nadler

Recruiting Updates:

Offers:

• Air Force: 5
• Boise State: 7
• Colorado State: 9
• Fresno State:
• Hawaii: 5
• Nevada: 2
• New Mexico: 9
• NIU:
• North Dakota State:
• Oregon State: 2
• San Diego State: 7
• San Jose State: 25
• Texas State: 1
• UNLV: 2
• Utah State:
• UTEP:
• Washington State: 1
• Wyoming:

Visits

Commits:

Decommits

• DL Jaxon Wilson: UNLV

Follow @Mike_SBN on Twitter for all the latest recruiting news and updates.

The NHL trade deadline is approaching this Friday afternoon, March 6th at 3pm Eastern time. The Penguins find themselves in an interesting spot, tied for third currently in points percentage in the Eastern Conference. They have been the most active team at trading this season, having added Egor Chinakhov, Stuart Skinner and Sam Girard during the season, while acquiring and sending out Brett Kulak.

There’s good reason to believe that GM Kyle Dubas isn’t done putting the final touches on his team and making more moves to shuttle players and picks around in order to accomplish his stated goals of positioning the team now and in the future.

What we shouldn’t expect is any bold rental moves aimed solely with short-term ideas. The Pens weren’t involved at all in the Artemi Panarin sweepstakes and they won’t be involved in deals like the ones that included impending free agents like Rasmus Andersson and Kiefer Sherwood.

What’s left? Let’s get into it.

Areas to at least keep an eye on

Draft pick pile — no team has more quality draft depth in the next three or four years than Pittsburgh. The Pens have two second round picks in each of 2026, 2027, 2028 and 2029 and two third round picks in 2026, 2027 and 2028 thanks to previous trades made. That’s even after trading a second and third round pick for Chinakhov. If an opportunity arises to acquire a young-ish NHL player (like perhaps defenseman Zach Whitecloud) it makes a lot of sense that the Pens can use their excess picks to make that trade.

Connor Clifton —Clifton is an impending free agent that has been in and out of the lineup throughout the season. Lately he’s been a staple on the third pair, bringing his physical game and helping the team. While Clifton shouldn’t necessarily have his bags packed, if the Pens shuffle pieces to bring in a defenseman (like the aforementioned Whitecloud) it might make some sense to make a subsequent trade to send Clifton out to recoup some of that trade price. Hanging onto Clifton for depth’s sake also makes sense, but moving an impending free agent plays into what the team has frequently done.

Stuart Skinner —We wrote about this in detail last week, which all still applies today. Looking at the bigger picture, Arturs Silovs has only given up 16 goals in his last nine games. That has has to be noted if the Pens think Silovs might be turning into the main goalie for the rest of this season, where does that leave Skinner? It’s an intriguing question. Pittsburgh could always opt to stand pat and keep their goalie depth, but standing pat hasn’t been the typical M.O. as of late. You would have to think if a goalie-hungry team like Ottawa or Vegas was interested in Skinner that the Pens would at least hear them out.

Justin Brazeau — This might be months or even a year early, but if there was a time to sell high on Brazeau it would be now that he’s in a career-year in every major category. Brazeau is under contract for next season, so the onus would be on improving that third line for a player that might fit stylistically better with Anthony Mantha and Ben Kindel. Brazeau has been slowing down from his torrid early-season production, he found the back of the net against Vegas (scoring the fifth goal in a 5-0 win) but only had one goal in the 10 games prior to that. If the Pens think Avery Hayes or a trade addition might surpass Brazeau then dealing him could be a proactive move to make. Usually a player like Brazeau would be out of trade considerations at this time, but the Penguins have been so active at shuffling pieces like this around that it’s at least worth a mention.

Potential trade targets

Right side defense — The addition of Girard has seemingly set the left side for now with Parker Wotherspoon and Ryan Shea in tow. The right side is the area that looks prime for improvement. Whether that means a potential big swing like Dougie Hamilton or Justin Faulk remains to be seen, the options could expand to a rental like Connor Murphy or something in between like Whitecloud. If you had to place a shiny nickel on what position the Penguins will add to this week before the deadline, the right side defense would be a very good selection in whatever form that might be.

Center — There’s no need to overreact managerially to the Sidney Crosby injury since the Pens’ captain should return to the team in a few weeks, yet center could be a place to monitor. Evgeni Malkin has shifted to the wing, leaving the non-center Crosby options of Kindel, Tommy Novak and Rickard Rakell sticking out at the moment. Someone like Vincent Trocheck (32) has been older than what Pittsburgh has been targeting, though the positional flexibility of players like Novak and Rakell could open up possibilities to bring in a center now and figure out the pieces as they go. This could be a longer-term play too, if Malkin isn’t going to be a center on the Pens in 2026-27 then there would be more of a need for a second or third line center next season to join the Crosby-Kindel tandem.

Expect the unexpected – Many of the trades, like Jarry/Skinner and Chinakhov have come out of the blue without much indication until a deal was finalized. Dubas operates in the shadows, and often counter to the conventional wisdom or reports of the day, going back to the ‘reach’ of taking Kindel 11th overall in the draft. Dubas’s next move might very well be something that isn’t seen coming, like adding a Bobby McMann or an even deeper cut for a different target that isn’t mentioned commonly on the trade rumor mill. Given the team’s draft surplus and significant cap space, their hands are free to operate about as creatively as they dare to dream. Lately there has been no shortage of surprising and unpredictable moves, the next one very well could follow that path as coming out of left field.

This year’s edition of the World Baseball Classic gets under way on what is, to us, Wednesday night with games kicking off in Tokyo. Most teams will be playing exhibitions against a major league club on Tuesday or Wednesday with their pool play beginning on Friday. The Orioles players who are on these rosters will not be back in camp until their team has been eliminated from the tournament.

Here’s the players from the Orioles organization who are on WBC rosters and the schedules for their teams:

USA

• Gunnar Henderson

The star Orioles shortstop is the lone American representative this time around. He might be playing third base rather than shortstop, with Royals infielder Bobby Witt Jr. expected to get a lot of reps at short.

Schedule and opponents

Pool play in Houston, Texas

• March 3: Exhibition vs. Giants, 3pm, ESPN
• March 6: vs. Brazil (road team), 8pm, Fox
• March 7: vs. Great Britain (home team), 8pm, Fox
• March 9: vs. Mexico (home team), 8pm, Fox
• March 10: vs. Italy (home team), 9pm, FS1

Canada

• Tyler O’Neill
• Micah Ashman

The Canadian outfielder O’Neill continued his Opening Day home run streak in his home country last year. He’s looked good so far this spring. Don’t get hurt while playing for Team Canada! Ashman, a reliever, was acquired from the Tigers for Charlie Morton last July.

Schedule and opponents

Pool play in San Juan, PR

• March 3: Exhibition vs. Blue Jays, 1:07, MLB Network
• March 7: vs. Colombia (home team), 11am, FS2
• March 8: vs. Panama (home team), 7pm, FS2
• March 10: vs. Puerto Rico (road team), 7pm, FS2
• March 11: vs. Cuba (road team), 3pm, FS2

Great Britain

• Ryan Long

It’s a running joke on Camden Chat that Long is a distant cousin of our writer Stacey. Long, 26, was a 17th round pick in 2021 who has mostly topped out at the Double-A level.

Schedule and opponents

Pool play in Houston, Texas

• March 6: vs. Mexico (home team), 1pm, FS1
• March 7: vs. USA (road team), 8pm, Fox
• March 8: vs. Italy (road team), 1pm, tubi
• March 9: vs. Brazil (home team), 1pm, tubi

Israel

• Dean Kremer

There are a number of MLB-experienced players on the Israel roster and one of them is Kremer, who might even be the best pitcher this team has.

Schedule and opponents

Pool play in Miami, Florida

• March 7: vs. Venezuela (road team), 7pm, FS2
• March 8: vs. Nicaragua (home team), 7pm, tubi
• March 9: vs. Dominican Republic (home team), 12pm, FS1
• March 10: vs. Netherlands (road team), 7pm, Fox Sports

Panama

• Enrique Bradfield Jr.

We know he’s good on defense and we know he’s fast on the bases. Can he threaten enough power to be a decent major league regular? Mostly we’ll find out at Triple-A this year, though if he gets to face some MLB-caliber pitching in the WBC, that won’t be bad for him either.

Schedule and opponents

Pool play in San Juan, PR

• March 6: vs. Cuba (home team), 11am, FS2
• March 7: vs. Puerto Rico (road team), 6pm, FS1
• March 8: vs. Canada (road team), 7pm, FS2
• March 9: vs. Colombia (home team), 12pm, FS2

Puerto Rico

• Jose Espada
• Rico Garcia
• Luis Vásquez

All three of these players appeared for the Orioles last season, although none had a major role. Garcia has a spot penciled in that’s his in the bullpen. Espada, no longer on the 40-man roster, could make it as well. Vásquez has an opportunity to take a utility spot given that both Jackson Holliday and Jordan Westburg are starting the season on the injured list.

Schedule and opponents

Pool play in San Juan, PR

• March 6: vs. Colombia (road team), 6pm, FS1
• March 7: vs. Panama (home team), 6pm, FS1
• March 9: vs. Cuba (road team), 7pm, FS1
• March 10: vs. Canada (home team), 7pm, tubi

Reserve players

The following players are on the Designated Pitcher Pool for their teams, meaning they are not on the active initial roster but could be added between rounds:

• Australia: Kailen Hamson
• Dominican Republic: Yaramil Hiraldo
• Mexico: Nestor German