IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – The University of Iowa athletic department has received a $5 million donation to endow its athletic director position. The school announced Thursday that boosters Henry and Patricia Tippie made the commitment to create Iowa’s first endowed position in athletics. The school also says an annual payout from the Tippie donation will be available to athletic director Gary Barta to spend on top department priorities.

The donation comes just two months after the Hawkeyes agreed to pay $6.5 million to settle discrimination lawsuits filed by former athletic administrator Jane Meyer and her partner, former women’s field hockey coach Tracey Griesbaum.

The 7:20-a.m. Sportscast w/Jim Field.

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A more experienced Iowa offensive line hopes to eliminate negative plays this season. Iowa’s run game was solid in 2016, averaging nearly 172 yards per game but the pass game struggled during an 8-5 season and quarterback CJ Beathard was sacked 30 times. Junior center James Daniels enters his second year as the starter and feels that experience will help him do a better job of recognizing pressure and making the proper call.

Daniels is trying to take the leadership role for center Austin Blythe used to help him. He asked to room with redshirt freshman Spencer Williams. Daniels says he wants to groom his eventual successor. Daniels is one of two members of the offensive line to be on the watch list for the Outland Trophy. The other is senior guard Sean Welsh.

(Learfield Sports)

Class 5A Semifinals

11:00am – Waukee vs. Cedar Rapids Kennedy on Buena Vista University Diamond
1:00pm – Pleasant Valley vs. Urbandale on Buena Vista University Diamond

Class 4A Semifinals

11:30am – Winterset vs. Oskaloosa on Diamond 2
1:30pm – Charles City vs. Ballard on Diamond 2

Class 3A Semifinals

3:30pm – Davenport Assumption vs. Center Point-Urbana on Diamond 2
5:30pm – Albia vs. Mount Vernon on Diamond 2

Class 2A Semifinals

3:00pm Durant vs. Iowa City Regina on Buena Vista University Field
5:00pm I-35 vs. Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont on Buena Vista University Field

Class 1A Semifinals

7:00pm – Kee vs. Westwood on Buena Vista University Field
7:30pm – Sigourney vs. Clarksville on Diamond 2

The Iowa High School Athletic Association has released the Class 3A State Baseball bracket. Harlan (34-2) is the #2 Seed and will face #7 seed Oskaloosa (28-13) on Tuesday, July 25th at 7:30pm. Full bracket at link below.

CLASS 3A

CLASS 4A

The Class 1A State Baseball bracket has been released by the Iowa High School Athletic Association following completion of games moved from Tuesday to Wednesday night.  The CAM Cougars (22-7) received the #8 seed and will face #1 seed Newman Catholic, Mason City (32-3) on Friday, July 21st at 11:00am. We’ll have coverage of the Cougars on KJAN so join us for the game from Principal Park.  Follow the link below to see the full bracket.

CLASS 1A

CLASS 2A

Class 1A Substate Finals

Substate 2: Newman Catholic 5, Bishop Garrigan 1
Substate 5: Lisbon 1, Burlington Notre Dame 0

Class 2A Substate Finals

Substate 5: Iowa City Regina 11, Wilton 7

Class 3A Substate Finals

Substate 1: Bishop Heelan 1, Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley 0 (8 innings)
Substate 2: Saydel 4, Gilbert 3
Substate 3: Dubuque Wahlert 1, Waverly-Shell Rock 0
Substate 4: Marion 4, Simon 3 (9 innings)
Substate 5: Davenport Assumption 11, Fairfield 1 (6 innings)
Substate 6: Oskaloosa 2, Vinton-Shellsburg 1
Substate 7: Bondurant-Farrar 4, Boone 2 (9 innings)
Substate 8: Harlan 10, Denison-Schleswig 2

Class 4A Substate Finals

Substate 1: Dowling Catholic 3, Sioux City East 1
Substate 2: Mason City 6, Ankeny Centennial 3
Substate 3: Cedar Rapids Prairie 7, Southeast Polk 4
Substate 4: Linn-Mar 6, Iowa City City High 2
Substate 5: Cedar Rapids Washington 2, Davenport Central 1
Substate 6: Iowa City West 11, Davenport West 1 (5 innings)
Substate 7: Johnston 7, Des Moines East 0
Substate 8: Waukee 3, Urbandale 2

Iowa All-Big Ten lineman Sean Welsh released a letter to the public Wednesday in which he opened up about his lengthy battle with depression. One of the nation’s top offensive lineman, Welsh said he first began to notice signs of the illness as a redshirt freshman in 2014. Welsh said he ate less, isolated himself from his teammates and spent “more time asleep or in front of a TV than I did with people.”

“Football, the driving force for many years of my life, went from a source of purpose to a source of apathy. I started to feel a myriad of negative emotions: sadness, anxiety, dread and anger. They hit me like a bombardment from the moment I woke up to when I went back to bed,” Welsh wrote. “It was every dimension of terrible. And I kept wondering what was wrong.”

Though Welsh earned a starting nod in 2014, he said his condition worsened after that season. Welsh left the team during spring practice in 2015. “It was like, Wow. Here’s a guy that’s really doing well, and now he’s going to walk away?’ That didn’t add up,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. “You can’t judge a book by its cover.”

Welsh said that therapy and medication helped him improve. He soon returned to the Hawkeyes and became an all-league pick, even though he called Iowa’s successful 12-2 campaign two seasons ago “one of the best and worst years of my life.”

Welsh said he decided to come public with his fight against the disease because it has both galvanized him and taught him perspective. Welsh added that he wants those who either believe they’re depressed or know someone who might be to seek help.

“If you know of someone struggling with depression, be understanding and caring — you will make a world of difference,” Welsh said.