ROSEMONT, Ill. (AP) — Penn State running back Saquon Barkley has been named offensive player of the year in the Big Ten and Iowa linebacker Josey Jewell is defensive player of the year. The two were honored Thursday as the Big Ten announced its football specialty awards.

Barkley ranks first in the conference and second nationally with an average of 179.5 all-purpose yards per game. Jewell was the only player in the Big Ten to average better than 10 tackles a game. Wisconsin running back Jonathan Taylor, who averaged a Big Ten-leading 150 yards per game, is freshman of the year. Wisconsin’s Paul Chryst, whose Badgers are unbeaten and No. 4 in the College Football Playoff rankings, is coach of the year.

Award winners are chosen by a vote of coaches and a media panel. The Associated Press All-Big Ten teams and specialty awards, selected by writers and broadcasters who cover the league, will be announced Wednesday.

The 2017-18 Atlantic-CAM wrestling team will count on a group of strong leaders to build up some youth and inexperience that will enter the lineup.  The Trojans lost a very strong senior class from last seasons squad, a team that went 19-0 in duals during the regular season and qualified for State Team Duals and had 6 Individual State Qualifiers. The experience that does return this year, are strong wrestlers and leaders. A big piece of that group is senior John McConkey who is coming off  a 54-4 season and a State Runner-Up spot at 285. Former medal winner Kole Hansen returns as a senior as well and will start at 138 with the possibility of moving to the 126 weight class. Junior Chase McLaren is shooting for a strong season as well after coming up short of his goals at state last year and he’ll be at 132. Colton Mudd is another senior that looks to make an impact this season. Hansen talked about what the make-up of this team will look like.

Hansen is hoping that individually he can bounce back this season after a disappointing finish last year.

John McConkey committed to continue his wrestling career at the University of Northern Iowa recently and he is setting the bar high for himself this year after a great season and summer.

Chase McLaren has put in a lot of off-season work and he talked about wanting to finish strong this year and not fall short of his expectations.

Colton Mudd will be expected to contribute to the team scoring every night as an upperclassmen and he feels like he has been improving with the help of his teammates.

With a number of new faces scattered across the lineup the upperclassmen seem to understand that their leadership will help bring those younger guys along. Hansen and McLaren talked about what they can do to help the team improve.

Atlantic-CAM wrestling opens up their competition tonight with a double dual in Griswold with the Tigers and Audubon Wheelers.

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Here is the latest Mid-America sports news from The Associated Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Chiefs coach Andy Reid says it’s disingenuous to blame quarterback Alex Smith for losing five of the past six games. Reid believes problems exist throughout the offense, and he pointed his finger back at himself, too. But identifying problems and fixing them are two different things, and fixing them has proven to be a challenge.

TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — Former NFL coach and current ESPN analyst Herm Edwards will interview for the vacant Arizona State coaching job this week. Edwards spoke about his interest in the job on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” and a Phoenix radio station. Edwards has not coached since 2008, when he was fired after a 2-14 season with the Kansas City Chiefs. He coached the New York Jets from 2001-05 and has spent the last nine years as an analyst for ESPN.

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa (AP) — Bennett Koch poured in a career-high 30 points, Klint Carlson a career-high 23, Northern Iowa missed a chance to win in regulation, but the Panthers dominated in overtime to upend previously unbeaten UNLV 77-68. Koch was fouled and made one to tie, but missed the second with 16 seconds left. UNLV’s Jordan Johnson’s final shot didn’t fall and the teams went overtime. Koch and Carlson combined for 11 points in the OT.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Zach Jackson scored 17 points including 1 of 2 free throws with two seconds left and Omaha got its first win of the season, beating Drake 75-73. Reed Timmer’s 3-pointer with three seconds left brought Drake within 74-73 and Timmer immediately fouled Jackson to send him to the line.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — James Palmer Jr. and Isaac Copeland scored 15 points apiece and Nebraska broke open the game late in a 71-62 win over Boston College in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. The Cornhuskers went on a 12-0 run after Boston College had trimmed their lead to 59-57. Jerome Robinson had 17 points for the Eagles.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Shakayla Thomas scored 31 points, 17 in the fourth quarter, and Imani Wright added 26 points as No. 13 Florida State erased a 12-point deficit in the fourth quarter to defeat Iowa 94-93 in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. Megan Gustafson, who scored 34 points on 15-of-18 shooting, scored the first six points of an 8-0 run to end the third quarter and the first four points of the fourth quarter to put Iowa (7-1) ahead 75-63.

ROSEMONT, Ill. (AP) — Division champions Ohio State and Wisconsin have four players apiece on the coaches’ All-Big Ten first team for offense.

The conference announced the offensive honorees on Wednesday. Postseason individual awards will be announced Thursday.

East champion Ohio State has quarterback J.T. Barrett, guard Michael Jordan, center Billy Price and tackle Jamarco Jones on the first team. West champion Wisconsin has running back Jonathan Taylor, tight end Troy Fumagalli, tackle Michael Deiter and guard Beau Benzschawel on the team.

Also named first team were Penn State running back Saquon Barkley, Indiana receiver Simmie Cobbs and Maryland receiver DJ Moore.

BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) — Ahmed Hill scored 18 points to lift Virginia Tech to a 79-55 victory over Iowa on Tuesday night.

Hill hit 6 of 13 from the floor, including three 3-pointers, for the Hokies (6-1), who blew open a tied game at halftime with a big run early in the second half. P.J. Horne added 16 points for Virginia Tech, and Justin Bibbs had 14.

A combination of Virginia Tech’s stingy defense and the Hawkeyes’ icy shooting led to Iowa’s demise on this evening. The Hokies broke things open with a 20-1 run early in the second half, with Bibbs scoring nine of Virginia Tech’s points in the run.

Iowa (4-3), which lost for the third time in four games, made its first basket of the second half — a jumper by Tyler Cook with 19:11 remaining — but then missed 17 consecutive shots. During a span of more than eight minutes, the Hawkeyes scored just a point, which came on a free throw by Cook with 12:52 remaining.

After shooting 51.7 percent in the first half (15 of 29), Iowa made just seven field goals in the final 20 minutes. The Hawkeyes’ 33.3 percent shooting (22 of 66) was their worst of the season.

Cook paced the Hawkeyes with 16 points.

The Hawkeyes return to action Saturday for their Big Ten home opener against Penn State.

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BOYS

Hawkeye Ten Conference

Winterset 59, Atlantic 46
Denison-Schleswig 66, Lewis Central 60
Glenwood 73, Thomas Jefferson 25
Kuemper Catholic, Carroll 80, Carroll 66 (Parker Badding, KC 44pts/ Cooper Ross, Carroll 34pts)
Nodaway Valley 67, Clarinda 46
Southwest Valley 67, Shenandoah 51 (Chance Cobb, SWV 15pts)

Western Iowa Conference

IKM-Manning 59, Audubon 53 (Alex Lingle, IKM-M 35pts)
Logan-Magnolia 56, Griswold 26 (Jessup Lake, Lo-Ma 19pts)
Treynor 61, AHSTW 55 (Dillon Faubel, Treynor 20pts/ RJ Harris, AHSTW 20pts)
Tri-Center, Neola 73, Riverside, Oakland 40 (Jackson Nelson, TC 32pts)

Rolling Valley Conference

OA-BCIG 62, Boyer Valley, Dunlap 57
West Monona 85, West Harrison 58

Corner Conference

East Mills 42, Woodbine 40
Mount Ayr 75, Clarinda Academy 48

Pride of Iowa Conference

Diagonal 68, East Union 65
Lenox 57, Orient-Macksburg 34

GIRLS

Hawkeye Ten Conference

Council Bluffs, Abraham Lincoln 59, Glenwood 35
Kuemper Catholic 67, Carroll 42
Lewis Central 55, Denison-Schleswig 30
Nodaway Valley 56, Clarinda 32 (Annie Herr, Nodaway Valley 16pts)
Shenandoah 59, Southwest Valley 24

Western Iowa Conference

IKM-Manning 58, Audubon 19
Logan-Magnolia 57, Griswold 35
Treynor 60, AHSTW 33
Tri-Center 36, Riverside 33 (Marissa Anderson, Tri-Center 14pts)
Underwood 80, Missouri Valley 47

Rolling Valley Conference

West Monona 77, West Harrison 31

Corner Conference

East Mills 39, Woodbine 36

Pride of Iowa Conference

Lenox 53, Orient-Macksburg 22

Other Scores

Earlham 52, Van Meter 38
Panorama 58, Des Moines Christian 20
West Central Valley, Stuart 55, Woodward-Granger 51
Westwood, Sloan 96, Whiting 15

The Atlantic boys swimming team opened up the season with a loss at Waukee 128-33. The Warriors are ranked #4 so it was a tough test for the Trojans. They continue action on December 2nd at the Boone Invitational.

The Atlantic boys basketball team dropped their season opener at home on Tuesday night 59-46 to the Winterset Huskies. Atlantic found themselves down at the end of the 1st and 2nd quarter on late baskets. The Huskies got a steal and layup from Casey Kleemeier at the end of the first quarter to lead 16-14. Easton Darling then splashed in a near half-court three at the buzzer to give the Huskies a 32-29 halftime edge.

The beginning of the second half was very stale for Atlantic. The Huskies outscored the Trojans 17-7 in the third quarter and lead by as many as 16. Easton Darling hit two threes in that impactful third quarter and finished with 20 points on the night to lead Winterset and all scorers. Nicholas Baur had 10 points and Casey Kleemeier finished with 9 for the Huskies. Kleemeier was very good as a distributor as well with a number of great passes that put his teammates in great shape to get easy buckets.

Chase Mullenix didn’t start the game after missing some time to recover from an injury after football season but was the leader for the Trojans with 18 points and made some great hustle plays for Atlantic. Austin Alexander finished with 10 points on the night.  The Trojans struggled with ball handling out front and were ice cold from the field for most of the night. Defensive breakdowns also led to a number of easy looks for Winterset. Head Coach Alan Jenkins said “We just got whipped in every facet of the game. Give credit to Winterset because they executed. We just weren’t good anywhere on the floor tonight.”

Atlantic has a few days to prepare for a road test at St. Albert on Friday night.