AUTO RACING
Brenden “Butterbean” Queen of Chesapeake finished 20th Friday night in his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut, the Food City 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway in eastern Tennessee.
Queen, a former Langley Speedway champion, Hickory High alumnus and Old Dominion student, was one of the 22 drivers who finished on the lead lap among 38 competitors.
Veteran Aric Almirola, driving part-time for Joe Gibbs Racing, won the Xfinity playoff opener by 381-thousandths of a second over Sheldon Creed of the Haas Factory Team.
Creed has a series-record 15 runner-up finishes but has never won an Xfinity race.
LACROSSE
UVA alum named Premier Lacrosse League MVP
Virginia men’s lacrosse assistant coach and former standout attackman Connor Shellenberger was named the 2025 Jim Brown Most Valuable Player, the Premier Lacrosse League announced Friday night at its annual awards banquet in New York City. Additionally, Shellenberger was named the Eamon McEneaney Attackman of the Year.
Shellenberger, who plays for the New York Atlas, is the first Cavalier to be named MVP of the PLL, which held its inaugural season in 2019. A Charlottesville native, Shellenberger is also only the third UVA player — and first since 2004 — to be named MVP of a professional lacrosse league.
Shellenberger guided the Atlas — the Eastern Conference’s No. 1 seed — to the 2025 PLL championship game against the Denver Outlaws. It will be played at 12:30 p.m. on ABC in Harrison, New Jersey. He was the Most Outstanding Player as UVA won the 2021 NCAA championship.
Connor Shellenberger (1), shown playing for Virginia in its 2021 NCAA championship-game victory, is this season’s Premier Lacrosse League MVP. BRAD HORRIGAN/THE HARTFORD COURANT
COLLEGE MEN’S SOCCER
VWU’s McAdams takes weekly ODAC honor
Virginia Wesleyan’s Ryan McAdams, a senior from Colonial Heights, was named the Old Dominion Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Week.
Last weekend, he helped the Marlins hold Redlands to just two shots in a 2-1 VWU victory, then scored his third Marlins goal during a 1-0 triumph over William Paterson.
COLLEGE SAILING
ODU, CNU sailors take academic awards
Old Dominion’s Cadence Goodnight, Kristin Johnson, Asianna Acosta and Isabelle Kanach were named to the Intercollegiate Sailing Association All-Academic team for 2024-25. So were Christopher Newport’s Laura Smith, Noah Hubbard, Josh Bendura and Gabby Byrne.
Juniors or seniors who are competitors or alternates in at least seven regattas in a school year and who have a cumulative grade-point average of 3.3 on a 4.0 scale earn such honors.
COLLEGE WOMEN’S GOLF
CNU’s McGehee gains conference’s first honor
CNU freshman Gabi McGehee has been named the first-ever Colonial Women’s Golf Conference Golfer of the Week. She averaged a team-best 76.5 through the first four rounds of the season.
McGehee led CNU to a fourth-place finish at the Lynn Schweizer Invitational and second place at the Transylvania Women’s Golf Kickoff Classic.
The first-year conference includes CNU, Salisbury, Babson, Carlow, Kean, Penn State Altoona and Stockton.
Originally Published: September 12, 2025 at 10:50 PM EDT