Auto racing

RCS opener set: Racing will return at River Cities Speedway on Friday, May 29. But no more than 500 people will be allowed at the track for the opener. The total includes racers, crew members, track officials and fans.

A limited number of tickets are available to purchase and all tickets must be bought online or at local ticket outlets. No tickets will be sold at the gate. Also, fans will be recruited to wear face masks, as will drivers and crew members.

Streets, Midwest modifieds and area lightning sprints will race at RCS. Streets and Midwest mods run regularly at the track. Late models and sprints, considered the premier classes at RCS, will not race since attendance is limited.

RCS officials said tonight’s modified winner will receive $700.

College athletics

Summit to stay at 10: The Summit League will remain at 10 members. For now.

The Presidents Council at its annual May meeting “opted not to invite any additional members at this time,” Summit commissioner Tom Douple said in a statement to the Sioux Falls Argus-Leader newspaper.

What it means is Augustana University of Sioux Falls, S.D., which has already announced intentions to move to Division I, will not get the Summit invite it perhaps was hoping for and will remain in Division II and the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference.

The Summit, which includes UND, NDSU, South Dakota and South Dakota State, is in the midst of change this year with Purdue-Fort Wayne leaving for the Horizon League and Missouri-Kansas City coming back into the league for the 2020-21 school year. Moreover, the Summit has already approved membership for the University of St. Thomas contingent on the Tommies getting NCAA approval to move from NCAA Division III to Division I within a standard four-year reclassification period.

College softball

UND player honored: UND junior outfielder Ashlynn Uvila was named to the Academic All-Summit League team Thursday. She carries a 3.89 grade point average in nursing.

This season, the Prescott, Ariz., native started 15 games and made 20 appearances, leading the team with a .349 batting average and nine runs batted in. She collected hits in each of her last six starts, including a 3-for-3, two RBI effort in a win at San Diego on Feb. 29.

Wrestling

National tourney canceled: The USA Wrestling Junior and 16U national tournaments, a combined event considered the world's largest wrestling tournament, has been canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Junior has been at the Fargodome since the facility opened in 1992.

It was scheduled for July 17-24. It would have been the 50th year of the Junior Nationals event, which started in Iowa City, Iowa, in 1971.

Prep basketball

Dryburgh named Moorhead coach: Thomas Dryburgh, who won at least 21 games in each of his six seasons as the women’s basketball coach at the North Dakota State College of Science, has been hired at the Moorhead High School girls basketball coach.

Dryburgh, a Fargo Shanley graduate and former UND player, is coming off a 27-6 season in which Science qualified for the National Junior College Athletic Association Division I tournament. That tournament was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

College sports

MIAC has new member: The College of St. Scholastica will join the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) beginning in 2021-22, the conference and St. Scholastica announced on Wednesday.

St. Scholastica will be the 13th full-time member of the MIAC in 2021, joining other Minnesota private undergraduate colleges Augsburg, Bethel, Carleton, Concordia of Moorhead, Gustavus Adolphus, Hamline, Macalester, Saint Benedict (women only), St. Catherine (women only), Saint John’s (men only), Saint Mary’s and St. Olaf.

College football

Bison ranked No. 1: North Dakota State is ranked No. 1 while fellow Missouri Valley Football Conference schools South Dakota State and Northern Iowa are ranked No. 2 and No. 3 respectively in HERO Sports Top-25 preseason poll.

Missouri Valley schools Illinois State and Southern Illinois are ranked No. 12 and No. 22 in the poll.

In 2019, four Missouri Valley teams finished the season ranked in the Top 10, while NDSU went wire-to-wire as the nation’s top team, capping its perfect 16-0 season with a 28-20 win against No. 2 James Madison in the title game. The 16-0 season marked the first in college football in the modern era and the first since Yale in 1894. In the process, NDSU extended its winning streak to an FCS-record 37-straight games.