PARALYMPICS

Clara Brown, a Falmouth native, finished fifth on Tuesday in the 16-kilometer time trials at the Paralympics at Tokyo.

Brown finished with a time of 26 minutes, 57.28 seconds. Japan’s Keiko Sugiura won the heat in a time of 25 minutes, 55.76 seconds.

Brown finished fourth in the 3,000-meter pursuit earlier at the Paralympics. She will also race in the road 40-kilometer race on Thursday.

COLLEGES

IVY LEAGUE: The Ivy League was the first conference to scuttle its basketball postseason when the pandemic broke out during March Madness a year and a half ago. It was the first Division I conference to suspend fall sports in July 2020.

Now the schools are getting back on the field the same way they left: cautiously.

All eight Ivies are requiring that their football teams be vaccinated for COVID-19 – just like the rest of the students on campus. Ivy League Executive Director Robin Harris said this month that the goal had been reached with “very limited medical or religious” exceptions.

Although the alliance of eight prestigious private schools in the Northeast has always been more about academics than athletics, the Ivy League decision to cancel its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments before anyone else on March 10, 2020, was a turning point in the response to the pandemic. Other college and professional leagues soon followed amid a worldwide sports shutdown.

In the almost 18 months since, the Ivies have remained idle with the exception of scattered individuals or teams competing in some one-off, nonconference events, including the NCAA rowing championships. That ended when all eight women’s soccer teams opened their seasons on Aug. 27, with Harvard playing Fairfield in the Crimson’s first intercollegiate sporting event since March 8, 2020.

FOOTBALL: Coach Josh Heupel named Joe Milton as the Volunteers’ starting quarterback four days before the season opener against Bowling Green.

Milton, who arrived on campus this spring after three years at Michigan, beat out Harrison Bailey, who started three games for the Vols last season, and Hendon Hooker, who transferred from Virginia Tech.

• Miami safety Avantae Williams is back on the roster following the dropping of battery charges, though the Hurricanes say the second-year freshman will not make his on-field debut until the second half of the season at the earliest.

Williams was dismissed from the team earlier this summer after facing three counts of aggravated battery of a pregnant victim. The case was closed earlier this month after the woman, who was described in court papers as an ex-girlfriend, recanted parts of her story.

• No. 2 Oklahoma and Tulane announced that their season opener this weekend has been moved from New Orleans to Norman, Oklahoma, in the fallout from Hurricane Ida.

The Sooners said conditions in New Orleans were not favorable to host a game this weekend. Tulane will be the designated home team and will retain all net proceeds from ticket sales.

MEN’S BASKETBALL: Coach King Rice has been given a five-year contract extension through the 2025-26 season.

Terms were not disclosed.

Rice was voted Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference coach of the year last season for the third time, just the third coach in the conference’s history to accomplish that. He led the Hawks to a regular-season title, his third, and has 161 wins in 10 seasons.

CREIGHTON: Creighton has hired Marcus Blossom away from Holy Cross to be its new athletic director.

Blossom replaces Bruce Rasmussen, the Bluejays’ longtime athletic director who retired this summer.

Blossom was Holy Cross’ athletic director for two years after spending five years at Boston College as senior associate athletic director for business and administration.

HOCKEY

NHL: The Nashville Predators signed forward Eeli Tolvanen to a three-year, $4.35 million deal.

Tolvanen, 22, just finished his first full NHL season. He scored 22 points in 40 games, and his 11 goals ranked fourth on the Predators as the most by a Nashville rookie since Filip Forsberg had 26 in 2014-15.

WOMEN’S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: Alex Carpenter and Abbey Murphy scored in the second period, and the United States beat Finland 3-0 to advance to the final at Calgary, Alberta.

The five-time defending champion United States will play in its 20th gold-medal game on Tuesday against the winner of the other semifinal between Canada and Switzerland.

GOLF

RYDER CUP: Patrick Cantlay earned the sixth and final automatic spot on the U.S. Ryder Cup team by winning the BMW Championship on Sunday.

Because of the pandemic that delayed the Ryder Cup one year until Sept. 24-26, qualifying began the day Tiger Woods won the 2019 Masters. It ended 28 months later with six players assured a spot at Whistling Straits, and the real drama still a week away. Collin Morikawa, who won two majors during the qualifying process, topped the list. He was followed by Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka and Justin Thomas, all of whom had mathematically locked up their spots.

Tony Finau was in the sixth spot until he was surpassed by Cantlay’s victory. Cantlay and Morikawa will be making their Ryder Cup debuts.

The U.S. team has six captain’s picks this year instead of four, a decision made during the midst of the pandemic and so much uncertainty about the golf schedule. Cantlay was considered a shoo-in to be picked even if he didn’t make the team. Ditto for Finau after he won The Northern Trust last week, and Olympic gold medalist Xander Schauffele and Jordan Spieth. They are the next three in the standings.

SOCCER

U.S. MEN: Forward Tim Weah is hurt and will miss the United States’ opening three World Cup qualifiers.

Weah was injured during training with Lille in France on Saturday. The U.S. Soccer Federation said Weah will not report to Nashville ahead of Thursday’s opener at El Salvador. Weah, 21, is a son of former FIFA Player of the Year George Weah, Liberia’s current president.

Christian Pulisic was among 16 players who started training with the U.S. team on Monday at Lipscomb University. Nine others were traveling to Nashville after playing Sunday matches with their clubs.

Pulisic, the top American player, started training with the U.S. team after clearing COVID-19 protocols. The 22-year-old missed Chelsea’s 2-0 win at Arsenal on Aug. 22 and a 1-1 draw at Liverpool on Saturday following a positive coronavirus test.

ARRESTED: Portugal defender Ruben Semedo has been arrested following an alleged sexual assault of a minor in Athens, Greece.

The 27-year-old Semedo, who plays for Greek soccer champion Olympiakos, was arrested on Sunday following a complaint made to the police by a 17-year-old woman, who told authorities the assault had taken place at the player’s home near Athens. Police said on Monday that a second man was wanted for questioning in relation to the alleged attack.

Semedo’s lawyer Stavros Georgopoulos said the footballer denied the allegations.

“My client, Mr. Semedo, strongly denies the charges. We have solid evidence to demonstrate that it did not happen and that is what we will be presenting,” the lawyer said.