Jul 13, 2022 4 min read

Merriman gets career win 14,000

Harness racing driver Aaron Merriman, who ranks fifth on North America’s all-time wins list, collected career victory 14,000 Wednesday at The Meadows. The milestone win came with Maching Me Zilly in Race 10. Merriman notched 14,001 the very next race.

Milestones and awards have been coming fast and furious for Merriman, 43, a native of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, and harness racing’s seven-time reigning dash champion whose mounts have won more than $98.5 million. Although he recorded his first win in 1998, more than half his victories have come since 2014, a testament to Merriman’s talent and breakneck schedule as he drives at both The Meadows and Ohio tracks.

Merriman has been trying to reduce that grind; the figures show that he has, although modestly. He had 4,397 starts in 2021 but is on pace for about 4,200 this year.

“I’m trying to cut 10 percent per year and make sure I take one day off per week,” he says. “That’s very important to me. I’m definitely a day-to-day guy, but I would like to take a week or two off the beginning of next year. The road is definitely tiring me.”

Merriman allows that this milestone, this year, is more meaningful.

“I’ve had a tough year personally, with my mom being sick. So this one does feel a little different.

“Every race is a milestone to me. Each race means something to somebody. People count on us, so I always have to try my best and bring my best attitude.”

Sacco wins PONY scholarship

Every year PONY Baseball and Softball awards one high school senior from each zone a scholarship. This year’s East Zone recipient is Jack Sacco of Monessen High School.

Sacco was named to the 2022 Westmoreland County Baseball 2nd Team as a pitcher and third baseman

He graduated from Monessen High School, May 27 as Salutatorian. He was a highest honors student.

Sacco was a member of the National Honor Society and Spanish National Honor Society, vice president of his class and was the top Scorer in the Monessen-Charleroi Academic League. He was president of Monessen High School’s Leo Club.

He batted .462 this spring and was two-year team captain and also was co-captain of the Greyhounds’ section championship basketball team.

Sacco was a three-year starter for Monessen’s soccer team as a goalkeeper and a four-year starter in baseball.

He will attend Washington and Jefferson College and major in data science and business administration.

In the NFL

N’Keal Harry is getting the new beginning to his NFL career that he was looking for a year ago.

The Patriots traded the 2019 first-round pick to Chicago on Wednesday for a seventh-round pick in 2024, ending a tenure in New England that never really got going after he missed half his rookie season with an ankle injury.

Tour de France

The first big mountain stage shook things up at the Tour de France as defending champion Tadej Pogacar wilted toward the end of Wednesday’s 11th stage and lost the yellow jersey.

Jonas Vingegaard and his team Jumbo-Visma were the big winners on the stage as the Danish rider claimed the famed jersey from Pogacar, the two-time defending champion who had been the dominant rider so far but cracked in the final ascent on Wednesday and fell more than 2 minutes behind.

Vingegaard and his teammates put on an impressive collective display throughout the day, with clever tactics early in the race and multiple attacks that ultimately unsettled Pogacar.