Out-of-staters win at drag strip
Drag-strip racing Saturday at Brainerd Motorsports Park drew its biggest attendance in years to watch 50 top cars from throughout the South and beyond competing in A, B and C Gas classes. Donavan Stott from Columbus, N.C., was the A Gas victor in a 1948 Anglia with a 327-cubic-inch small-block Chevrolet engine. Todd Oden from Birmingham, Ala., won the B Gas class in a 1958 Chevy with a 357 engine, and Rusty Sampsel of Lapeer, Mich., was the C Gas winner in a 1955 Chevy powered by a 327 engine. The strip will be back to regular bracket racing this Saturday.
RUNNING
› Covenant College freshman Caleb Aikens from Crossville, Tenn., was the USA South men’s runner of the week and rookie runner of the week after his first collegiate cross country meet Friday, and Covenant junior Lilly Smith was the women’s runner of the week. Both Covenant teams finished third in the Georgia NCAA Division III Invitational at Berry College. Aikens finished seventh individually in 27:38.10 in the 8-kilometer race, and Smith was ninth out of 72 women in the 6k at 24:48.56.
› Sixteen-year-old Drew Ryan of Midland, Ga., won the Run for Honor 8k held Sunday in Chattanooga in 34:37, and Tulio Soto, 54, of Ooltewah was the runner-up and the masters winner in 34:56. Jessica Harthorn, 33, of Chattanooga was the women’s winner and 10th overall in 37:51. Amy Wren of Jackson, Tenn., was the next female and 12th overall in 38:18.
GOLF
› The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s golf team will begin 2017-18 competition Sept. 15-17 at the Mason Rudolph Championships at the Vanderbilt Legends Club. The fall semester of Colette Murray’s 11th season as coach of the Mocs also includes Furman’s Lady Paladin Invitational (Sept. 22-24), the Palmetto Intercollegiate at Kiawah Island (Oct. 22-24) and SMU’s Trinity Forest Invitational in Dallas (Oct. 30-31). UTC has five spring-semester events — including a first-ever trip to Mexico for the program March 16-17 in Puerto Vallarta — before the Southern Conference tournament April 15-17 at Hilton Head Island.
› The Chattanooga All-Stars youth golf team finished third in the PGA Junior League Mississippi Valley Regional this past weekend at Bayou Oaks at City Park in New Orleans. Chattanooga lost 7-5 Saturday to Little Rock, Ark., which on Sunday beat Shreveport (La.) by the same score for the region’s spot in the PGA JL national tournament in November in Scottsdale, Ariz. The fourth-place finisher was How To Train Your Caddie All-Stars from Missouri.
SOCCER
› The Georgia Gwinnett women’s soccer team won for the first time in four matches this season Monday night with a 3-0 road defeat of Dalton State. The loss left the Lady Roadrunners 1-1-1. The Grizzlies scored twice in the first six minutes.
› Lee University lost 1-0 to Rollins in women’s soccer Sunday, dropping the Lady Flames to 1-1. Yaya Mbengue scored in the 59th minute for the Tars (1-1), who got seven saves from their goalkeeper while Haley Gribler was making eight for Lee. “They were tactically very organized,” coach Chris Hennessey said in a Lee release Sunday, particularly praising the the Tars’ commitment to passing. “Today we didn’t play like a team. We played like 11 individuals on the field and didn’t play our game. At any point today we never made more than three passes in any phase of play. … We didn’t deserve to win today because we didn’t trust each other and we didn’t commit to our identity and do what we do best.”
SOFTBALL
› UTC recently announced its softball fall exhibition schedule, and that starts with a pair of intrasquad scrimmages Sept. 15 at Jim Frost Stadium, beginning at 4 p.m. The Mocs will play Roane State in another 4 p.m. doubleheader there the following Friday, Sept. 22, and will host their annual RBI Classic Sept. 29-30 with Chattanooga State, Cleveland State, Bryan, Cumberland and Lincoln Memorial also taking part. UTC’s Blue & Gold intrasquad game is set for Oct. 14 at 11 a.m. at Frost.