Stone elevated to TWU top job
Associate head coach Ray Stone, a longtime assistant in the program, has been promoted to men’s basketball head coach at Tennessee Wesleyan University. He succeeds Mike Poe, who recently announced his resignation to return to high school coaching. Stone played for Wesleyan and stayed at the Athens school as an admissions counselor after graduating in 2000. Leaving after three years in that role, he left for a short time but returned in 2004 and has been on Poe’s staff for 14 years. “It was really a no-brainer on who the perfect candidate to take over the job was,” athletic director Donny Mayfield said in Monday’s announcement. Stone was the men’s and women’s cross country head coach in his first eight years back at his alma mater. “Ray was a loyal assistant for me, and it’s his time now,” Poe said. “College basketball has shifted to a young man’s game, and he is more than ready to take over the program.” Stone called the opportunity “an honor” and added, “I have to thank Coach Poe for not only the lessons he taught me on the basketball court but for his friendship off the court as well.”
GOLF
› UTC moved up Monday into a tie for second place in the Southern Conference women’s golf tournament at Hilton Head Island, S.C. The Mocs and Mercer are at 625, 22 shots behind nationally eighth-ranked and three-time defending champion Furman, going into the final round today. UTC’s Holly Morgan is tied for second individually at 152, three shots behind Furman’s Reona Hirai, while Megan Woods is tied for eighth at 156, Monica San Juan shares 11th at 157 and Cristina Perez is tied for 14th at 160 in tough conditions at Moss Creek Golf Club.
› The UTC men’s golfers are in 10th place at 613 after Monday’s two rounds in the 15-team Old Waverly Collegiate at West Point, Miss. Mississippi leads at 573 with LSU second at 578. The Mocs’ Luke Long is tied for 35th at 152 (76-76), with Andrew Weathers at 153 and Will Porter, Etienne Brault and Lake Johnson at 156, 157 and 158.
› The NAIA’s third-ranked Dalton State men’s golf team dominated the All-Southern States Athletic Conference team honored Monday night in Montgomery, Ala., with six of the 10 selections: S.M. Lee, P.J. Shields, Ben Rebne, Chase Cole, Dalton Johnson and Sport Allmond. Lee, Shields, Rebne and Johnson were repeaters from 2017. And the Roadrunners took the first-round lead Monday by 14 strokes with Lee first individually at 66, Shields second at 72 and Cole and Rebne tied for ninth at 76. Johnson shot 77.
› Bryan College’s Krista Reinhardt was the obvious choice for Appalachian Athletic Conference women’s golfer of the week after winning the individual title in the league’s spring tournament in conjunction with the Tennessee Wesleyan Spring Invitational at Loudon’s Tennesssee National course. The junior from Tampa, Fla., won by five strokes with a 36-hole total of 147. That broke her 36-hole school record and the record for 36 holes in an AAC women’s event.
SOFTBALL
› UTC sophomore Celie Hudson was chosen the SoCon softball pitcher of the week for her three-hitter in a 3-1 win over UAB and her one-hit shutout in a 2-0 defeat of Furman. In the latter game, Hudson had a no-hitter until allowing a single with two outs in the seventh inning. She has won her last four starts and allowed just 10 hits and two earned runs in her last 22 1/3 innings.
› Tennessee Wesleyan’s scheduled softball games Monday against Hiwassee were postponed. TWU is 23-15 despite losing 4-0 and 7-5 Saturday at Talladega College and is riding a six-game winning streak in AAC play going into today’s doubleheader at Bryan.
FOOTBALL
› Sewanee’s Jay Douglass, James Hewell and Glenn Ireland were named to the National Football Foundation Hampshire Honor Society, joining UTC’s Alex Hooper and Branden Parker, whose selections were reported last week. The criteria include a 3.2 grade point average for their college careers. Ireland is from Chattanooga and Baylor School.