Signees added for UTC tennis
Both University of Tennessee at Chattanooga tennis coaches have announced new signees in the last couple of days: Callie Billman of Columbia, South Carolina, for the women’s team and coach Chad Camper and Quinten Nevenhoven of Rockford, Illinois, for the men Mocs and Chuck Merzbacher. Billman, daughter of two former college basketball players (Indiana and Delta State), is a four-star prospect who competes out of the Randy Pate Tennis Academy. TennisRecruiting.net rates her No. 7 in South Carolina, No. 24 in the Southeast and No. 89 in the nation. “Callie is a huge addition to the program next season,” Camper said in a UTC release. “She has so many weapons and is always looking for a way to win. I have watched her play indoor, outside in hot weather and very cold, and she competes no matter the situation.” In a separate release, Merzbacher described Nevenhoven as “super athletic” and said he believed the three-star prospect ranked No. 9 in Illinois and in the top 25 in the Great Lakes Region “will flourish in college tennis. In addition to being an accomplished tennis player, he is an outstanding student.” Merzbacher also said the Midwest “historically has been one of the strongest sections in the country” and specifically “the Chicago area produces a lot of excellent tennis players.”
RUNNING
› Lee University placed a full complement of five men’s runners and also had three women on the NCAA Division II All-South Region teams named by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association after the region meet last Saturday in Lakeland, Florida. Lee was second in the men’s 10-kilometer race, led by individual winner Christian Noble, and third in the women’s 6k even with the Lady Flames’ best runner unable to compete. Joining Noble as all-region for top-25 finishes were Caleb Eagleson, Jared Herzog, Casey Guthery, Dawson Reed, Amy Carpenter, Charlee Boxall and Becca Umbarger. The Lee teams will compete in the national meet Dec. 1 in Pittsburgh.
› Bryan College’s Brady Smith is a 2018 Daktronics NAIA Scholar-Athlete for men’s cross country. The honor requires active participation on a team, junior or senior academic status and a minimum grade point average of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale.
BASKETBALL
› Lindsey Roddy and Abby Bertram scored 16 and 15 points as the Lee women’s basketball team improved to 4-1 for the season with a 66-53 win Tuesday evening at Clark Atlanta. Haley Schubert added 11 points and Becca Cheeks had 10 rebounds.
› The Tennessee Wesleyan teams lost 55-50 to the visiting Point University women but defeated the Point men 95-86 in their Appalachian Athletic Conference games Tuesday. Hunter Simpson had 23 points, 15 rebounds and four assists for TWU’s Lady Bulldogs (3-3, 1-3), while Hannah Cherry had 12 points with seven rebounds and Gina Dick and Savannah Atkins pulled down 10 and eight rebounds. For the TWU men (5-3, 1-2), QD Cox had 22 points with five 3-point baskets and four steals, Djimon Wilson scored 14 points, Ty Patterson tallied 11 and Todd Lansden and Parker Morgan 10 apiece. Lansden grabbed 12 rebounds and Jalen Oliver had 10 assists.
› Georgia Northwestern lost its home doubleheader Tuesday, 72-52 in the women’s game against Campbellsville-Harrodsburg and 74-50 to the Tennessee Wesleyan men’s junior varsity. Jerriale Jackson scored 16 points for the Lady Bobcats (1-5), while Mia Clark scored 11 and Tori Harvey had 10 plus seven rebounds. The Bobcats (1-2) got 15 points from Jeremy Wilson, three 3s and 10 points from Cole McKeehan and 10 rebounds from Jarret Gill.
DIVING
› Sewanee junior Noel Whitlock’s record-setting performance in the Tigers’ Igloo Invitational last weekend earned her the recognition of Southern Athletic Association women’s diving student-athlete of the week for the second time this season. She set meet, pool and school records with 487.41 points in the 1-meter event and 487.42 in the 3-meter