Several sports events set for upcoming weeks
Rome will host championships for three different college conferences over the next two weeks.
Rome will host championships for three different college conferences over the next two weeks.
The spring is always full of sporting events in Rome, whether it is two high schools competing or the Rome Braves at State Mutual Stadium.
But over the next two weeks, the town will host more major sporting events than it has seen in quite some time.
Three different NCAA conference championships, one for tennis and another two for track and field, are being held in Rome along with an American Junior Golf Association event.
Shorter University hosts the Gulf South Conference Track Championship in Barron Stadium starting Thursday, Berry College hosts the Southern Athletic Association Track Championship at the school’s Clark Track beginning Friday, the AJGA hosts the Rome Junior Classic at Coosa Country Club this weekend and the Rome Tennis Center at Berry College is the site of the ACC Men’s and Women’s Tennis Championships starting April 26.
The ACC Tournament will be the largest and most notable event in the short existence of the new tennis center. In all, 13 men’s teams and 15 women’s teams will compete for five days at the facility off of the Armuchee Connector, with both championship matches scheduled for April 30.
In preparation for the event, the tennis center has added scoreboards for each individual court, making the ACC teams feel at home.
The tournament will include the No. 1 nationally-ranked Wake Forest men’s team and the No. 3 ranked North Carolina women’s team.
General admission is $8 for a day pass or $16 for a week pass for adults. College students at ACC universities can get in for free. Passes can be purchased at the Rome Tennis Center.
This weekend is the first time since 2014 Shorter has hosted a conference track and field championship when it hosted the Peach Belt Conference championship at Barron. The Hawks have been competing well, winning the Emory Invitational, which included some DI competition less than a month ago. Their biggest competition will be Lee University, which won the GSC title with ease last season in Clinton, Mississippi.
Admission for the event is $5 per day, but is free for children five years or younger.
The SAA Track & Field Championships will be special to Berry, which just brought back its track program last season. Eight teams will compete this weekend,
with events starting Friday at 9 a.m.
Berry’s men finished fourth last season while the women finished fifth, but the team has been strong as of late, with the men taking first in the Berry Field Day Invitational two weeks ago.
This is the second straight year of the Rome Junior Classic after the AJGA brought the event back from a two-year hiatus last year. The event includes a junior-am on Friday and then rounds on Saturday and Sunday.
Things will continue next month as Berry’s Clark Track also hosts the GHSA Class 1A private, 4A, and 7A boys’ and girls’ state track & field championships May 11-13. Meanwhile, State Mutual Stadium will host four GHSA baseball championship series beginning May 25.