Wright reaches Trials’ 800 final
Red Bank High School graduate and former University of Tennessee star Phoebe
Wright qualified Saturday for the women’s 800-meter final Monday at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials at Eugene, Ore. Wright, who went from walk-on to multiple All-America honors at Tennessee, won the 2010 NCAA indoors and outdoors and USA Indoors 800 championships and also won the national 800 at the 2013 Prefontaine Classic, and she finished fifth in the 2012 Olympic trials. The top three make the national team. Nike runner Wright was the eighth of eight qualifiers Saturday, but her time of 2 minutes, 1.39 seconds was only 2.15 seconds behind top qualifier Brenda Martinez. The 800 finals will be part of the television coverage at 7 p.m. Monday on NBCSN.
SWIMMING
Eleventh-place showings in the men’s 100-meter backstroke by former Dalton High School standout Taylor Dale, now at Georgia, and in the 1500 freestyle by former McCallie School and Michigan star Sean
Ryan were the best for area athletes in the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials in Omaha, Neb., this past week. Baylor School products
Sam McHugh, Luke Kaliszak and Trey Freeman also had top-20 preliminary finishes — McHugh (Tennessee) 17th in the 400 individual medley, Kaliszak (Alabama) 18th in the 100 back and 16-year-old Freeman 19th in the 400 freestyle. Ryan (see page C1) is qualified for the games in Brazil in the 10-kilometer open-water swim.
FENCING
Baylor School Latin teacher and fencing coach Kristin Vines won the Veteran 50-59 women’s foil competition Friday at the United States Fencing Association Summer Nationals in Dallas and earned a place on the USA veteran world championship team for the fourth time. Vines entered the Summer Nationals seeded sixth out of 31 participants and was seeded seventh after pool competition but won three direct-elimination bouts by scores of 10-9, 10-7 and 10-7 and dominated the gold-medal bout 10-4. The world championships are in October in Stralsund, Germany.
GENERAL
Tennessee Wesleyan College is Tennessee Wesleyan University as of Friday. For the athletic department at the NAIA school in Athens, that includes a new logo and a new web address, twbulldogs.com, among other things. A midweek posting said, in part: “As we look to the future as TWU, we can’t help but be nostalgic toward the acronym of TWC. For many student athletes and coaches, those three letters, TWC, have been regarded with a tremendous amount of love, pride and admiration.”
The Southern Athletic Association announced its all-academic athletes for the 2016 spring semester Friday, and 117 from Sewanee made the list. The SAA total was 952 for eight schools. The all-academic status requires a 3.25 or better GPA for the semester.
SOFTBALL
Tyner Academy and Chattanooga Lady Storm teammates Jai’Mesia Parks and Jarvaneika DeLoach signed paperwork this past week to continue their softball careers at Lane College in Jackson, Tenn., where Tyner graduate Brittany McElvain was the main pitcher as a junior this past season. “I caught her when she was at Tyner,” said Parks, admitting that having friends on the Lane team should help her “adjust quicker.” Lady Storm coach
Craig Thompson said Parks “was recruited as a catcher but also played shortstop for us. She’s a tremendous athlete with cat-quick speed.” DeLoach is an outfielder, he said, who “really tracks fly balls. Both of them have great attitudes and are very coachable, and I think both will be great assets for Lane and Coach
(Roger) Ogden.” Both new recruits also considered LeMoyne-Owen in Memphis. “I just love the coaching staff at Lane. They are so nice,” DeLoach said. And Parks said she “liked the environment — it’s a quiet area.”
GOLF
The Chattanooga Women’s Golf Association city amateur team tournament will be held Thursday at Signal Mountain Golf & Country Club. It pits teams from the CWGA’s member clubs in advance of the city individual tournament, also hosted this year by Signal Mountain, July 11-14.
FOOTBALL/BASKETBALL
In honor of the Fourth of July, UTC is offering ticket four-packs in football and basketball for the 2016-17 seasons. The deal runs online at GoMocs.com from 10 a.m. Monday to 5 p.m. Friday and through the UTC ticket office at 266-MOCS from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. The three options are four football general-admission season tickets for $300 (a $40 discount), four men’s basketball public reserved season tickets for $575 ($60 off) and four women’s reserved season tickets for $450 ($70 off).