Bryan showdown: Foutz tops Lee
Jacob Foutz caught five bass totaling 16 pounds, 5 ounces in winning the Bryan College showdown for the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series Classic Bracket championship Wednesday on Serpent Lake in Minnesota. Jake Lee, like Foutz fishing as a Lions freshman from the 2016-17 season, caught 10-12 in the culmination of the eight-angler individual competition following the Bassmaster college nationals Foutz and Lee won last week. Wednesday’s win locked Foutz into the 2018 Bassmaster Classic on Lake Hartwell in South Carolina and all nine Bassmaster Open events next year. “It’s an unbelievable feeling,” Foutz said in a B.A.S.S. release. “I’ve been fishing ever since I could crawl, and as long as I can remember I wanted to fish the Bassmaster Classic. There are a bunch of unbelievable anglers at Bryan College.” The school in Dayton, Tenn., is holding a welcome-home event for him and Lee on Friday at noon, beginning with a parade from the new campus entrance to Summers Gymnasium.
AUTO RACING
› Boyd’s Speedway is bringing back the breathtaking winged open-wheel race cars Friday night to the clay oval on Scruggs Road. The United Sprint Car Series “Outlaw Thunder” Tour headlines the program starting at 7 p.m., and points will be awarded for the national championship standings as well as the USCS Mid-South and Southern Thunder regions. Drivers from at least seven states are expected in the alcohol-burning, 700-horsepower, 1,300-pound cars that barely touch the ground as they exceed 120 mph, including 2015 and 2016 Outlaw Thunder Tour national champ and current MidSouth leader Morgan Turpen from Cordova, Tenn., and the two guys ahead of her in the national standings, Jordan Mallett of Arkansas and Terry Gray of Bartlett, Tenn. A 30-lap Sprint Car Mania VII main event will follow test-and-tune hot laps and the six-car Hoosier Speed Dash. The USCS 600 Sprint Car Series also will be on the schedule with mini sprints, and some of Boyd’s regular classes will compete as well. Gates open at 4 p.m. Tickets cost $20 for adults; ages 12-under get in free.
GOLF
› Scott Patton of Signal Mountain tied for third at 139 in stroke-play qualifying Tuesday and Wednesday for the 2017 Tennessee Senior Match Play Championship and is seeded fifth for the round of 16 this morning at Five Oaks Golf & Country Club in Lebanon. The quarterfinals will be played this afternoon. Ken Lee of Manchester was seventh in qualifying at 144, and Patten Smith of Lookout Mountain, defending champion Bob Rice of Pikeville and Eddie Wyatt of Crossville shared eighth place at 145. Stewart Lawwill of Hixson tied for 15th at 148 and faces co-medalist Danny Green of Jackson (136), while Rice faces Smith, Wyatt takes on Lee and Patton plays Craig McElhaney of Nashville. Knoxville’s Jeff Golliher was the other medalist. Chattanooga physician Neil Spitalny was second in Super Senior qualifying at 147 (7671), nine strokes behind Hendersonville’s Dan Schorsten, and plays Nashville’s Mike Nixon in a quarterfinal this morning. Tom Baird of Signal Mountain in the Senior division and Ronnie Law of Chattanooga in the Super category each finished one stroke behind the last qualifier.
SOCCER
› The Covenant College soccer teams were picked second in the West in the men’s poll and third in the nine-team West in the women’s poll in USA South coaches’ preseason balloting released Wednesday. The Covenant men, who got one first-place vote to five for division favorite and 2016 league champion Maryville, return 21 players and 10 starters for new head coach Scott Bosgraf. Piedmont was third, followed by Berea and Huntingdon. North Carolina Wesleyan headed the men’s East predictions. Covenant’s Lady Scots, beginning the program’s 24th season under Mark Duble, also got one vote for first, as did second-place Maryville, after going 13-5 with an 11-3 league record last year. Piedmont got six firsts to lead the West, and Meredith and Salem tied for first in the East voting.