No. 17 Sewanee hosting ITA nationals in Chattanooga
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The Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s Division III women’s indoor national tournament will be played today through Sunday in Chattanooga with 17th-ranked Sewanee as the host team for the second consecutive year. The other participants are No. 2 Emory, No. 6 Ponoma-Pitzer, No. 9 Chicago, No. 10 Carnegie Mellon, No. 11 Washington (St. Louis), No. 12 Washington & Lee and No. 13 Johns Hopkins. Today at McCallie, Carnegie Mellon takes on Wash U at 9 a.m., Pomona-Pitzer faces Hopkins at 1 p.m. and Sewanee challenges Emory at 5. Pomona-Pitzer faces Washington & Lee at 11 a.m. at Baylor. Semifinals will be at McCallie with consolation matches at Baylor on Saturday, and both prep schools’ complexes will be used again along with Manker Patten on Sunday.
BASEBALL
› Lee University’s Jumpei Akanuma was named Thursday as the national pitcher of the week by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association. Already the Gulf South Conference pitcher of the week, Akanuma was honored for his 76-pitch seven-inning no-hitter last weekend against West Alabama. He walked no one and struck out 11; two errors kept him from a perfect game. “What great recognition for an outstanding performance by Jumpei,” Lee coach Mark Brew said in a school release. The Flames are scheduled to host West Alabama in a GSC series Saturday and Sunday.
TRACK & FIELD
› Hixson resident and Baylor graduate Selena Popp was one of Samford’s four Southern Conference indoor track and field superlative winners selected by the league’s coaches after last weekend’s conference meet, where she was the most outstanding athlete after winning the pentathlon and women’s high jump and long jump. She subsequently was voted the SoCon women’s most outstanding field performer. Her record-smashing 4,118-point performance in the pentathlon included four firsts and a second.
BASKETBALL
With five players scoring in double figures, No. 2 seed Dalton State beat Martin Methodist 81-70 in the quarterfinal round Thursday of the Southern States Athletic Conference men’s basketball tournament in Montgomery, Ala. Carnilious Simmons had 19 points and seven rebounds and Ty Pendley scored 16 points for Dalton State (23-7), which is ranked 16th in NAIA Division I, and Benat Hevia had 13 points and eight rebounds. Reed Dungan and Aaron Burress scored 10 points each for the Roadrunners, who will face No. 3 seed Loyola of New Orleans at 4 p.m. EST today. Seniors Simmons and Dungan were first-team AllSSAC, Simmons for the second year in a row, while classmate Isaiah Box was second-team allconference and Burress made the all-freshman team.
GOLF
› Lee sophomore Scott Odell is the GSC men’s golfer of the month for February in honor of his 11-under-par 205 as the runner-up at the Saint Leo Invitational at the beginning of this week. He had 14 birdies and only three bogeys in 54 holes in leading the Flames to a second-place finish in the loaded field in Florida.
DIVING
› Sewanee’s Noel Whitlock and Paisley Simmons are in San Antonio to compete today and Saturday in the NCAA Division III Zone 2 Regional Diving Championships. Both qualified for both the 1- and 3-meter events. Whitlock, a sophomore, has the school records of 447.90 points in 3-meter and 430.42 in 1-meter. Freshman Simmons’ highs are 415.20 and 401.70.
GENERAL
› Covenant College is in second place overall and first in the 2017-18 USA South Presidents Cup women’s standings after the fall and winter sports seasons. The Presidents Cup honors overall athletic success for its 19 member schools, and Maryville is first overall, first in men’s and third in women’s. Covenant is fourth in the men’s standings but trails Maryville only 59 to 56 in overall points with Piedmont third at 53.5. Piedmont has 37 women’s points to 37.5 for the Lookout Mountain school.