Ex-Moc Tippit joins UTC staff
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football coach Rusty Wright announced the addition of former Mocs player Jordan Tippit to his staff Wednesday. Tippit will be a defensive assistant for the 2019 season. “Jordan was very impressive when he interviewed for the position on our staff,” Wright said. “He has made a commitment to coaching as a career and has worked hard to prepare for this opportunity. I am excited about having him on our staff and the impact he can have on our program and our student-athletes.” Tippit spent last season as a graduate assistant at Troy, which earned a fourth straight bowl win. He graduated from UTC in 2012 after making 30 starts and was All-Southern Conference as a sophomore. He was a team captain as a senior and finished with nine interceptions. “I am ecstatic for the opportunity to work at my alma mater,” said Tippit, who previously was a defensive assistant at Huntingdon College after starting his coaching career at Boyd Buchanan as outside linebackers coach. “Chattanooga is a second home to me, and I couldn’t be more excited to continue my coaching career where my teammates and I helped lay the foundation for a championship program.”
BASKETBALL
› Cleveland State sophomore Delaino Walker was chosen the TCCAA men’s basketball player of the week for his part in two close wins. He had 18 points, six assists and the winning free throws at Walters State — after a 3-point basket with nine seconds left — and 22 points and 10 rebounds against Roane State. The Lady Cougars’ Michaela Bennefield was the league’s women’s honoree for the week before, when she totaled 39 points, 11 rebounds and seven steals in two wins and added eight assists in the first of those.
› To’Nesha Allison scored 18 points on 7-of-8 shooting as Bryan’s women rose to 19-1, 17-0 in the Appalachian Athletic Conference, with a 64-59 win Wednesday at Allen University. Amber Levi and Tesa Johnson added 15 and 12 points, and Deandra Luna had five assists. The Bryan men (10-11, 7-8) lost 80-69.
› Tennessee Wesleyan’s Lady Bulldogs avenged a three-point November loss with a 63-50 AAC home win over the Columbia Koalas. For TWU (12-7, 10-7), Savannah Atkins scored 14 points with four 3s, Hunter Simpson had 13 points and nine rebounds and Jacobi Lynn had 11 points.
› Covenant beat visiting Brevard 67-61 in a USA South women’s game as Kaley Hallmark and Bekah Walter had 14 points each and six and four steals. Joanna Smith added 11 points and eight rebounds and Taylor Robinson had five assists for Covenant (6-13, 4-7).
SWIMMING & DIVING
› The Sewanee men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams have reached 50 consecutive semesters of both earning Scholar All-America recognition from the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association. The men had an aggregate 3.22 grade point average for the fall semester, the women a 3.21. The Tigers lost 181-106 to the Rhodes women and 181-98 to the Lynx men last Saturday but got two event wins apiece from Kate Mabry (200-yard individual medley, 100 backstroke), Gabby Acker (100 and 200 breaststroke), Noel Whitlock (women’s 1- and 3-meter diving) and Jed Henrichsen as the only competitor in the men’s dives. Paisley Simmons was second to Whitlock in both 1- and 3-meter, with high point totals of her own, and Mabry added a second place in the 200 back with Anna Hawkins Dulaney the 100 freestyle runner-up. James Hoyt won the men’s 1650 free and was second in 100 and 200 butterfly, and Tigers teammate Lee Haber won the 200 IM and was second in 500 free.
SOFTBALL
› The UTC softball team will be available to the public for “Meet the Mocs” tonight at 7 at the renovated indoor practice facility at Warner Park, next to the zoo. Coach Frank Reed and his staff and players will conduct a brief open practice session and then greet fans and sign autographs. Then Saturday the team will be at a pancake breakfast fundraiser at Applebee’s Northgate from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m.; cost is $7.