Sewanee's Astrid Escobar, Courtland Day and Phillip Link are headed to the NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships being held March 21-24 in Indianapolis. They all had top-20 times in breaststroke events; Escobar's 100 time was the seventh best among Division III women. "The achievements of these athletes are truly remarkable," coach Max Obermiller said in a Sewanee release. "All three swimmers are among the nation's elite. Their devotion to the sport is even more remarkable, considering their success in the classroom and their leadership on campus." Tigers swimmers had eight NCAA "B" cut times in all, and Escobar in the 100 and 200 breast, Day in the men's 200 breast, Brian Glatt in thee 200 freestyle, Abigail Nebb in 1-meter diving and Link, Marcus Rochelle, Jaime de La Fuente and Glatt in the 200 medley relay set school records this season. Day's 2:03.20 is a Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference record as well, and Sewanee had 14 All-SCAC swimming and diving athletes. The program also earned Academic All-American team honors for the 35th consecutive semester with a 3.398 aggregate grade point average for the women and a 3.367 for the men.
Golf
• ORANGE PARK, Fla. -- Led by a 70 from fourth-place individual Jordan Britt, the defending champion University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's golf team is in seventh place after the first day of the 18-team JMU Eagle Landing Invitational tournament. The Mocs' 303 was their best opening round of the 2011-12 season and leaves them one stroke out of fifth place. With a 287, South Florida has a seven-shot lead over Campbell and East Carolina. UTC's Maria Juliana Loza is tied for 11th at 74, but Mette Kryger's 79 was the team's next best score.
Softball
• NICEVILLE, Fla. -- The nationally 11th-ranked Chattanooga State softball team got rained out of two games in North Florida's tournament Friday but improved to 26-3 for the season with a 5-1 win over Murray State CC from Oklahoma. Ashley Czechner pitched a one-hitter with 13 strikeouts and Chelsea Burgess was 2-for-2 with a home run for the Lady Tigers. Andie Johnson was 2-for-3 with a two-run single in the fifth inning, when Shelby Johnson and Lacye Walker had sacrifice flies.
• GULF SHORES, Ala. -- Disrupted by rain in the Gulf Coast Invitational softball tournament Friday, Lee University got in only one game but defeated Martin Methodist 7-0 on a four-hitter by Britanny Balough (10-0). The Lady Flames (17-3) scored two runs in the fifth inning and five in the sixth. Kelsey Barnes was 3-for-3 with three RBIS and Savanna Bell was 2-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs. Jenevieve Cena was 2-for-2, Charlie Wooden was 2-for-4 with an RBI and Dominique Hannah scored twice. Bryan College lost 13-4 to 20th-ranked Central Methodist.
Running
• Alexis Hewitt from Knoxville's Hardin Valley Academy recently signed to continue her running career at Lee University in Cleveland. A former soccer player, Hewitt was a four-time All-KIL cross country selection and has a top cross country 5k time of 19 minutes, 47 seconds. She's run a 5:42 1600 and an 11:32 3200 in track. "Alexis will be a great addition to our already very strong women's cross country team," coach Don Jayroe said in a Lee release. "She comes from a program that is known to produce outstanding distance runners." Hewitt said she picked Lee over UNC Asheville, among other college programs. "I love the campus," she said. "A lot of my friends attend Lee and have nothing but positive things to say about it, and my grandparents live in Cleveland."
Auto Racing
• The $10,000-to-win Shamrock race tentatively scheduled to open the Cleveland Speedway season tonight was postponed until April 12 to get the facility race-ready under its new management. The Shamrock, a Southern All Stars event, remains the track's opening race. The 56-year-old dirt track was in limbo for a while after a Dec. 16 bankruptcy filing.
Lacrosse
• In Centre College's 13-10 men's lacrosse win Wednesday against visiting Mount St. Joseph, Colonels junior Scott Hughes from McCallie had two goals and an assist and sophomore Patrick Vaughn from Baylor won 15 of 26 face-offs and led Centre (3-0) in ground balls with six. Going into today's game against Otterbein, Hughes has five goals and five assists in three games.