University of Tennessee at Chattanooga senior offensive lineman Corey Levin was named to the College Sports Madness FCS All-American first team for the second year in a row, as announced Thursday, and UTC senior defensive end Keionta Davis from Red Bank High School repeated on the second team. Additionally, Mocs junior center Jacob Revis from Rhea County was a third-team All-American. All three were first-team All-Southern Conference this year, Levin for the third time, and Davis was the league's defensive player of the year and has accepted an invitation to play in the Senior Bowl. He and Levin will graduate on Dec. 17, and Revis is on track to graduate in May and does not plan to return for his final year of football eligibility.
Shotgun Sports
- Shotgun whiz Eli Christman had a signing ceremony Thursday at Soddy-Daisy High School to publicize his acceptance of a full scholarship to join the clay target team at reigning national champion Martin Methodist College in Pulaski, Tenn. He had offers from pretty much all the top schools in the sport, according to his father and coach Bill Christman - including Clemson and Virginia Tech as well as Hillsdale in Michigan and 13-time national champion Lindenwood in Missouri - but picked Martin Methodist for "many reasons," including the fact he's known third-year RedHawks coach Chad Whittenburg for quite a while. Whittenburg also is the national junior coach for USA Shooting, and Christman wants to be in the 2020 Olympics in international skeet. "Eli is a very talented shooter and one of the top recruits in the country," Whittenburg said Thursday. "We recruited him for international skeet and sporting clays." Christman, now 6-foot-5, played basketball in elementary school and football in middle school, "but shooting kind of took over. My first year, as a freshman, I was just kind of doing it because it was fun, but I got the love for it and got serious about it my second year." Former Soddy-Daisy coach Eric Dunn said the jump in ability was noticeable when Eli "committed to being a student of the sport. After that he just kept improving." He has been part of two state team championships and was the high overall runner-up in the 2016 high school state meet, and he has won high school divisions of college meets with better scores than the collegiate winners. Among other victories, he was first overall in the J-1 class in the Tennessee Junior Olympics in Paris last spring and won the Firecracker 4x50 in Lebanon, Tenn., in early July.
Basketball
- McCallie School is following up its inspirational luncheon from its first Dr Pepper TEN Classic basketball event with another featuring Austin Hatch, who survived two plane crashes that killed other members of his family. He will be the featured speaker at the Mountain View Auto Group Luncheon at McCallie on Feb. 3, leading into the games with the Blue Tornado, Hamilton Heights, Christ School of Asheville, N.C. and nationally top-ranked La Lumiere from Indiana. Luncheon tickets cost $25 and can be bought at attend.com/2017DrPepperTENClassic. Hatch had committed to play basketball for Michigan when he was in the 2011 crash that killed his father and stepmother and left him in a coma with a serious head injury. He had to learn again how to walk. Wolverines coach John Beilein honored his scholarship anyway, and he played in five games as a freshman and now is a student assistant and speaker on survival and perseverance.
- Cleveland State completed the 2016 part of its basketball schedules by winning a doubleheader Thursday night in Centre, Ala., against Gadsden State, 69-51 for the 8-5 Lady Cougars and 77-63 for the 9-2 Cougars. Leisa Butler scored 23 points and Keya Jenkins added 12 in the women's win, and Cam Copeland and Alfonzo Peoples scored 16 each for the Cougars, who got 13 points from Jordan Olison and 12 plus 18 rebounds from Tevin Olison. The Cleveland State teams return to action on Jan. 7 at home against Wallace State-Hanceville.
- Erika Woodin from Dade County made eight of 11 3-point shots in scoring 28 points and Rebecca Cheeks from Sonoraville High School scored 22 on 10-of-13 shooting from the field as Reinhardt beat St. Andrews 73-39 in women's basketball Wednesday. The Lady Eagles are 9-1 overall, 5-1 in the Appalachian Athletic Conference.