The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga has three wrestlers listed among Amateur Wrestling News' weight-class top 20s. Jared Johnson at 285 pounds has the highest ranking at No. 11. Scottie Boykin is 16th at 197 pounds and Mike Pongracz is 20th at 141. The Mocs, 10-3 overall and 5-0 in Southern Conference duals, also returned to the National Wrestling Coaches Association Top 25 at No. 25. They will host Appalachian State (9-3, 4-1) at 7 p.m. in a SoCon matchup Friday at Maclellan Gym. That will be senior night for UTC, with John Lampe and Austin Sams being honored before the competition.
Basketball
* The Covenant College men's basketball team won its USA South makeup game Monday at Averett, 77-68, as Berto Dryden and Ben Phelps scored 12 points apiece and Chris Boyd grabbed 13 rebounds. T.J. Cox added 10 points and Bailey Spragg had five assists and three steals for the Scots, who are 7-2 in the league and in first place by half a game.
* Chattanooga Christian graduates Joanna Smith and Clara Dirkse scored 14 and 13 points to lead the Covenant women's basketball team to a 70-46 nonconference home win Tuesday against Agnes Scott. Smith also had team highs of seven rebounds and four steals, and Bekah Walter scored 10 points.
* Visiting Voorhees College beat Dalton State 68-63 in men's basketball Monday night, as Denzel Bolden and Denzel Famble had 21 and 19 points and seven and 10 rebounds. Jamaine Burrey led Dalton State (14-8) with 14 points, eight rebounds and three assists, while Marcel Hawkins contributed 12 points and seven rebounds and Reed Dungan scored 11 points.
* Freshman Jada Hubbard from Heritage High School had team highs of 19 points and four steals and added six rebounds in Reinhardt's 66-62 Appalachian Athletic Conference women's basketball loss Monday at Bluefield. Junior Erika Woodfin from Dade County was 2-for-2 on 3-point shots in her 11 minutes for Reinhardt.
Softball
* Ringgold High School junior Kayla Woody has committed to join the Chattanooga State softball program in 2017. That makes her the first official commitment for the ProStar Fastpitch organization recently started by former Heritage coach Steve Chattin. "Kayla is a smooth-fielding shortstop with some of the best hands in the Southeast," Chattin said. "She possesses outstanding doubles power for her size and will bat leadoff for ProStar this season." Noting that Woody has played second base and the outfield as well as short for Ringgold, he praised her ability "to make the play in the hole at the big-time level because of her glove-to-hand transition." Woody, who has a 3.2-plus grade point average, said she wanted "a great program close to home, and I know I have found it with Chattanooga State. Coach (Blythe) Golden is a proven winner, and I look forward to playing for her."
Baseball
* Former Chattanooga Lookouts batting champion Adam Casillas died Friday at the age of 50 and is being buried Wednesday in Tulsa, Okla., where he starred three years in the 1980s for Oral Roberts University and compiled a .366 career batting average. A native of Stockton, Calif., Casillas was a left-handed-hitting first baseman and outfielder who hit .385 with 44 RBIs in 60 games in his first minor league season and won batting titles in the Cincinnati Reds organization with Cedar Rapids and Chattanooga (beating out Frank Thomas). He hit .307 and .304 in two of his Class AAA seasons and won another batting title in the Mexican League, batting .367 for Monterey in 1994. Wrote Barry Lewis of the Tulsa World: "During the past 35 years, he was one of the best hitters that I've ever seen who never got a major league shot, even though he had a .324 batting average and a .413 on-base percentage in 1,036 pro games over nine seasons. He struck out only 190 times in 4,109 plate appearances."