Bryan College's Taylor Hasty has been chosen the NAIA college coach of the year by the Tennessee Baseball Coaches Association. "We try to select a school that is doing the right thing in the way they go about running their program," TBCA executive director Pat Swallows said, as quoted in a Bryan release. "After selections are made, the executive board then votes on it. Taylor made a great impression, and I'm glad to congratulate him and Bryan on their accomplishments." Hasty became the Lions' coach in 2008, not long after ending his playing career at the Dayton school, and guided them to program records of 41 wins in 2012 and 44 last season, when they finished second in the Appalachian Athletic Conference tournament and then in an NAIA Opening Round series. "This is such an honor for me and for our program," said Hasty, also Bryan's athletic director. "I cannot even begin to express how grateful I am to our staff and our players for their commitment and hard work year after year."
Basketball
* Small College Basketball has included Bryan College senior foward Brandon Cole from Crossville, Tenn., on the Bevo Francis Top 100 Watch List for the postseason award going to the top men's basketball player from all four-year college levels besides NCAA Division I. Also on the list is sophomore Charles Clark from NCAA Division II member Carson-Newman. Cole leads NAIA Division II with 528 points, an average of 29.3 per game, and is third with 11.3 rebounds per game. Francis is said to have saved Rio Grande College in Ohio (now the University of Rio Grande) from bankruptcy when he played there from 1952 to 1954. The season before he arrived as one of 38 male students enrolled for the 1952-53 school year, which was planned as the school's last, the men's basketball team went 4-19. But his first season he averaged 50.1 points a game, scored 116 in one - including 55 in the last 10 minutes - and Rio Grande went 39-0. Francis earned national acclaim and followed that up with another season of almost 50 points a game, and 113 in one, before turning pro. He scored 3,272 points in two seasons at the NAIA school.
* Former Tyner star Trey Suttles, the AAC men's basketball player of the week the last two weeks, scored 36 points on 15-of-22 shooting from the field and added 11 rebounds and four steals as Tennessee Wesleyan lost 89-66 Monday night at Southern Conference member Wofford College. Suttles was 3-for-5 on 3-point shots. It was only the second official defeat in 17 games for the NAIA Division II Bulldogs, whose early-season loss at UTC was an exhibition. Eric Garcia had 16 points and seven assists for Wofford, and Fletcher Magee and Spencer Collins scored 15 points each.
* Leisa Butler scored 21 points and Ny'Asia Holmes and Jaclyn Griffith added 17 and 16 as the Cleveland State women's basketball team beat the visiting Milligan junior varsity 84-61 on Tuesday. Griffith made five steals and Keke Smith had six assists for the Lady Cougars (14-4). Chattanooga State's women (10-8) had ended a four-game losing streak by winning 68-58 Monday at Milligan.
Wrestling
* Cumberland University senior heavyweight Tyler Smith from Sonoraville High School won his first four matches, including two against nationally ranked opponents, and finished second by an 8-5 decision in the Missouri Valley College Invitational wrestling tournament this past weekend in Marshall, Mo. Smith is 21-5 for the season.
Track & Field
* Tyler Boone finished second in 15:41 in the 5000-meter run as Bryan College began its indoor track and field season Saturday at UAB's Vulcan Invitational meet in Birmingham, and Jessica Stockton was 10th with a personal-best 19:57 in the women's 5000. Teammate Sarah White was sixth in the 800. The meet with more than 15 NCAA Division I and II and NAIA teams was Stockton's first track competition in nearly two years.