Mike Poe has resigned after 14 years as men's basketball coach and 11 as men's golf coach at Tennessee Wesleyan, where between the two programs he led the Bulldogs to 11 Appalachian Athletic Conference titles and made 11 trips to NAIA national tournaments. He is returning to Church Hill, Tenn., where he grew up, and to Volunteer High School as boys' basketball coach. It was among his stops in a 347-203 prep coaching career. One of the top amateur golfers in the state, Poe compiled a 251-186 basketball record at Tennessee Wesleyan, his college alma mater, and had stretches of 18 and 20 consecutive wins. "Tennessee Wesleyan is not just losing a great basketball coach in Mike Poe, as proven by his three (AAC) coach-of-the-year honors voted upon by his coaching peers," athletic director Donny Mayfield said in a release, "but a great friend of the university as well."
» Tennessee Wesleyan had the AAC men's track and women's field athletes of the week, Devonte Fletcher and Rachel Lawhorn, and the men's golfer of the week, Tanner Harris. At the Montreat Invitational, Fletcher anchored school-record runs in the 4x100 and 4x400 relays, won the 400 dash in another school record and finished third with a personal best in the 200. The 4x400 time made the "A" qualifying standard for the NAIA national meet. Lawhorn was a repeat AAC honoree after winning all three of her events at Montreat: shot put, discus and javelin throw. Her discus distance was a program record, and her javelin toss won by 4.11 meters. Harris shot a first-day-best 68 and finished sixth at 147 in the Phoenix Invitational hosted by Cumberland University. This week he was second individually at 149 in the AAC Spring Invitational in Clarkesville, Ga., and Jeovani Veloz tied for 11th at 158 as Tennessee Wesleyan was the team runner-up to Point University.
Tennis
» The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men won 5-2 at Alabama-Huntsville on Wednesday. The Mocs (8-12) got singles wins from No. 1 Niklas Gerdes, 6-2, 6-4, No. 2 Simon Bustamante, 6-2, 6-0, No. 3 Pablo Llebeili, 7-5, 6-2, No. 4 Luke Plaisted, 6-1, 6-7, 6-4, and No. 5 Jacob Marshall, who was up 6-1, 3-1 when his opponent retired. Alabama-Huntsville (5-14) won the doubles point, but UTC's Llebeili and Plaisted won 6-4 in the No. 2 match.
Baseball
» Lee split a doubleheader Wednesday at Belmont Abbey in Belmont, N.C., with the Flames winning 8-3 in the opener before losing 5-4 in eight innings. Belmont Abbey (29-7), of the Conference Carolinas, is ranked No. 2 by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and sixth by Collegiate Baseball. In the win for Lee (20-16), Spencer Mossburg had a first-inning grand slam, Jordan Howard was 3-for-4 with a double and an RBI, Tyler Payne had a two-run single and Miguel Pimentel was 2-for-4. Jay Prior (1-1) picked up the win in relief, striking out four in two scoreless innings, and Eric Freeman got his first save of the season, allowing one hit and one walk in two scoreless innings. The second game was tied at 3 from the middle of the fifth until the top of the eighth, when Lee's Fernando Ortiz scored as Howard reached on a fielding error. But the Crusaders countered in the bottom half with two-out RBI doubles from Colin Rosenbaum and Luke Cureton to win.
» Tennessee Wesleyan won 9-6 at home Wednesday against Georgia Gwinnett, the NAIA's second-ranked team. The Bulldogs (21-16) broke a 3-3 tie in the seventh inning when Malik Stephens scored on Tristan Clarke's sacrifice fly, then pulled away with a five-run eighth in which all of the scoring happened with two outs. Collin Ridout went 3-for-4 with a double, an RBI and three runs scored, Clarke was 2-for-4 with two RBIs, Tyler Halas had two hits and two stolen bases, Dakota Phillips had two hits with a double and an RBI, Braden Mosley was 2-for-3 with a walk, a double and an RBI, and Stephens was 2-for-4 with a double. Tennessee Wesleyan starting pitcher Jack Granath allowed three runs (one earned) on nine hits with no walks and nine strikeouts in seven innings, Jerry Ochoa recorded one out for the win, and Dailey Carnes did the same for the save. Georgia Gwinnett (26-8) outhit its hosts 16-15 but stranded 10 baserunners.