Three-time FLW Tour angler of the year Andy Morgan of Dayton, Tenn., was the first-day leader in the series' Lake Cumberland tournament Thursday out from Somerset, Ky. Morgan's five-bass limit totaled 18 pounds, 5 ounces. Michael Neal of Dayton was ninth at 15-13. Jason Meninger of St. Augustine, Fla., was second at 17-9. First place for the 180 pros can be worth as much as $125,000. "It wasn't like I smashed them and caught a ton of fish today, but I had some quality," Morgan said in an FLW release. "The five fish that I weighed today were probably the prettiest limit of fish that I have ever caught. They were all female, full of eggs, and not a blemish on them. Just fat, chunky and gorgeous."
Shotgun Sports
' Soddy-Daisy High School graduate Eli Christman earned two individual gold medals as a Martin Methodist freshman in the recent ACUI College national shotgun championships at San Antonio. He won the invitation-only International Shoot Out with the top qualifying score of 120 in 125 Olympic skeet targets and finals score of 56 in 60, with harder targets. That earned him a $1,000 scholarship and MMC a $3,000 prize. Christman also won the American skeet national title by following his perfect 100 with 19 targets in a row in a 14-person shoot-off, and he was seventh out of 468 men in the high overall standings, earning him first-team All-America status. He had 94s (out of 100) in American Speed ISkeet and Super Sporting. The event included 870 shooters from 84 universities and colleges.
Tennis
' University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's tennis coach Chuck Merzbacher announced Thursday the signing of Tomas Rodriguez from Buenos Aires, Argentina, for the 2018-19 season. Rodriguez, who has prepped at Colegio Everest in Santiago, Chile, has qualified for the ITA World Cup each of the last four years and has been ranked as high as No. 11 in his age group in South America. He was a doubles semifinalist at a G4 international event last year in Santiago and a singles and doubles quarterfinalist at the G4 "Indervalle" Open in Cali, Colombia. "We are super excited to have Tomas join our program next year," Merzbacher said in a release. "He certainly will be an impact player at the top of the lineup in singles and doubles. He has played all over the world and competed against the world's best players in ITF competitions."
' Covenant College seniors Matthew Harvie and Chris Cox were named Thursday to the USA South overall all-conference and All-West men's tennis first teams, and freshman Paxton Haggerty was the Scots' representative on the all-sportsmanship team. Harvie is the program's first four-time all-conference first-teamer. Covenant senior Aly Hall was a first-team all-conference selection for the third time in her three seasons at the Lookout Mountain school, and classmate Annie DeLuca joined her on the All-West first team. Sophomore Esther Eddy was second-team All-West, and Morgan McCain was the Lady Scots' all-sportsmanship pick. Hall is 13-2 in singles this year and 35-10 for her career, and DeLuca also has 13 singles wins this year and is 11-5 at No. 1 doubles with Eddy, who has 10 singles victories. Harvie has not lost a USAS match since February 2016 and is 15-2 at No. 1 singles this year and 18-2 with Cox at No. 1 doubles. Cox has the school record for career singles wins at 55-30, and Harvie is close behind at 50-15.
Golf
' Sewanee had both Southern Athletic Association golfers of the week, Meghan Symonds and Tommy Oliver. Symonds was the medalist with a 36-hole 151 at the Sewanee Spring Invitational in Dickson, Tenn., and Oliver paced the men's team's fifth-place finish at Emory's 15-team tournament at Stone Mountain with a 13th-place 145.
' Covenant did not make the nine-team field for the USA South men's golf tournament at LaGrange, Ga., but the Scots' Nathan Hawkins is tied for 24th individually after his first-round 77 Thursday. Will Mayfield represented Covenant on the USAS all-sportsmanship team.
' Sonoraville High School senior Ryan Redd has signed to follow former Phoenix teammate Lane Strickland to the Georgia Northwestern golf team. "(Lane) said life as a college golfer is pretty great. You're always going and playing at different places," Redd said in a GNTC release. "He's got a good overall game. He needs a little work on his short game, but he's very strong tee to green," GNTC coach Eddie Jackson said. "He's got a passion (for golf) and a good work ethic to get to where he needs to be." Sonoraville coach Mike Farley said Redd is "a very hard worker" who "self-evaluates himself all the time and works on the things he knows he's struggling with."
' Mike Nance of Calhoun and Dalton Golf & Country Club lost to Mel Mendenhall of Marietta, 1 up, in the round of 16 Friday at the GSGA Senior Match Play Championship at Savannah. Mendenhall then lost 5 and 4 to Danny Nelson of Savannah.
Softball
' The Bryan College softball team lost 4-2 and 4-1 at home Wednesday against Appalachian Athletic Conference co-leader Truett McConnell. Heidi Smith was 3-for-4 and Sydney Olander was 2-for-3 and scored both runs for Bryan (11-28, 8-11) in the first game, when starting pitcher Olivia Johnson allowed six hits and two runs, one earned, in six innings. Hannah O'Shields homered in the second loss. TMU is 28-12, 13-5.