University of Tennessee at Chattanooga senior 184-pounder Bryce Carr was the Southern Conference wrestler of the month for January, the league office announced Monday. Carr went 10-2 last month with five wins by pin and two by technical fall. He had two pins and a tech fall in going 5-1 at the Southern Scuffle hosted by UTC at the beginning of the month, and he later was 5-1 at the Virginia Duals. Both losses were close ones to Northern Iowa's Drew Foster, ranked eighth and 11th nationally at the times - 2-0 and in overtime. Carr finished January with a three-pin streak and a 20-5 record and now is No. 10 in the NCAA Coaches Panel rankings.
Track & Field
» Samford University had all four of the SoCon's indoor track and field athletes of the month for January, and Hixson resident Selena Popp from Baylor School was the Bulldog honored for women's field. She won the pentathlon in the Samford Multi meet with victories in the high jump and long jump and second place in the 800-meter run. She won by 162 points with a score currently leading the SoCon by more than 500.
Basketball
» The Bryan College basketball teams continued their recent hot streaks with victories over visiting Tennessee Wesleyan in Appalachian Athletic Conference makeup games Monday. The Lady Lions' 82-70 win kept them in first place for an automatic berth in the NAIA Division II tournament, and it came against another of the top contenders. Karli Combs and Tristan McClellan scored 16 points apiece for Bryan (20-6, 17-3), McClellan with six assists and 4-for-4 3-point shooting, and Deandra Luna added 14 points and five assists. Tonesha Allison had 10 points and seven rebounds in the win. For the third-place Lady Bulldogs (16-8, 15-6), still playing without star Hunter Simpson, Madison Walkup had 14 points and nine rebounds, Hannah Cherry 13 points, six assists and seven rebounds and Hannah Troutt 12 points. Walkup hit four 3s. The third-place Bryan men (17-9, 11-6) won 70-62 as Oteriah Lee had 24 points, seven rebounds and five assists and Brice Cusick added 19 points with five 3s and seven rebounds of his own. Johnson Decembre scored 17 points and Jalen Oliver added 11 for TWU (9-16, 6-11), while Andre AppleWhite had 14 rebounds with nine points.
Baseball
» Cleveland State lost its season-opening baseball game Monday, 4-3 at Roane State, but used nine pitchers and outhit the Raiders 7-2. The Cougars broke a 1-1 tie with two unearned runs in the top of the eighth inning but gave up three in the bottom half. Cleveland State catcher Logan Peterson went 2-for-4 as the only player on either team with multiple hits.
» Sewanee sophomore Chris McNulty is the inaugural 2018 Southern Athletic Association baseball player of the week for his play in the Tigers' opening weekend at 10th-ranked LaGrange. McNulty had six hits in the three games for a .357 batting average with a double, four RBIs and three runs scored. As a reserve in 2017 he hit .294.