Around the Region: Deraney, Hanzel, Chazen are Lupton Memorial winners at Honors

Joseph Deraney of Lexington, Ky., won the mid-amateur division of the 2016 John T. Lupton Memorial golf tournament at The Honors Course by seven strokes with a 4-under-par 212 for 54 holes Monday through Wednesday. He had lost in a playoff in 2015 to Charles Waddell of Chicago, who this time tied for second with Kenny Cook at 219 with Patrick Christovich and Steve Johnson one shot back. David Noll Jr. of Dalton tied for 11th at 226. In the senior amateur division, Doug Hanzel of Savannah, Ga., finished with two 69s for 39 points each day and 114 for the tournament and his third Lupton Memorial championship. Jack Hall was second with 109 points and Michael Mercier and Paul Simson tied for third with 107. Chattanooga's Richard Keene was 14th with 101. Chattanoogan Gary Chazen, president of the Honors, pulled out a hometown victory in the super senior division with a birdie on the 18th hole. That gave him a 70 and 38 points, and he totaled 99 to 98 for Ted Smith of Wilkinson, Ind., with Atlanta's Dick Van Leuvan third with 95.

- Former Dalton High School golfer Blake Adams is in a four-way tie for first place at 7 under par after his first-round 65 Thursday in the $625,000 Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship on the Web.com Tour. Former Baylor School and University of Tennessee at Chattanooga standout Stephen Jaeger is tied for fifth at 66 in the Dominican Republic event. The first round was suspended by darkness with more than 70 players not finished. McMinn County product Eric Axley is at 4 under through 13 holes, tied for 21st, and former UTC player Steven Fox is in a large group at 3 under. Fox has finished nine holes. Jason Millard of Murfreesboro, who just won the Tennessee State Open, is among 17 who finished with 69s.

- Katie Dalton of Vidalia and the Dalton State women's golf team edged Hannah Mae Deems of Taylorsville in 20 holes in the first round of match play Thursday in the Georgia Women's Match Play Championship at Sunset Hills Country Club at Carrrollton, but Dalton lost 2 and 1 to Emma Bell of Braselton in the round of 16.

- Dalton State recruits Hannah Gasaway and Isabel Rijos are first-team all-state golfers according to the Georgia coaches' association. Rijos, of Northside High in Columbus, won her region championship and tied for second individually in the Class AAAAA state tournament. Gasaway won her third region title for Union Grove in the same classification. Another Roadrunners recruit, Tia Teinketo of Baylor School, was third in the region and sixth in the TSSAA Division II-AA tournament last fall.

Softball

- Chattanooga State outfielder Shannon Plese repeated as an NJCAA Division I softball All-American and was joined on the 2016 second team by freshman Lillie McCrary, picked as a utility player. McCrary, from Pisgah, Ala., batted .397 with a .789 slugging percentage this season. She hit 21 home runs and 13 doubles and drove in 72 runs, scoring 55. Plese, from Knoxville, hit .437 with 70 runs scored, 69 RBIs, 23 doubles, three triples and four homers as the Lady Tigers went 45-20 and were the NJCAA Region 7 runners-up.

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