Marion County basketball point guard Autumn Towery is one of 10 girls' finalists for the 2012 Wendy's High School Heisman honor for Tennessee, and Ridgeland linebacker and baseball player Daniel Johnson in Georgia and Plainview volleyball standout Natalie Graham in Alabama are among their states' finalists. From not too much farther away are Makayla Angel of Pickens High in Jasper, Ga., Hannah Leech from Cedar Bluff (Ala.) High and Victoria Davis from Cherokee County High in Centre, Ala. One male and one female winner from each state will be announced Monday, and 12 of those will be chosen national finalists for televised recognition in New York City and the announcement on Dec. 7 of one male and one female winner for the United States. The competition honors academic achievement and community involvement as well as athletic accomplishments. Each national winner will receive a $500 Wendy's gift certificate and a crystal trophy, and the fast-food chain will donate $10,000 to each winner's high school.
Basketball
• The UTC women's basketball team will host Lee University at 7 tonight in an exhibition game at McKenzie Arena. For the Lady Mocs, the game is a final tune-up before the season opens against Tennessee at McKenzie on Nov. 9. UTC returns four starters from last season's squad, which went 22-10 and finished third in the Southern Conference. Lee, which reached the NAIA Division I tournament last season as usual, opens Saturday at home in Cleveland against Milligan College. The Lady Flames went 30-4 last season.
• Tennessee Temple University swept the first National Christian College Athletic Association Division I basketball players of the week for the 2012-13 season for Weedlens Beauvil's and Jessica Salera's play in the openers against Bryan. Beauvil scored 14 points with three 3-point baskets in the Crusaders' victory; Salera had 30 points with 9-of-11 free-throw shooting plus seven rebounds and three assists in a loss. The Temple men play tonight at old rival Lee, also 1-0. It will be their 87th meeting.
Soccer
• Senior defender Charity Blair from Chattanooga and Girls Preparatory School was one of a league-high six Middle Tennessee women's soccer players to be voted All-Sun Belt Conference for 2012. Blair was a second-team choice from the Blue Raiders, who shared first place in the regular season with two other teams and had the offensive player, freshman and coach of the year. MTSU beat South Alabama 2-1 on Wednesday in the Sun Belt Tournament and will take on Florida International on Friday.
• Ooltewah resident and former GPS all-state soccer player Nicole McKinney was honored as Lincoln Memorial's Railsplitter of the Week after recording two goals and an assist in LMU's 5-0 win over Bryan College and taking five shots in a scoreless tie with Newberry. The sophomore forward has a team-high three assists with three goals for the season. LMU (7-6-2) plays tonight at Tusculum in a South Atlantic Conference playoff quarterfinal.
• Eighth-seeded Bryan College lost 1-0 to ninth-seeded St. Andrews on Wednesday night at Dayton in the opening round of the Appalachian Athletic Conference women's soccer tournament. St. Andrews plays Saturday at top-seeded Montreat. Hayley Peck scored off an assist from Rebecca Harper in the 76th minute. Keeper Brittany Roberts made four saves in the victory. Stephanie Gagnon had nine in the loss.
Volleyball
• Although their Carson-Newman team lost 3-1 to visiting Tusculum in SAC volleyball Tuesday, Rachel Harper from Boyd-Buchanan had a match-high 16 kills plus nine digs and Cleveland High graduate Kristen Pickett had 37 assists.
• Kiara Govan had 12 assists and 12 digs and Shatoya Medford served four aces for Tennessee Temple (13-15) in a 30-28, 25-17, 25-18 volleyball loss Tuesday to Talladega College.
Equestrian
• The Sewanee equestrian team bounced back from a sixth-place showing Saturday at the Maryville College IHSA show with a first-place performance Sunday. Sewanee's Allan Palmer won in open flat and open over fences, and Elizabeth Corey won in novice flat and novice over fences as they tied Middle Tennessee's Madeleine Reich for high-point honors. Lauren Edwards won two novice races as well, and Lillibet Motion, Linnea Carver, Emily Guest and Holly Higgins joined Corey in qualifying for the IHSA Zone 5 Region I event in the spring. Sewanee is in second place in the region standings, six points behind Vanderbilt.