Megan Dirkmaat McCourt is the new head rowing coach for GPS.Former University of California standout Megan Dirkmaat McCourt has been hired as head rowing coach for Girls Preparatory School. She is a six-time member of the U.S. national team, with whom she won a silver medal in the 8+ boat in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, and a 2007 FISA 4+ world championship, and she was a Stanford assistant coach and worked with the prestigious Los Gatos Rowing Club in California. "I am very excited to have the opportunity to become part of the GPS Rowing family," McCourt said in a school release. "I look forward to working with assistant coaches Whitney Standefer and Catherine Ingalls, as well as the girls." Said athletic director Stacey Hill: "I am pleased that our coaching search has uncovered an individual superior in experience and knowledge of the sport." GPS will be participating Oct. 15 in the famed Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston.
* Mont Echols III of New Orleans led the way Thursday in the rain in the MC Masters national sailing regatta out of Privateer Yacht Club on Lake Chickamauga. Bill Draheim of Texas and Scott Harestad of Michigan were second and third in the 50-59 age division and overall in the competition for 16-foot MC Scows. It is scheduled to last two more days. PYC's Chris Cyrul was 17th overall and regatta chairman Steve Sherman was first in the Mega Masters division (70-older).
Golf
* Lee University senior Peyton Sliger from Maryville was the Gulf South Conference men's golfer of the month for September. That was the first such honor for the Flames program. Sliger had a 69.0 stroke average for his first five rounds of the 2015-16 season, which he opened with a fourth-place 138 at the Full Moon Invitational in Calera, Ala. He ended the month as the medalist with a 54-hole 207 in Columbus State's Cougar Invitational. The Flames are scheduled to play this weekend at the University of North Georgia Fall Invitational.
* Sewanee moved up three spots to 11th in the Golfstat NCAA Division III women's team rankings this week, and senior Emily Javadi from Chattanooga is No. 3 nationally and No. 1 in the region.
* Bryan College's Colby Roach closed with a 70 and tied for third overall at 145, making the all-tournament team, and the Lions' Carson Griffin tied for 12th at 149 with Tom Durbin at 151 and Clayton Myers at 154 in a fourth-place team finish in the Reinhardt Invitational early in the week at Waleska, Ga. It was already reported that Georgia Northwestern finished second with the top two individuals, Chase Cole and Jordan Estes, both at 143.
Soccer
* The Dalton State men's soccer team pulled out a 2-1 overtime home win Thursday night its its first-ever Southern States Athletic Conference game, and it came against preseason favorite Auburn-Montgomery, which is ranked 10th in the NAIA. That made the Roadrunners 8-2-1 in the program's first year. AUM (6-4-1) took a 1-0 lead but gave up a deflected corner kick for an equalizing goal late in the first half. Freshman goalkeeper Diego Gonzalez starred throughout for Dalton State, and classmate Jose Daniel Villalobos headed in the winning goal.
* Cooper Loftin scored in the first half and Charlie Clarke and Joel Glover converted Kevin Roenpage corner kicks into goals late in the second half in Bryan's 3-2 Appalachian Athletic Conference men's soccer win Wednesday againt Reinhardt. The Reinhardt women rose to 7-1-1, 2-1 in the AAC, with a 1-0 victory that included 14 saves by Morgana Hardt da Silva for Bryan (3-5, 1-2).
* The Covenant-Piedmont men's soccer match Wednesday night wound up a 1-1 draw through two overtime periods.
Football
* With players from St. Jude and OLPH together, the Catholic Rams middle school football team finished OLPH's fifth undefeated season but first since 1966 on Thursday with a 36-6 defeat of Dayton City Middle. OLPH has had a team since 1937 and won a mythical national championship in 1955 as part of its 22 championships. The Rams were unbeaten in 1949, 1962, 1965 and 1966 and have had 20 one-loss seasons since then. Led by Dallas Brown, who ran for two touchdowns, threw for one and caught a TD pass Thursday, they wound up 11-0 this year under coaching brothers Bill and Bucky Dearing. The only time they trailed was Tuesday night, when they scored with less than two minutes to go in beating Silverdale Baptist Academy 14-8.