The Chattanooga-area high school golf teams competing for a state championship in the Class A/AA tournament at Willowbrook in Manchester have work to do if they want to drive the championship trophy over Monteagle Mountain and into the Scenic City.
But two Chattanooga-area individuals are in position to place a shiny medal on their dressers.
Chattanooga Christian junior Lake Johnson shot a 5-under-par 67 Tuesday and leads Notre Dame senior Alexander Riddle by one stroke heading into the final round today.
"Lake never got close to any kind of trouble and made a couple of key par saves," CCS coach Jim Whitaker said. "He started on the [more difficult] back with nine straight pars, then made five birdies on the front nine. That makes three straight rounds without a bogey. He's peaking at the right time."
The 68 by Riddle, who also competed for the medalist honor last year as an individual and placed second, helped Notre Dame to a second-place team position after the first day of the 2013 tournament, but that is 13 strokes behind Alcoa. The Boyd-Buchanan boys are 34 strokes off the lead.
"The good news is that winning is not out of reach," Notre Dame coach Jeff Fisher said. "Two years ago we came back from almost as big of a deficit. I'm not giving up the ship just yet."
The Boyd-Buchanan girls are 10 strokes off the lead set by Sullivan South after the Lady Bucs shot a 166. But they're in fourth place as Milan shot 161 and Macon County shot 162.
"Sullivan South is eating everybody's lunch," Boyd-Buchanan coach Ed Connelly said. "Our girls were fairly pleased. They're determined to do better tomorrow."
Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6484. Follow him at twitter.com/UchiyamaCTFP