Up-and-coming undefeated professional lightweight boxer Ryan Martin will be on the July 16 card at Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Ala., headlined by WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder in a title defense against Chris Arreola. Martin grew up in the YCAP Boxing Club in Chattanooga, which hosted the 2007 National Golden Gloves tournament in which Tuscaloosa, Ala., resident Wilder earned his first national championship and a berth in the 2008 Olympics. Wilder - who worked out some with some other national team members at the YCAP facility - turned pro not long after earning a bronze medal. Martin, 14-0 with 9-0 knockouts as a pro, may fight twice more in 2016. "Tentatively we're projected for two more eight-round bouts," said his manager, Tim VanNewhouse, "one in the fall and one at the end of the year on HBO International."
Tennis
- Caroline Hall of Atlanta is transferring from Wisconsin to play for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She has three years of eligibility left after going 8-3 in singles as a Badgers freshman. "We are delighted that Caroline is coming to Chattanooga," Mocs coach Jeff Clark said in a UTC release Friday. "She is a competitor on the tennis court, and I know she will have an immediate impact on our team." Hall was a four-star recruit out of high school, when she was part of the Laurel Springs online school and trained at the Lifetime Tennis Academy as a junior and senior. She won two matches and reached the round of 16 last week at a Florida State ITA Summer Circuit tournament in Tallahassee.
Track and field
- Arts & Sciences standout Lennex Walker led a host of area athletes who made this year's Tennessee Sports Writers Association's high school track and field all-state teams that were released Friday. Walker was selected for four events: the 100-meter hurdles, long jump, pentathlon and triple jump. Other girls' honorees: in Class AAA, Cleveland's Maddie Coulthard (pole vault); in A/AA, Brainerd's Ebony Callaway (300 hurdles) and Simone Hicks (shot put), Chattanooga Christian's Olivia Hoffman (400) and Sydney Ibach (pole vault), Signal Mountain's Camryn Bowman (discus, shot put), McKenzie Ethridge (100, 200), Katie Lingle (triple jump) and Stephanie Peterson (3200), Tyner Academy's Nicole Johnson (100) and Alexis Wilson (100); in Division II, Baylor's Rachel Smith (pole vault). Boys' honorees: in Class AAA, Rhea County's Chase Sholl (100 hurdles, decathlon); in A/AA, Red Bank's Kedrick Wilbanks (200) and Tyner Academy's Gerry Davis (shot put); in Division II, Baylor's Ryan Parker (discus, shot put) and McCallie's Tons Ferguson (high jump, triple jump), Hakim McMorris (triple jump), Pete Pritchard (pole vault), Jay Roberts (shot put) and Andrew Sharpe (pole vault).
Golf
- Cleveland's Dylan Lillard tied for 18th as the highest-placing area golfer in the Tennessee Junior Amateur Championship, which finished Friday at The Legacy in Springfield. Lillard, who tied two others at 4-over-par 217 in the 54-hole Tennessee Golf Association tournament, dropped one spot from a day before after closing with a 3-over-par 74. He shot the same score in Wednesday's opening round before his 69 on Thursday. Lillard finished one shot out of 16th place and three shots out of a top-10 performance. William Nottingham of Kingsport repeated as champion - he's the sixth boy to accomplish that feat - finishing at 11-under 202 for a three-stroke victory over Hendersonville's Bryce Lewis, who was three strokes ahead of a trio who shared third. Nottingham and Lewis each shot a 68 in the final round. Sewanee's Tommy Oliver tied for 26th at 7-over 220, and Cleveland's Parker Gray and Ben Rebne from Ringgold, Ga., finished at 9-over 222 as part of a three-way tie for 35th to place in the top half of the field.