Chattanooga State hall dinner Friday and other sports news

Arkansas-SEMO Live Blog

The Chattanooga State softball team that won this year's junior college national championship is making a quick entrance into the school's sports hall of fame. The 2012 Lady Tigers will be inducted at Friday's dinner ceremony at the Walden Club along with the man who began the program and its tradition of going to national tournaments, now University of Tennessee at Chattanooga coach Frank Reed. Also part of the third class of inductees is former tennis coach Betty Jones, who also took teams to multiple national tournaments, and 2007 All-America baseball pitcher and TCCAA player of the year Thomas Gray from Ringgold. Dinner is set for 7 p.m.; a reception starts at 6. Tickets cost $40 and must be reserved by Monday by calling 697-2656. Softball coach Beth Keylon-Randolph and assistants Steve Jaecks and Jamie Qualls were honored this past week by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association as the national staff of the year for NJCAA Division I; they previously were picked as one of the three regional coaching staffs of the year.

Golf

• COLUMBUS, Ga. -- Former Baylor School golfer Keith Mitchell from Chattanooga finished fifth, two shots out of first place, Saturday in the Southeastern Amateur tournament at Columbus Country Club. He shot a 77 after three consecutive 69s. Chad Wilson of Calhoun, Ga., also closed with a 77 and was 11th at 287. Dykes Harbin of Augusta, Ga., won a playoff against Sean Kelly of Bradenton, Fla., after each totaled 282.

• The Georgia Junior Championship golf tournament for boys ages 14-17 runs Monday through Wednesday at Doublegate Country Club in Albany, and the 144 entrants include Silas Ledford of Cohutta, John Blevins of Ringgold, Tucker Snipes and Ethan Hayes of Rocky Face, Patrick Sims of Dalton and Colby Hipp and Christoph Kazmeirski of Chatsworth. The top eight finishers will qualify for the Georgia-South Carolina Junior Challenge Match later this summer. There are no area residents in the Georgia Girls' Championship that starts Monday at Legacy on Lake Lanier at Buford.

Auto Racing

• Jason Welshan of Maryville won the Crate/Late Model race Friday night at Boyd's Speedway. He led all 20 laps despite an early challenge from Jeff Smith, who had won with Welshan second two weeks earlier when the Nesmith Dirt Late Models visited the track. Longtime standout Rex Richey finished second Friday with Kenny Kizzar, Andy Pickelsimer and Jerry Coffman completing the top five.

OUTDOORS

• Author and adventurer Dale Stewart from Hendersonville, N.C., will begin a 1,226-mile canoe trip commemorating the Trail of Tears water route at noon Monday from Ross's Landing in Chattanooga. He will paddle the Tennessee, Ohio, Mississippi and Arkansas rivers to Fort Smith, Ark. About 2,800 Cherokee in the forced transport of 1838 to the Oklahoma Indian Territory went by boat, and Stewart's "Four Rivers" trip expected to end about Aug. 20 will help raise funds for the new Cherokee Children's Home being built in the Qualla Boundary at Cherokee, N.C. "Dale's journey will provide new scholarship about the water route of the Trail of Tears and a new vision for the Cherokee children who will benefit from his voyage," Cherokee Eastern Band principal chief Michell Hicks said in an Outdoor Chattanooga release.

• Fly-fisherman and author Bob Shanks will be the featured speaker at Thursday's meeting of the Appalachian Chapter of Trout Unlimited. It is set for 6:30 p.m. at Greenway Farm in Hixson. Shanks, who will sign copies of his book "Around the Next Bend: Adventures in Fly Fishing," will talk about his fishing roots in East Tennessee, going back more than 60 years. And he has fished the last 21 summers in Montana. He is calling his presentation "From Hazel Creek to Slough Creek and Beyond."

• Oklahoma City University rower Jimmy von Peters of Chattanooga is one of 18 invitees at the US Rowing men's under-23 national team sculling camp to select United States representatives for the U23 World Championships in Lithuania next month. The camp will continue through July 1; the Worlds are set for July 11-15. Von Peters went to Red Bank High School and was part of Chattanooga Junior Rowing. His CJR success got him a scholarship to OCU, and he was an All-American as a freshman and a national champion in men's open single at the American Collegiate Rowing Association Championships.

Diving

• With diving no longer a part of the Chattanooga Area Swim League, the Chattanooga Area Diving League was formed with Signal Mountain, Stuart Heights, Baylor, McCallie and GPS teams and a North Georgia squad combining Dalton and Calhoun divers. The league's first official competition will be the Signal Mountain Developmental Meet this Friday, starting at 8:30 a.m. The CADL Age Group Diving Championship meet will begin at the same time at the same place on July 12, and league director John Bonds hopes to add meets at Stuart Heights and Dalton in between. In addition to running Baylor Diving Club classes from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Monday through Friday at the Baylor School natatorium, Bonds directs Signal Mountain diving practices Mondays through Thursdays, 9-10:30 a.m., at the town pool. For more information about those sessions or the CADL, email jbonds@baylorschool.org or call 267-8506, ext. 654.

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