The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga had four Southern Conference athletes of the month for February: Casey Jones for men's basketball, Sean Boyle for wrestling and Sam Taylor as the overall player and Taylor Deason as the pitcher for softball. Taylor, a junior outfielder from Gordon Lee, had a .499 batting average in February with eight doubles, a triple and a home run. She also scored 15 runs and had seven RBIs to help the Mocs go 11-4 in the month, and she had six multihit games. Deason, meanwhile, was 6-2 with a 1.54 earned run average, 57 strikeouts and only six extra-base hits allowed in 50 innings pitched in February. Their Mocs (17-7) play today at 5 p.m. game at Georgia State in Atlanta, and they will make their home and SoCon debut with a three-game series Saturday and Sunday against UNC Greensboro. Before winning the SoCon 125-pound championship this month, Boyle went 4-0 in February with an overtime win over a top-five wrestler from top-ranked Iowa and a 9-3 victory in the Mocs' defeat of Oklahoma. He is one of seven UTC wrestlers competing this week in the NCAA nationals. Jones averaged 15 points and 8.1 rebounds as the basketball Mocs went 7-1 in February, securing the No. 2 seed for the conference tournament. He had 23 points and eight rebounds in a win over champion Wofford on Feb. 12 and two days later had 20 points, 10 rebounds, six assists and three blocked shots in a defeat of Samford.
Basketball
* Lee University is seeded No. 1 in both the men's and women's National Christian College Athletic Association basketball tournaments beginning Wednesday at Grace College in Winona Lake, Ind. Coach Tommy Brown's Lee men play at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday against Crowley's Ridge, a 23-win team from Arkansas that fell to UT-Martin and New Orleans among six losses. Marty Rowe's Lady Flames, who finished second in last year's tournament, open at noon Wednesday against Southwestern Assemblies of God University from Texas.
Baseball
* Nathan Wierzgac's eighth-inning double scoring Josh Tate held up for a 7-6 baseball win for Lee University on Monday and a three-game Gulf South Conference series sweep of Mississippi College. Trenton Hill was 3-for-4 with a two-run home run and Luke Toms joined Wierzgac with two hits and an RBI for the Flames (16-7-1), while Tate was 1-for-2 and scored twice.
* The Sewanee baseball team began its Florida trip by thrashing Alfred State 17-1 on Monday in Winter Haven. Jackson Cooper was 3-for-4 with a triple, four RBIs and three runs scored for the Tigers (5-7), while Tyler Minkkinen also had three hits and Ben Clune and Brett Polston each had two hits and three RBIs.
* Cleveland State followed 6-0 and 12-4 home wins Sunday against Southwest Tennessee with a 17-10 loss Monday that dropped the Cougars to 10-7 overall and 3-5 in the TCCAA. Jake Wyrick pitched a two-hitter with 11 strikeouts, Sheldon Brogden homered and Caleb Longley went 2-for-2 with three RBIs in the first win, when Connor Coakley, Wright Hackett and Chris Caffrey also had two hits each. Longley had five RBIs and Cole Baxley had three in the second win, when Janson Roberson was 3-for-4, Jammer Strickland was 2-for-3 with three runs and Hackett and Coakley had two hits apiece again. Anthony Hunt had five RBIs and Hackett and Roberson had two each Monday, and Clay Hetland was 3-for-5 with two runs.
Golf
* The Dalton State men's golf team is tied for fourth at 597 after two rounds Monday in Embry-Riddle's Eagle Invitational at the LPGA International Hills Course at Daytona Beach, Fla., and Tennessee Wesleyan is 12th out of 19 teams. Defending NAIA champion Coastal Georgia leads at 578 with Allen Bradford first individually at 140 and Heritage High School graduate Hunter Cornelius tied for third along with TWC's Evan Ball at 143, with Dalton State's Chase Jones tied for ninth at 146. DSC's Sean Elliott and Maximillian Bruck are tied for 16th and 22nd at 148 and 149.
* Dalton State is tied for seventh out of 14 teams after one round of the women's tournament at the LPGA International Jones Course. The Roadrunners are at 319, 25 behind leader SCAD-Savannah, with Julia McQuilken tied for 16th individually at 77 and Taylor Marie Griner and Caroline Griffin at 79 and 80.