Senior Peyton Sliger and junior Shea Sylvester from the Lee University men's golf team and sophomore Sam Burrus and seniors Callie Kitchens and Bernadette Little from the Lady Flames were All-Gulf South Conference first-team choices announced Thursday, and Flames senior Taylor Davis and Lady Flames sophomore Caroline Moore were second-teamers. Sylvester, incidentally, is one of 30 NCAA Division II semifinalists for the Jack Nicklaus Award. Both Lee teams will be playing Monday through Wednesday in Florida in the NCAA postseason - at Howey-in-the-Hills in the men's South/Southeast Regional and at Pensacola in the women's South Super Regional. They'll be shooting for national berths in Denver.
Softball
- Top-seeded Reinhardt beat No. 2 seed Bryan 6-0 in the Appalachian Athletic Conference softball tournament Thursday in Kingsport, Ind. Six players had a single apiece for Bryan (29-22), which will play No. 5 seed Milligan (27-17) in the losers-bracket final at 11 this morning, with the winner then having to beat Reinhardt (40-10) twice for the championship. Third-seeded Tennessee Wesleyan (25-18) edged Truett-McConnell 3-2 but lost 8-5 to Milligan. Alyssa King was 2-for-3 against the fourth-seeded Bears, and Stephanie Bridges and Baylee Sutton each had two hits and scored a run; Alexis Adams had the Lady Bulldogs' third RBI in the first inning and got the pitching save in relief of Courtney Jones. Against Milligan, Bridges had two RBIs and Briana Muller was 2-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored. Micalah Sacre and Maddie Evans combined for five RBIs for Reinhardt. Bryan's Lacye Walker was the Tennessee Sports Writer Association's college player of the week for last week, when she went 10-for-20 with a homer, three doubles, five RBIs and seven runs scored in six games.
- Kelsey Payne from East Hamilton was one of two first-team All-Southern States Athletic Conference softball players from Brenau University for 2016. Payne has a .391 batting average with 103 hits and 34 RBIs. Brenau's Savannah Moore from Soddy-Daisy and Megan Wolinsky from Gordon Lee were SSAC all-academic picks from the Gainesville, Ga., school. Payne was 2-for-3 and scored the run and Moore was 1-for-2 as Brenau lost 5-1 to Bethel (Tenn.) in the SSAC tournament Thursday in Montgomery, Ala.
- Katie Pritchett from Heritage High School hit a two-run home run that propelled Carson-Newman to a 3-1 victory Thursday in the South Atlantic Conference softball tournament at Hartsville, S.C. The Eagles (30-19) will face Lenoir-Rhyne at 12:30 p.m. today.
- The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga softball team plays this weekend at UNC Greensboro, which is tied for second place in the Southern Conference with UTC and East Tennessee State, the Mocs' opponent next weekend. The Mocs and Spartans are scheduled to play two games Saturday, starting at 1 p.m., and a single game again at 1 on Sunday. "They're a good team," UTC coach Frank Reed said in a school release. "I'm expecting it to be three hard-fought games. Everyone's looking for that consistency and to have that push going in the Southern Conference tournament."
- Chattanooga State won 3-1 in eight innings and lost 11-3 in five in TCCAA softball Thursday night at Columbia State. Brie Levy's seventh-inning homer tied the score for the Lady Tigers (39-17, 26-8) in the first game, and extra-inning homers by Lillie McCrary and Jordan Roberts made a winner of pitcher Labrisha Washington. Colbie Thomas was 3-for-4 with a double. In the loss, Shannon Plese was 2-for-3 with two RBIs and Madison Kurtz was 2-for-2 and scored twice. Kayla Logoleo had two hits in each game.
Basketball
- Arts & Sciences post player Todd Lansden signed scholarship papers Thursday to continue his basketball career at Tennessee Wesleyan College in Athens. The 6-foot-6 post averaged about 15 points, just under 12 rebounds and a couple of blocked shots a game for the Patriots as a senior. "He had a couple of games with 20 rebounds," CSAS coach Mark Dragoo said. "He's one of the best rebounders we've ever had. He's very instinctive on that. And he's still young, so he has a lot of up side. He can play in the post or he could play the 3. He can face the basket and score." Lansden said he also talked to Columbia State, Kennesaw State, Truett-McConnell and Maryville but liked TWC because "I just felt like it was more a home away from home, and they were sticking with me from the beginning. They came to more of my games than anybody, and I played some with their guys and they made me feel welcome."
Fishing
- Gordon Lee High School senior Mason Sims made his commitment official to join the Lee University fly fishing club team later this year by signing scholarship papers Thursday at the Cleveland school. The college decision for the United States youth team member already had been reported, but he said Thursday he didn't know where he would've gone if the Lee opportunity had not arisen. The two sides had been in contact for "about a year and a half," he said. "I'd still be fishing for fun, but I probably wouldn't be fishing competitively anymore," said Sims, the son and nephew of former Carson-Newman football players. "I know I wanted some kind of Christian ministry degree."