With six players finishing in the top 10, two of them not even counting toward the team score, the Dalton State College women’s golfers rolled to a 23-stroke victory Monday and Tuesday in the seven-school Thomas University Fall Invitational in Valdosta, Georgia. Ranked fourth in the NAIA, coach Jim McGrew’s Lady Roadrunners built a 21-shot margin with their first-round 299 and wound up at 609. No. 13 Southeastern was second at 632 on the Kinderlou Forest course. DSC’s Isabel Rijos tied for second on the leaderboard at 150, and Megan Donahue was fourth at 151 with Haejin Choe tied for fifth at 152. Cameron Daniel and first-day leader Sydney Hermann shared seventh with 153s, Katelyn Skiffen tied for ninth at 154 and Hannah Gasaway tied for 16th. Freshmen Donahue and Hermann led all the participants who played as individuals.
* University of Tennessee at Chattanooga sophomore Esme Hamilton was chosen as both the Southern Conference’s women’s golfer of the week and the league’s overall General Shale student-athlete of the week. She led the first round with a 65 and finished third at 205 in the Princess Anne Invitational at Virginia Beach, and she is an environmental studies major with a 4.0 GPA. The 65 set a program record; the 205 tied one.
* Led by Michael Olmsted’s ninth-place 141 (69-72) and Tommy Oliver’s 14th-sharing 142 (74-68), Division III’s 23rd-ranked Sewanee men finished eighth out of 18 teams this week in the Royal Lakes Fall Invitational in Flowery Branch, Georgia. Oliver led the field with 13 birdies. Zack Russell shot 145 for the Tigers, who totaled 579; No. 13 Hampden-Sydney won with a 559. Covenant was 18th at 630, led by Nathan Hawkins’ 148.
Football
* UTC running back Ailym Ford received STATS national freshman of the week honorable mention for the third time this season after rushing for 116 yards and a touchdown in last Saturday’s 34-17 win at Mercer. His 32 carries were the most in a game by a Moc since Terrell Robinson’s 32 against Furman in 2011. Ford leads all Football Championship Subdivision freshmen with 92.8 rushing yards per game.