Longtime teammates April Forsthoffer and Kristen Myers will be separating next school year, but both Girls Preparatory School seniors will be swimming for NCAA Division I universities. They signed letters of intent last November with Drexel and Evansville, respectively, but it was Friday morning when GPS held a ceremony for their signings. Forsthoffer is going to the Philadelphia school where her parents met — and where her mother was a crew athlete — and within short drives of both sides of the family and of many of her dad’s fraternity brothers and other friends. She actually was leaning toward Marshall, but it didn’t have her desired major — biomedical engineering — and she also checked out Lehigh and a couple of Atlantic Coast Conference schools. Myers also had a major reason to pick Evansville over Gardner-Webb — the Indiana school “has a better program for sports science,” she said. The girls started swimming year-round together with the Scenic City Aquatic Club — which became McCallie/GPS Aquatics — at the age of 7, soon after Forsthoffer’s family moved from Pennsylvania. Both expect to be used in butterfly events in college, plus freestyle sprints and maybe backstroke in Myers’ case and the individual medley for Forsthoffer. Both are part of GPS’s record 200 medley relay foursome and have been state meet finalists in multiple events with the 2014 state title in the 400 free relay. Both of those relays had All-American times.
Basketball
* Ugo Mmonu had 24 points and 14 rebounds and Brandon Shingles scored 17 points off the bench as Chattanooga State won 85-74 in TCCAA men’s basketball Friday night against Volunteer State in Gallatin, Tenn. Chaunce Watkins added 11 points for the Tigers (14-5, 9-3). Sydney Sims scored 22 in the Lady Tigers’ 86-64 loss.
* Keshonn Carter had 22 points and 15 rebounds, including eight on the offensive backboards, as Sewanee beat visiting Oglethorpe 80-69 in Southern Athletic Association men’s basketball Friday night. Jorden Williams had 16 points with four 3-point baskets and four assists and Marcellus Caldwell had 13 points and 10 assists for the Tigers (11-7, 5-2). The Stormy Petrels are 14-4, 5-2. Oglethorpe won the women’s game 79-77 as Emily Buck scored 26 points and Claira Hughes had 22 points and 16 rebounds. For Sewanee (10-7, 2-5), Hannah McCormack scored 21 points, Jamie Chauvin had 20 plus 12 rebounds, Casey Hassett combined 15 points with eight reoubnds and three blocked shots, Rebekah Faulkner was 10-of-10 on free throws and Kayla Sewell had seven assists with her nine points.
* Georgia Northwestern rallied from seven points down with 8:23 to play and beat visiting Crown Bible College 77-74 on Thursday. Veshawn Bell had 24 points and five assists and Devin Watkins and Cameron Sherlin scored 13 and 12 points for the Bobcats (7-13), who got a major spark from reserve Darius Floyd in the winning surge. Watkins also deflected a 3-point try at the horn by Crown’s Chad Mainous, who scored 21 points.
Baseball
* Leadoff man Siosi Poti went 4-for-4 with a home run, two stolen bases and two RBIs as Lee University led off its baseball season Friday afternoon with a 10-1 home win over Emmanuel. Josh Tate was 3-for-4 and scored two runs, Ben Holland was 3-for-5, Luke Toms had two hits and scored twice and Trenton Hill both drove in and scored two runs in addition to allowing three hits and striking out eight batters in his six-inning pitching start. MJ Brown pinch-hit for Hill with a two-run hit, and Andres Nelo also scored twice.
* Tennessee Wesleyan scored three runs with only one hit in the top of the 12th inning of its baseball season opener Friday and won 7-5 at Auburn-Montgomery. Ridge Hoopi-Haslam had three hits, including a home run in the eighth inning and a two-run single in the 12th, for TWC, ranked 23rd in the NAIA, and Ryan Phillips hit a three-run homer and doubled, scoring twice. Brandon Landrie got the pitching win with 2 2/3 hitless innings and three strikeouts.
Softball
* Lee University has to wait one more year to get postseason opportunities and all-conference honors in Gulf South Conference softball, but senior pitcher Maddie Bray from Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School and sophomore infielder Ericka Bynum from Ringgold represented Shorter University on the 2015 Preseason All-GSC team. Shorter is now a full-fledged league member. Sophomore pitcher/infielder Emily Glover from Scottsboro was one of the Alabama-Huntsville selections. Lee, which begins its season today in a home doubleheader against Hiwassee, did have two players listed among the top newcomers: junior tranfers Emily Dagnan from Chattanooga State and NiaRaye Ceasar from Mount San Antonio.