Baylor School senior Simon Holden finished ninth in the boys’ seeded race of the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships South Regional meet Saturday at McAlpine Greenway Park in Charlotte, N.C. That qualified him for the national meet Dec. 8 at Balboa Park in San Diego. Holden’s time of 15 minutes, 4 seconds for the 5-kilometer course Saturday was a personal record by 55 seconds, according to Baylor coach Jan Gautier. He was 10 seconds behind third-place finisher Aaron Templeton from Knoxville’s Hardin Valley Academy; Quintin McKinnish of Morristown West was seventh in 15:00. Sean McGorty of Fairfax, Va., broke the course record with a 14:28. Former Brentwood Academy standout Andrew Bumbalough had set the old standard of 14:32 in 2004. Holden is the sixth Baylor runner to qualify for the Foot Locker nationals. As for other Baylor entrants at Charlotte, Ruthie Townsend was third in 18:53 in the grades 11-12 girls’ race and made first-team All-South, Grace Carlson was 23rd in the ninth-grade girls’ race in 19:52 and was third-team All-South and John Carlson finished in 17:49 in the ninth-grade boys’ division. Signal Mountain’s Mallory Young was third-team All-South for sophomore girls with a 19:53.
Basketball
• After both Bryan College and Tennessee Wesleyan won their men’s basketball games Friday night in the latter’s Dwain Farmer Classic in Athens, they swapped opponents Saturday afternoon and lost. Indiana University East, ranked 22nd in the NAIA Division II preseason poll, bounced back to down No. 17 Wesleyan 84-81 after Voorhees beat Bryan 74-61. Brandon Allen had 19 points and 11 rebounds for Voorhees (7-4), countering 18 points from Carrin Nash, 14 from Tim Fortenberry and 12 plus seven rebounds from Brandon Cole for Bryan (3-6). The Lions committed 24 turnovers to 14 for Voorhees and shot 32.1 percent to the South Carolina team’s 51.5 percent in the second half after leading with a 52.2 percent first half. Wesleyan fell to 3-5 although Zamarius McClendon had 18 points and 18 rebounds (seven offensive) and Matt Harper also scored 18 points. The Bulldogs also got 12 points and eight rebounds from Derek Triplett, another 12 points from Dante Turnipseed, 10 points and four assists from Desmond Crisp and nine points, seven rebounds, five assists and four steals from Shannon Smith. Tyler Fangman and Huston Clark led five double-figure scorers for IUE (5-2) with 22 and 19 points and also brought down seven and nine rebounds.
Football
• Carson-Newman College outlasted South Atlantic Conference rival Lenoir-Rhyne 38-35 in the NCAA Division II football playoffs’ second round Saturday at Jefferson City, Tenn., and will play this Saturday at top-seeded Valdosta Sate in the quarterfinals. Senior center Kevin Day from Soddy-Daisy is the lead lineman for the Eagles team that netted 397 rushing yards and allowed quarterback Brandon Haywood to go 6-for-7 passing for 107 yards in addition to running for 108 and the winning 21-yard touchdown with 2:58 to go. Brandon Baker and Tyron Douglas ran for 145 and 130 yards and three touchdowns between them for Carson-Newman (9-2), which jumped ahead 24-7 with a three-TD second quarter but fell behind 35-31 with 8:51 to go. The Bears (9-3) also had three 100-yard rushers but got only 43 passing yards on three completions from senior quarterback Reuben Haynes, who did run for two 2-yard TDs. He was out with an injury when Carson-Newman won their regular-season matchup 47-23 on Sept. 15. Greg Beauduy had 10 solo tackles and three assists and Jamar Neal was in on 10 stops for Carson-Newman, which overcame losing two fumbles and one Haywood interception. “There were so many times where we could have backed up or stepped up,” Eagles coach Ken Sparks said. “There were so many times we could have disintegrated from within or we could glue together and decide that we were going to get it done. I’m proud of our kids for getting it done.”