Troy Van Zile is UTC’s new assistant athletic director for development.Former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga runner Lanni Marchant earned a bronze medal for her native Canada in the Pan American Games that just concluded in Toronto, and another Moc, Nicole Osterman, helped in a bronze performance for Puerto Rico in softball. Two other former UTC softball players, Ninja Suetsugu and Vivian Morimoto, helped Brazil finish fourth, one spot behind Osterman’s team. They both were in the biennial Pan Am Games for the fourth time. Canada edged the United States in the gold-silver matchup. “It’s awesome that we have such great representation,” UTC softball coach Frank Reed said in a school release. “This is an indication of the quality of the student-athletes we have here at UTC. They have trained hard and have done a great job of representing Chattanooga, UTC and their country.” Osterman, who started all 50 games for the Southern Conference champion Mocs in the 2015 season, had the hit that provided Puerto Rico’s two runs against the Netherlands. Marchant, the 2007 Southern Confference female athlete of the year, is Canada’s female record-holder in the marathon but passed up the 26.2-mile race in the Pan Am Games after sustaining an injury in training. She finished third in the 10,000-meter run in 32 minutes, 46.03 seconds. Mexico’s Brenda Flores won in 32:41.33, and U.S. runner Desiree Davila-Linden was second.
* Troy Van Zile has been hired as UTC’s assistant athletic director for development. The hiring was announced Wednesday by vice chancellor and athletic director David Blackburn, who noted in a release that Van Zile “has extensive experience in fundraising and an enthusiastic approach that will help continue the growth of the Mocs Club.” The new assistant AD spent the last year as executive vice president of university development for Impacts Unlimited in Nashville. He previously served seven years in college athletics work, including a stint as assistant AD for development and marketing at Lamar University. He began his career as the event and entertainment manager for the Peoria (Ill.) Chiefs minor league baseball team. A Wisconsin native, he has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sport management from Wisconsin-LaCrosse.
Softball
* The Lighthouse Lookouts/Athletic Shop slowpitch softball team finished fifth in the 50-over major division of the Softball Players Association senior major and major-plus tournament last weekend at Heritage Point in Dalton. The Lighthouse Lookouts split their pool games Friday, winning 27-11 and losing 20-19, and went into bracket play seeded seventh out of 15 teams from throughout the country. They lost 28-24 to Alabama Brick on Friday but on Saturday beat the Atlanta Monarchs 16-15 as right fielder Tony Bartley made a game-saving catch in the seventh inning and then won 17-7 over the Arkansas team that beat them in pool play and 41-24 over Monster Softball, an old nemesis from Memphis, with a 19-run seventh inning, before losing again to Alabama Brick. Team USA from Maryland won the tournament. Art Pendergrass, David Reynolds and Butch Womack went a combined 16-for-16 for the Lookouts in the Monster game. Pendergrass was 20-for-23 with 20 RBIs for the tournament, Mark Talley was 18-for-24 with 15 RBIs and Womack was 20-for-29 with 12 RBIs in earning all-tournament honors. Also, Reynolds was 17-for-25 with nine RBIs, Blake Parham was 12-for-18 with 11 RBIs, Van Shumaker went 19-for-29 with four homers and 14 RBIs, Kevin Highsmith hit .636 with 13 RBIs, Jeff Jones batted .625 and Rodney Waters batted .571 with five homers and 19 RBIs.