Megan Dirkmaat McCourt is the new head rowing coach for GPS.Former University of California standout Megan Dirkmaat McCourt has been hired as head rowing coach for Girls Preparatory School. She is a six-time member of the U.S. national team, with whom she won a silver medal in the 8+ boat in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, and a 2007 FISA 4+ world championship, and she was a Stanford assistant coach and worked with the prestigious Los Gatos Rowing Club in California. “I am very excited to have the opportunity to become part of the GPS Rowing family,” McCourt said in a school release. “I look forward to working with assistant coaches Whitney Standefer and Catherine Ingalls, as well as the girls.” Said athletic director Stacey Hill: “I am pleased that our coaching search has uncovered an individual superior in experience and knowledge of the sport.” GPS will be participating Oct. 15 in the famed Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston.
* Mont Echols III of New Orleans led the way Thursday in the rain in the MC Masters national sailing regatta out of Privateer Yacht Club on Lake Chickamauga. Bill Draheim of Texas and Scott Harestad of Michigan were second and third in the 50-59 age division and overall in the competition for 16-foot MC Scows. It is scheduled to last two more days. PYC’s Chris Cyrul was 17th overall and regatta chairman Steve Sherman was first in the Mega Masters division (70-older).
Golf
* Lee University senior Peyton Sliger from Maryville was the Gulf South Conference men’s golfer of the month for September. That was the first such honor for the Flames program. Sliger had a 69.0 stroke average for his first five rounds of the 2015-16 season, which he opened with a fourth-place 138 at the Full Moon Invitational in Calera, Ala. He ended the month as the medalist with a 54-hole 207 in Columbus State’s Cougar Invitational. The Flames are scheduled to play this weekend at the University of North Georgia Fall Invitational.
* Sewanee moved up three spots to 11th in the Golfstat NCAA Division III women’s team rankings this week, and senior Emily Javadi from Chattanooga is No. 3 nationally and No. 1 in the region.