The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga was eighth in the final Football Championship Subdivision coaches’ poll for the 2015 season and ninth in the STATS Top 25, giving the Mocs two consecutive seasons to finish in the top 10. They wound up eighth in both recognized polls last year and were 23rd in STATS and 25th in the coaches’ voting in 2013. North Dakota State got all 25 first-place votes from the coaches after defeating previously top-ranked Jacksonville State in the FCS national final Saturday. JSU’s Gamecocks – who gave UTC two of its four losses, including in the second round of the playoffs – were No. 2 with Richmond third and Sam Houston State fourth. The STATS top four were NDSU, JSU, Sam Houston and Richmond.
Basketball
* With Shelby Brown contributing 18 points and eight rebounds off the bench, the Lee University women’s basketball team whipped visiting Mississippi College 91-68 on Monday. Mississippi College won the men’s game 65-57 in the Gulf South Conference doubleheader. Erin Walsh scored 16 points and Christina Johnson and Haris Price each added 11 for the winning Lady Flames (11-4, 8-2), Johnson with eight rebounds and Price with five steals. Kristen Sampson and Carla Clemmons each scored 15 points in defeat. Keevin Tyus and reserve Chase Cullen had 14 points apiece and nine and six rebounds for the Lee men (3-12, 1-9), who got 11 points from Rico Overall. Tristan Moore led the Choctaws with 19 points, nine coming on free throws.
* Tennessee Wesleyan senior forward Trey Suttles from Chattanooga was announced Monday as the Appalachian Athletic Conference men’s basketball player of the week after averaging 21.3 points, 8.0 rebounds, 3.3 steals and 2.7 assists as the Bulldogs won three games and surged into first place. He had 22 points and 11 rebounds in a 98-84 win at fourth-ranked Union College and 28 points in a 99-90 defeat of St. Andrews. The former Tyner Academy, Cleveland State and Walters State standout leads the AAC with 2.57 steals a game and is averaging 17.4 points.
* Covenant College freshman Joanna Smith from Chattanooga Christian School was named Monday the USA South women’s basketball rookie of the week for the third time this season. Smith averaged 16.5 points, 14 rebounds, 3.5 assists and two steals in the Lady Scots’ two games last week, and she leads the team with 10.9 points, 10.6 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game. That rebounding average is the second best in the league, and she is one of two players in the USA South averaging a double-double.
* Longtime Walters State men’s basketball coach Bill Carlyle can get his 800th win with the Senators in a TCCAA doubleheader Wednesday evening at Chattanooga State, and former Grace Academy star Corey Nelson could help him do it. Nelson was Walters’ third leading scorer, with 16 points, in Friday’s 98-78 win over Richard Bland College at Morristown, Tenn., and had 13 points and seven rebounds in a 72-68 loss Sunday to Spartanburg Methodist. Bledsoe County’s Nathanial Collins is a freshman with the Senators, who are 13-5 for the season. Coach Dave Kragel’s Lady Senators are 18-0 and nationally 12th-ranked coming to Chattanooga. Jay Price’s Chattanooga State men are 14-3, while his Lady Tigers are 9-6, having lost 75-61 Saturday at Snead State. Wednesday’s doubleheader starts with the men’s game at 5:30. Walters plays Saturday at Cleveland State.
Swimming & Diving
* The Sewanee swimming and diving teams lost in competition Sunday at Rhodes College, 166-91 in the women’s meet and 150-110 in the men’s, but Meghan Mulhern for the Sewanee women and Michael Whitehead for the male Tigers each won the 200 and 500 freestyle events and were on the winning 200 free relays. And Jackson Cromer and Will Ralston were on the first-place 200 medley relay and won the backstroke events, and Ralston also helped on the 200 free relay. Sewanee’s Emily Gay, Abby Cole and Haley Thorson were 1-2-3 in the women’s 1000 free.