McMinn County’s Logan Teague and McCallie’s Jay Moorefield both lost their first ladder matches Friday morning in the TSSAA state bowling individual finals in Smyrna, Tenn., leaving Teague sixth in the Division I boys’ tournament and Moorefield third in Division II as the Chattanooga area’s highest finishers. But the bigger news was that no team champions will be crowned this weekend.
The team quarterfinals were called off for Friday afternoon because of treacherous driving conditions in much of the state, and then the competition was canceled altogether.
“The safety of the student-athletes, coaches, family members and fans is top priority,” read an email from the TSSAA’s Matthew Gillespie late Friday afternoon, “and the extremely bad road conditions in Middle Tennessee and throughout the state have led to this decision. We will communicate with the Smyrna Bowling Center staff in regards to options of rescheduling the team competition as soon as possible.”
Teague lost his Division I ladder match 190 to 184 to fifth-seeded Chase Ford of Lipscomb Academy, and Moorefield fell 153-147 to Christian Brothers’ Bradley Pounds before Pounds lost 185-150 to top-seeded Donny Turner of Friendship Christian. Columbia Central freshman Luke Flatt beat senior teammate Jonathan Colbaugh while Ashley Channel of Hardin County won 190-189 over Siegel’s Danielle Jedlicki for the Division I championships, and Caroline Conrad defeated Grace Becker in an all-St. Agnes girls’ Division II final.
Wrestling
‘ The first of four NCAA coaches’ panel rankings for the 2015-16 season included six University of Tennessee at Chattanooga wrestlers: junior heavyweight Jared Johnson (18-3) at No. 13, junior 141-pounder Michael Pongracz (17-2) at No. 22, senior 184-pounder John Lampe (9-1) and junior 197-pounder Scottie Boykin (14-6) at No. 23, freshman 157-pounder Kamaal Shakur (19-5) at No. 24 and junior 174-pounder Sean Mappes (13-7) at No. 33. All of Johnson’s losses this season have been to opponents ranked in the top 10. UTC’s six in the rankings are the most for a Southern Conference program, with Appalachian State second with four. The Mocs wrestle next at Davidson on Jan. 31.
Tennis
‘ The UTC women’s tennis match scheduled for Friday night against Lipscomb was postponed, but coach Jeff Clark’s Mocs still plan to play at noon Sunday in Knoxville against Tennessee. The Vols won last year’s meeting 4-3.
Basketball
‘ Weather and expected weather have changed much of the weekend area college basketball schedule, most notably delaying Chattanooga State’s and Cleveland State’s TCCAA doubleheaders at Columbia State and Jackson State from Friday and today to Sunday and Monday. Hiwassee canceled its home games today against Barber-Scotia, and the Georgia Northwestern men’s game against Welch has been reset for Feb. 11.
Tennessee Wesleyan’s AAC home doubleheader against Montreat was pushed back from today to Sunday, but Bryan was planning as of Friday to still host Truett-McConnell today, only starting at 5 p.m. instead of at 2 The Covenant men’s game today at Averett in Virginia was called off Thursday, but the Covenant women already are in Raleigh, N.C., and planned to play as scheduled today at Meredith. Dalton State’s men are playing two hours earlier today at Middle Georgia State, at 2 p.m., and Lee University is hosting the Christian Brothers teams today, still beginning at 2 as of Friday.
Boxing
‘ The 20-bout, three-state amateur boxing event scheduled for tonight at the Luken Sports Facility in Red Bank has been postponed, host club director Skipper Fairbanks announced. Teams from Knoxville and Madisonville, Tenn., already had said they would be unable to attend because of the ice and snow they faced even before the renewed precipitation expected Friday night, Fairbanks said, leaving too many holes in the fight card. The event is tentatively rescheduled for Feb. 27.