Fourteen area high school players made the 2016 Tennessee Sports Writers Association all-state softball and baseball teams. Nine were in softball, including five from the schools that finished first, second and third in the Class A state tournament: Kaley Meadows and Ashley Rogers from Meigs County, Lindsey Newell and Emily Harkleroad from Silverdale Baptist and Harlie Jordan from Marion County. Other local softball all-staters were Baylor’s Crosby Huckabay amd Cheyenne Lindsey, Ooltewah’s Kayla Boseman and Central’s Alexis Grampp. The TSWA’s area baseball all-state selections were Tre Carter from Soddy-Daisy, Brandon Thompson from Bradley Central, Cade Evans from Boyd-Buchanan, Walker Malone from Meigs County and Quinn Smith from McCallie.
Academics
‘ Led by Southern Conference individual golf champion Megan Woods, SoCon indoor 800-meter winner Maddison Melchionna and track and field teammate Keeley Stewart with 4.0 cumulative grade point averages, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga had 51 listings on the 2016 spring academic all-conference team. The 51 included 12 duplications from women’s indoor and outdoor track and field but was the third highest total in the SoCon, even though UTC has the fewest number of spring-semester teams in the league. Among those are men’s and women’s basketball and wrestling, which begin in the fall semester. The other 36 Mocs listed are basketball players Eric Robertson, Ansley Chilton, Anna Claire Noblit and Alicia Payne; wrestlers Jared Johnson and John Lampe; golfers Wes Gosselin, Stuart Thomas, Kory Webb, Sarah Dolmovich, Isabella Loza and Emily McLennan; tennis players Michael Birnbaum, Lucas Plesky, Nick Wingord, Samantha Caswell, Katie Polk and Alison Storie; softball players Criket Blanco, Katy Richardson, Anyssa Robles, Jesslyn Stockard, Alyssa Taylor and Sam Taylor; and track and field athletes Mercedes Bright, Hannah Chamblin, Anna Kate Chance, Makala Diggs, Emily Drouin, Teghan Henderson, Kiaana Howard, Helenka Kis, Katie Ray, Chandler Rogers, Nicole Sumida and Jessica York. One of the league’s other 4.0 athletes was East Tennessee State’s Brooke Baxter from Marion County, joined on the academic all-conference team by softball teammates Madison Boyd from GPS and Bethany Cowart from Grace Academy. And Samford’s honorees included basketball player Kassidy Blevins from Gordon Lee and track and field athlete Emily Eustace from Scottsboro, Ala.