Tennessee Wesleyan University and Bryan College shared the Appalachian Athletic Conference regular-season baseball championship and went to the NAIA tournament last season, and they have been picked first and second in the league for 2019. Already ranked 12th and 15th in the NAIA poll, TWU’s Bulldogs and Bryan’s Lions totaled 63 and 56 points in the AAC coaches’ preseason voting, with Reinhardt third out of 10 teams at 50 and Point fourth at 47.
* Tennessee Wesleyan got one of the first-place votes and the No. 4 spot in the AAC softball coaches’ preseason poll, and Bryan was picked ninth out of 14 teams. Truett McConnell led the balloting with six firsts and 142 points, while Brenau was second with four firsts and 128 points and Reinhardt was a close third at 125, with one No. 1. TWU with 106 shaded Point and Union (Kentucky) with 104 apiece.
Basketball
* McCallie School graduate Jr. Clay of Tennessee Tech was selected the Ohio Valley Conference men’s basketball freshman of the week after totaling 35 points, 16 rebounds, five assists and three steals in the Golden Eagles’ last two games, including Saturday’s loss at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He had 20 points and nine rebounds against Winthrop.
Track & Field
* Tia Davis from Ooltewah broke her Carson-Newman women’s record for the 60-meter dash with a 7.84-second preliminary win and then won the final in 7.90 Saturday in Roanoke College’s Bast-Cregger Invitational indoor track and field meet. Her previous school record was 7.91, set last season.
* Saturday in the Vanderbilt Opener that included NCAA teams, Tennessee Wesleyan got a second place in the 400-meter dash and a sixth in the 200 from Devonte Fletcher plus seven other NAIA national qualifying standards. Fletcher’s 48.08-second 400 is currently the best in the NAIA, and the Bulldogs’ Dillan Elkins is third with his ninth-place 49.00 at Vanderbilt. He also was an NAIA qualifier at 10th in the 200, two spots behind teammate Kenny Benton, who just missed another qualifying time with his 11th place in the 60. Neville Smith and Isaiah Woodruff were eighth and ninth with NAIA distances in the triple jump. TWU’s Alexandria Johnson was 11th and set a school record of 25.64 in the women’s 200, where Moesha Moncrieffe also had a qualifying time (25.80). Also at the meet, Johnson (7.95) and Moncrieffe (7.92) took turns setting the TWU women’s record in the 60.
Swimming
* Sewanee was third in the women’s standings and fourth in the men’s at the Transylvania Invitational swimming and diving meet this past weekend in the University of Kentucky pool, concluding the 2018 part of the Tigers’ schedule. Sewanee freshman Gabby Acker won the 100- and 200-yard women’s breaststroke events and was part of three third-place relays and a fourth-place team with Kate Mabry, Anna Hawkins Dulaney/Lucy Rudman and Annie Heller. Mabry was third in the 200 individual medley and the 100 backstroke, and diver Noel Whitlock won the 3-meter and was second in the 1-meter. In the men’s competition, Sewanee’s Anthony Carbone won the 200 freestyle in 1:42.30, second-best time in program history, and was third in the individual medley, and James Hoyt was second in the 1650 free.
Golf
* Nicole Adam of Pinecrest, North Carolina – granddaughter of Red Bank residents Jim and Nancy Sims – had an outstanding summer and fall of golf competition and soared from 170th to 66th in Golfweek’s national rankings of junior golfers and to 17th among 11th-grade girls, plus No. 1 in the state in her class of 2020 and No. 3 overall. Her several top-five summer finishes included prestigious wins in the CGA Dogwood State Junior Girls and the U.S. Kids Teen World, and in October she was a high school state runner-up (NCISAA Division II). She reached match play in the 2018 U.S. Girls’ Junior at Pebble Beach and has committed to North Carolina for college.