Bryan College bass fishermen Cole Sands, left, and Nathan Bell hold their first-place trophies from the YETI FLW college tournament Saturday on Chickamauga Lake.After 20 years of success in the FLW Tour for bass fishing, Wesley Strader of Spring City moved to B.A.S.S. for 2018 and already has a Bassmater Elite Series victory. Taking the lead Sunday on Kentucky Lake, Strader solidified it Monday with a five-bass limit totaling 20 pounds, 11 ounces for a four-day haul of 80-4 and the $100,000 top prize. In second place at 76-6, good for $25,000, was Skeet Reese of Auburn, Calif. “Yesterday I figured out that the fish were positioning under the walkways on the docks. Today that went away – they got out under the floats,” Strader said in a B.A.S.S. release. “It semed like as the sun got higher the shade got tighter to the docks and you could pretty much pinpoint where they’d bite. I didn’t think the shad spawn was that big of a deal for me today, but I pulled up on a stretch of docks that I had not fished early in the morning, and just about every cast, when I’d reel my bait out from underneath the floats, there would be two or three threadfin shad following my spinnerbait.”
» Bryan College fisherman Nathan Bell from Riceville skipped graduation Saturday and joined Cole Sands of Calhoun, Tenn., in winning the YETI FLW College Fishing Event at Lake Chickamauga presented by Bass Pro Shops. It was the second year in a row a Bryan boat won the FLW college tournament out of Dayton Boat Dock on their home lake. Sands and Bell won with a five-bass limit of 21-9 and earned $2,400 for the Lions club. Lipscomb’s Hunter Hanks and Scott Monteith were second at 21-7 and got $1,200. Bryan’s Bennett Kudder and Preston Kendrick were 29th at 13-10, and UTC’s Austin Traffangsteadt and Wyatt Beavers were 42nd at 12-5.
Baseball
» Seventh-seeded Lee University took control of its four-team pool in the Gulf South Conference baseball tournament with a 7-0 win over third-seeded West Florida on Monday in Cleveland, Miss. That followed the Flames’ 10-4 upset of second-seeded Montevallo on Sunday. The only 2-0 team in the pool, Lee (27-24) plays sixth seed West Georgia today. While Pat Morrow (5-0) pitched a seven-hit shutout, Peyton Meeker was 3-for-5, Chase Gadau had a double and three RBIs, Jordan Howard homered and singled, batting in two runs, and Tyler Payne was 2-for-4. Each of those four scored a run, as did Miguel Pimentel, Spencer Mossburg and Justen Freeman.
Golf