Both University of Tennessee at Chattanooga tennis coaches have announced new signees in the past couple of days: Callie Billman of Columbia, South Carolina, for the women’s team and coach Chad Camper, and Quinten Nevenhoven of Rockford, Illinois, for the men’s team and Chuck Merzbacher. Billman, a daughter of two former college basketball players (her parents played at Indiana and Delta State), is a four-star prospect who competes out of the Randy Pate Tennis Academy. TennisRecruiting.net rates her No. 7 in South Carolina, No. 24 in the Southeast and No. 89 in the nation. “Callie is a huge addition to the program next season,” Camper said in a UTC release. “She has so many weapons and is always looking for a way to win. I have watched her play indoor, outside in hot weather and very cold, and she competes no matter the situation.” In a separate release, Merzbacher described Nevenhoven as “super athletic” and said he believed the three-star prospect ranked No. 9 in Illinois and in the top 25 in the Great Lakes Region “will flourish in college tennis. In addition to being an accomplished tennis player, he is an outstanding student.” Merzbacher also said the Midwest “historically has been one of the strongest sections in the country” and specifically “the Chicago area produces a lot of excellent tennis players.”
Running
* Lee University placed a full complement of five men’s runners and also had three women on the NCAA Division II All-South Region teams named by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association after the region meet last Saturday in Lakeland, Florida. Lee was second in the men’s 10-kilometer race, led by individual winner Christian Noble, and third in the women’s 6k even with the Lady Flames’ best runner unable to compete. Noble was named the region men’s athlete of the year. Joining him as all-region honorees for top-25 finishes were Caleb Eagleson, Jared Herzog, Casey Guthery, Dawson Reed, Amy Carpenter, Charlee Boxall and Becca Umbarger. The Lee teams will compete in the national meet Dec. 1 in Pittsburgh.
* Bryan College’s Brady Smith is a 2018 Daktronics NAIA Scholar-Athlete for men’s cross country. The honor requires active participation on a team, junior or senior academic status and a minimum GPA of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale.
Basketball