Lee University junior golfer Evan Spence from Chattanooga and McCallie School has been selected for the NCAA Division II South/Southeast Super Regional next week near Orlando. The May 9-11 tournament will be played at the Mission Inn Resort. Spence finished fifth in the Gulf South Conference tourney and was second-team all-conference. “I’m very excited to get the opportunity to compete in the best regional field in the country,” he said in a Lee release, emphasizing that he will be playing for his teammates. “I’m still going to be representing these guys and this university, and I’m going to do my best to go down there and give them something they can be proud of.”
* Former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga golfer Matthew Brock shot a 4-under-par 68 Monday and was tied for 11th at 143 midway through the 2019 PGA Professional Championship at Belfair in Bluffton, South Carolina. Connecticut resident Alex Beach led the field of 312 with a 136. The top 20 finishers get berths in the PGA Championship at Bethpage Black in two weeks.
* The Sewanee men’s golfers shot a 286 Sunday for the best final round of the SAA tournament at the GreyStone club in Dickson, Tennessee, and finished fourth at 891 out of eight teams. Oglethorpe won by 23 strokes with an 854. Sewanee’s Basil Boyd closed with a 69 and finished 15th at 223, while Gray Matthews (71) and Tommy Oliver tied for 16th at 225 and Zach Russell and Nick Powell shot 226 and 227. Boyd and Matthews eagled No. 14 on Sunday. Sewanee’s women were fifth at 975 out of five teams, led by Sophie Morrill in a tie for 10th at 242 and Margaret Wentz 12th at 243.
Track & Field
* East Tennessee State senior Kiana Davis from Ooltewah High School finished second to the defending champion in the women’s 100- and 200-meter dashes at the Southern Conference outdoor track and field meet this past weekend in Birmingham. Her times in the finals were 11.67 and 23.66 seconds. Samford senior Selena Popp from Baylor School contributed to the Bulldogs’ dominant team win with a second in long jump (5.86 meters), a fourth in high jump and a fifth in javelin throw, and UTC junior Nicole Buehrle finished fourth in the 3000 steeplechase, eighth in the 400 hurdles and eighth with teammate Kennedy Thomson fifth in the 1500. Rebekah Hampton was eighth in the 100 hurdles and Thomson was ninth in the 800 for the ninth-place Mocs.
Softball
* UTC junior Celie Hudson is the SoCon softball pitcher of the week for the second time in a row and third time this season after notching two wins with one run allowed in 13 innings at ETSU. That’s also one run in her last 29 2/3 innings, and her season earned run average is down to 2.09.
* Cleveland State’s Kaitlyn Pickens is the TCCAA pitcher of the week for her 9 2/3 innings in the Lady Cougars’ 3-1 weekend at Dyersburg State. She leads the league with 157 strikeouts and is second in ERA at 2.17.
* Lee University finished an injury-plagued softball season with an 8-1 GSC loss Sunday at Auburn-Montgomery (43-12, 20-9). For the Lady Flames (22-31, 10-19), Kayla Louie registered her league-high and school-record 44th stolen base of the season and scored on a double that gave Abby McKinney 42 runs batted in. “While this was not the way we projected the season to go, I feel as though we’ve learned some valuable lessons that can help us for the future,” coach Emily Russell said in a Lee release. “The team fought through adversity and worked each day to improve.”
Sailing
* The Choo Choo Regatta hosted by Privateer Yacht Club on Chickamauga Lake this past weekend included 23 competitors from as far away as Wisconsin in 19-foot Flying Scot sailboats. The event included five races in good winds, and the winners were Richard Wade and Jim Leonard of Birmingham. Tom and Melanie McNally of Niceville, Florida, were second with Privateer’s Rob Fowler and Hannah Ginese third, Green Bay’s Ryan Malmgren and Stacey Rieu fourth and Chattanoogans Tom and Ed Craig fifth.