The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s Fabian Gutierrez at 125 pounds and Rodney Jones at 197 are No. 1 seeds for the Southern Conference wrestling tournament Sunday in Boone, North Carolina. The Mocs’ Tanner Smith at 149 and Matthew Waddell at 184 are No. 2s, both at weight classes with two SoCon allocations for the NCAA tournament. Waddell is ranked 18th, Smith 23rd and Gutierrez 24th nationally by the NCAA coaches’ panel, but Campbell’s Andrew Morgan is eighth at 184 and host Appalachian State’s Jonathan Millner is 21st at Smith’s weight. Defending tourney champion Campbell, also this year’s regular-season winner, has five No. 1 seeds and two No. 2s for Sunday. UTC’s Mason Wallace is seeded third at 141, and Wade Cummings at 141 and Hunter Fortner at 174 are fourth seeds.
Baseball
* CJ Edmond’s grand slam capped a nine-run first inning Wednesday for the Covenant College baseball team, and the Scots breezed to a 16-3 defeat of visiting Sewanee. Edmond was 1-for-2 with two walks and three runs scored, Hunter Christian was 3-for-3 with two walks and three RBIs and Tyler Moore was 3-for-4 with a home run, three runs and two RBIs for the Scots (7-4), while Alex Gonzalez and Ken Alexander each was 2-for-3 with two runs and an RBI. For the Tigers (7-4-1), Jared Demkowicz was 2-for-2 with a homer and two scores and Jack Galanek was 2-for-3 with an RBI.
* Cleveland State beat the Tusculum junior varsity 6-1 and 16-5 on Wednesday. Blake Bryan was 1-for-2 with three RBIs and two runs for the Cougars (11-5) in the first win, and Kenny Naysmith was 4-for-4 with three doubles, three RBIs and four runs in game two, when Gavin Hollis was 2-for-2 with two walks and matched Andrew Carpenter, Bryce Jennings and Jack Patterson with two RBIs.
* Reigning NAIA champion and No. 1-ranked Tennessee Wesleyan had its series finale against Reinhardt postponed at the LakePoint Complex in Emerson, Georgia, where TWU lost 7-4 and won 7-4 on Tuesday. Chandler Kendall was 2-for-4 in Tuesday’s loss, and then the Bulldogs (12-5) won with a five-run third inning featuring Shamoy Christopher’s two-RBI single. Jhosmel Rodriquez homered in the sixth.
* Preseason No. 18 Bryan College also played Tuesday at LakePoint, losing 8-4 to 22nd-ranked Middle Georgia State. The Lions (13-3) trailed 8-1 before Wade Weinburger’s three-run homer in the eighth inning. Tyler Scott was 2-for-2 with two walks and a run, and Shawn Bracamontes was 2-for-4.
* Lee and Bellarmine moved their rain-threatened doubleheader Tuesday to Louisville, Kentucky, and the new-host Knights won 7-2 and 9-6. Ryan Beamish hit a two-run homer in the first game for the Flames (10-9) and doubled and singled in game two, when Landon Silver was 3-for-4 with a double and three RBIs, Alan Smith 3-for-4 with a double and one RBI and Dylan Standifer 2-for-3 with a double and two runs scored.
Lacrosse
* Lee University won 14-9 at Tusculum in NCAA Division II women’s lacrosse Wednesday. Dariana Blanton had four goals and an assist, Brittney White three goals and three assists and Giselle Gonzalez three goals also for Lee (4-2).
Basketball
* Covenant won both USA South basketball sportsmanship awards for the 2019-20 season. The Covenant men earned the honor for the fifth year in a row, the Lady Scots for the second time.
Volleyball
* Chattanooga State volleyball coaches Janet Tate and Robin Moore recently announced eight recruits for 2020, and five of them attend local or area northwest Georgia schools: Hixson’s Gabby Tench, Ringgold’s Jasley Brooks and Zoie Metcalf, Ridgeland’s Jayda Jenkins and LaFayette’s Gracie Stier. The others are Abby McBurnett from Cedar Bluff and Hannah Dutton from Jasper’s Carbon Hill High in Alabama and Morgan Tidmore from Powell High near Knoxville. Tench totaled 1,055 assists as a senior and 1,879 for her Hixson career, which also included time as a libero. Metcalf was a two-time Region 6-AAA MVP with three-year totals of 2,247 assists, 303 kills, 421 digs and 416 aces, and teammate Brooks had 318 kills (148 as a senior), 244 digs and 146 aces. Jenkins was a two-time all-region first-teamer and contributed 212, 267 and 290 kills the past three seasons and 206 and 211 digs in 2018 and 2019. LaFayette totaled a record 154 wins in Stier’s four seasons, and she had 248 and 289 kills, 220 and 221 digs and 77 and 68 aces the last two. McBurnett had 222 kills, 177 digs and 64 aces in Cedar Bluff’s 2019 state-final-four run, and Dutton had 582 digs as Carbon Hill reached the state final eight. It made the final four her previous two seasons, with a runner-up finish in 2018. Tidmore holds Powell track records in both hurdles events and a relay and played volleyball for five years.