Less than two months after completing the "triple crown" of open-water swimming with a 28.5-mile circuit of New York's Manhattan Island, Baylor Swim Club tri-masters coach Jenny Smith added a fourth jewel that many consider even more grueling than the big three. On Monday she completed the 21.5-mile North Channel Swim from Donaghadee, Northern Ireland, to Portpatrick, Scotland, on the Mull of Galloway. Smith did it in 13 hours, 6 minutes - in colder water than the 21-mile English Channel swim she did in August 2017, the 20.2-mile Catalina Channel swim off the coast of California and the Manhattan swim she did on June 30, and amid the presence of hundreds of Lions Mane jellyfish, according to a release from the Baylor Swim Club. "It is widely regarded as one of the hardest sea swims in the world," the release said. "This unique demanding swim is peppered with unusual swimming conditions, changeable weather, jellyfish and a low temperature. This ultimate long-distance challenge has eluded many swimmers, and there are tough qualifying swims, so people do not take this endeavor lightly."
Soccer
' Freshman Hope Sanders from Chattanooga scored the first goal and also had an assist in her first collegiate soccer game Tuesday, helping lead Campbellsville to a 2-0 season-opening win at Bryan College, where her sister Anna is a junior. It was also a successful head-coaching debut for CU's Daniel Branley, a former Bryan star player and men's and women's assistant coach, and Claudia Eckstein had an assist as a transfer from the Dayton school. Campbellsville had a double assist credited for each score, by Sanders at 67:05 and Rachel Blumfeldt at 74:15. The winners outshot the hosts 23-4, including 16-1 in the second half, and had a 6-0 margin in corner kicks. Caragan Treola made nine saves for Bryan.
' The PSA Chattanooga 01 team from the Premier Soccer Academy shook off a 2-1 pool-play loss with the Tophat tournament under-19 boys' Red Division championship this past weekend in Atlanta. That opened the competition season for the team coached by Pedro Kozak, assisted by George Coogan and Robert Mattila. PSA Chattanooga 01 won 3-1 and 4-2 before losing to Southern Soccer Academy's Chelsea 01 Select Blue and then in the final edged Charlotte-based One7 Academy 00 on penalty kicks after a 1-1 tie.
Golf
' Like their female counterparts, announced a day earlier, the Dalton State College men's golfers were unanimously predicted to win the Southern States Athletic Conference in the 2018-19 season. Coach Ben Rickett's Roadrunners, led by NAIA medalist and player of the year S.M. Lee, won the 2018 SSAC tournament by 35 shots - with six all-conference honorees - and finished second in the national tourney. They got nine first-place votes and 81 points in the SSAC coaches' balloting for this season; William Carey and Martin Methodist were second and third with 62 and 60. "It is always nice being voted preseason number one in the conference," Rickett said in a DSC release, "but I am also aware that there a lot of changes to most of the teams this year, including us. Lots of new faces on these teams means there are a lot of unknowns, which is the beautiful thing about this sport. I feel like this conference is going to have a lot of strong teams this year."
Basketball
' Tryouts for the Georgia Northwestern Technical College women's basketball team are set for Thursday from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at the Rossville Athletic Center, and tryouts for the men's team will be held at the same time and place a week later (Aug. 30). Additionally, the GNTC Cheer Cats will have tryouts every Friday through Sept. 28 from 9 a.m. to noon at Hot Shots in Fort Oglethorpe. Anyone trying out must be enrolled in good standing at GNTC and taking at least 12 credit hours. For more information see BobcatsCountry.com.