Area sports notes: Baylor School swimmer Jack Kirby signs with USC

Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby

Baylor School boarding student Jack Kirby from Barbados signed a national letter of intent this past week to swim collegiately for Southern California. According to a Baylor release, Kirby is a member of the Barbados Swimming Federation national team and qualified for this year's Youth Olympics and last year's World Juniors from the Caribbean island country. He holds seven 15-17 age-group national records in backstroke and freestyle events, at distances of 50 to 200 meters, and is the Barbados open age-group record-holder in the 50 long-course-meter backstroke. In high school competition, he is a seven-time NISCA All-American and won the 100 free and 100 back and helped win the 400 free relay at the 2018 TISCA state meet.

Tennis

* University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's tennis coach Chad Camper announced Friday the signing of the fifth-ranked player in Georgia, according to TennisRecruiting.net. That is Jessie Young of Canton, a senior at Cambridge High School in Alpharetta. TennisRecruiting has her as a four-star prospect and a top-50 player in the Southeast. Her mother played tennis for Georgia State, where her father played golf. "Jessie has the perfect game for college tennis," Camper said in a UTC release. "She can win the point several ways and has a fighting spirit. I knew the first time I watched her compete that this was a player we need at Chattanooga."

Volleyball

* Lee University seniors Silvia Sartori and MaKayla Beebe closed out their Lady Flames volleyball careers as D2CCA all-region selections, outside hitter Sartori on the seven-player first team and libero Beebe on the second team with East Hamilton graduate Emma Lenoir of Christian Brothers. Sartori had 510 kills and 404 digs in 115 sets this season and 1,583 kills and 1,271 digs in 116 career matches. Beebe totaled 1,915 digs in 119 matches for Lee, including 625 in 107 sets in 2018. Lenoir had 501 kills and 336 digs in 113 sets this year.

Soccer

* The Tennessee Wesleyan University women's team ended its 11-game winning streak and its season Saturday in West Palm Beach, Florida, with a 4-0 loss to sixth-ranked Keiser in the opening round of the NAIA tournament. Matilda Ovenberger's two first-half goals gave her 24 for the season, and Keiser (17-2-2) outshot TWU (12-6-1) 27-3 with a 6-1 edge in on-goal attempts.

* The local Premier Soccer Academy's under-19 boys' River Plate team is at a huge college showcase tournament in Raleigh, North Carolina, this weekend fresh off a championship at the Gatlinburg College Showcase Kickoff. River Plate rebounded from a 1-0 loss to the FC Alliance team with 3-1 and 4-1 wins over sides from Montgomery, Alabama, and McMinn County.

Basketball

* Thirteen Lee women's basketball players scored in an 82-30 home win Saturday over Brescia, and the Lee men followed with a 104-61 victory. Lindsey Roddy led the Lady Flames (3-1) with 12 points, and Nicky Widenski and Taylor Boggess scored 10 each. Haley Schubert had four steals. Michael McGuirk had 29 points with 6-of-9 3-point shooting for the Flames (1-3), while Ryan Montgomery, Quay Kennedy, Cody Jones and Drew Jones scored 14, 12, 11 and 10. Cody Jones and Montgomery had 10 and eight rebounds; Jason Landman made four steals.

* The Tennessee Wesleyan women dropped to 3-2, 1-2 in the Appalachian Athletic Conference, with a 74-71 home loss to Columbia College. Hunter Simpson had 26 points, five steals and five assists in defeat, and Savannah Atkins and Hannah Troutt scored 15 and 13 points and were a combined 8-for-8 on 3s. Gina Dick grabbed eight rebounds.

* Bryan's women won 76-60 in their AAC home game against Allen, and the Bryan men won 89-80 with five 3-pointers and 23 points from Keaton Dotson, 11 and 10 points from Isaiah McClain and Brandon Thomas and eight assists from Geevantay Gee. Deandra Luna scored 18 points, Karli Combs added 13 and To'Nesha Allison had 11 rebounds and six assists for the Lady Lions; Amber Levi and Tristan McClellan scored 10 each.

* The Sewanee men are 4-0 after completing their Lon Varnell Classic with a 64-55 defeat of Brevard. Hunter Buescher and Luke Smith scored 19 and 18 points for the Tigers, Smith with four assists, and Cam Caldwell had 11 points and 10 rebounds. The Sewanee women (4-2) beat Pensacola Christian 60-46 at LaGrange, Georgia, with 15 points from Kinsley Logan, 13 from Lakeisha Phillips, 11 from Ellie Treanton and five steals from Sue Kim.

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