Dalton State College was picked this week to finish second in the Southern States Athletic Conference in the 2018-19 men's basketball season, the Roadrunners' first without Tony Ingle as the head coach. William Carey, which won the SSAC regular-season and tournament titles in 2018, received nine of 12 first-place votes in the coaches' preseason poll despite returning only three players. DSC, Faulkner and Bethel got the other firsts, and Alex Ireland's Roadrunners got 111 total points to 108 for Faulkner, 105 for Stillman, 104 for Bethel and 102 for Loyola of New Orleans.
* Covenant College was picked in a tie for third with Piedmont in USA South West Division men's basketball for 2018-19, behind favorite Maryville and LaGrange. North Carolina Wesleyan was predicted to win the East Division with Averett second. In the women's coaches' West poll, Covenant was picked fifth behind favorite Berea, Piedmont, Maryville and Huntingdon.
Volleyball
* Sewanee's volleyball players celebrated their No. 5 status in the first NCAA Division III South Region rankings of the season with a 3-1 Southern Athletic Association victory Thursday at Centre, by the set scores of 25-15, 25-21, 17-25, 25-22. Constance Connolly had 38 assists and 10 digs and Lilly Reilly had 10 kills and 12 digs for the Tigers (17-7, 7-5), who got nine kills from Ellie Pedersen, eight kills and 10 digs from Sydney White and 17 and 15 digs from Destiny Stewart and Peyton Parent. The first region ranking in program history had Sewanee behind only No. 1 Berry and No. 4 Birmingham-Southern from the SAA plus No. 2 Emory and No. 3 Washington & Lee.
* Cleveland State defeated The Crown College 3-0 (25-20, 25-12, 25-9) on Thursday in Cleveland and is 10-13 for the season.
Running
* McCallie School won the boys' Chattanooga Area Cross Country Championship sponsored by Front Runner on Thursday for the fourth year in a row and ninth time in 10 years. Totaling 36 points in the 5-kilometer event, the Blue Tornado had five runners in the top 10 in the 28-team field: Samuel Ligon fourth in 16:23, Dylan Zeller fifth in 16:33 and John Arrowsmith, Dawson Carmack and Benjamin Niehause eighth through 10th, two seconds apart. Duke Richey was 12th. McCallie next will race in the TSSAA state meet Nov. 3 in Nashville.
Golf
* Tennessee freshman golfer Malia Stovall from Winchester joined two teammates in the top 10 individually as the Lady Volunteers finished third in the weather-hampered Maryb S. Keith Invitational tournament this week in San Antonio. Stovall, who was the medalist in Tennessee's runaway team win in its last tournament, tied for 10th with Lady Vols senior Ariana Macioce at 148, while freshman Mikayla Bardwell tied for eighth at 147.
* Covenant freshman Will DeMersseman was chosen the USA South men's golf rookie of the week for his sixth-place tie at 151 in the Reeder Cup the Scots hosted and won Monday and Tuesday at Lookout Mountain Golf Club. His score was just three shots out of the three-way tie for first that included his teammates Nathan Hawkins and Marshall Kent.
Soccer
* The Dalton State soccer teams beat the Middle Georgia State men 5-1 but lost 2-0 in the women's SSAC game Thursday at Cochran, Georgia. Daniel Valenciano had two goals and three assists for the Roadrunners (6-7-1, 2-3), while Sebastian Guzman also scored twice and Tyler Hudson had the team's tying first goal. Samuel Fraire made seven saves. The DSC women are 6-5-2, 0-4-1.