Chattanooga-area swimmers now have five top-eight finishes in the 2019 Speedo Winter Junior Championships for the Eastern half of the nation, and the USA Swimming event still has a day to go at Georgia Tech. The Baylor Swim Club's Ellie Waldrep was seventh Friday in the girls' 100-yard backstroke, and she was 16th in the 100 butterfly and 24th in the 4x50 freestyle relay with Logan Watson-Brown, Jewel Gordon and Lillie Boggs. Waldrep has six top-24s at the meet, including three relays, and Boggs was 20th Friday in the 400 individual medley. Carpet Capital's Henry Bethel had his third top-eight with his showing in the boys' 100 breaststroke - he was seventh in the preliminaries - and Carpet Capital's Roman Valdez and McCallie/GPS Aquatics' Will Jackson were 13th and 14th in the boys' 200 free. Valdez, Bethel, Jonathan Shaheen and Ross Valdez were 17th in the 4x50 free for the Dalton club.
General
* Dr. Debbie Ingram and Terry Denniston are the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga representatives on the All-Southern Conference Faculty and Staff Team announced Friday. Each of the 10 full-member schools in the league chose two people, but the 20 all have provided significant service to their institutions and contributions to campus life and their communities. Denniston has been with UTC for 33 years, formerly as director of alumni affairs and now as chief of staff for the chancellor. She has been very involved with the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, even having chaired a District III CASE conference and having written a chapter of CASE's book "Student Advancement Programs: Shaping Tomorrow's Alumni Leaders Today." Denniston belongs to the UTC Mocs Club and the Chattanooga Quarterback Club. Ingram, with 30 years of UTC experience, is a founding faculty member of the school's highly regarded physical therapy program and has been vice president of the Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy, chairman of the Tennessee Board of Occupational and Physical Therapy Examiners and chairman of the American Physical Therapy Association Clinical Education group, among other leadership roles. In 2013 she received the highest honor from the APTA, and she also has been presented a TPTA Horizon Award. Beyond all that, Ingram has been UTC's faculty athletics representative since 2012 and has served as president of the University of Tennessee National Alumni Association. She was on the NCAA Sportsmanship and Ethical Conduct Committee for two years and currently is on the Alliance of Women Philanthropists board of directors for the UT system.
* Lee University is third in the overall Gulf South Conference All-Sports Trophy standings after the fall seasons, behind leader Mississippi College and West Florida. The Cleveland, Tennessee, school has finished in the top three in each of its previous four years as an official GSC member and won the women's points title in 2018. As of now Lee is second in the men's standings with 19.7 points to 25.8 for MC and 19.6 for West Florida, and the Lady Flames are fourth with 23.5 behind Mississippi College's 26.3, Montevallo's 26.2 and West Florida's 24.1. Lee won fall 2019 GSC championships in women's cross country and men's soccer and finished second in men's cross country and women's soccer.
Basketball
* The Chattanooga State men's basketball team dropped to 6-5 for the season with a 102-81 loss Friday night at Brunswick Community College in North Carolina. Brunswick is 7-2.
Track & Field
* Tennessee Wesleyan's Moesha Moncrieffe and Kenny Benton were the Appalachian Athletic Conference indoor track athletes of the week after each won the 55- and 200-meter dashes at the Sewanee Early Season Invitational. Benton, a junior from Sweetwater, had NAIA national A-qualifying times in both men's sprint events (with his 55 finish adjusted to 60 meters). Moncrieffe, a senior, had a B-cut adjusted time in the women's 55. Both runners' 55 times are program records.
Compiled by Ron Bush. Contact him at rbush@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6291.