The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football staff reached into the talent-rich state of Florida this week to snag a future playmaker for the Mocs.
Venice High School running back Brandon Gregory committed Friday to new Mocs head coach Rusty Wright.
The 6-foot-1, 205-pounder led Venice to Florida's Class 7A semifinal round with 1,489 yards rushing, 1,678 all-purpose yards and 35 touchdowns this past season. He twice had five-touchdown games in the playoffs and was selected as his area's player of the year.
A hand injury forced Gregory to miss most of his junior season, a factor that limited his recruiting, though he did receive an offer from Stetson.
UTC wrestlers roll
The UTC wrestling team rose to 3-0 in Southern Conference competition with a 31-11 win Friday night at Gardner-Webb in Boiling Springs, North Carolina. The Mocs won seven of the 10 matches, four with bonus points, and two of their losses were one-point decisions.
UTC's Tanner Smith and Connor Tolley won by pins at 149 and 285 pounds, respectively, Alonzo Allen won by forfeit at 125 and Hunter Fortner earned an 11-3 major decision at 174. Ben Stacey at 184 almost followed with another major, winning 9-2. Chris Debien at 141 started the evening with a 9-7 decision, and Ryan Resnick won 6-4 at 157 with a takedown at the final buzzer.
The Mocs (5-5) have another league meet Sunday at Appalachian State.
Tennis Mocs win
The UTC men's tennis team beat first-year Division I member North Alabama on Friday and is 1-3 for the spring semester. The Mocs will play Austin Peay at 3 p.m. today at McCallie's Strang-Voges indoor center.
After sweeping the doubles matches, UTC got straight-sets singles wins from Niklas Gerdes, Tomas Rodriguez, Kerim Hyatt, Simon Bustamante, Jacob Marshall and Pablo Llebeili at Nos. 1-6, respectively. UNA is 0-5.