Celine Ritter and Chloe Flora finished first and second, and three teammates joined them in the top 18 as Lee University won its first NCAA Division II women's cross country region championship Saturday in Lakeland, Florida. Lee also was the South Region men's runner-up to ninth-ranked Alabama-Huntsville. Both the No. 8 Lady Flames and 12th-ranked Flames had all seven runners in the top 35, and both teams will participate in the national meet Nov. 23 in Sacramento, California. Ritter and Flora ran the 6-kilometer race in 21:41.85 and 21:45.77, and Lee's Charlee Boxall was ninth, Toni Moore 14th and Becca Umbarger 18th. The Flames' Thomas Kelton and Ben Tabor were seventh and eighth in the 10k with Casey Guthery 12th, Caleb Eagleson 23rd and Adan Rodriguez 27th.
* Cleveland State finished 22nd out of 45 men's teams in the junior college national cross country meet Saturday in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Among almost 400 runners, the Cougars' Derek Gallardo was 47th and Diego Guzman 63rd in the 8k.
Soccer
* Riley Engels' goal in the 76th minute and sister Avery Engels' penalty kick two minutes later lifted Lee to a 2-1 Gulf South Conference win in the regular-season finale Saturday at West Georgia. Lee (14-4, 10-3) will host a GSC tournament quarterfinal Tuesday.
* The Covenant College men's team lost 4-2 on penalty kicks after a 1-1 tie in the USA South tournament final Saturday evening against North Carolina Wesleyan University on Lookout Mountain, while the Covenant women (10-6-3) lost 5-0 in their championship match hosted by Maryville. Taylor Frizen had two goals and an assist for Maryville (15-4). Parker Owen scored unassisted at 55:52 for Covenant's Scots (18-2-2), but Lucas Menzo equalized for NCWU (16-2-2) at 80:44 and no one could dent the net in two overtime periods. Josh Brower and Jay Patterson made PKs for Covenant.
* The second-seeded Tennessee Wesleyan University women and Bryan men both edged No. 3 Reinhardt in Appalachian Athletic Conference semifinals Saturday, 1-0 for the Lady Bulldogs and 3-2 in overtime for the Lions. The women's final will be played Friday at Truett McConnell, the men's Saturday at Bryan. Chloe Rootes' 74th-minute goal from Samantha Green's assist held up for the 13th consecutive win for TWU (17-2), as Kelly Morine made three saves. Joe Goreham scored two goals for Bryan (10-5-2), including the winner at 97:48 from a double assist by Haaris Hussain and Jonathan Ricketts. Ricketts, a CoSIDA academic all-district first-teamer, also assisted on a Josh Cash goal after Brad Spooner assisted on Goreham's first one.
Basketball
* Lee won 55-43 in women's basketball Saturday at Florida Southern but lost 82-76 to Embry-Riddle in a men's game at Carrollton, Georgia, despite 24 points by Ryan Montgomery. Camryn Grant had 15 points and nine rebounds for the Lady Flames (2-0), and Haley Schubert had 13 points and three steals. Josh Lowe had 10 rebounds and Quay Kennedy 12 points for the Flames (1-1).
* Dalton State College rose to 4-0 with a 74-63 win over Shawnee State at Campbellsville after edging 21st-ranked Campbellsville 67-65 on Sean Cranney's basket at the buzzer Friday night. Jordan Young scored 20 points and Cranney had 11 plus six assists in that game, when DSC erased a 28-10 deficit. Saturday, Igor Stokic had 22 points with four 3s and 15 rebounds and Kevon Tucker scored 16 points.
* Mitchell Hollis sank six of eight 3-point shots and totaled 29 points as Covenant defeated host Sewanee 71-62 in the Lon Varnell Classic. Also for the Scots (2-0), Will Crumly had 12 points and 12 rebounds and Chris Barnette had 12 points and four assists. The Tigers (1-1) got 18 points from Joey Knox, 14 from Ryan Starr and 12 plus nine rebounds from Adrian Thomas.
* The Covenant women won their season opener 81-47 Saturday at Toccoa Falls (2-5) as Cosette Kirsch scored 23 points and Margo Koby had 16 with 11 rebounds. Hannah Monday also collected 11 rebounds, with 11 points, and matched Ruthie Moore with five assists.
* Cleveland State won the women's game 86-64 but lost the men's 66-60 at Southern Crescent Tech. Britnay Gore had 24 points and 11 rebounds and Charisma Barner had 14 and nine for the Lady Cougars, who hit 25 of 32 free throws. Asjah Harrell had five assists. Jakobey Hitchens and Demonte Person led the Cougars with 16 and 12 points.
Field hockey
* Sewanee's season ended at 6-11 with a 5-0 loss to 14th-ranked Centre in the SAA semifinals Saturday in Lexington, Kentucky. The Colonels (17-0) scored twice in the first seven minutes and led 4-0 at halftime.
Compiled by Ron Bush. Contact him at rbush@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6291.