Former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga running standout Lucas Cotter and former Chattanoogan Jessica Marlier won the 29th annual Sportsbarn Turkey Trot on Thursday morning from the fitness center on Lee Highway. The 8-kilometer holiday event had 645 finishers, and the 28-year-old Cotter, now a Signal Mountain resident, won by more than a minute in 26 minutes, 43 seconds. Nicholas McCormick was second in 27:52 with Adam Veron 10 seconds farther back in third. Six others also broke 29 minutes, including women's winner Marlier - now of Apopka, Florida - ninth overall at 28:59. Fourth through eighth were 15-year-old Grayson Kennedy, Zach Buffington, Ryan McGinnis, Matt Jenkins and Noah Cochran. Hugh Enicks, 60, was 13th overall and the masters winner as the fastest 40-older finisher, and Kristen Curtis, 45, was the female masters winner. Delphi Cleaveland was the female runner-up and 26th overall in 31:38.
Basketball
* Western Kentucky guard Jordan Rawls from Chattanooga and Hamilton Heights Christian Academy was named the Conference USA men's basketball freshman of the week for his work in the U.S. Virgin Islands Paradise Jam last week. He had 14 points and three steals against Illinois State and 10 points and three assists against Campbellsville, and he was 6-of-9 from 3-point range in those two wins.
* Dalton State College made it into the NAIA Division I men's basketball Top 25 this week. The Roadrunners (7-1) were No. 21 in the poll, the first once since the preseason. Reigning national champion Georgetown (Kentucky) is 8-0 and still No. 1.
Swimming
* Dalton High School's Henry Bethel and McCallie's Will Jackson each won two events as their teams finished second and third in the boys' standings of the McCallie Invitational swim meet last weekend, and Girls Preparatory School's Ellie Taliaferro had a first and a second in leading the Bruisers to second out of 26 girls' teams. GPS totaled 208 points to 259 for North Gwinnett, with St. Mary's Episcopal third at 183 and Westminster fourth at 182.5. The Chattanooga Area Home School girls were eighth, and Signal Mountain was 12th. St. Xavier from Louisville, Kentucky, dominated the boys' competition with 549 points, which were enough to win the combined rankings by 89 over North Gwinnett, whose boys totaled 201 to Dalton's 293 and McCallie's 235. Bethel won the 200-yard individual medley (1:50.32) and the 100 breaststroke (55.94), and teammates Roman Valdez and Ross Valdez had a second-place finish and two thirds, respectively. Jackson won the 500 freestyle (4:33.48) and the 200 free (1:37.74), and McCallie's Conor Kinley was third in the 50 free. Taliaferro won the girls' 50 free (23.53) and was the 100 butterfly runner-up, and GPS won the 200 medley relay (1:48.33). The area home-schoolers' Grayson Payne won the 100 backstroke (56.66), with GPS's Emma Scruggs third, and Payne teammate Leah Boyd was second with Payne fourth in the 200 free and third in the 500 free.
General
* The Covenant College sports teams were part of a record-setting collection in the USA South Athletic Conference's 16th annual "Cans Across the Conference" charity program leading into Thanksgiving. The drive to collect food cans and other nonperishable items is led by the Student Athlete Advisory Committee on each league campus, and each SAAC selects a local charity to help. For Covenant it is the Chattanooga Area Food Bank, and the Scots teams set a department record for the second straight year with 1,134 items. The monetary donations from Covenant are enough for more than 1,500 meals, according to a school release. The USA South's total contributions also set a record this year with 69,387 items collected - 5,328 more than in 2018.