Brayden Garrison finished a smooth performance at Council Fire Golf Club with another strong round, shooting a 4-under-par 68 Wednesday to win the 2018 Chattanooga Choo Choo Invitational by seven strokes. That followed his opening 66 and Tuesday's second-round 67, putting him at 15-under 201 overall. Jordan Hahn was second after closing with a 70, while Lake Johnson was third at 7 under after a final-round 68. Michael Barnard closed with a 74 and was fourth at 6 under, while States Fort (72) and Ben Rebne (73) shared fifth at 5 under. Garrison, a Nolensville resident who is entering his junior season at the University of Tennessee, made three bogeys Wednesday - one more than in the previous two rounds combined - but his seven birdies, including four on the back nine, sealed his title. In its sixth year, the CCCI is a ranked event by the Royal & Ancient Golf Club in which players receive world ranking points. This years event hosted 99 players from 54 different colleges and universities. Garrison completed something of a year-by-year march up the leaderboard at the tournament, having finished 18th in 2017 and 34th in 2016. Garrison and the Vols will open their 2018 season in the Chattanooga area, taking part in the prestigious Carpet Capital Collegiate Classic at The Farm in Rocky Face, Georgia, on Sept. 8-10.
Academics
* In addition to the four University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's tennis players reported in the Wednesday sports section, a record number of six men's Mocs were honored as Intercollegiate Tennis Association scholar-athletes for 2017-18: senior Michael Birnbaum, sophomores Simon Bustamante and Niklas Gerdes and freshmen Cooper Long, Jacob Marshall and Luke Plaisted. The previous UTC men's record was four in 2016. The honor requires a 3.5 grade point average on a 4.0 scale. The UTC men also received an ITA team academic award for exceeding 3.2 as a group.
* The NAIA released its scholar-teams for 2017-18 this week, and 10 sports from Tennessee Wesleyan University, eight from Bryan College and four from Dalton State College (out of its seven) were included. The distinction requires a 3.0 team GPA. TWU scholar-teams were women's tennis (3.52), softball (3.38), women's basketball (3.36), men's tennis (3.36), men's golf (3.36), women's golf (3.33), men's cross country (3.28), volleyball (3.13), women's cross country (3.06) and women's soccer (3.02). The Bryan teams were volleyball (3.52), women's soccer (3.39), women's basketball (3.34), men's soccer (3.30), men's cross country (3.29), men's golf (3.23), softball (3.19) and women's golf (3.03). DSC's were women's cross country (3.22), men's soccer (3.20), women's golf (3.15) and women's soccer (3.14).