Lynn Goss, who won two state wrestling titles for East Ridge in the late 1960s and coached his alma mater to 1983 and '84 team championships, is one of eight people going into the Tennessee Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame this Friday night in a banquet at Chattanooga's DoubleTree Hotel. Seven of the inductees are from this area, the only exception being the late Lt. Col. Frank Bryant from Knoxville, winner of the Outstanding American Award. The other inductees are Soddy-Daisy High School assistant coach Ashley Brooks, a former head coach at City and Lookout Valley; esteemed officials Bill "Doc" Hodges (going in posthumously), a former Notre Dame and University of Chattanooga wrestler, and Walt "Tater" Vineyard, who competed for Bradley Central; longtime volunteers Roy and Marty Varner; and Times Free Press assistant sports editor Ward Gossett.
Running
UTC distance runner Lucas Cotter is the Southern Conference student-athlete of the week, the league announced Wednesday. Cotter set a school indoor record of 8 minutes, 9.89 seconds in winning the men's 3000-meter run at the conference meet, and he finished second in the 5000. The junior accounting major from Collierville, Tenn., has a 3.833 grade point average.
Basketball
• The Lee University basketball teams play this evening in the SSAC tournament in Rome, Ga. -- the nationally fifth-ranked Lady Flames (28-2) at 5 at the Forum as the top East Division seed and the 15th-ranked Lee men (20-7) as a three seed against West No. 2 Faulkner at 8 at Darlington School. The Lady Flames, who won the SSAC regular season and already are in the NAIA Division I tournament, will play William Carey, which beat Southern Wesleyan 77-49 on Wednesday.
• As expected, the Tennessee Wesleyan women's basketball team got an at-large berth in the NAIA Division II tournament next week in Sioux City, Iowa, as the field was finalized Wednesday. Jeff Rice's Lady Bulldogs (24-8) won the Appalachian Athletic Conference regular season and were ranked 13th before falling in the AAC tournament final Monday to No. 22 Union College. That gave Union (25-7) the AAC's automatic bid in the women's nationals, and the Kentucky team moved up to 21st in the final poll. Wesleyan, now 14th, begins play in Sioux City Wednesday at 1 p.m. against Hastings (Neb.). The No. 23 TWC men open Tuesday morning at 9 against Northwestern (Iowa) in their NAIA nationals at Point Lookout, Mo.
• The Area 4 Special Olympics basketball tournament will be held Friday at UTC's Maclellan Gymnasium with eight teams taking part: two from Chattanooga Parks and Recreation, two from Orange Grove Center, two from area high schools East Hamilton and Red Bank and one each from Bradley and Marion counties. The parade of athletes is scheduled for 9 a.m.; the competition is expected to last until about 3 p.m.
Softball
Cleveland State won 2-1 and lost 10-9 in eight innings in a softball doubleheader Tuesday against visiting Roane State. Meghan Smith struck out 10 batters in outdueling Roane's Bridget Cook in the first game for the Lady Cougars (4-4), who got a home run from Shelby Hanson after Jaylan Garrett hit a tying homer for the Raiderettes. Courtney Taylor's sacrifice fly won for Roane in the second game, when Cleveland State's Maura Ditto added a double and three RBIs to her first-game RBI. Errors plagued the Lady Cougars in the loss.
Rugby
The Chattanooga Rugby Club plays its final home games of the season Saturday at the old Rossville High School practice field. The club's Nooga Red lead team is 3-0 after defeating Huntsville last week and hosts the Memphis Blues at 1 p.m. Saturday with a road game remaining at Little Rock, Ark. Luke Collins had two tries and an assist and Ethan Winel and Clayton Parr each scored twice also, both of Parr's set up by Josh Jones. The new Nooga Black team will face Sewanee at 11 a.m. after falling to Covenant College in a one-score match last week.
Volleyball
Former UTC volleyball coach Lisa Rhodes was inducted last Friday into the sports hall of fame at UNC Asheville, where she coached from 1989 to '93 with three Big South Conference regular-season championships and two tournament titles. She coached the next 17 years at UTC and added 280 wins and three Southern Conference championships.