McLennan leads Women’s Open
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga golfer Emily McLennan shot a 1-underpar 71 Friday and leads the Tennessee Women’s Open tournament at Crossville’s Stonehenge course. McLennan is at 1-under 143, one stroke ahead of pros Karlin Beck, Kaitlyn Rohrback and Casey Kennedy. They are from the states of Alabama, Texas and Florida, and Kay Nugent from Kansas is fifth at 147. Former Baylor School teammates Blakesly Warren and Lauren Johnson, now playing for Tennessee and Vanderbilt, respectively, are tied for seventh and ninth at 149 and 150, and Manchester’s Jenna Burris shares 18th at 154, one shot better than Scottsboro’s Logan Chaney. Lee University’s Sam Burrus is 24th at 156, and former Lady Flame Courtney Shelton and Manchester’s Hollee Sadler are in the group sharing 25th at 157. UTC’s Sarah Dolmovich is tied for 30th at 158.
Lindsey Hollis from Signal Mountain and Jacob Uehlein from Tullahoma were among the four sub-regional qualifiers Thursday in the 14-15 age group at the Grove in College Grove, Tenn., for the next step in the Drive, Chip and Putt Championship. That is the oldest division out of four, beginning at ages 7-9, in the national competition. Two boys and two girls from each age group move on to a regional qualifier at Valhalla in Louisville, Ky., on Sept. 12, and the gender age-group winners there will advance to the national finals April 3 at Augusta, Ga.
BASKETBALL
Covenant College had five men’s players included in the National Association of Basketball Coaches’ 2014-15 Honors Court for their academic success: 2015 graduates Ryan Burns, Teron Ferguson and Nate Frierson and rising juniors Z Arima and Robby Bell. Frierson and Burns earned Honors Court status, which includes a grade point average of at least 3.2, for the second year in a row. All five are two-time USA South all-academic honorees. Ferguson graduated in May with a business degree, Burns with a philosophy degree and Frierson with a history degree. Bell is majoring in pre-engineering, while Arima is a double major in history and English.
SOFTBALL
Elise Pearson, who graduated this year from Silverdale Baptist Academy, will be continuing her softball career at Dominican University in River Forest, Ill. It is an NCAA Division III school. Pearson was an all-district pitcher and first baseman the last two years for the Lady Seahawks, and she was 8-0 with a 2.05 earned run average and batted .473 with five home runs and 30 RBIs as a senior. “Elise’s strong suits are her variety of pitches, power and eye at the plate,” SBA coach Tim Couch said in a release. “She had several schools interested in her.” Those included North Park University in Chicago and “a few local schools,” Pearson said Friday. “I kind of wanted to go far away, and when I went to Dominican everybody was so nice it was like a family. And I think the coach (Cristina Lukas) will be like another mother for me. My parents really like her.” Pearson plans to study nursing.
BASEBALL
Chattanooga’s two Tennessee Association of Vintage Base Ball clubs will meet at noon today at the old Army post polo grounds in Fort Oglethorpe, and there is no charge for admission. It will be a rematch of a May 2 contest won 9-5 by Mountain City against the Lightfoot club, when both previously were winless, and each now is 4-4 and two games behind the league-leading Highland Rim Distillers with the season winding down. “We want to win this match and show Mountain City how much we’ve improved,” Lightfoot captain Sean “Mac” McNally said in a recent 6th Cavalry Museum release. “We know Mountain City is going to play hard and play to win. After all, they gave Highland Rim their first loss of the season.” The matches are played by 1860s era rules, including no gloves.