Area sports notes: Lee track teams first, second in Birmingham – Chattanooga Times Free Press

By Staff 5 years ago

Area sports notes: Lee track teams first, second in Birmingham  Chattanooga Times Free Press

Lee University finished first out of 16 women’s teams and second to Alabama-Huntsville in the 14-team men’s division of the Emory Crossplex Showdown indoor track and field meet Sunday in Birmingham. Dalton State was 11th with 12 points in the women’s standings, where Lee’s Lady Flames totaled 133.5 points and their Gulf South Conference rivals West Georgia and UAH were second and third with 81 and 77. The UAH men had 146 points to 114 for Lee and 54 for third-place Reinhardt. The competition included NCAA Divisions II and III and NAIA schools. The Lady Flames had 24 top-eight finishes, including 12 top-threes and event wins for Amber Littlejohn (400-meter dash), Celine Ritter (leading a 1-2-3 Lee finish in the mile run), Emma Clark (3000 meters) and Toni Moore (5000). The Flames got firsts from Christian Noble (mile), Casey Guthery (3000) and Jonah Mayes (high jump) among their 21 top-eights. Lee runners-up were Ritter, Chloe Flora, Olivia McLain, Jordan Allison, Caleb Campbell and Gari Garmendia. Thirds came from Littlejohn, Charlee Boxall, Allison, Avery Truelove, Jeremiah McCain and Elias Sandifer. Dalton State’s Alex Gash, Rebecca Poe, Ana Karen Padilla and Kathryn Vradenburgh were third in the distance medley relay. Former Red Bank and Tennessee Wesleyan standout Avery Hubbard, running unattached, won the 60-meter dash. He was the NAIA indoor national champion at that distance in 2015.

Baseball

* Chattanooga native Harold Craw has added the title of executive vice president to his position of general manager of the Southern League’s Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, the Fast Forward Sports Group ownership entity announced Wednesday. Craw has been the GM since Fast Forward officially took over the club in September 2015, and he was voted the Southern League Jimmy Bragan executive of the year in 2017 — the first African-American to be so honored in any league in Minor League Baseball. That year the Jumbo Shrimp had a 23% increase in home attendance, the biggest in Class AA, and they welcomed the Southern’s nine largest crowds over the last two seasons. Craw has worked 17 seasons in the minors, beginning with the Johnson City (Tennessee) Cardinals after he got a master’s degree in sport management from East Tennessee State University in 2001. He was an assistant GM with the Chattanooga Lookouts before going to Jacksonville.

some text Harold Craw / Contributed photo

Tennis

* Victories at Nos. 4-6 singles lifted the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga to a 4-3 women’s tennis win Monday at Austin Peay. The Mocs (2-0) won the doubles point with a tough tiebreaker triumph for No. 1 pair Emma Van Hee and Caroline Gibbens, and Van Hee’s No. 4 singles win tied the team score before Lilly Holmes and Callie Billman overturned a 3-2 Governors lead with 6-4, 6-3 wins at 5 and 6.

Basketball

* Sixth-ranked Dalton State won 102-87 in Gulf South men’s basketball Monday night at Loyola of New Orleans. C.J. Perry scored 26 points and Kevon Tucker had 20, and they combined for nine 3-point baskets for the Roadrunners (18-1, 7-1). Randy Bell scored 17 points, Aaron Burress 12 and Rodley Adjei 10, and Sean Cranney delivered 11 assists. Loyola is 15-5, 6-2.

Bowling

* There will be no teams from the greater Chattanooga area in the Division I bowling state tournaments Friday in Smyrna. The cl0sest will be Tullahoma’s boys, who won Region 4 and then defeated Region 3 runner-up Walker Valley 21-6 in a sectional match Monday. Murfreesboro Blackman edged Region 3 champion Rhea County 15-12 in Dayton. In girls’ sectionals Saturday, Bradley Central lost 17-10 to Stewarts Creek and East Hamilton fell 25-2 at Lawrence County. The Division II team state tournaments will include the GPS and Baylor girls and the Notre Dame and McCallie boys.