Jimmy Owens takes first in Shamrock 50

Friday, January 1, 1904

Arkansas-SEMO Live Blog

Jimmy Owens of Newport, Tenn., won the big opening-night race Saturday at Cleveland Speedway, the Southern All Stars' Shamrock 50 with a $10,000 top prize. "The track was really, really racy," Owens said after his first victory of 2012. "In the heats I was a little bit worried because it was a little one-laned on the bottom, but it smoothed up and I was able to move around and get by those guys." Dale McDowell of Chickamauga, who had won his last three races, earned the pole and finished second, and reigning SAS series champion Billy Ogle Jr. of Knoxville was third. Clint Smith of Senoia, Ga., was fourth; Brad Neat of Dunnville, Ky., was fifth. "We were too loose," McDowell said. "We were pretty good in the heat race, and we just didn't change enough to tighten up. So hat's off to Jimmy and those guys." Lamar Scoggins of Georgetown won the Crate/Limited Late Model race with Shannon Bearden of Cherry Log, Ga., second and Harrison's Bobby Mayse third. Richard Dixon and Lee Harbin were the A-Hobby and B-Hobby winners with Johnny Hughes and Scott Boyd their respective runners-up.

  • Grayson York, a 16-year-old from Rocky Face, Ga., won the "Road to the Shamrock" race and $1,200 Friday night at Boyd's Speedway. The Northwest Whitfield High School sophomore had to hold off reigning track champion Craig Burrows and Anthony White for the win.

Softball

  • The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's Michelle Fuzzard was named Southern Conference softball player of the week for the fourth time this season. The fifth-year senior from Huntington Beach, Calif., went 4-for-6 with a home run and five RBIs last week and was walked 10 times in a three-game SoCon series sweep of Elon. Fuzzard reached base in 14 of her 16 plate appearances last weekend and had a 1.500 slugging percentage. Her five RBIs last week extended her SoCon-best career total to 197.

  • Tennessee Wesleyan sophomore outfielder Brooke Ward from Soddy-Daisy is the Appalachian Athletic Conference softball player of the week and Reinhardt junior Maddie Monroe from Calhoun, Ga., repeated as the pitcher of the week. Ward batted .571 as TWC went 5-1, with a home run, a triple and four doubles among her 12 hits, and she scored eight runs and batted in seven. She's hitting .310 with 15 RBIs for the season. Monroe pitched a one-hit shutout with 10 strikeouts in her only appearance last week. She is 13-5 with a league-high 132 strikeouts.

Golf

  • MELBOURNE, Fla. -- The UTC women's golf team is in fourth place after the first two rounds Monday of the Knights & Pirates Invite at Suntree Country Club, and the Mocs' Marion Duvernay is tied for seventh individually at 2-over-par 146. Texas Tech leads the 15-team field at 581. UTC is at 596 with Maria Juliana Loza tied for 11th at 148 and Jordan Britt and Mette Kryger sharing 25th at 151.

  • Lee University's Courtney Shelton was the Southern States Athletic Conference women's golfer of the week after her medalist performance in leading the Lady Flames to their seventh consecutive tournament championship at the Piedmont Spring Invitational in Clarkesville, Ga. It was her third first-place showing of the season and her second time as the SSAC honoree.

  • Bryan College junior Audrey Nelson was the AAC women's golfer of the week for her medalist performance out of 13 golfers in the Reinhardt Invitational tournament.

Baseball

  • Chattanooga State tries to bounce back from its 0-3 baseball series at nationally top-ranked Walters State this past weekend as Tennessee Wesleyan's junior varsity visits for a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. today. The Tigers, now 30-14 overall and 11-7 in the TCCAA, fell 10-5, 11-1 and 3-2 in extra innings at Walters (34-5, 14-4). Also this afternoon, Rust visits Sewanee for an NCAA Division III game starting at 3 EDT. Tonight at 6, the NAIA's third-ranked Lee Flames will be trying for their 40th win of the season at home against a Bryan team that is 31-13 and receiving votes. Bryan's Kemonte Keesee was the AAC pitcher of the week for his one-hit shutout against nationally ranked Southern Polytechnic. He's 5-1.

Lacrosse

  • Sewanee's Hal Smith was the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference men's lacrosse defensive player of the week for his part in the Tigers' two league victories this past weekend. Smith won 35 of 40 face-offs and collected 20 ground balls against Millsaps and Rhodes and scored a goal in each game.

Tennis

  • Reinhardt University had both AAC tennis players of the week announced Monday: sophomore Cassie Quast from Chatsworth, Ga., and Murray County High School and junior Andrew Cobb from LaFayette High.