Grodzki wins NCAA 500 freestyle

SEATTLE, Wash. -- Baylor School alumnus Martin Grodzki of Georgia won the men's 500-yard freestyle race Thursday night in the NCAA Division I swimming championships, and Michigan sophomore Sean Ryan from McCallie was sixth. SEC champion Grodzki, a junior, was seeded second and Ryan was seeded eighth going in, based on season times, but they upgraded those predictions with Grodzki's 4:12.95 and Ryan's 4:17.27. Ryan swam a 4:16.28 in the preliminaries.

• ORLANDO, Fla. -- Baylor senior Christian Carbone finished fifth Wednesday in the 200-meter butterfly in 2:03.98 at the swimming junior nationals and was fourth Thursday in the 400 individual medley in 4:28.60, qualifying for the U.S. Olympic Trials in both events. Baylor junior Kristen Vredeveld also qualified for the trials with a fourth-place 56.94 in the 100 freestyle Wednesday, and she was fourth in the 50 butterfly and eighth in the 200 free Thursday. Also Wednesday, Joey Carbone was 10th in the 200 fly, Sam McHugh was 11th in the 200 backstroke and Baylor's 200 medley relay team of Lucas Kaliszak, Pierson Scarborough and the Carbone brothers was eighth.

Softball

• Former GPS standout Tory Lewis went 1-for-2 for the 11th-ranked Tennessee softball team as the Lady Vols defeated No. 1 Alabama 5-2 in the second game of an SEC doubleheader Wednesday in Tuscaloosa, snapping the Crimson Tide's 26-game winning streak. Melissa Brown and Madison Shipman homered in the win for UT (20-7, 4-4), and Ellen Renfroe pitched a three-hitter, striking out seven and allowing the two runs on a homer by Alabama's Kaila Hunt. Alabama (26-1, 7-1) defeated UT 3-2 in the opening game, when Lewis was 3-for-5 and Ivy Renfroe struck out a career-best 14 for the Lady Vols. Alabama's Jackie Traina struck out 15. Tennessee begins a three-game series at Mississippi State today.

• MILLIGAN COLLEGE, Tenn. -- Milligan defeated the Bryan College softball team 7-3 and 4-3 in an Appalachian Athletic Conference doubleheader Thursday. Kirstie Jennings was 2-for-3 in each game and she, Courtney Combs and Britney Hurst had RBIs in the first game for Bryan (8-22, 1-3), Taylor Yates was 2-for-4 with a homer and two RBIs in game two,w when Lauren Mathews was 2-for-3 with an RBI.

• WALESKA, Ga. -- Tennessee Wesleyan won 2-1 and lost 1-0 in softball Thursday at Reinhardt, leaving each team 3-1 in the AAC. Reinhardt is 17-8 overall, however, while the Lady Bulldogs are 5-17.

• Roxanne Hillman and Kayla Green were the winning pitchers as Motlow State defeated visiting Cleveland State 7-2 and 2-1 in eight innings in TCCAA softball Wednesday. Green singled in the first run of the day and provided a key bunt in the extra inning of her duel with Kenly Lambert. Ashlen Mitchell had a two-run double in the first game for Cleveland State (8-10), and Sydney Howell doubled and scored in game two.

Baseball

• BLUEFIELD, Va. -- Hunter Giles pitched a four-hitter with seven strikeouts and Chris Altman's two-run double in the third inning held up as the difference as Tennessee Temple beat Bluefield College in baseball Friday. Bluefield won the second game 12-0, sending the Crusaders home with an 11-21-1 record. Nico McElrath had two doubles in Temple's win.

• WINTER HAVEN, Fla. -- Alan Komorowski was 4-for-5 and Ryne Sullivan had three RBIs with three hits as Sewanee defeated Hamilton College 10-5 in the Russ-Matt Invitational baseball tournament Thursday. Nate Barnett and James Snover each had two hits and two RBIs for the Tigers (7-11), and Austin Shea pitched the last six innings, allowing two earned runs, for the mound victory.

Golf

• Matt Oxford of Rocky Face will partner with Kennesaw's Philip Hughes in the championship flight of the 24th annual Georgia Four-Ball golf tournament today through Sunday. It includes 96 two-man teams in eight flights. Those in the top four will play at Southern Hills Golf Club in Hawkinsville; flights four through seven will be at Perry's Houston Lake Country Club. Flight 1 will include Dalton's Duane McMullen and Tony Patterson, Trion's William Dendy with LaFayette's Luke Potts and Calhoun football coach Hal Lamb with Adairsville's Rick Brown. Dalton's Kyle Pettyjohn and Rocky Face's Chris Tallent Sr. will be together in Flight 2, along with Calhoun's Jeff Brown with Suwanee's Kevin Malone, and Flight 3 will include the Calhoun father-son duo of Bob and Mike Nance as well as Calhoun's Greg Brock with Dalton's Howell Kerr. Dalton's Jody Buckner and Mike Cole are entered in Flight 6, and Calhoun's Virgil Waters is in Flight 7 with partner Ed Mathis of Rome.

• Tennessee Wesleyan College's Michael Alread was the AAC men's golfer of the week for his medalist performance in the Bulldogs' team victory last week in Lee University's tournament. The senior from Johnson City shot a 1-under-par 143 at Cleveland Country Club.

Tennis

• DECATUR, Ga. -- The Great South Athletic Conference announced that Covenant College claimed three of the four men's and women's tennis awards for the week. They went to Anne Marie Rowe for women's singles, Madeline Hyatt and Lauren Redberg for doubles and John Herberich and John Hirte for men's doubles. Rowe split matches against Spelman and ranked opponent Carson-Newman. She won 6-0, 6-0 against Spelman but fell 5-7, 2-6 against Carson-Newman. Hyatt and Redberg also split, winning 8-4 against Spelman but losing 9-8 against Carson-Newman. Silverberg won 6-0, 6-3 in his match against Reinhardt University. Against Huntingdon College he won 6-3, 6-2. Herberich and Hirte earned an 8-4 conference victory over LaGrange last week.

Lacrosse

• The Sewanee women's lacrosse team closed out its three-match California trip with an 18-14 win Wednesday night at Whittier College. Molly Arnold and Mallory Grimm scored four goals each, Arnold with an assist, for Sewanee (6-2), which got three goals and two assists from Meg Welton, two goals and three assists from Page Carpenter and 13 saves from Amy Nusbaum.

Rugby

• The Chattanooga Rugby Club's Nooga Red team plays Saturday in Nashville with a league playoff spot at stake. Nooga Red won 40-17 last Saturday against the Knoxville Possums with Steven Jones scoring three second-half tries, Kirk Neubauer making two and Luke Collins nailing two first-half penalty kicks.

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