Soto sparks Mocs' rout of Stanford and other sports news

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Arkansas-SEMO Live Blog

Led by Nick Soto's 15-8 whipping of the No. 1-ranked 133-pound wrestler in the NCAA, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga pulled off a dominating 25-13 win Friday night at 15th-ranked Stanford. The host Cardinal began with a major decision at 125 pounds, but Soto's win over Ryan Mango began a seven-bout streak of victories to a 25-4 lead for UTC (6-4). Included were a pin by Levi Clemons, a major decision by Michael Pongracz and other decisions of six or more points by Shaun Greevy and Alex Hudson. The Mocs' fourth-ranked Corey Mock beat No. 14 Jim Wilson 4-2, and John Lampe at 184 ended the Mocs' run with a 7-6 win. UTC will compete Sunday at the Reno (Nev.) Tournament of Champions.

Football

• UTC junior defensive end Davis Tull has now made four All-America teams for the second year in a row, adding Associated Press and Walter Camp Foundation first-team 2013 Football Championship Subdivision honors to his College Sports Madness first-team designation and The Sports Network second-team selection from earlier in the week. He repeated this year as Southern Conference defensive player of the year and holds the Mocs' career record for sacks with 26.5. He had nine this season, as part of his 52 total tackles and 15 tackles for loss, and he led the Socon with four forced fumbles. Tull also received the 2013 Elite Defensive End honor from the College Football Performance Awards. UTC senior defensive back Kadeem Wise, the only four-time All-SoCon player in program history, was a third-team College Sports Madness All-American after totaling 75 tackles and eight passes defended.

• Former UTC athletic director Oval Jaynes will receive the Executive Director's "Spirit of Giving" Award during the American Football Coaches Association annual convention next month in Indianapolis. His presentation from Grant Teaff, the AFCA executive director, will take place at the Coach of the Year Dinner on Jan. 14. The award honors association members who have donated time to serve the AFCA and its foundation. "The essence of the game of football is embodied in the 'Spirit of Giving,'" Teaff said in an AFCA release. "Coaches give their effort, knowledge, time, talent and resources to those that play the game. The players give, in the same way, to the game and to each other. Oval Jaynes is an individual who embodies that unique spirit." Jaynes said he was "stunned" when he received the letter "about a month ago" from Teaff. "I called Teaff to make sure he had the right person," Jaynes said. "An award like this, it is more than just me. It's all the coaches and the thousands of student-athletes at the many institutions that I worked at." The former football coach, Auburn associate AD and Colorado State, Pittsburgh and Idaho athletic director was hired as UTC's AD in 1998 and served there until 2003. More recently he was the AD at Jacksonville State.

Lacrosse

• Baylor School's Rachel Manieri and Erin Garmany signed letters of intent this week to be part of the start-up women's lacrosse program at Asbury University in Kentucky. Asbury's coach is former Baylor assistant Rich Manieri, Rachel's father, so he knows these two recruits very well. "They are very talented, similar players," he said in an Asbury release. "They are tremendous athletes with great speed, and they can play anywhere on the field. Because of their speed they can be very difficult to play against. Plus, they are great kids." He has signed players from Ohio, Virginia, Florida and Georgia as well as Tennessee and Kentucky for the program's 2014-15 inaugural year. "I looked at other schools, but this was an opportunity that was too good to pass up," said Garmany, who also plans to run cross country. "I loved Asbury the first time I saw the campus," Rachel Manieri said. "I knew right away this is where I wanted to be."

Basketball

• Tennessee Temple University lost its basketball doubleheader Friday evening at the University of Mobile, the Crusaders falling 81-65 after the Lady Crusaders lost 86-75 with 22 turnovers. Deonica McCormick had 36 points and five assists for Mobile (6-2), while Shakoya Monroe scored 15 points, Angel Foster had 14 points and seven rebounds and Amanda Rector and Jessica Salera added 13 points each for Temple. Rector and Kirsten Fowler each had five assists. Jarrett Smith had 23 points on 9-of-11 shooting plus four assists for the Crusaders (7-6), who got 13 points from Elliot Johnson.