Mocs linebacker Wes Dothard on CFPA watch list

photo UTC linebacker Wes Dothard

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga senior linebacker Wes Dothard has been named to the College Football Performance Awards linebacker watch list for the second year in a row. The preliminary list includes 35 candidates for the top linebacker in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision, and Dothard is a two-time All-American and first-team All-Southern Conference player with 214 career tackles. He is the fifth Moc named to a CFPA watch list this preseason, following sophomore quarterback Jacob Huesman, junior tight end Faysal Shafaat, senior defensive lineman Derrick Lott and junior defensive end Davis Tull.

Academics

• UTC athletics academic advisor Lindsey Wendorf received the Professional Promise Award last weekend at the annual convention of the National Association of Academic Advisors for Athletics. Only one person receives that distinction for each of the N4A's five regions. Wendorf, who just completed her third year in her UTC advising role, works with women's basketball, soccer, softball, volleyball and men's and women's golf. Five of those six teams had plus-3.0 aggregate grade point averages for both 2012-13 semesters, and 11 athletes from those teams were academic all-conference with spring awards yet to be announced. Volleyball player Christina Teter became the program's first Academic All-American. Wendorf also was part of UTC becoming the first Southern Conference school with full N4A certification.

• The Baylor School girls' swim team was awarded silver-level academic status by the National Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association for 2012-13, which means the program's average cumulative GPA was 3.5 to 3.749 on a 4.0 scale. That follows the announcement that the Baylor boys had bronze-level distinction. Both teams won state championships this year. The Lady Red Raiders went 8-0 in dual meets, and eight of them had automatic All-American qualifying times. "This is another tremendous team award of achievement earned by this fine collection of young ladies," coach Dan Flack said in a school release. "These girls represent every aspect of student-athletic life here at Baylor. Their accomplishments in and out of the pool are second to none in all of high school athletics."

Fishing

• Tony Collins of Cohutta, Ga., won the co-angler division with five bass totaling 24 pounds, 3 ounces and Bryan Gregory of Fort Payne, Ala., finished third among the boater pros with 25-7 in the Walmart Bass Fishing League Choo Choo Division tournament Saturday on Lake Guntersville. Collins earned $2,041; Gregory got $1,362. Johnny Patterson of Grant, Ala., won $4,082 for his first-place haul of 28-14 in the pro category, and Kentuckian Chris Davis was second with 26-0, good for $2,041. Rodney Hill of Decherd, Tenn., was seventh with 21-14, one ounce more than seventh-place Tim Bucker of Scottsboro, Ala., and former Stevenson, Ala., resident Edward Gettys of Mosheim, Tenn., was 10th with 19-11.

Volleyball

• Kristi Vaughn from Sonoraville High School and the North Georgia Rage Volleyball Club has received a second national accolade from the Junior Volleyball Association in a month. Already on the JVA "Junior Watch List," Vaughn now is one of seven rising seniors designated for the JVA "AthLeader Award" for comprehensive excellence beyond the court. With a 4.0 GPA she is ranked first in her class of 227, which she serves as vice president, and is a certified nursing assistant and a volunteer in church ministry activities.

Track & Field

• Signal Mountain High School senior Preston Elwell was fifth in the javelin event at the 38th annual Great Southwest Track and Field Classic this past weekend in Albuquerque, N.M., with a throw of 166 feet, 7 inches. That broke his school record by three feet. The Great Southwest is one of the top high school invitational meets in the United States.

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