First-year Walmart FLW Tour pro Casey Martin of New Hope, Ala., leads by more than 10 pounds going into the final round today of the tour regular-season finale out of the Dayton Boat Dock on Lake Chickamauga, but two anglers from host Rhea County are second and third and another is seventh among the 10 finalists hitting the lake one last time today. Martin, who moved into the top spot Friday, added 23 pounds, 3 ounces with his five-bass limit Saturday and has a total of 73-2. Dock operator Michael Neal of Dayton has 62-12 after a 22-8 haul, and Walmart pro Wesley Strader of Spring City is third at 58-4 with Dayton's Andy Morgan in a virtual tie with sixth-place Dan Morehead of Paducah, Ky., at 54-0. Jim Moynagh of Minnesota is fourth at 55-15, 10 ounces more than Larry Nixon of Arkansas. Morgan clinched the season points championship and a $100,000 bonus by reaching the semifinals, and $125,000 goes to the tournament winner. Jerry Reagan of Byrdstown, Tenn., won $25,000 for the co-angler victory with a three-day total of 46-12. Kenny Beale Jr. of Blairs, Va., was second at 38-13 and got $7,134. Richard Peek of Centre, Ala., didn't compete Saturday after finishing 31st, but that was enough for him to be the Co-Angler of the Year and get a Ranger Z518 boat with a 200-horsepower motor and automatic entry into the 2014 Forrest Wood Cup. NBCSN will show the tournament on Aug. 4 from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m.
• FLW's Walmart BFL All-American tournament ended Saturday out of Chattanooga with Kerry Milner of Bono, Ark., leapfrogging Chris Wilkinson of Farmersburg, Ind., for the boater win and $100,000. Milner also got a $20,000 Ranger bonus and a $10,000 Evinrude bonus for his three-day total of 63 pounds. Wilkinson received $20,000 for his 57-3 haul, and Corey Bradley of McDonald, Tenn., got $15,000 for his third-place 51-4. Chad Richardson of Wisconsin, David Williams of Virginia and Nick Angiulo of New Jersey also exceeded 30 pounds. Daniel Buswell of Newnan, Ga., won the co-angler title and $50,000 with 36-0; Craig Hulsey of Missouri got $15,000 for 35-3.
Golf
• Former Hixson resident Josh Nelms has a shot today for his second Tennessee Match Play Championship golf tournament. The 2006 winner, now living in Spring Hill, beat former Chattanoogan Nick Blakely of Nashville 3 and 2 and defeated Knoxville's Brandon Rodgers 1 up in Saturday matches at the Nashville Golf and Athletic Club in Brentwood and faces Germantown's Hunter Kraus in a semifinal this morning. The winner will play Cordova's Zachary Olsen or Brentwood's Brendon Caballero for the title. Caballero won 3 and 2 over both Brett Patterson of McMinnville and University of Tennessee at Chattanooga golfer Davis Bunn of Knoxville. Buzz Fly of Memphis faces Chuckey's Mike Freels for the Senior Match Play championship. Fly won 1 up in his semifinal match against Tennessee Wesleyan College coach Mike Poe of Athens, who beat 2011 senior champ Jim Brown of Loudon 5 and 3 in the quarterfinals.
General
• Five months after having replacement surgeries on both knees, Chattanooga resident John Disterdick earned four gold medals, three silvers and a bronze and had two fourth-place finishes in the 11 events he entered in the Tennessee State Senior Olympics in Franklin. He competed June 21-26 in the men's 70-74 age group. The golds all were in swimming -- the 50-, 100- and 500-yard freestyle events and 50 backstroke -- and the silvers were in the 200 free, the long jump in track and field and the cycling time trial. The bronze was in the triple jump. "The real story here, I think, is how quickly one can recover from double knee replacement and get back into activities," said Disterdick, who admitted shying away from running events at Franklin but wished he hadn't. "The big issue for me has been the complete removal of pain with the new knees." He was chosen as one of the subjects for the new BlueCross BlueShield calendar featuring Senior Olympians, and he plans to compete again later this year in the Ringside World Masters boxing and World Masters rowing competitions.
• UTC had 13 athletes with perfect 4.0 grade point averages for the 2012-13 academic year -- second most in the Southern Conference to Georgia Southern with 19. The Mocs' and Lady Mocs' 4.0s came from football player Adam Miller; cross country and track athletes Patrick O'Brien, Austin Etheridge, Morgan Buchanan, Rachel Greenwall and Helenka Kis; softball player Carmen Wooden; basketball player Kayla Christopher; golfer Emily McLennan; soccer players Skylar Brewer and Clare Latham; and wrestlers Dean Pavlou and John Lampe. In all, 139 UTC athletes made the conference honor roll and 75 earned SoCon Commissioner's Medals for GPAs of 3.5 or better for the year.
• The oldest college football field in the South is getting a new surface. Excavation began this past week on Sewanee's McGee Field to make it ready for state-of-the-art synthetic turf, according to a school release. And that is only one of three field projects going on this summer at the NCAA Division III university. Work also has begun on a multipurpose building that will include restrooms, a concession stand and storage areas at Montgomery Field, the baseball facility, and Puett Field -- used for soccer and lacrosse -- will be expanded and also get a new synthetic surface in time for the fall seasons.