SoCon honors two UTC runners and other sports news

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga sophomore Teghan Henderson was the Southern Conference women's cross country runner of the week, and Mocs senior Lucas Cotter was the men's honoree. They won UTC's season-opening PowerAde Invitational last Friday on the Moccasin Bend course, Henderson by more than 25 seconds in the two-mile race and Cotter by eight seconds over Middle Tennessee State All-American Eliud Rutto in the five-kilometer event. The 15:35 finish was Cotter's best time on the course.

Golf

• Bear Trace at Cumberland Mountain head pro Kelvin Burgin won the Tennessee Professional Championship for the fourth time Wednesday, and with it comes a berth in the 2014 FedEx St. Jude Classic at Memphis as well as a spot in the 2014 Professional National Championship. Burgin shot a 6-under-par 210 for 54 holes at Westhaven Golf Club in Franklin and received $7,500, while Council Fire's Richard Rebne was second at 213 and got $3,500. Also among the six national qualifiers were Tullahoma's Jared Nelson at 214 and Crossville's Greg Wyatt at 215. Former UTC golfer Matthew Brock of Lawrenceburg tied for 10th at 219, and Henrik Simonsen of The Honors Course tied for 15th at 221.

• Neil Spitalny of Chattanooga and Mike Poe of Athens are tied for second place, one shot behind Doug Harris of Franklin at 69, after the first day of the 2013 Tennessee Senior Amateur Championship at Hillwood Country Club in Nashville. Local golfers Tom Baird, Randall Yoder and Richard Keene are tied for seventh, 13th and 15th at 73, 75 and 76.

Soccer

• Daniel Branley scored 6:43 into the match and Joel Glover scored at 75:27 as Bryan College won 2-0 in Appalachian Athletic Conference men's soccer Wednesday at Point University. The Lions (4-0, 2-0) outshot Point 19-8, and Josh Oldroyd made five saves in the shutout.

• Tennessee Wesleyan won 4-0 at Reinhardt in AAC men's soccer Wednesday.

Volleyball

• Kara Stamper had 12 kills and Carolyn Evans and Chelsea Breaden added 10 each as Bryan College improved to 9-1 in volleyball with a 25-17, 15-25, 25-21, 25-21 win Wednesday against Shorter. Taylor Fink had 36 assists and 17 digs and Corrie Walker made 25 digs for Bryan.

• Chelsea VanDyk had 15 kills, Estes Carlson had 16 digs and four aces and Stephanie Kirkpatrick contributed 25 assists and 14 digs as the Covenant volleyball team went to 5-2 with a 25-11, 25-19, 25-21 win at Agnes Scott.

Softball

• After winning its first five 50-over tournaments of the year, the Lighthouse Lookouts/Athletic Shop men's slowpitch softball team from Chattanooga finished third out of 12 teams last weekend in the Softball Players Association World Championship 50-plus AAA event in Dalton, Ga. The strong field included teams from New Jersey to Texas, and the Lighthouse Lookouts went 3-0 in pool play and then beat the Elite 50 from Louisiana 28-11 and Big Ten Softball from Indiana 19-11 before falling 22-21 to Micheles Boyz/Stanzell of Dayton, Ohio, in the winners-bracket final. That team won the championship over Big Ten Softball, which beat the Chattanoogans 24-13 in their rematch. The Lighthouse Lookouts lost star shortstop Van Shumaker to a hamstring injury in the win over Big Ten, and manager Rex Elmore had to shift defenders around for Sunday's games. Lookouts earning All-World honors were Rodney Waters, who batted .750 with four home runs and 18 RBIs in the tournament; Art Pendergrass (.741); Butch Womack (.739); Mike Wood (.731, 2 homers, 20 RBIs); Jeff Jones (.704, 14 RBIs); and Kevin Highsmith, who hit .679 with six homers and 24 RBIs. Additionally, Al Cox batted .684, Mark Talley hit .652 with 12 RBIs and Bobby Adams hit .643. The Lighthouse Lookouts will take an overall season record of 38-10 and a 30-4 mark for 50-over play into the SPA Winter Nationals in Pensacola, Fla., next month.

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