Dalton, Northwest, Murray seek net titles

Published 11:51 pm Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Region 7-4A boys tennis coaches could have thrown names in a hat and drawn for the top four seeds and none would have been shocked by which school came out on top.

As it turned out, Dalton’s Catamounts are the No. 1 seed from the north sub-region heading into today’s opening round of the region tournament at the Calhoun Recreation Complex.

But, as coach David Hilley said, it’s not because the Cats dominated the sub-region.

“We’re lucky to be No. 1,” Hilley said.

Dalton, Rome and Murray County each finished with 5-1 sub-region records and the 1-2-3 order came down to multiple tie-breakers. Head-to-head matches decided nothing.

“We all beat each other,” Hilley said.

The outcome finally came down to sub-region matches won and it was a razor-thin edge for the Cats, who had 19 match victories, while Rome had 18 and Murray County 17. At 3-3 in the sub-region, coach Billy White’s Northwest Whitfield Bruins earned the No. 4 seed.

“There are three pretty good teams sitting there at one, two and three,” Hilley said. “Heck, Northwest is a pretty good team too. I think they lost to the top three teams by 3-2 scores.”

On the girls side, Dalton’s Lady Cats are sitting pretty at No. 1 while Sequoyah is second, Cass third and Northwest Whitfield fourth. The Lady Cats got the top seed when Rome, winning its first sub-region match of the season, upended Cass. Without the Rome win, Dalton would have probably been the No. 2 seed, Hilley said.

In today’s opening round, Dalton’s boys will play South Paulding and the Lady Cats take on Hiram, with both matches starting at 10 a.m.

The Northwest boys and girls face stiff first-day challenges against Hillgrove’s boys and girls, each a No. 1 seed and sporting a 7-0 record out of the south sub-region. Those matches start at 11:30 a.m. Hillgrove’s Hawks are ranked fourth in the state in the GaSports.com coaches poll. In that same poll, Murray County’s Indians are No. 6, Rome No. 8, North Paulding No. 9 and Dalton No. 10.

“I don’t know a lot about Hillgrove,” Bruins coach Billy White said, “and we don’t have any common opponents. They dominated the south part of the region, but I really believe we’ll be competitive with them. Our kids just have to believe they can win.”

Murray County coach Kirk Hemphill still wasn’t sure about his first-round opponent because Sprayberry and North Paulding were playing on Wednesday. The Indians are scheduled to play at 1 p.m. today.

“I don’t have a clue about those teams and I hope they don’t know much about us,” Hemphill said. “It looks like all the teams are pretty even.”

Varsity baseball

• LFO 5, Southeast 3: Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe’s Matt Osbourn’s two-out single in the seventh inning drove in the winning run for the Warriors (11-1, 1-0 Region 6-3A).

Tanner McCutchen had two hits for the Raiders (5-6, 0-2) and drove in a run. Bradley Grant and Ryan Andrews each had doubles and Michael Simpson had a hit, scored twice and stole two bases.

The Raiders’ Colby Cook threw a complete game, giving up four hits and four walks and struck out two.

Varsity golf

• Southeast boys 185, LFO 204, Ringgold 211: Freshman John Burns led the Raiders with a 8-over 44 at Nob North Golf Course while Jake Rackley shot 46, Josh Wilson 47 and Zack Sneed 48.

Ringgold’s Kevin Gann, son of former Southeast football and wrestling coach David Gann, took medalist honors with a 42.

• Murray County boys 162, Gilmer 205: The Indians’ Tyler Simpson and Chase Jones each shot 38 and shared medalist honors at White Path Golf Course in Ellijay.

Dylan Langford shot 42 and Jacob Wildes and Zach Gibson posted 44s.

• Murray County girls 99, Gilmer 136: Alicia Moneymaker had a 45 for the Indians for medalist honors and Mariah Parker finished with a 54.

MS golf

• Bagley boys 193, Jasper 234: Colby Hipp shot 5-over 40 to lead the Braves. Jacob Sexton and Dylan Davis each posted a 50 and Blake Carter a 53.

• Jasper girls 120, Bagley 122, Gladden 124: Jocelyn Blair led the Lady Braves with a 60 and Alex Westmoreland shot 62. Kaitlyn Moneymaker and Sidney Webb each shot 62 for the Lady Warriors. Hannah Papt shot 58 for Jasper.