LITTLE ROCK — FOOTBALL
New conference chase begins Sept. 3
The first quest for a Great American Conference football championship will begin Sept. 3, when four teams play a pair of games that will count toward conference standings for the first time, the new league announced Monday.
The Great American released its composite football schedule Monday, and the first games pitting conference foes will be when Arkansas Tech plays at Arkansas-Monticello and Harding plays at Southern Arkansas on Sept. 3.
Times for the games have yet to be announced.
Some Great American teams will open two days earlier when Henderson State, Ouachita Baptist and Southwestern Oklahoma State play nonconference games Sept. 1.
Great American schools, made up of six NCAA Division II schools from Arkansas that are leaving the Gulf South Conference and three from Oklahoma that are completing their final year in the Lone Star Conference, will play between five and eight conference games while Arkansas schools fulfill pre-existing scheduling obligations.
East Central Oklahoma, Southeastern Oklahoma and Southwestern Oklahoma State will play a full slate of games and Southern Arkansas will play seven. Arkansas-Monticello, Harding and Ouachita Baptist will play six games, while Henderson State and Arkansas Tech will play five.
All nine Great American teams will play a complete eight-game schedule beginning in 2012.
Great American Commissioner Will Prewitt said the scheduling commitments, most of which are to current members of the Gulf South Conference, made completing the 2011 schedule difficult.
“It wasn’t the easiest process,” Prewitt said. “I think a lot of credit needs to go to our member schools for being so flexible and working with the dates. ... I think there was a lot of creativity [used] in the solution of exiting the GSC.”
Prewitt said the first conference champion will be decided by highest winning percentage, whether that team played five conference games or eight.
He said conference coaches realized the oddity of the first year’s schedule and didn’t raise much issue with the discrepancy in the number of league games.
“We’re obviously thankful it’s a one-year issue,” Prewitt said. “It just looks unusual. It’s not something you see very often in football.” -Troy Schulte
BASEBALL
UALR pitcher earns conference mention
UALR junior Nick Grimmett was named pitcher of the week Monday by the Sun Belt Conference.
Grimmett pitched 7 2/3 innings of relief Saturday in UALR’s 6-4 victory at Stephen F. Austin, allowing 1 hit with 3 strikeouts.
MEN’S BASKETBALL
Arkansas Baptist earns home victory
Arkansas Baptist beat Midsouth (West Memphis) 79-76 on Monday in Little Rock.
Chase Norwood and Nick Young led Arkansas Baptist (14-14) with 14 points each.
TENNIS Arkansas women lose on road
No. 19 Arkansas lost to California 4-2 Sunday at the ITA National Indoors Championship in Charlottesville, Va.
Arkansas (8-3) lost the doubles point.
Stephanie Roy and Jade Frampton won in straight sets for Arkansas. The Razorbacks will host Colorado on Friday.
ASU women fall in Texas
Arkansas State (2-3) lost to undefeated Lamar 4-3 Sunday in Beaumont, Texas.
The Red Wolves earned the doubles point. Janie Nowland and Biljana Miloshevska won singles matches for Arkansas State in straight sets.
GOLF
Arkansas women tied for 11th
Arkansas senior Kelli Shean finished with a 3-over-par 147 and is tied for eighth after two rounds of the Central District Invitational in Parrish, Fla. on Monday.
The Razorbacks are tied for 11th in the first event of the spring.
“We got two rounds under our belts today and obviously scrapped off a lot of competition rust,” Arkansas Coach Shauna Estes-Taylor said. “We had to count several big numbers and that hurt us but we did some nice things as well.”
Freshman Emily Tubert opened play with a 1-over-par 73 and shot a 77 in the second round for 150. She is tied for 22nd.
Sports, Pages 17 on 02/22/2011