State sports briefs

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Smothers on Rimington watch list

Arkansas offensive lineman Mitch Smothers was named Tuesday to the spring watch list for the Rimington Trophy, which is awarded each year to the top center in college football.

Smothers, a 6-3, 315-pound, fifth-year senior from Springdale High School, started all 13 games at center last season. He picked up just two penalties while finishing with a 72 percent grade from Arkansas coaches.

Smothers is one of 52 players on the watch list, including fellow SEC players Ryan Kelly of Alabama, Jon Toth of Kentucky, Ethan Pocic of LSU, Evan Boehm of Missouri, Alan Knott of South Carolina, Mike Matthews of Texas A&M and Spencer Pulley of Vanderbilt.

— Tom Murphy

COLLEGE ATHLETICS

Sun Belt concludes meetings

The Sun Belt Conference concluded its annual spring meetings Tuesday in Montgomery, Ala., without any resolution made on the future of a football championship game or future conference expansion.

The conference said in a release Tuesday that a championship game for football was discussed with “various opinions expressed.” The release said the league will continue to explore the “potential impact of the game from both a competition standpoint and financial perspective.”

No new members were announced for the 11-team league, but the Sun Belt increased its entry fee from $1 million to $2 million and the exit fee is $2.5 million if the office is notified in less than 12-15 months. If more than 15 months notice is given, the exit fee is $2 million.

The Sun Belt will also impose a $50,000 fine on any member school that schedules more than two basketball games against schools that aren’t NCAA Division I members.

TRACK AND FIELD

ASU honored by Sun Belt

The Arkansas State men’s and women’s track and field team won several end-of-season awards given out by the Sun Belt Conference on Tuesday.

Roelf Pienaar was named men’s outstanding field performer, Jaylen Bacon was named men’s most oustanding freshman, Kristin Knott was named women’s most outstanding freshman and Jim Patchell was named women’s Coach of the Year.

In addition, ASU’s Keturah Smith, Rexi Parcells, Emenderlyn Iwuj, Tilda Helgesson, Darragh May, Alexandra Pevtsova, Calea Carr, Savannah Hutchinson, Joseph Meyer, Wil Norris, Ethan Sandusky, Richard Chavez and William Oliver were each named all-conference.

UALR’s Jack Bruce also was named All-Sun Belt.

BASEBALL

UALR’s Rockwell, ASU’s George All-Sun Belt

UALR third baseman Tanner Rockwell and Arkansas State utility player Zach George were named to the All-Sun Belt Conference first team Tuesday.

Rockwell, a senior, was third in the conference with a .385 batting average and he led the league with 34 RBI. He finished with the third-most hits in conference play at 45 and tied for the third-most doubles with 12. He led the Trojans with 3 home runs, 39 RBI and 20 walks.

George, a senior, led the league with a .390 batting average, a .544 on-base percentage and drew a league-best 48 walks. He has 29 RBI and has scored 36 runs.

George has reached base in all 51 games this season, and his 70-game on-base streak dating to last season leads the nation.

BASKETBALL

UALR signs top juco guard

Point guard Marcus Johnson Jr., a first-team NJCAA All-American at Hill College in Hillsboro, Texas, signed a letter of intent Tuesday to play at UALR.

Johnson, a 6-1 native of Charlotte, N.C., was the Most Valuable Player and a first-team all-conference selection in the Northern Texas Junior College Athletic Conference. He started all 36 games for Hill College last season, averaging 16.9 points, 7.8 assists and 3.2 rebounds per game. His 279 assists were second-most nationally and his 4.9 assist-to-turnover ratio ranked third.

According to a press release from UALR, Johnson had interest from nearly two dozen other schools, including Washington State, Colorado, Memphis, Xavier and Purdue.

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