Monday's Report: Wesleyan death, Mercer player recovery, Macon TD Club; Falcons lose close one, UGA, Braves, Dream; HS deaths, college football, NFL, MLB, WNBA, NASCAR, soccer

September 23, 2024 Central Georgia Sports Report

📰S📰C📰O📰R📰E📰B📰O📰A📰R📰D
🏫🏫🏫College🏫🏫🏫
⚽ ⚽ ⚽Soccer ⚽ ⚽ ⚽

W-Western Carolina 1, Mercer 0

Pro

🏈🏈🏈Football🏈🏈🏈

Kansas City 22, Atlanta 17

⚾ ⚾ ⚾MLB ⚾ ⚾ ⚾

Atlanta 5, Miami 4

🏀🏀🏀WNBA 🏀🏀🏀

New York 83, Atlanta 69

📰C📰O📰V📰E📰R📰A📰G📰E📰

Around/About Central Georgia

Wesleyan runner dies at local meet

Cross country runner Nefertari Holston of Wesleyan died Saturday morning while competing at Middle Georgia State in a meet hosted by Mercer.

She was pronounced dead by Bibb County coroner Leon Jones at Atrium Health Navicent after suffering cardiac arrest.

Wesleyan has yet to update its roster for 2024-25, and she was not on last year’s roster, but apparently competed.

Her LinkedIn account indicates she started at Wesleyan in 2021 and was a junior majoring in psychology. It doesn’t appear she was active on social media.

The GBI will perform the autopsy.

Well-traveled successful coach Simpson of Georgia Tech at Macon TD Club

Current Georgia Tech defensive line coach and longtime state high school coaching standout Jess Simpson is this week’s speaker at the Macon Touchdown Club.

The club meets at the Methodist Home for Children and Youth, in the Rumford Center, at 304 Pierce Ave. It starts at 6:30 p.m. with dinner and the program to begin around 7. Admission for non-members is $30.

Georgia Southern’s Clay Helton is next week’s speaker.

Simpson played tight end at Auburn from 1989-91, and stayed there as a student assistant to start his coaching career.

That began officially in 1994 as an assistant at Marietta, then Buford for two seasons before becoming East Paulding’s head coach for a year.

He returned to Buford in 1998, and stayed until 2016, taking over as head coach in 2005. Simpson left high school coaching with a record of 164-12 with seven state titles and 10 straight trips to the final.

Simpson joining the Atlanta Falcons in 20178, the Miami Hurricanes in 2018, back to the Falcons for two years, back to Miami for a year, then to Duke for two seasons.

Simpson joined the Georgia Tech staff last December, reuniting with new defensive coordinator Tyler Santucci, with whom he worked at Duke.

Mercer defensive back still undergoing observation

Mercer’s Khalil Mood is improving after leaving the Bears’ game Saturday against The Citadel in the second half at Five Star Stadium.

He fell to the turf in the third quarter, left the field by cart and was taken by ambulance to Atrium Health Navicent. The game resumed after about a half-hour delay.

The school released a statement Sunday night: "Khalil Moody is in stable condition and in good spirits alongside his family as he remains under observation of the healthcare team at Atrium Health Navicent Medical Center in downtown Macon. He has expressed his appreciation for the support of not only his teammates, coaches and sports medicine staff, but also for the thoughts and prayers from Mercer fans around the world."

Moody is a freshman from Sumter, S.C., who had played in all three Mercer games, and had a tackle and pass breakup on Saturday.

Around/About Georgia

Mahomes throws 2 touchdown passes and the Chiefs’ defense preserves win over the Falcons

Miscues and late stops by the Chiefs lead to another Falcons loss

What happened in Falcons' loss

Cousins becomes fourth-fastest quarterback in NFL history to reach 40,000 passing yards

Georgia favored in Tusclaoosa. Here's the last time Alabama was home underdog

Ingram-Dawkins continues to be a bright spot on injured Georgia defensive line

Peeking in on the Smart coaching tree

Albies, Urshela homer as Braves edge Marlins

Fiebich scores a career-high 21 and the Liberty beat the Dream 83-69 in Game 1

Baseball/MLB