The Covington News Athlete Alumni Check-In is a space to highlight former Newton County student athletes while also providing updates on where they are in their respective careers.
Lauren Burnett, Jimmy Clark III and Ty Hardeman are the athletes featured in this week’s edition.
Lauren Burnett
Burnett graduated from Eastside in the Class of 2022 and is currently and infleider for the University of Georgia (UGA) softball team.
In her senior year as an Eagles, Burnett batted .422 with four home runs while earning First Team honors for Region 8-AAAAA.
In November 2021, Burnett signed her NLI to play softball at UGA.
As a freshman, Burnett appeared in 25 games for the Bulldogs. Burnett’s first career start came against St. John’s.
In those games, Burnett posted a .353 batting average.
Burnett’s first career college home run came against Boise State in Orlando in February 2023.
At the conclusion of her freshman year,m Burnett earned a spot on the 2022-23 SEC First Year Academic Honor Roll.
Jimmy Clark III
Clark graduated from Newton in the Class of 2019.
Signing in the same class as Armani Harris and Tyrease Brown, Clark penned his NLI to begin his college basketball career at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU).
In his two seasons with VCU, Clark played a combined 33 games.
After his sophomore season, Clark transferred to Northwest Florida (NWF), where he played a bigger role.
In his one season with the Raiders, Clark led the team in scoring with 12.3 points per game and was second on the team in assists and blocks.
Clark started 32 games for the Raiders and helped lead Northwest Florida to a NJCAA Championship in 2021-22.
Following his season with NWF, Clark transferred to Duquesne.
As a junior, Clark led the Atlantic 10 (A10) in steals and steals per game.
After the end of the season, Clark was named to the 2023 A10 All-Defensive Team.
Clark started 23 games as a junior. As a senior, Clark tabbed 38 starts and almost doubled his amount of minutes.
The former Ram helped Duquesne capture the 2023-24 A10 title.
Clark averaged 15 points per game and helped lead the Dukes to a NCAA Tournament berth.
Duquesne advanced to the second round of the tournament with a 71-67 win over No. 6 seed BYU. In the game against the Cougars, Clark scored 11 points.
Ty Hardeman
Hardeman graduated from Newton in the class of 2021.
Following her senior season, Hardeman signed to play college softball at Kennesaw State University (KSU).
As a freshman, Hardeman started all 51 games for the Owls in 2022.
In just her fourth game of her career, Hardeman hit her first career college home run against Mercer.
Hardmen ended her first season with 27 hits and 6 runs batted in.
In her junior season, Hardeman matched her 51 starts.
As a sophomore, Hardeman saw her batting average increase from .203 to .281.
In April 2023 against Bellarmine, Hardeman made her 100th consecutive start.
Check back in to future editions of The Covington News for more Athlete Alumni Check-Ins. If you have nominations for future editions, send them to gpitts@covnews.com.
