Silver Mermaids Earn National Meet Berths

Eight members of the Spokane Silver Mermaids synchronized swimming team have qualified for the National Age Group Championships in Federal Way, Wash., next month.

Beth Moore and Megan Murphy qualified in both the 16-17-year-old duet and team competition with third-place finishes in the West Zone, Section A championships last month in Federal Way.

Also on the team are Karissa Crossley, Karly Johanson, Nikki Velategui and Becky Weaver. Johanson was joined by Katie Enemark and Patricia Reed for a fourth-place finish in 14-15 trio to earn a national spot. Moore also placed third in the 14-15 solo competition.

Awards

Nine Gonzaga University athletes have been named to West Coast Conference All-Academic teams for the spring semester.

Baseball - Donnie Murrell, junior, 3.55 grade-point average, business. Women’s tennis - Megan Gallagher, senior, 3.56, special education. Men’s tennis - Rob Balen, jr., 3.74, engineering; David Huberty, sr., 3.71, chemistry; John Olmstead, jr., 3.53, economics; Matt Olmstead, jr., 3.54, economics. Men’s golf - Jeff Harnasch, sophomore, 3.31, business; Tom Teschner, jr., 3.56, political science.

Basketball

Sarah Steblaj, 13, of Spokane placed fifth in the girls 12-13-year-old division at the Elks National Hoop Shoot national finals last weekend in Springfield, Mass.

Steblaj, a seventh-grader at Horizon Junior High, made 21 of 25 free throws. There were 12 in her division.

Washington State has signed three players from the Pacific Northwest for its women’s team - Garisha Ross, Tacoma; Cathy McNeely, Philomath, Ore., and Joanna Smith, North Vancouver, British Columbia.

Ross, a 5-foot-10 guard out of Wilson High, averaged 15.9 points and named her team’s most valuable player.

McNeely, 5-10, is a three-sport athlete who also participated in volleyball and track. She is the defending state champion in the high jump and triple jump.

Smith, from Argyle High in North Vancouver, is also a 5-10 guard who likes to shoot 3-pointers. She averaged 20 points, eight rebounds, six assists and four steals as a senior. She was on the British Columbia all-star team.

WSU coach Harold Rhodes said he expects to sign at least two more players.

Fencing

Three Spokane Fencing Club members qualified for next month’s National Championships/U.S. Olympic Team trials in Cincinnati with their performances in the Pacific Northwest Sectionals last weekend in Kennewick.

Justin Smith qualified in men’s sabre, with a fifth-place finish, and U-19 men’s sabre, where he was second. K. Maria Duthie was second in women’s epee and Aaron Davis was fifth in U-19 men’s foil. The top six advanced.

A fourth SFC member at the sectional was Wayne Perez, whose best finish was 32nd in men’s epee.

College scene

Two Sehome High graduates from Bellingham - basketball players Jon Kinloch and Joy Pauley - were honored as the Gonzaga University Bulldog Club male and female senior scholar-athletes of the year.

Kermit Rudolph, longtime corporate counsel for the university, received the Bulldog Club Service Award.

Kinloch, the first four-time selection for the WCC men’s basketball All-Academic team, was voted to the GTE/College Sports Information Directors of America District VIII All-Academic first team with a 3.67 grade point average in finance and marketing. He also was one of five men’s basketball players who received an NCAA postgraduate scholarship.

Pauley, who carries a 3.56 GPA in physical education/teaching, was an All-WCC pick and a three-time WCC All-Academic pick.

Carla Coffield, an Eastern Oregon College junior from Spokane (Rogers High School), was named to the All-Cascade Collegiate Conference team and the Pacific Northwest Region’s All-Sectional team in softball.

Coffield, who plays third base, led the Cascade in hitting (.513) and home runs (nine) as well as in runs per game (.85) and RBIs per game (27 in 27 games). She also tied for the lead in walks with 19.

Sarah Johnston of Spokane (Gonzaga Prep), a sophomore catcher for Pacific Lutheran, earned Northwest Conference of Independent Colleges first-team softball honors.

PLU (31-6), ranked fourth, will participate in the NAIA national tournament next weekend in Decatur, Ala.

Western Washington sophomore catcher-outfielder Megan McChesney of Spokane (Mead) earned honorable mention as a utility player on the Pacific Northwest Athletic Conference all-star softball team.

She hit .303 with 14 RBIs and 11 runs scored.

Jen Harrell, a Dickinson College freshman from Veradale (Gonzaga Prep), helped account for 19 points as the Red Devils won the Centennial Conference championship track and field meet last weekend.

Harrell was fifth in the 400 meters (1:02), sixth in the 200 (27.93), ran leadoff on the secondplace 1,600-meter relay team and anchored the fifth-place 400 relay team.

Hockey

John Thomas has been selected to play for an all-star team from Seattle in “The Brick,” a prestigious tournament for 10-year-olds in Edmonton in August.

Thomas, a fourth-grader at Finch Elementary School, reportedly will become the first Spokane player to participate in the tournament. He’s been playing hockey for six years and commutes to Seattle on weekends to play.

Tennis

Eastern Washington and Idaho are represented on the Big Sky’s all-conference men’s tennis team.

EWU landed Brian Hart on the first team, and Idaho placed Danny Willman.

Honorable mentions included Jorge Aldrete of Idaho on the men’s team and Vandals Katrina Burke and Gwen Nikora on the women’s.

Track and field

Ruth Van Kuren of Cheney, Inland Northwest USA Track & Field youth chairman, announced the 1996 schedule for the area:

June 8-Junior Olympics preliminary meets in Spokane and Pasco. June 8-9-Inland Northwest Multi-Events Championships, Yakima. June 15-Inland Northwest Age Group Championships, Clarkston. June 22-Inland Northwest JO Championships, Cheney. June 29-Cheney Invitational.

July 11-12-Region XIII JO Multi-Event Championships, Pullman. July 13-14-Region XIII JO Championships, Pullman. July 20-Washington State Games, Pullman.

Nov. 9-Inland Northwest JO Cross Country Championships, Ephrata. Nov. 16-Region XIII JO Cross Country Championships, Ephrata.

Info: Van Kuren, (509) 235-4762 or 418 Cocolalla St., Cheney, WA 99004-1753.

Miscellany

Carla Warrington, a senior at Cheney High School, has signed a letter of intent to play softball and golf at Iowa Wesleyan College in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. She was the All-Frontier League center fielder in 1995.

, DataTimes