Spokane Skiers Smith, Patten Dominate Regional Competition

Two Spokane athletes, who have been skiing together since they were in the Mighty Mite program at Mount Spokane, took the mountain by storm at the J1 Western Region Junior Olympics last week at Big Mountain in Whitefish, Mont.

Cody Smith, a North Central senior, skiing for the Spokane Ski Racing Association, had three first-place finishes and a sixth in the competition for 17-18-year-olds. Friend Jamin Patten, a Gonzaga Prep graduate who skis for the Schweitzer Alpine Racing School, had two seconds and a sixth.

Smith, first overall in the combined, earned a spot on the Rolex Junior Olympic Team and qualified for the U.S. Alpine National Championships and Canadian Alpine National Championships. He selected the Canadian event this week at Red Mountain in Rossland, British Columbia.

Smith captured the giant slalom and two slalom events, with Patten second in the GS and one of the slaloms. Smith was sixth in the Super-G, where Patten finished ahead of him in fifth. A second slalom was added when the downhill was cancelled because of poor weather.

Other area competitors and their best finishes: Brian Dillion, Schweitzer, fifth slalom; Rob Stewart, Schweitzer, eighth giant slalom; Tyler Staggs, Schweitzer, 35th GS; Jan Hegewald, Mount Hood, 29th slalom; and Rudy Kadzejs, Spokane, 42nd Super-G. Emily Baker of Schweitzer qualified but couldn’t compete because of illness.

Baseball

A coaches clinic, with North Idaho College coaches Paul Ivanovsky and Jack Bloxom serving as instructors, will be April 1 from 7-10 p.m. at NIC’s Christianson Gym.

Topics will be organizing a practice, hitting, pitching and prevention of throwing-arm injuries. The clinic is open to coaches from Little League to high school.

There is no cost, but clinicians are asking for a $5 donation that would go to the NIC baseball program.

Info: (208) 664-2240; (208) 769-3354.

Basketball

Mike Peterson of Spokane has been selected to officiate at the Elite Eight of this week’s NCAA Division II men’s championships in Louisville, Ky.

Peterson worked last week’s regional tournament in Bakersfield, Calif., and will be among 12 who will officiate the quarterfinals, which start Wednesday. The semifinals will be Thursday, with the championship game Saturday.

Here is a listing of area youth tournaments through April. Most registration deadlines are two to three weeks before the tournament. Contact officials for details.

April 4-6, Cheney, EWU Eagle Classic, boys grades 5-8. Info: Kevin Grafis, (509) 285-6822.

April 4-6, Spokane, Moscow/Lewiston, Yakima, Wenatchee, boys National AAU Regionals, 10U-18U. Info: Paul Campbell, (509) 453-2696.

April 4-6, North Spokane/Riverside AAU Classic, girls 5-8. Info: Daryl Triplett, (509) 238-5807.

April 11-13, Yakima, Inland Empire AAU girls gradelevel championships, 3-high school. Info: Paul Campbell, (509) 453-2696.

April 11-13, Lewiston, Snake River AAU Shootout, boys 5-11, girls 5, 9-11. Info: Jamie White, (208) 799-2273; (208) 746-1156.

April 18-20, Spokane, Yakima, National AAU finaleight qualifiers, boys 10U-18U, girls 10U-18U. Info: Paul Campbell, (509) 453-2696.

April 18-20, Sandpoint AAU Invitational, boys 6, 8-high school. Info: Joe Mire, (208) 263-6620.

April 18-20, Lewiston, Snake River AAU Shootout, boys 6-8, girls 6-8. Info: Jamie White, (208) 799-2273; (208) 746-1156.

April 18-20, Chewelah Invitational AAU, girls 5-high school. Info: John Polm, (509) 935-6315; Jack Gray, (509) 937-2165.

April 25-27, Chewelah Invitational AAU, boys 5-high school. Info: (509) 935-8472.

Dietrich Dome on the campus of Walla Walla Community College will be the site of the eighth annual Walla Walla VFW 3-point shootout April 5. Registration begins at 1 p.m., shooting at 2.

Entry fee is $5, with contestants getting 5 minutes to make as many 3-point shots as possible. Age divisions range for 14-under through 50-over.

Info: (509) 529-5503.

Bicycle racing

Round and Round Production of Spokane has been awarded the 1998 Grundig/UCI World Cup Mountain Bike Downhill event and the 1997 Jeep/NORBA National Mountain Bike Championships, both of which will be held at Snoqualmie Pass.

Gino Lisiecki and Wendy Zupan of Round and Round, said the Jeep/NORBA event will be July 31-Aug. 3.

The Grundig/UCI World Cup, one of four events in the series in the U.S. in 1998, will be June 27-28.

Info: (509) 533-9354.

College scene

Former Greater Spokane League high school state wrestling champions Troy Hughes of Mead and Dusty Roberts of University have completed their freshmen seasons at the University of Oregon.

Both started for the Ducks, Hughes posting a 21-14 record at 177 pounds and Roberts going 10-13 at 142. Both were 0-2 in the Pacific-10 Conference championships.

Hughes had the Ducks’ second-highest win total. He won the Southern Oregon Open, finished third at the Oregon Classic, fifth at the Las Vegas Invitational and eighth at the Mat Town Invitational.

Two former Spokane-area prep wrestlers earned All-America honors at the NAIA Championships.

Pacific Lutheran’s Matt Bliss (Gonzaga Prep) was fifth at 177 pounds and Central Washington’s Bart Orth (Lakeside) placed seventh at 158.

Central Washington announced it is dropping wrestling, leaving PLU as the only four-year school in the state offering the sport.

Chris Peterson of Spokane (St. George’s), a sophomore at Middlebury College, hit the winning basket in the Panthers’ 71-70 triumph over Bowdoin in the conference championship basketball game. She also earned second-team All-New England Small College Athletic Conference honors.

Peterson, who led the Vermont school in scoring (13.3 points a game) and was second in rebounding (6.3), also is a key member of the women’s soccer and track teams. Middlebury had a 20-7 record.

Elizabeth Sadler of Spokane (St. George’s), a sophomore guard on the Hamilton College women’s basketball team, had 42 points, 17 rebounds and 14 assists while playing in 22 of the team’s 24 games. The Clinton, N.Y., school had a 10-14 record, winning four of its final five games.

Calling all camps

The Spokesman-Review’s annual publication of youth sports summer camps is scheduled for April 20.

Deadline for submitting camp information is April 11.

Please send camp information to Kory Boatman, The Spokesman-Review sports department, 999 W. Riverside, Spokane, WA 99210. Our fax number is (509) 459-5098.

Golf

Tickets for this year’s Junior League of Spokane golf exhibition, featuring touring professionals Peter Jacobsen, Tom Lehman, Annika Sorenstam and Tom Weiskopf, go on sale Monday at all five area Hamers clothing stores.

Prices for the Sept. 15 exhibition at Spokane Country Club are $155 for a clinic ticket, which provides access to the clinic and 18-hole exhibition, and $75 for a gallery ticket, which provides access to the exhibition only.

Powerlifting

Matt Butkovich, a 1995 Coeur d’Alene High School graduate, has qualified for the American Drug Free Powerlifting Association National Championships, slated for June in St. Louis.

Last weekend in Monroe, Wash., Butkovich, a 6-foot-1, 220-pounder, qualified by lifting 1,303 pounds (550 deadlift, 450 squat, 303 bench press). He’ll play football at Walla Walla Community College this fall.

Rifle shooting

Hatti Ponti led the Spokane Junior Rifle Club to the Washington State Junior Indoor 3-Position team championship last weekend.

Ponti won the master class and was the overall match winner in the .22 target-rifle shoot. She was joined by Matt Miller, who was sixth in the masters class, and Rachael Westergren, second in expert, to give Spokane the first title for an East Side team in six years. There were 10 teams in the competition at Pasco and Seattle.

Other top-five Spokane finishes: Class A-Jordan Breschears, second. Class B - Tim Miller, first; Craig Kingsbury, fifth. Class D-Bonnie Moerschel, first. Prone-Tiffany Stuart, first.

Soccer

Tickets for the 1997 Spokane Shadow season are on sale. The defending Premiere League Division champions open April 26 at 7:05 p.m. against Kelowna, British Columbia. All home games will be in refurbished Albi Stadium.

Single-game tickets for the Shadow’s 12 home games can be obtained through G&B Select-A-Seat, (509) 325-SEAT. Season tickets and six-game packages are available through the club’s Albi Stadium office, (509) 326-GOAL.

Swimming

Spokane Area Swimming Team, which won its fourth straight Inland Empire title last weekend in Pullman, will send five to the U.S. Swimming Junior National Championships this week in College Station, Texas.

Qualifiers and their events: Jacob Weidert (Mead), 200 butterfly; Emily Brandenburg (Mead), 100 and 200 breaststroke; Dana Morrell (Mead), 200 backstroke and 400 individual medley; Annie Warner (Central Valley), 100 and 200 breast; and Brooke Sprague (Lake City of Coeur d’Alene), 50 freestyle.

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