Rice Earns Second Medal For Whitworth

Twice in two days, Brian Rice of Whitworth had the top qualifying time in his event at the NAIA Swimming and Diving Championships in Federal Way, Wash.

Twice in two days, Rice picked up medals. Unfortunately for the Pirate freshman, neither was gold.

For a second straight night, Cumberland freshman Libor Janek overhauled Rice in the finals. Friday, Janek won the 400 individual medley in 4:03.21. Rice was second in 4:04.80.

The night before, Rice finished third behind Janek in the 200 IM.

Rice had Whitworth’s best finish on the second day of the three-day event and helped move the Pirates into third place in the men’s team standings with 227 points.

Senior Ben Swinehart of Whitworth was fourth in the 400 IM (4:10.09) and junior Jeremiah Pappe, who was third in the 200 freestyle (1:41.99). In men’s relays, Whitworth was second in the 800 freestyle and sixth in the 200 medley.

For the women, sophomore Mindy Galbraith was third in the 200 freestyle (1:57.64), junior Alison Eckenroad was seventh in the 100 backstroke (1:00.95) and the Pirates’ 800 freestyle relay team was third.

In late Thursday events, Swinehart was second (4:35.62) and Pappe seventh (4:49.79) in the men’s 500 freestyle; Galbraith was fifth (5:11.76) and Eckenroad sixth (5:13.04) in the women’s 500 free. The men’s 200 freestyle relay was fifth, and the women’s 200 free relay was eighth.

Baseball

Ohio State hit three home runs as the 23rd-ranked Buckeyes (5-3) beat Washington State 11-2 in second round play at the UNLV Desert Classic in Las Vegas.

Mike Lockwood had a leadoff homer in the first inning to set the stage. Dan Zabloudil and Chad Ehrnsberger also homered.

Steve Gleason homered for WSU (6-5) in the fifth and Jeff Scherer singled in a run in the sixth. However, Shawn Stevenson saw his school-record 28-game hitting streak come to an end with an 0-for-4 collar.

WSU, 1-1 in the Classic, plays twice today, against Oral Roberts and Cal State Northridge.

Eric Brown delivered Jason Francek from second base with no outs in the bottom of the seventh inning as Whitworth rallied for a 9-8 victory over visiting Western Baptist at Merkel Field.

Francek, who drove in three runs, and Tim Bishop were on second and first bases when Brown smacked his second hit, this one into the right-center gap, to plate the winning run.

Miguel Andrews was 3 for 4 with two RBIs for the Pirates (2-4).

Whitworth plays Whitman in a doubleheader today in Walla Walla.

Hockey

The Osoyoos Heat closed out the best-of-7 Kootenay International Junior Hockey League Neil Murdoch Division playoff series against Spokane in five games with a 5-2 victory over the visiting Braves.

Tyler Keller and Norm Lochten scored for the Braves, who outshot the Heat 32-29, but couldn’t get enough pucks past David Wood.

Boxing

Carlos Monroe (12-5-0) knocked out Billy Thompkins (13-1-1) at 2:52 of the fourth round to win the main event at the Coeur d’Alene Tribal Bingo/Casino pro card on Thursday night in Worley, Idaho.

In other bouts, Sara Schmedding from Greenacres won a four-round unanimous decision over Robin Covino of Los Angeles, Josh Imardiyi won by TKO over Sam Hampton at 1:57 of the first round, Todd Foster won a unanimous eight-round decision over Reggie Strickland, David Bostice won by TKO at 1:57 of the first over Renhard Jones, and Josh Dempsey stopped LaMont Burgin on a TKO at 1:06 of the second.

, DataTimes