Locally

Young local bass fishermen win second state titles of ‘05

Joey Nania of Liberty Lake and Scott Hodgkinson of Spokane Valley verified that they’re the top teenage bass anglers in Washington by winning the Washington State Junior Bassmaster Championship for the second time – this year.

Fishing at Potholes Reservoir during Labor Day weekend, Nania, 14, caught a five-fish limit totaling 9.5 pounds to win the junior division and Hodgkinson, 17, caught 13.25 pounds to win the senior division. Both also won their divisions in the state contest that was held during the spring at Banks Lake.

The champions in both divisions win expense-paid trips to fish with professionals in the junior competition at the CITGO Bassmaster Classic.

Because classic organizers are changing the national tournament’s timing from spring to winter, the 38 states participating in the junior competition had to have a second championship in order to qualify juniors for the classic to be held in February in Florida.

Nania traveled to the classic in July in Pittsburgh and won the 2005 Junior World championship.

Administration

Dee Menzies, senior woman administrator and director of compliance and eligibility the last six years at the University of Idaho, has accepted a job as the director of eligibility certification at the University of Colorado. She begins her new duties Monday.

Menzies, recommended for the job by former Idaho athletic director Mike Bohn, in his first year as Colorado athletic director, is going home. Her parents live in Wheat Ridge, Colo., which is south of Boulder.

Basketball

A Spokane-only pre-sale of tickets for the third annual Comcast “Battle in Seattle,” featuring the Gonzaga University and Oklahoma State men’s teams Dec. 10 at KeyArena in Seattle, will run until Friday.

Gonzaga defeated Missouri and Massachusetts in the two previous “battles.” This year’s game will be a rematch of last year’s Touchstone Energy All-College Classic in Oklahoma City, in which the Bulldogs defeated the then third-ranked Cowboys 78-75.

Tickets are available at all Spokane-area Ticketmaster locations, with the pre-sale concluding Friday at 10 p.m. Tickets for lower bowl seating are priced at $62 and $48, while upper bowl pricing is $24 and $18. There are a limited number of courtside seats available for $100.

Spokane-area Papa Murphy’s stores have $3-off coupons for upper bowl seats.

Bicycling

Mike Gaertner of Coeur d’Alene won the solo male 35-39 age category at the 24-Hours of Adrenaline World Championship Labor Day weekend at Whistler, B.C.

Gaertner covered 17 laps on the slick and muddy 14.3-kilometer course during the cold and rainy weekend, finishing in 24 hours, 4 minutes, 25 seconds, nearly 5 minutes ahead of the runner-up in his division.

College scene

Danielle Ayers-Stamper of LaCrosse, making her debut with the U.S. senior national team, finished seventh at the Netherlands Heptathlon Championships last weekend in Woerden.

Ayers-Stamper, who had three terrific years at Seattle Pacific before transferring to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo this fall, scored 5,433 points to finish as the second American in the field of 25. Fiona Asigbee of the United States was the overall runner-up.

Ayers-Stamper, the NCAA Division II indoor high jump champion, second in the outdoor heptathlon and a six-time All-American, was granted her release by SPU so she could follow her coach to Cal Poly SLO. Jack Hoyt left after six years as head coach of the Falcons to become an assistant with the Division I Mustangs of the Big West Conference. Ayers-Stamper has one year of eligibility outdoors and two indoors.

“A couple of former Rogers Pirates, Shelley Seipp and Jody Connacher, had solid performances for the University of Maine volleyball team at the Boston College Invitational last weekend.

Seipp, who had 94 assists as the Black Bears (1-5) went 0-3 in the four-team field, was named to the all-tournament team. Connacher had 38 digs in the three matches, including 27 against Boston College.

“Kevin Keefe (Gonzaga Prep), boxing for the host school in the University of San Francisco Hilltop Cup tournament, won a unanimous decision Saturday in his three-round, 140-pound bout against Chris Rodriguez of Chabot College.

Crew

Gonzaga University women’s coach Glenn Putyrae has completed his staff with the addition of former Bulldogs Courtney Haase and Nicki Lustig.

Haase, the coxswain on four West Coast Conference championship teams from 2000-03, earning All-WCC honors in 2001 and 2002, replaces Sandy Calfo, who left to become the novice women’s coach at Cincinnati. In 2004, Haase coached the novice rowers at Saint Mary’s College.

Lustig, a two-year rower at GU in 2001 and 2002, will serve as a volunteer assistant coach this season.

Miscellany

North Idaho College will stage a “Meet the Athletes” open house Sept. 20 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. in Christianson Gym in Coeur d’Alene.

Athletes and coaching staffs from all the intercollegiate sports, plus the cheerleading teams, will be on hand to meet fans and sign autographs.

It’s free and will include free popcorn, pop and junior Cardinals T-shirts for all youngsters who attend.

Info: (208) 769-3348.