Medical Lake tennis coach receives honor

Leroy Lemaster, whose Medical Lake Cardinals have been a perennial State 2A boys tennis contender, was named the Northwest Sectional Coach of the Year for his sport for the 2007 season by the National Federation of State High School Associations.

Medical Lake was second in the State 2A tournament and had a second-place finish in singles and a third in doubles.

In the last seven years, Lemaster’s Cardinals have produced two state championships and had four runner-up finishes.

Additionally, Lemaster has organized a community fundraiser where his players participate by giving lessons and playing matches in 16 hours over two days to benefit charities in Medical Lake. In eight years, the event has raised more than $20,000.

The Northwest Section includes Washington, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Alaska and Wyoming. The award makes Lemaster a finalist for the national award.

College scene

Mike Burns, who guided Community Colleges of Spokane into the NWAACC tournament as the top -ranked team in the conference, was named East Region men’s basketball coach of the year.

The Sasquatch landed freshman Matthew Dorr from Mt. Spokane on the All-East Region first team and sophomores Eric Beal (North Central), Jon Clift (Ferris), Bo Gregg (Lewiston) and Jordan Gregg (Lewiston) on the second team.

Beal, Clift and the Greggs were picked for the NWACC sophomore all-star game.

Additionally, Clift was named to the conference all-academic team with a 3.63 grade-point average.

•Ashlee Michelson, a Community Colleges of Spokane sophomore from North Central, picked up three awards when the NWAACC honored its women’s basketball players.

Michelson was named to the All-East Region second team, was selected to play in the NWAACC sophomore all-star game and earned all-academic honors with a 3.75 GPA.

Sasquatch freshman Kelsey Stillar (Lakeside-Nine Mile Falls) was also an All-East selection; Ren Mallory (Lewis and Clark) was picked for the sophomore all-star game; and freshman Kellee Neal (Ephrata) was an academic honoree with a 3.56 GPA.

•Jami Bjorklund, a Gonzaga junior from University High School, is a West Coast Conference All-Academic selection for a second straight year. She has a 3.94 GPA in business administration.

•Louis Hurd, the North Central graduate who is a third-year guard at Columbia Bible College in Abbotsford, British Columbia, was a second-team selection when the British Columbia Colleges’ Athletic Association announced its men’s basketball all-star teams.

That surprised CBC coach Mike McLaverty, considering Hurd won the BCCAA scoring title (20.2 points) and was third in assists (4.5).

“I was totally expecting him to get on the first team,” said McLaverty, noting CBC’s fifth-place league finish and the fact league champion Douglas had three on the first team likely hurt Hurd’s changes.

•Warren North of Gonzaga placed sixth in the lightweight men’s open at the 2008 C.R.A.S.H.-B Sprints World Indoor Rowing Championships at Boston University.

The senior timed 6 minutes, 23.8 seconds for 2,000 meters on the Concept2 Model D ergometer rowing machine.

•Elise Otto, a first-year player at Whitman from Lewis and Clark, was the Northwest Conference women’s tennis player of the week last week after running her record at No. 1 for the Missionaries to 5-0.

•Trevor Frank, a 2004 Coeur d’Alene High School graduate and a senior at Whitman, placed second in slopestyle and seventh in slalom at the U.S. Collegiate Snowboard Regional in McCall, Idaho, last weekend.

It qualified him for national competition in Maine this week.

•Anthony Varnell, a Northwest Wyoming freshman from Lewis and Clark, finished sixth at 141 pounds in the NJCAA wrestling championships last week in Rochester, Minn.

Varnell won three matches to get to the championship semifinals, but then lost his last three matches.

•Whitworth’s men’s and women’s cross country teams were honored by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Association for outstanding academics.

The Pirates women had a 3.57 GPA and the men a 3.39.

Montana State’s men’s team, which includes sophomore Nick Atwood from East Valley, was honored for a 3.397 GPA.

The Montana women’s team, which includes sophomore Leigh Fredrickson (Lewis and Clark), freshman Megan O’Reilly (Mt. Spokane) and freshman Anna Stone (Coeur d’Alene High), had a 3.29 GPA to be honored by the coaches association.

Shooting

Amanda Furrer, a junior at Mead High School, has been selected as part of the U.S. team for the 2008 Beijing World Cup.

Her selection was based on scores at the Rocky Mountain Rifle Championships at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., her standing overall in the U.S., and the bronze medal she won at the Pan Am Games last year in Rio de Janeiro.

Furrer, 17, is the third-ranked woman in the U.S. and 35th in the world in 3-position rifle.

Last year she participated in World Cups in the U.S., Sydney and Munich, and The Hopefuls match in the Czech Republic besides the Pan Am Games.

Spokane’s Elisha LaFond, a Shadle Park graduate, is ranked 34th among women in the U.S.

Track and field

Thrower Anna Albrecht from Pullman is among three women who have signed letters of intent with Washington State, Cougars coach Rick Sloan announced.

Albrecht is a two-time State 2A champion in the shot put and the defending champion in the discus. Her winning shot put in 2007 was a state-meet-record 43 feet, 11 3/4 inches.

Slated to join her this fall are distance runner Michelly Foley from Prineville, Ore., her state’s 5A cross country champion, and distance/ middle-distance runner Mietra Smollack from Oak Harbor, Wash., a district champion and State 4A placer in the 800 and 1,600.