Whitworth garners scholastic awards
The U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) has announced that Whitworth University was chosen as the NCAA Division III 2009 Indoor Track and Field Scholar Team of the Year and the 2009 Outdoor Track and Field Scholar Team of the Year. It is the second straight year the Pirates have been the men’s scholar team of the year.
Also, the Whitworth women finished second in NCAA Division II in cumulative grade point average, with a mark of 3.641.
Whitworth’s men’s team took third place at the Division III indoor national championships and sixth at the outdoor championships. Those marks, combined with a 3.327 team GPA, gave Whitworth the team of the year honor, which is based on a combination of all three factors.
•Eastern Washington University’s women’s basketball team has once again made the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Academic Top 25 Honor Roll.
It is the eighth consecutive Top 25 finish for the Eagles, who ranked ninth this year with a 3.422 cumulative GPA. EWU and Indiana State, which finished first this year at 3.645, are the only teams to make the list eight consecutive times. Both streaks are still active.
•Andrea Hacker (Mt. Spokane High, 2007) was named to the NJCAA Academic All-Region Second Team following her sophomore season at Iowa Lakes Community College.
Baseball
Central Valley graduate Rusty Shellhorn, who recently completed his freshman season at Washington State, has been named to the all-star roster for the Prospect League, a summer collegiate baseball league in the Midwest. Shellhorn is 3-2 for the Northcoast Knights (Lorain, Ohio), with a 1.95 ERA and 40 strikeouts in 321/3 innings pitched.
Golf
Gonzaga University recruit Kevin Parkhurst won the Junior Golf Association of Arizona boys state championship last week. He finished six strokes under par, with rounds of 68 and 70 over the 7,151-yard, par-72 Prospector Course at Superstition Mountain Golf and Country Club.
Hall of Fame
Boxer Guido Bardelli was inducted into the Inland Northwest Hall of Fame in 1974. Bardelli fought between 1924 and 1937 as Young Firpo and as one of the top light heavyweights on the Pacific Coast had a reported 79 knockouts and just 15 losses in 134 fights. It was recently learned that Bardelli, who died in 1984, was inducted last November into the World Boxing Hall of Fame during ceremonies in Los Angeles along with former champions Lennox Lewis, Marvin Johnson and Pernell “Sweet Pea” Whitaker.
Thirty-five years following his induction into the Inland Northwest Sports Hall of Fame located in the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena, the organization is readying for its next class. Names will be announced in September. Luncheon and ceremony is Oct. 13 at the Spokane Arena. Tickets can be reserved at (509) 742-9379 or a ticket form can be downloaded from www.spokanesports.com.
Men’s basketball
Two state players of the year and two league players of the year highlight the five-member incoming class for the Whitworth University men’s basketball team.
The Pirates will welcome three transfers and two freshmen to a team that returns three starters from last season when the Pirates went 23-6, won the Northwest Conference tournament and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Division III national championship.
Senior guard Eric Beal, the 2006 Greater Spokane League player of the year at North Central High, is transferring from Concordia University. He played one season for the Eagles after two seasons at Community Colleges of Spokane.
Junior wing Lucas Ashe, who was first-team All-GSL in 2006 at Mead, is transferring from Northwest University in Kirkland, Wash.
Sophomore post Jack Loofburrow (Yakima) is coming to Whitworth after a year off from basketball. Two years ago he appeared in 14 games as a redshirt freshman at Eastern Washington University.
The incoming freshmen are guard Chase Ramey (Northwest Christian) and guard Wade Gebbers (Brewster, Wash.) Ramey, a two-time State B player of the year as chosen by the Seattle Times, led Northwest Christian to four consecutive state championships. Gebbers is the reigning WIBCA Washington State 1A player of the year. His older brother Clay also plays for the Pirates.
•Guard Shawn Reid, who will be a senior at Post Falls High School, has orally committed to playing at Montana State University, the Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported.
Reid, 6-foot-4, says he chose the Bobcats because they were the first team interested and because of the school’s fifth-year scholarship program available to athletes.
•Derek Gianukakis, a former Washington State 2B player of the year at Republic, has signed a letter-of-intent to play at Lewis-Clark State College. He averaged 10 points and 5.5 rebounds per game for Community Colleges of Spokane last season and played his freshman season at North Idaho College.
Tennis
A USTA boys/girls dual level 5 tournament will be held in Spokane July 23-26.
Some of the country’s top-ranked juniors, ages 10-18, will be competing for regional and national ranking points. The tournament will be played on 30 courts at the Spokane Club, University High and Central Valley High.
•Levin Guillermo, one of the top prospects in California, has signed a national letter-of-intent with Gonzaga University. Guillermo, from Walnut, Calif., is ranked 21st in Southern California and 53rd in the nation by tennisrecruiting.net.
Track and field
George Mathews of Hayden Lake won the USA Track and Field National Masters men’s 65-69 5-kilo shot put championship last week in Oshkosh, Wis. Mathews’ top throw was 41 feet.
Volleyball
Lydia Tollbom, a Sandpoint High product who played the past two seasons at North Idaho College, has signed a letter-of-intent to play for Lewis-Clark State College.
Tollbom, a 6-foot-1 right-side hitter, helped NIC finish 11th at the national junior college tournament last season. She averaged 2.62 kills per game, second on the team.