Stars Blue claim second MSNM title
The Spokane Stars Blue Elite girls basketball team completed their season with another championship.
The Stars went 6-0 at the MSNM Western Nationals in San Diego last week. They defeated Las Vegas Elite (74-23), Arizona Venom (63-53), Way to Win Gold of Seattle 46-31, Utah Swish (42-32), Orange County National Elite 47-31 and Arizona Warriors 52-43 in the title game.
The Stars finished 46-2. They became the first team in the 12-year history of the MSNM tournaments in San Diego and Seattle to win both.
“Unbelievable,” Stars coach Ron Adams said summing up his team’s play in San Diego. “The Arizona Warriors were as about as good a team as we played all year. This is the best team I’ve coached in 30 years in terms of chemistry. They just want to win. It took all 10 of them to win. It’s one of the top two defensive teams I’ve had.”
Shaniqua Nilles, who will be a senior at West Valley this fall, led the Stars at San Diego by averaging 10.5 points, 5.8 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 2.1 steals. Jordan Loera, who will be a senior at Moses Lake, averaged 10 points, 4.4 assists, 3.1 rebounds and 2.6 steals. Carli Rosenthal, who will be a senior at Coeur d’Alene, averaged 8.6 points, 7.8 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 2.1 blocked shots.
The Stars made 92 of 174 free throws (74.2 percent), 77 of 160 field goals (48.1 percent) and 26 of 56 3-pointers (46.4 percent).
The Stars added two key players – Hayley Hendricksen (Lewis and Clark) and Taylor Ingebritsen (Mead) – midway in the season when Shelby Cheslek (Pullman) and Brooke Gallaway (Central Valley) were injured and were lost for the year. Ingebritsen averaged 5.4 points and Hendricksen averaged 5.0 points and 6.0 rebounds.
“They really stepped up big for us,” Adams said.
Softball
The new Dwight Merkel Complex, featuring five fields near Joe Albi Stadium, will make its debut beginning this morning in the 12 and under West National fastpitch tournament.
Thirty four teams, 22 from California, are entered. The teams will use four of the five fields starting at 10 a.m. The tournament continues daily and concludes Sunday with the championship game at 1 p.m.
Track
Kinsey Gomez of Coeur d’Alene and Courtney Hutchinson of Spokane came away with national championships last weekend at the USATF Junior Olympics in Sacramento.
Gomez, who will be a senior at Coeur d’Alene this fall, won the 3,000-meter race in the Young Women’s Division (athletes born in 1992 or ’93) Saturday in 10 minutes, 12.62 seconds. On Sunday, the defending state 5A cross country and 1,600 and 3,200 champion took second in the 1,500 in 4:38.71.
Hutchinson, the Washington 4A champion in the shot put for Mead, took that event title for Intermediate Women (athletes born in 1994 or ’95) with a throw of 42 feet, 1 1/4 inches.
Two other Mead athletes also claimed medals in the Intermediate group. Michaelyn Mills placed second in the women’s hammer with a throw of 125-2, while Sam Hilmes took third in the men’s javelin, throwing 175-3.
Golf
Three Spokane golfers placed second in their age divisions in the Washington Junior Golf Association state championships at Everett.
Garrett Howard finished runner-up in the boys 16-17 division after shooting rounds of 69, 71 and 72. Sierra Bezdicek took second in the girls 14-15 division with rounds of 74, 70 and 77. Sierra Kersten took second in the girls 12-13 division with rounds of 82, 65 and 79.
Tanner Comes took third in the boys 12-13 division.
Howard, a 2010 Ferris graduate, was named the WJGA player of the year. The honor comes from a season-long points race. Earlier this summer, he made the cute at the Junior World Championships at Torrey Pines South Course in San Diego. He has signed a letter of intent to attend California State University in San Bernardino.
Dirt bike racing
Wyatt Anderson, who will be a freshman at Mt. Spokane this fall, captured four national championships at the AMA Amateur Dirt Track Grand Championships in DuQuoin, Ill.
The Colbert native won the 125 modified in the short track and half mile and the 125 modified and 250 modified grand national championships.
Swimming
Rory Buck of the Spokane Waves Aquatic Team took first in the men’s 100 breaststroke (1:03.38) and first in the men’s 200 breaststroke (2:17.95) at the Western Region section championships.
Hockey
A pair of Spokane youth hockey players – Johnny Marzec and Keanu Yamamoto – were selected to play on the Pacific District team in the USA Hockey 2010 Multi-District Select U14 Festival at Kent State University last month.
The Pacific team, which represented players from Washington, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon and California, took second at the tournament, falling to Michigan 5-0 in the final.
Marzec and Yamamoto were centers on the team.
Coach needed
First-year Priest River head football coach John Trana needs to fill an assistant coaching position. For more information, call Trana at (208)-610-6125.