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Gonzaga women make program history with second-place finish in WCC golf

The Gonzaga University women placed second as the West Coast Conference golf tournament concluded on Tuesday at San Juan Oaks Golf Club in Hollister, Calif. It was the program’s best finish in the WCC championship.

The Bulldogs finished the three rounds at 52-over par 916, 36 strokes behind champion Pepperdine, which was led by medalist Grace Na at 1-over 217. Gonzaga had all of its five golfers in the top 15 led by Victoria Fallgren at 12-over 228.

• Eastern Washington moved up to seventh place after the second day of the Big Sky championships being played at the Ocotillo Golf Resort in Chandler, Ariz., with a score of 636. The Eagles were led by Dana Stapleton who is at 152. Britney Yada leads the field at 140 for first-place Portland State (590). PSU leads second-place Northern Arizona (600). Kaitlen Parsons (University HS) plays for NAU and is tied for seventh at 150.

• Washington State finished 10th and last in the Pac-10 championship at Arizona State’s Karsten Golf Course at Tempe, Ariz., with a three-round total of 78-over-par 942. Southern California won at even-par 864, led by champion Sophia Popov, who won a playoff with UCLA’s Tiffany Lua after the two tied at 6-under 210. The top WSU golfer was Emma Betland, who tied for 37th at 233.

Men’s golf

The Gonzaga men tied with Portland for sixth place in the WCC championships played at San Juan Oaks Club in Hollister, Calif. Taylor Travis of champion San Francisco won a playoff with San Diego’s Alex Ching after the two tied for first with three-round totals of 4-under 212. Travis Johnsen of Gonzaga finished at 2-under 214, just a stroke out of third place, to notch the best 54-hole WCC championship score in program history. Gonzaga finished at 36-over 900 as a team. USF was 4-under 860.

College softball

Whitworth and Pacific Lutheran split a doubleheader in Moses Lake with PLU winning the opener 6-4 before the Pirates bounced back with a 5-2 victory in a preview of the inaugural Northwest Conference tournament to be played this weekend at Linfield.

PLU (29-11, 23-5) and Whitworth (19-17, 17-11) will play on Friday in a first-round series involving the second- and third-place teams at 1:30 p.m. Linfield and Willamette will meet in the 1-4 matchup.

The Pirates’ victory in Tuesday’s second game was the first in four matchups with PLU. Heather Hesselgesser had a two-run RBI double in the first inning and Julia Johnson doubled in a run in the first and hit another double for two RBIs in the second. Emily Anderson went the distance, giving up five hits and no walks.

In the opener, the teams were tied 2-2 in the seventh when PLU scored four times. Whitworth’s rally came up short.

Track and field

University of Idaho’s Barry Britt and Lauren Schaffer were named Western Athletic Conference track athletes of the week.

Britt, a junior from Canada, ran the school’s fastest 5,000-meter time in 29 years Friday at the Mt. SAC Relays and moved into second all-time at Idaho in the event. Junior Lauren Schaffer of Boise posted back-to-back personal bests in the 800 meters with a time of 2:08.08 at Mt. SAC and 2:06.53 at the Beach Invitational.