Area roundup: Whitworth sweeps NWC swimming

The Whitworth men’s swimming team rolled to its ninth consecutive Northwest Conference championship on the final night of NWC meet competition Sunday at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham, Ore.

Whitworth’s women also won handily, claiming their second straight NWC crown and third in the past four years.

The men’s victory was the most dominant in their near decade-long control of the NWC. The Pirates won 16 of the 18 events over the weekend and finished with a 337-point margin of victory over second-place Puget Sound. Whitworth’s Steve Schadt was named the NWC Men’s Coach of the Year.

Kalen Darling earned the Men’s Outstanding Swimmer of the Meet for the second straight season. He won three individual events over the weekend – the 200-yard individual medley on Friday, the 400-yard individual medley on Saturday and the 200-yard backstroke on Sunday.

The Whitworth women essentially clinched the team title after the first event of the night. Abby Pavelko led a 1-2-3-4-5 finish for the Pirates as the team scored 82 points in that one event. Pavelko finished with an NCAA provisional time of 17:36.08 with Christine DeHaven second in 17:44.89. Makayla Palmer was third (17:54.30), Kara Fisher fourth (17:58.85) and Robyn Louis fifth (18:00.49) for the Bucs.

Kate Duvall then posted perhaps the most impressive individual performance of the meet. She won the 200 backstroke with a time of 2:03.79, setting a NWC record and automatically qualifying for the NCAA Division III championships next month.

Baseball

In College Station, Texas, Cody Martin pitched 6 1/3 innings, allowing three runs (two earned) to help the Gonzaga University baseball team upend No.8 Texas A&M for its first win of the season.

The Bulldogs had 12 hits from seven players, including Royce Bolinger, who increased his hitting streak to four games. He went 3 for 4 with a double and a RBI single.

• The nonconference game in Pullman between UC Santa Barbara and Washington State was canceled because of snow.

Basketball

Preston Wynne and Danny Marshall of Community Colleges of Spokane were selected first-team All-Eastern Region in the NWAACC. Chaz Johnson was second team.

Both Marshall and Johnson will be participating in the Sophomore All-Star Game as well.

• Korrie Bourn and Brooke Randall of CCS were selected to the first team women’s all-region team. Both players will be playing in the Sophomore All-Star Game.

Golf

The Eastern Washington University women’s golf team finished 16th out of 18 teams at the Red Rocks Invitational in Sedona, Ariz.

Sophomore Jackie Brown led the Eagles on Day 1 with a 78, but the team struggled on Day 2, finishing 15 strokes behind their first-day score of 331.