In brief: Gonzaga, WSU baseball players earn regional honors
Three Gonzaga University baseball players and one from Washington State were named to the American Baseball Coaches Association/Rawlings NCAA Division I All-West Region teams.
Catcher Cameron Edman was named to the first team while pitcher Cody Martin and two-way player Marco Gonzales received second-team honors.
WSU first baseman Taylor Ard made the second team.
The ABCA divides all Division I baseball schools into eight regions.
The West Region includes schools from the West Coast, Western Athletic, Pacific-10 and Big West conferences.
Administration
Randy Buhr has been hired as a senior associate director of athletics at Washington State University.
“Randy’s primary role will be in event management and facility maintenance, along with both hosting and facilitating postseason competition,” said WSU athletic director Bill Moos.
Buhr arrives at Washington State having served as an associate director of championships for the NCAA.
Prior to his arrival at the NCAA, Buhr served under Moos at the University of Oregon from 1995-1999, first as a special projects coordinator, then the assistant to compliance and development, and finally as the assistant director of compliance from 1997-1999.
Equestrian
Jennifer Billups, of Valleyford, competed at the 46th annual Pinto World Championship Horse Show in Tulsa, Okla., from June 7-18.
She earned a world champion title in miniature B obstacle driving while riding SC Harleys Comet and a world champion title in miniature B jumping in-hand while riding SC Milky Way Magic.
The 12-day competition features the largest gathering of Pinto horses, ponies and miniatures in the world.
Hockey
Spokane’s Zach Frye, was invited to USA Hockey’s player development camp in Rochester, N.Y., which runs Thursday through July 13.
Athletes are chosen from tryouts conducted within USA Hockey districts with a goal of attracting the best age-group players in the nation.
The purpose of the camp is to identify, train, educate and evaluate the best athletes.
During the week, the players are evaluated by USA Hockey’s national scouting program, college and junior recruiters and professional scouts.
Frye played for the Wenatchee Wild last season and was twice named the player of the week.
He finished the season with the Lincoln (Neb.) Stars of the United States Hockey League.
At the camp, Frye will get the opportunity to earn a spot on the USA 17-and-under team that will travel to Europe for the World Junior Championships.
Swimming
The Idaho Vandals hired Mark Sowa to be their new swimming and diving coach, athletics director Dr. Rob Spear announced.
Sowa, formerly the head coach at Wagner College in Staten Island, N.Y., for the past three years, becomes Idaho’s eighth swimming and diving coach and second since the program was reinstated in 2004.
Sowa takes over a program that finished eighth in the nine-team Western Athletic Conference the past two seasons.
“The biggest challenge is taking a program that finished eighth and moving it forward,” Sowa said. “That’s a challenge that I’m looking forward to. I enjoy challenges and we’re not going to be eighth for long.”
Tennis
Sophie Vickers of Bairnsdale, Australia, has signed to play tennis at the University of Idaho.
Vickers was ranked as high as 139th in Australian women’s open singles.
Track and field
One man and five women from Eastern Washington University who are also local high school graduates earned Big Sky Conference all-academic honors for the spring.
They all-academic honorees are: Warren Miller (St. John-Endicott), Stephanie Dye (Riverside), Chelsea Lawhead (Coeur d’Alene), Danielle Slaughter (Shadle Park), Ashley Stabl (Tekoa), and Leah Willard (Freeman).