Huskies advance all five boats to Grand Finals

The Washington Huskies men advanced all five boats into today’s Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships Grand Finals after semifinal races on Friday in Cherry Hill, N.J.

The Huskies’ varsity 4 and second varsity 8 boats both won their semifinal races. The varsity 4 beat runner-up Drexel by nearly 4 1/2 seconds over the 2,000-meter course. The second varsity 8 beat second-place California by 1.27 seconds.

Washington’s varsity 8 and freshmen 8 boats finished a close second to Harvard in both races. The Huskies’ varsity 8 clocked in at 5:27.60 to the Crimson’s 5:25.88. The freshman boat lost to undefeated Harvard by 0.34 seconds.

The teams battled wind gusts of 30 mph throughout the day.

Washington’s Open 4+ boat also made it to the Grand Final.

Women’s soccer

The Spokane Shine debuted with a 1-0 loss to the Oregon Rush in Women’s Premier Soccer League play at Bend, Ore. The teams meet again this afternoon.

Baseball

Gonzaga Bulldogs senior closer Cody Martin was named the West Coast Conference player of the month for May.

Martin made nine appearances and collected five saves with an earned-run average of 0.63 in 14 1/3 innings. He allowed only six hits, while striking out 14. During one stretch he retired 15 straight batters and 26 of 28.

Martin finished the season with the lowest ERA in the country at 0.86.

Track and field

Idaho State 5A shot put champion Matt Wardell signed a national letter of intent to attend Washington State University and compete in track and field, Cougars coach Rick Sloan announced.

Wardell, a Post Falls High School graduate, won this year’s state meet with a personal-best heave of 59 feet, 2 inches.

He graduated with a 3.5 grade-point average.