Team St. Luke’s sends nine to national championships

Nine athletes from Team St. Luke’s of Spokane will compete at the U.S. Paralympics Track and Field National Championships, Friday through June 19 in Miramar Fla.

The athletes, ages and events: John Gardner, 19, 100 meters, 200, 400; Bob Hunt, 21, 100, 200, 400; Chelsea McClammer, 17, 100, 200, 400, 800; Austin Pruitt, 16, 100, 200, 400, 800; Isaiah Rigo, 12, 100, 200, 400, 800; Mikila Salazar, 14, 100, 200, 400; Susannah Scaroni, 20, 100, 200, 400, 800; TyJuan Stevens, 19, 100, 200, 400; Amerlynn Weber, 17, 100, 200, 400 and 800.

Baseball

Infielder Jarek Cunningham, a graduate of Mt. Spokane HS, of the Bradenton Marauders, has been selected to play in the Florida State League (Class-A Advanced) All-Star Game on Saturday.

Through, he was tied for third in the league in extra-base hits (31) and tied for fourth in home runs (11). He was an 18th-round draft pick in 2008 by the Pittsburgh Pirates.

• Lewis-Clark State junior infielder Trent Bridges received honorable mention honors to the NAIA All-America Team as selected by the NAIA Baseball Coaches Association All-American Selection Committee.

Bridges, who played second and third base for the Warriors this season, was the only LCSC player honored.

Bridges graduated from Lake City High in Coeur d’Alene.

He batted .392 with 44 RBIs and 56 runs scored and started 53 of 55 games.

• Mead HS graduate Grant Fink, a sophomore infielder at Mt. Hood CC, was named first-team All-NWAACC at the utility position.  Fink finished the season batting .318 with 10 doubles and led his team with four home runs and 32 RBIs. He also was named to the NWAACC All-Academic and Academic Leadership teams.

• Oklahoma City University outfielder Mark Purser (Mt. Spokane HS, CC Spokane) completed his senior season with his second trip to the NAIA World Series, where the Stars went 1-2. Purser finished the season with a .340 batting average in 53 games and a 1.000 fielding percentage. His fielding earned him a conference gold glove.

• Gonzaga University pitcher and first baseman Marco Gonzales of Fort Collins, Colo., has been named to the Louisville Slugger Freshmen All-America team, as announced and selected by Collegiate Baseball newspaper Wednesday.

Basketball

Julie Shaw has been hired as an assistant women’s basketball coach at Gonzaga University. Shaw replaces Michelle Elliott, who is now the full-time director of operations for the Zags. Shaw comes to GU from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo where she was an assistant coach for six years. Before that she was a graduate assistant coach at the University of Redlands (Calif.). She played collegiate basketball at UC Riverside.

• Sandpoint High School graduate Chris Hepperly will play basketball for Lewis-Clark State College next season as a sophomore.

Hepperly, a 5-10 guard who played at Grossmont JC (Calif.) last season, averaged 14 points per game his senior season for Sandpoint and was a first-team all-Inland Empire League selection.

LCSC coach Brandon Rinta also announced the signing of 6-2 guard Donte Archie (Citrus JC, Calif.) and 6-6 forward PJ Bolte (Highline Community College).

Equestrian

Angelica Lengyel, 14, and Sydney Hyman, 13, both of Spokane, won silver medals at the Key Classic Benefit Morgan Horse Show in Shelburne, Vt., last month. Lengyel earned her honor in Western Seat and Hyman in Hunter Seat on the Flat. Both qualified to compete at the Grand National and World Championship Morgan Horse Show in Oklahoma City, Oct. 8-15.

Honors

Gonzaga University took home the West Coast Conference’s Institutional Sportsmanship award and redshirt senior Cameron Edman of the Bulldogs baseball team received the Male Individual Sportsmanship award at the conference’s Honors Dinner held in San Francisco on June 3.

Rowing

Washington State University senior rower Corinna Sharick has been named to the 2011 Pocock All-America first team, while her classmate Sarah Wolff picked up second-team honors, the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) announced this week.

Sharick (Burlington, Wash.) and Wolff (Auckland, New Zealand) concluded their third seasons with Cougar rowing, both rowing with the varsity 8 crew this past year. Sharick was in her first season in the varsity 8 boat in 2011 after spending the majority of her junior year in the second varsity boat, while Wolff was a member of the varsity boat since arriving on campus as a sophomore in 2009.

Swimming

Whitworth University swimmer Rory Buck was selected as a 2011 CoSIDA Second Team Academic All-American and also got official word that he will represent South Africa at the 2011 World University Games in Shenzhen, China.

Buck, a junior who was born in South Africa but whose family currently lives in Dubai, U.A.E., has a 3.76 grade point average through January term. He is a kinesiology and business management double major.

Buck was selected as the NCAA Division III Men’s Swimmer of the Year after winning both the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke events at the national championships in March.

In April he traveled to South Africa to compete in that country’s national championship and took home top-three finishes in both the 100- and 200-meter breaststroke events.

It was at that event that he earned his spot on the South African team headed to China. The 26th World University Games will be held in Shenzhen from Aug. 12-23.  He will compete in the 50- through 200-meter distances in the breaststroke.

Track and field

Candice McFarland, the 2011 Nevada state high and low hurdles champion, has signed to compete for Washington State. McFarland competed for Legacy HS in Las Vegas.

Also, WSU’s Chelsea VanDeBrake (Sr., Yakima), who graduated with a 4.0 GPA in education, and Justin Englund (Jr., Federal Way) were named to the CoSIDA District 8 University Division team. Englund has a 3.94 GPA in mathematics.

• Also in the University Division, four University of Idaho athletes were honored on the same team: Jeremy Klas (Moscow, Idaho) with a 3.52 in computer science, junior Markus Geiger (Bad Neustadt, Germany) with a 3.84 in electrical engineering, junior Jeremiah Dubie (Kearsage, N.H.) with a 3.94 in food science and senior Eugenio Mannucci (Viterbo, Italy) with a 3.75 in animal and veterinary science.

• Whitworth runners Katie Williams, Tonya Turner and Elizabeth Mattila were all named to the CoSIDA Academic District 8 College Division team.

Williams and Turner were both named to the first team, while Mattila was voted to the second team.

Williams (Sr., Colorado Springs, Colo.) is a peace studies and Spanish double major with a 3.99 GPA. Turner (Sr., Spokane) is a health sciences major with a 3.92 GPA. Elizabeth Mattila (Sr., Ferndale, Wash.) is a Spanish major with a 3.80 GPA.

• Senior Erica Chaney and Michael Okoro received the final monthly scholar-athlete honors awarded by Eastern Washington University. Chaney won the Big Sky women’s shot put and discus titles, with her 51- 3/4 effort in the shot setting a school record. Okoro won the conference 200-meter title.

Volleyball

Sierra Pancho, a 5-foot-8 setter from Newport, has accepted a scholarship to play for the North Idaho College volleyball team for the 2011-2012 season.

Pancho spent seven years with the Sandpoint Volleyball Club and one year with the Sideout Volleyball Club in Spokane. Pancho is a four-time Northeast A All-League nominee and a two-time most valuable player.

Other newcomers for NIC will be Canadians Taralyn French, Emma Wolper and Shelby Lausen; Mariah Zaback (Kennewick); Brooklynn Bradbury (Auburn, Wash.); and Yang Yang (China).