Sunday Locals: 8 Whitworth swimmers prepare for championships
Rory Buck, the top seed in the 100-yard breaststroke, leads a contingent of eight Whitworth swimmers to the 2011 NCAA Division III Swimming & Diving Championships March 23-26 at the University of Tennessee.
Buck, a junior, was runner-up in the 200 breaststroke at last year’s D-III meet and was third in the 100 breast. He has the best time in the 100 (55.83 seconds) and is also seeded fourth in the 200 (2:01.65). He also will compete in the 50 freestyle.
He will be joined by Michael Woodward, a senior making his third D-III national appearance, who will swim in the 200 individual medley and 100 and 200 freestyles; Kalen Darling, a senior who earned All-America recognition last year in the 400 IM, who will also swim in 200 IM and 200 backstroke; Austin Vierra, a junior making his first trip as a Pirate after competing for Denison College in 2010, who will race in the 200, 500 and 1,650 freestyle events; and freshman Aaron Vaccaro, who will swim the 50 and 100 freestyles and 100 butterfly.
Whitworth will also compete in all five men’s relays, with sophomore Nathan Ranno and freshman Oliver Durand joining the mix.
Freshman Kate Duvall will represent the Pirates women, swimming the 500 free and 100 and 200 backstrokes.
Steve Schadt is the coach, taking Pirates to the national meet in all eight of his seasons.
Baseball
Spencer Mallonee, a second-team All-Greater Spokane League second baseman from Mt. Spokane, has signed a national letter of intent with Mayville State University, Comets coach Scott Berry announced.
Mallonee, who also played for the Spokane Dodgers summer team, batted .327 with 66 hits that included 14 doubles, two triples and one home run, with 64 runs scored and 45 RBIs last season, Berry noted.
Mayville is an NAIA school in Mayville, N.D., which had a 29-23 record last season and advanced to the NAIA regional tournament in Joliet, Ill.
Basketball
Tommy Sperry, a first-team All-Great Northern League forward from Clarkston, has signed a letter of intent with Lewis-Clark State College, Warriors assistant men’s coach Austin Johnson announced.
The 6-foot-5 Sperry, whose parents were both standout athletes at LCSC, averaged 11.3 points and 7.8 rebounds a game for the Bantams despite playing the second half of the season with a separated shoulder.
Bowling
The pins were flying at the Junior Bowlers Tour stop at Deer Park Lanes last Sunday with a 1,000 series and four 900s.
In the end it was consistency that earned Jesse Covington the championship. He knocked off top-seeded Dalton Shears 232-172 in the finals. It was Shears’ only game less than 220 all day. He had a 1,002 four-game block to get the day started and added a 988 in the second four-game qualifying series and averaged 240 for the day. Covington averaged 230.
Dennis Pham, who had a 942 series, was third; Steven Talbot fourth; and Nik Gosselin fifth.
Nick Harris had the day’s high game, a 289, while Charstie Saville led the girls with a 267. Ryan Gately had a 914 series and C.J. Hastings a 912.
The next JBT will be April 3 at North Bowl with an expanded five-game format.
College scene
Lauren Malthaner, a junior at Fresno Pacific University from Northwest Christian, won a national championship in the 200-yard breaststroke and finished second in the 100 breast in the NAIA National Swimming & Diving Championships last weekend in St. Louis to lead the Sunbirds to a second-place team finish.
Malthaner, who swam for the Spokane Area Swim Team, dropped 8 seconds from her 200 time, winning in 2 minutes, 17.16 seconds. Her 100 time was 1:03.61.
A year ago, Malthaner was fifth in the 100 breast and swam on three winning relay teams as the Sunbirds also finished second at the nationals.
• Whitworth’s strong indoor track and field team received seven of the eight West Region awards from the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
Toby Schwarz was selected both men’s and women’s indoor head coach of the year for the third season in a row, and Jeff Rahn, in his 14th year with the Pirates, is the assistant coach of the year for both men and women.
Emmanuel Bofa, a graduate student, is the men’s track athlete of the year for the third season in a row; Sam Wright, a freshman from Mead, is the men’s field athlete of the year; and Tonya Turner, a junior from Mead, is the women’s track athlete of the year.
• Griffon Jones, a Dixie State junior forward from Cheney and Community Colleges of Spokane, was named to the All-Pacific West Conference second team in men’s basketball.
Jones average 10.0 points, second on the team, and a team-leading 5.3 rebounds for the Red Storm.
• Michael Stockton, a Westminster College senior from Gonzaga Prep, was named to the 12-man All-Frontier Conference first team in men’s basketball.
Stockton led the Griffins in minutes played, scoring with an 18.2 average, 3-pointers (36 of 99) and assists (4.2).
• Leslie Stillar, a Walla Walla Community College freshman from Lakeside of Nine Mile Falls, was named to the NWAACC all-tournament team as the Warriors finished second in the women’s basketball tournament.
Stillar, a second-team All-East Region selection earlier, hit a game-winning 3-pointer in the tournament quarterfinals against Highline and had 17 second-half points in a 52-48 upset of Columbia Basin in the semifinals.
• Kate Loper, a freshman on the women’s basketball team at Hofstra who started seven of the 27 games in which she played, was named to the Colonial Athletic Association All-Rookie team.
The 5-11 guard from Post Falls, named the CAA rookie of the week eight times, was the second-leading scorer for the Pride, averaging 11.7 points per game. She had a team-high 72 3-pointers, hitting six of them in scoring a season-high 26 points in the season finale. She ranks 17th in CAA scoring, third in 3-pointers made and fourth in 3-point field-goal percentage.
• Richelle Rieben, a BYU-Hawaii senior guard from Lake City, was recognized for a fourth straight year in Pacific West Conference women’s basketball, named to the second All-PacWest team.
She was also a second-team selection in 2008 and earned honorable mention the last two seasons.
• Julian Sanchez, a junior on the men’s tennis team, and Chene Cooper, a junior on the women’s basketball team, were named the Eastern Washington scholar-athletes of the month for February.
Sanchez, who won four of five matches in both singles and doubles during the month, has a 3.51 grade-point average in business administration/economics. Cooper, who led the Eagles to four conference wins during the month and earned a Big Sky player of the week award, has a 3.28 GPA in criminal justice.
Football
Justin Ward of Cheney, a 6-foot-2, 170-pound first-team All-Great Northern League linebacker and tight end, has signed a letter of intent with Dakota Wesleyan, the Mitchell, S.D., school confirmed.
Dakota Wesleyan is an NAIA Division II school that plays in the Great Plains Athletic Conference. It went 5-5 last season.
High school scene
The Greater Spokane League and National Electrical Contractors Association and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers announced their 11th annual scholar athlete award winners for the winter sports season.
The winners by school:
Central Valley – Lauren Speers, gymnastics; Jarod Maynes, wrestling. Ferris – Katara Belton-Sharp, basketball; Riley Stockton, basketball. Gonzaga Prep – Hannah Murray, basketball; Chris Sarbaugh, basketball. Lewis and Clark – Hayley Hendrickson, basketball; Scott Wortley, basketball. Mead – Taylor Ingebritzen, basketball; Tim Carter, basketball.
Mt. Spokane – Trevor Kissinger, basketball; Megan Nelson, basketball. North Central – Tara Van Weerdhuizen, basketball. Jacob Ecklund, wrestling. Rogers – Valerie Myers, gymnastics; Therone Tillett, basketball. Shadle Park – Kendra Knutson, basketball; Darren Bunke, wrestling. University – Stacie Davis, gymnastics; Jacob Fry, wrestling.
Hockey
The Spokane Jr. Chiefs U-14 Bantam AAA team, ranked 39th in the country, lost to the unranked Anchorage North Stars 5-3 in the semifinals and finished third in the USA Hockey Tier I Pacific District Championships last weekend in San Jose.
General manager Mark Gustafson said it was a disappointing finish for the Jr. Chiefs, who had placed fourth in the eight-team Shattuck Super Series the week before and went 3-0 in round-robin play to open the district championships.
The Jr. Chiefs’ only loss in the Shattuck tournament was 4-3 to fourth-ranked Shattuck.
Track and field
George Mathews of Hayden Lake, the Coeur d’Alene High School throws coach and Hammer Idaho club coach, collected a couple of silver medals at the USA Masters National Indoor Championships last weekend in Albuquerque, N.M.
Mathews was second in the men’s 65-69-year-old 20-pound weight throw with a toss of 58 feet, 1 3/4 inches and the 44-pound weight throw at 32-0.
His American and world indoor records in the 65-69 20- (63-5) and 44-pound (34-1) throws withstood the onslaught, but his American indoor record in the men’s 60-64 44-pound super weight of 34-1 was broken by Todd Taylor of Oregon.