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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Sunday Locals: 2 youth hockey teams headed to nationals

Two Spokane American Youth Hockey Association Spokane Jr. Chiefs Tier II teams, the U-12 PeeWees and U-16 Midgets, will play in USA Hockey national tournaments March 30-April 3.

The PeeWees will take a 55-7-3 record to the USA Hockey event in San Jose, Calif., after going 5-0 in winning the state championship in their division in the Tri-Cities last weekend.

Spokane, which defeated the Seattle Jr. Admirals 6-1 for the title, will play the Montgomery (Md.) Blue Devils in their opener.

The U-12 Spokane Jr. Chiefs: Jake Holden, Ben Page, Mark Oestreich, Nick Bryant, Michael Jensen, Noah Trosine, JT Neely, Connor McIntosh, Jared Gaylord, Carter Jones, Brady Murphy, Hayden Dick, Desmond Parisotto, Jacob Fowler, Joey Marsalis and Troy Pichette. The team is coached by Scott McIntosh, Nathan Pichette and Dan Holden.

Because the SAYHA Midgets are the only U-16 Tier II team in the state, it earned a spot in the USA Hockey event in Reston, Va.

The Spokane Jr. Chiefs, who have a 17-17-8 record playing a schedule heavily laced with U-18 teams, will face the host Reston Raiders in their national opener.

The U-16 Spokane Jr. Chiefs: John Kiepe, Taylor Kruiswyk, Niko Pukkila, John Ryskamp, Michael Galusha, Mason Siebe, Jacob Knowles, Derek Griffin, Chace Epler, Gil Givens, Tony Chaffin, Mathias Kastner, Jesse Taylor, Cade Moulton, Johnny Grasso, Tyler Zandhuisen, Ian Schnick, Jonny Marzec, Terry Stewart and Bobby LaRue. Head coach, Brian Moon. Assistant coach, Randy Amatto. Manager, Steve Tevlin.

Two other Spokane Jr. Chiefs Tier II teams also played in the state championships. The U-18 Midgets lost 2-1 to Kent Valley in the championship game. The U-14 Bantams lost 6-1 to Seattle in the semifinals. Seattle went on to win the state title.

College scene

Sage Romberg, a freshman guard/forward on the Washington State women’s basketball team, was named to the Pac-10 Media All-Freshman team.

Romberg, who played in all 31 games for the Cougars, starting 17 and averaging 9.5 points and 4.7 rebounds a game, earlier received honorable mention on the All-Pac-10 team and was named to the conference’s All-Freshman team as voted on by the coaches.

Kaitlen Parsons, a Northern Arizona freshman from University High, shot 73-74-70 for a 1-over-par 217 to tie for fourth and help the Lumberjacks win their own Lumberjack Shootout women’s golf tournament by 14 strokes in Litchfield Park, Ariz., last weekend.

Elaine Whaley, a freshman on the Whitman women’s golf team from Gonzaga Prep, shot 82-88 for a 170 and placed ninth in the SoCal Dutch Invitational in Beaumont, Calif., last week as the Missionaries finished third in the five-team tournament.

Football

Josh James, a 6-foot-5, 255-pound All-Inland Empire League offensive tackle from Coeur d’Alene High School, has signed a letter of intent with Carroll College, the Saints announced.

James, who also played defensive end, has been chosen to play in the East/West All-Star game this summer.

Skiing

Matthew Duchow of Coeur d’Alene was the boys overall champion and Halle Campbell of Spokane won the girls overall title as the Schweitzer Alpine Racing School swept the top spots at the Pacific Northwest Ski Association 12-and-under Buddy Werner Cham- pionships last weekend at Stevens Pass, Wash.

Duchow highlighted his weekend by winning the men’s slalom.

Campbell won the women’s giant slalom title.

Maddie Collins of Spokane and SARS placed third overall for the girls. The SARS women’s team and its combined teams both finished second and its men’s team was fourth.

Other top-20 finishes for SARS:

Women’s slalom – Collins, second; Campbell, fifth; Brooke Bowerman, Spokane, 14th.

Men’s giant slalom – Duchow, second; Jayce Bailey, Hayden, 14th.

Women’s giant slalom – Bowerman, 12th; Collins, 17th.

Men’s slalom – Bailey, 15th.

Track and field

Five high school seniors and one junior college sophomore have signed national letters of intent with Washington State, Cougars head coach Rick Sloan announced.

Slated to join the Cougars in the fall are Michael Bolligar, a decathlete at Glendale (Ariz.) Community College who won the NJCAA indoor heptathlon and was runner-up in the outdoor decathlon in 2010; Heidi Turner, a three-time Montana state cross country champion from Bozeman; and Katie Fleischer from Sarnia, Ontario, a four-time individual champion who led her school to four straight league cross country titles.

Also, Edward “PJ” Benedictus, the 2010 State 3A triple jump champion from Renton, Wash.; Omunique Thomas from Rialto, Calif., runner-up in the 200 meters at the California state Southern Division finals; and Anna Adamko a thrower from Columbia River in Vancouver, Wash., a three-time State 3A champion, winning javelin titles as a sophomore and junior and the discus in 2010.

Patty Ley, no stranger to Pacific Northwest cross country and track and field, has been named the first full-time assistant cross country and track and field coach for Gonzaga University, head coach Pat Tyson announced.

Ley joins the Bulldogs from Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Va., where she has been since January 2010.

She was the head cross country coach last fall after coaching the distance runners during the previous track season.

Tyson said Ley is recognized as one of the top developmental distance coaches in the country. She represented the United States as head coach for the Team USA junior women’s team at the World Cross Country Championships in March 2010.

A graduate of Gig Harbor (Wash.) High School, where she was a seven-time State 2A champion in track and cross country, Ley struggled with injuries during her collegiate career that included lettering stints at Oregon, Washington State and Pacific Lutheran.

Her 1,500 record of 4:15.61 qualified her for the U.S. Olympic Trials in 1992.

In 1994, she ranked 19th in the U.S. in the 3,000.