Sunday Locals: Gray, Vandersloot receive honors at Gonzaga
A pair of basketball standouts and two soccer players picked up individual honors at the Gonzaga Senior Student-Athlete Awards Social that recognized 66 seniors.
Basketball players Steven Gray and Courtney Vandersloot were named the Male and Female Senior Athlete of the Year, respectively, while men’s soccer player Collin Harrison and women’s soccer player Elle Sweeney were honored as the Male and Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year, respectively.
Vandersloot, the first player, man or woman, in NCAA Division I history to have 2,000 points and 1,000 assists, finishing with 2,073 points and 1,118 assists, was a first-round WNBA draft choice of the Chicago Sky, No. 3 overall.
Gray, who helped lead the Bulldogs to four NCAA tournament appearances during his career, extending the school streak to 13, finished with 1,432 points, No. 15 on the school career list; 339 assists, sixth; and 155 steals, No. 3.
Harrison, a steady midfielder who was a stalwart in Gonzaga’s defensive scheme, has a 3.94 grade-point average in business administration.
Sweeney, who had an injury-interrupted career, was a two-time All-WCC honorable mention with a 3.91 GPA in political science.
Harrison, Sweeney and 26 other seniors became the first class of GU athletes to be inducted into Chi Alpha Sigma, the National College Athlete Honor Society.
College scene
Six athletes shared the awards when the Idaho men’s basketball team held its annual banquet last week.
Senior guard Jeff Ledbetter, who broke Idaho’s single-season 3-point field-goal record and led the Vandals with a 12.8 scoring average, received the Ronald White Award, which has been given annually since 1947 to the team’s most outstanding player as voted by his teammates.
Other awards went to junior Landon Tatum and senior Brandon Wiley, who shared the Oz Thompson Award for sportsmanship, scholarship and leadership; Tatum, George Green Award for most unselfish player and/or assist leader; senior Shawn Henderson, Jay Gano Award as most inspirational; sophomore Kyle Barone, Gus Johnson Award as top rebounder or top defender; and redshirt freshman Joe Kammerer, Kathy Clark Scholar-Athlete Award with a 3.49 GPA.
• Caty Lieseke, Whitworth’s senior catcher who had a career-high .391 batting average, was named to the All-Northwest Conference first team in softball.
She was a second-team choice as a sophomore.
Three other Pirates were named to the second team – sophomore Jamie Brunner, utility/designated hitter; freshman Julia Johnson, infield; and freshman Jill Pecka (Mead), outfield.
Whitworth also had three honorable mention selections – sophomore Heather Hesselgesser (Lakeside-Nine Mile Falls), infield; junior Sami Parr, infield; and freshman Emily Anderson, pitcher.
• Emilee Lepp, Linfield’s junior catcher from Colville, is the NWC softball player of the year.
Lepp, who set the NCAA Division III single-season home run record with 27 in 43 games, and also set Linfield single-season records for RBIs (82) and total bases (167) while batting .497.
• Idaho senior Lachlan Reed, who helped the Vandals into the Western Athletic Conference men’s tennis tournament semifinals, was named to the all-tournament team.
• Gonzaga senior catcher Cameron Edman and junior pitcher Ryan Carpenter are the West Coast Conference player and pitcher of the month in baseball for April.
Edman led GU during the month with a .414 batting average, eight doubles, five home runs and 17 RBIs. Carpenter went 4-0 in five starts with a 1.62 earned-run average in 39 innings.
Edman also was named to the 2011 Capital One Academic All-District 8 first team. Edman, who has a bachelor’s degree in applied communication studies and is pursuing a master’s degree in organizational leadership, has a 3.62 undergraduate GPA and a 3.92 graduate GPA.
• Sarah Kliewer, a Portland sophomore from Lewis and Clark, received honorable mention on the West Coast Conference women’s basketball all-academic team with a 3.5 GPA in psychology.
• Landon Scott, Whitworth’s junior third baseman, was named to the Capital One Academic All-District 8 College Division team for baseball.
Scott has a double major in economics and business management and a 3.53 GPA.
• Caty Lieseke and Sami Parr of Whitworth were named to the Capital One Academic All-District 8 softball first team.
Lieseke, a senior, has a 3.89 GPA in math. Parr, a junior, a heath science major, has a 4.00 GPA.
• Beddome Allen from Lewis and Clark, a sophomore on the Washington men’s crew, received the program’s prestigious Schaller Award for academic excellence.
Given annually for 80 years, it goes to the rower with the highest GPA. Allen, majoring in biochemistry, has a 3.84 GPA.
• Seven athletes with area ties were selected when the National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame announced its 2011 NFF Hampshire Honor Society, comprised of college football players from all divisions who maintain a 3.2 GPA or better.
Among the 671 players from 241 schools honored were Erik Stoll (Sandpoint), Montana; Casey Hamlett, Micah Hannam, Chima Nwachukwu and Chris Plummer, all Washington State; and Clell Hasenbank and Aaron Lavarias, both Idaho.
• Michael Strasler, a Western Washington freshman from Cheney, placed 12th in the decathlon at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Multi-Events Championships last week in Nampa, Idaho. He scored 5,241 points.
• The Western Washington women’s rugby team, that includes Keshia Rumberger (Mead) and Brianne Elizabethe Damitio (Rogers), lost to Radcliffe 32-15 in the semifinals of the USA Rugby Division II women’s college national championships last weekend in Pittsburgh. Radcliffe beat Notre Dame 22-10 for the title.
• Senior track and field athletes Krystal Deyo and Adam Stewart are the Eastern Washington athletic department scholar-athletes of the month for April.
Deyo, who broke her Pelluer Invitational meet record with an 11.97-second win in the 100 meters, has a 3.26 GPA in communication studies. Stewart, who had a PR winning high jump of 6 feet, 9 3/4 inches, has a 3.00 GPA in business/marketing.
• Whitworth again was dominant in the Northwest Conference athletic arena, winning the McIlroy-Lewis All-Sports Trophy for the fourth straight year by its widest margin while compiling 267 points.
That ties the record it set last year for highest point total since the conference went to the current scoring system in 1998-99.
Linfield was second with 214.
Whitworth compiled the highest number of points in each of the three athletic seasons, fall, winter and spring. It’s the first time it has led in the spring.
Running
Carol Dellinger of Spokane achieved her goal by running her 250th marathon on May 1.
Dellinger, a cancer survivor, reported she competed in 16 marathons in an 18-month period, reaching her goal in the Vancouver (B.C.) Marathon.
The dental assistant’s first marathon was the Capital City Marathon in Olympia in 1990.
Track and field
David Norris from Hayden, a senior at Coeur d’Alene High School who is the defending Idaho State 5A 800-meter champion, has signed a letter of intent with Montana, Brian Schweyen, the Grizzlies’ track and field program director, announced.
Norris, who also placed eighth in the Idaho 5A cross country championships in 2010 after placing third in 2009 as a junior, ran a career-best 1-minute, 54.96-second 800 this spring, Schweyen said.