Whitworth’s Buck repeats as D-III swimming champ

Whitworth University senior Rory Buck successfully defended his 100-yard breaststroke title at the NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships in Indianapolis on Friday night with a winning time of 54.71 seconds, a winning margin of .45 seconds.

Today, at the Indianapolis Natatorium, he will try to win another 200 breaststroke title.

Whitworth swimmers Wesley Walton and Katherine Duvall also competed on Friday but did not advance out of the preliminary heats.

Baseball

Marco Gonzales had a home run, double and single as the host Gonzaga Bulldogs (13-6) downed Hawaii 4-1 in a nonconference game that began a four-game set. Tyler Olson (3-0) started and went seven innings to pick up the victory over the Rainbows (14-8).

The Bulldogs scored twice in the first for all the runs they would need.

• Washington State (10-9, 1-3) dropped the opener of a three-game Pac-12 series with UCLA, losing 12-3 to the Bruins (15-5, 3-1) in Los Angeles. The Bruins were leading 9-0 when WSU scored its only runs in the fifth.

Track and field

Whitworth junior Luke Mathews won the decathlon with 5,715 points and Shayle Dezellem of Community Colleges of Spokane the heptathlon with 4,283 at the Buc Scoring Invitational at Whitworth.

• Christine Kirkwood placed second in the javelin at 164 feet, 2 inches, and Sam Ferenchak’s personal best of 216-9 was good for third in the men’s javelin as the freshmen led Washington State on the first day of the USC Trojan Invitational in Los Angeles.

Softball

Whitworth defeated the Carleton Knights 11-1 in five innings and beat the No. 18-ranked Carthage Lady Reds (10-2) 4-1 to wrap up its stay in the Tucson (Ariz.) Invitational with a 5-1 record.

The Pirates (13-15) have won 10 of their last 11 games after getting off to a 3-14 start.

Riley Fritz pitched the distance against the Knights (1-11) as did Taylor Gilbert in beating the Lady Reds.

Julia Johnson drove in four runs on the day for the Pirates.

• The first-place Salt Lake CC Bruins, ranked No. 4 in the country, swept a Scenic West doubleheader from the visiting North Idaho College Cardinals, 4-3 and 7-5, to run their winning streak to eight games.

The Bruins (31-6, 22-4) scored all four of their first-game runs in the fourth inning.

North Idaho (15-21, 11-15) had a 4-2 lead in the second game but the Bruins rallied with five runs in the fourth.

Amber Meyers led NIC with two hits in each game.

• The Washington Huskies (20-1, 1-0) opened the Pac-12 season with a 5-1 home victory over the Utah Utes (21-6, 0-1) behind Kaitlin Inglesby, who had three hits and three RBIs.

Women’s golf

Whitworth finished ninth in the 10-team Augustana Spring Fling tournament at Desert Princess Country Club in Cathedral City, Calif.

St. Edwards won the event, which included five ranked teams from the Division II and III ranks.

Emily Gurthrie led Whitworth with a two-round score of 161 to place 12th.