Gosselin wins nail-biter showdown with Martinez at Orchard Lanes tourney
It was the Nik Gosselin and Dominic Martinez show during the Junior Bowlers Tour stop at Orchard Lanes in Lewiston last Sunday, and everyone else was pretty much a captivated spectator.
The day started with Gosselin bowling a 300 game en route to a 1,020 series for the first four games and Martinez not far behind with a 277 to highlight a 996 series.
They were so far in front of everyone that they faced each other in all four match games, noted tournament director Patti Dudley. They split the matches 2-2, leaving Gosselin first and Martinez second going into the five-person roll-offs.
Kolette Foster, who had surged from 10th to claim the fifth qualifying spot, used the high game of the day for the girls, a 246, to knock off Garrett Boyce in the first match, leaving him fifth. But Foster had to settle for fourth when Justin Oens, who had put together series of 859 and 855 chasing Gosselin and Martinez all day, defeated her.
Oens wound up third when he lost to Martinez, which set up a fifth showdown with Gosselin for the championship. Gosselin prevailed in a nail-biter, 197-196.
The next JBT will be Nov. 17 at Sunset Lanes.
Baseball
Two former Spokane Indians, catcher Jorge Alfaro (2011) and infielder Brett Nicholas (2010 and 2011), were selected to participate in the Arizona Fall League’s all-star game, the Fall Stars Game, on Saturday in Surprise, Ariz.
Alfaro, the top catching prospect in the Texas Rangers’ organization, ranks in the top 10 for batting average (.415), on-base percentage (.447) and slugging percentage (.537) in the Fall League. The 20-year-old from Sincelejo, Colombia, hit .300 with six home runs and nine doubles for Spokane.
Nicholas is batting .250 with a .648 OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging average) as a utility player. The 25-year-old compiled a .262 average with 31 doubles, nine homers and a .415 on-base percentage in his two seasons in Spokane.
Basketball
Collin Chiverton, a former Big Sky Conference Newcomer of the Year at Eastern Washington, will join the Al Maseerah team in Saudi Arabia, bringing to 21 the number of former Eagles playing professionally.
Chiverton, who played the last two seasons for the Eagles, will join the team for its upcoming season in the Saudi Arabia Premier League. He averaged 10.8 points in 24 games last season, and 13.9 as a junior in 2011-12 when he was the Big Sky Newcomer of the Year.
College scene
Cody Lang, a redshirt freshman goalkeeper on the Seattle Pacific men’s soccer team from Lewis and Clark, was named the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Week on Oct. 28 after blanking two opponents the previous week.
Lang, an All-Greater Spokane League goalkeeper as a senior at LC, registered his league-leading sixth and seventh shutouts, helping the Falcons (10-1-3) tie the school record unbeaten streak of 13 games. Lang blanked the University of Mary 2-0, making two saves, and turned aside four shots in a 1-0 win over South Dakota Mines. His final stop, with 57 seconds to play, preserved the win. He has not allowed a goal in the last 290 minutes and has a 0.62 goals-against average. He has played all 1,320 minutes this season for the Falcons.
• Yang Yang, Rocky Mountain’s 6-foot junior middle hitter from North Idaho College, was named the Frontier Conference Athlete of the Week in volleyball after averaging 4.43 kills per set with a .329 hitting percentage in two Bears victories. She also average 1.43 digs, .71 solo blocks and .43 assisted blocks.
• Kjirsten Magnuson, a 2011 Gonzaga Prep graduate from Coeur d’Alene and a junior at Loyola Marymount, won three events at the Malibu Invitational swim meet last weekend, a third of the total the Lions captured.
Magnuson, who won the women’s 50 (24.10 seconds) and 100 (52.74) freestyles and the 100 backstroke (1 minute, .36 seconds), also was second in the 200 backstroke with a time of 2:09.62 that placed her 10th on the school’s all-time list for the event.
• Kristen Hansen, a Western Washington sophomore from Mead, collected her third Great Northwest Athletic Conference Women’s Golfer of the Week honor in her two-year career, and second this season, when she was honored for the week of Oct. 20-26.
Hansen tied for third with a 36-hole score of 150 at the Sonoma State Invitational, her fourth top-10 finish in four outings this fall. She completed the fall portion of the season as the GNAC’s scoring leader with a 76.1 stroke average.
• Allyssa Maine, a Whitman sophomore from Freeman, shot a 161 (84-77) to place eighth at the Northwest Fall Classic in Oregon City, Ore., giving the Missionaries four in the top eight as they won the championship by 20 strokes in the nine-team field.
• Rachel Doyle, a Washington State senior defender from Australia, is one of a half-dozen Pac-12 women’s soccer players named to the Capitol One Academic All-District first team. She has a 3.95 grade-point average in movement studies.
• Alyssa Charlston, an Idaho senior, is one of 30 women’s basketball players across the nation named as a candidate for the 2013-14 Senior CLASS Award.
An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School, the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities. The winner will be announced during the 2014 NCAA women’s Final Four.
Charlston was a consensus first-team All-WAC selection in the 2012-13 season when she led Idaho to its first WAC tournament championship and the team’s second berth into the NCAA tournament. The coaches and media both voted her a 2013-14 preseason All-WAC selection.
• Isaac Griffith, a Western Washington sophomore from Lewis and Clark, placed 11th in 25 minutes, 16.46 seconds over 10k to help the Vikings men to a second-place finish in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference cross country championships last weekend in Bellingham, Wash.
• Robert Harris, a senior transfer from Idaho, where he averaged 4.7 points and 1.8 assists while making 12 starts last season for the Vandals, figures to play a key role for the Western Washington men’s basketball team that is ranked 10th in the National Basketball Coaches Association preseason Top 25 poll, the Vikings announced.
WWU has had back-to-back 31-win seasons, winning the NCAA Division II championship in 2012 and making it to the national semifinals last season.
• Senior All-America football player Ronnie Hamlin and sophomore cross country standout Katie Mahoney have been selected by the Eastern Washington athletic department as its November Scholar-Athletes of the Month.
Hamlin, from Lacey, Wash., is a construction management-technology major with a 3.57 grade-point average. During October, Hamlin had 30 tackles and an interception in four games during a perfect 4-0 month for the Eagles. He returned the interception 77 yards for a momentum-changing touchdown against North Dakota on Oct. 12 in EWU’s 35-14 win.
Mahoney, a 2011 graduate of Richland High School, is a communications major with a 3.24 GPA. Mahoney, who owns two school records in outdoor track and field, has led the Eagles at two meets with top-three finishes and helped lead them to the team title at the Inland Empire Championships.
The award recognizes athletes for their accomplishments the previous month.
Hockey
Fourteen former Spokane Chiefs are among 305 Western Hockey League graduate players who have been awarded WHL Scholarships, sharing in the $1.9 million in a program funded by member teams.
The former Chiefs and the college or university they are attending:
Tanner Mort of Post Falls, University of Idaho; Tyler Cratzenberg, Utah State; Mike Reddington, Douglas College, Coquitlam, B.C.; Chase Martin, Augustana, Camrose, B.C.; Matt Marantz, University of Western Ontario, London; Blake Gal and Steve Kuhn, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia; Justin Palazzo, Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, B.C.; David Conrad, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg; Ryan Letts, University of Lethbridge; Dylan Walchuk, University of Calgary; Anthony Bardaro, University of British Columbia, Vancouver; Levko Koper, University of Alberta, Edmonton; and Garrett Leedahl, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon.
Marantz, Gal, Kuhn, Letts, Bardaro and Koper are playing hockey for their schools.
Softball
Hannah Hustad of Spokane, who led Northwest Christian to back-to-back second-place finishes in the State 2B tournament as a sophomore and junior, has signed with Briar Cliff University, the NAIA school in Sioux City, Iowa, announced.
During her first three seasons at NWC, Hustad was named to the Bi-County League All-Opponent first team as a freshman and was the league MVP as a sophomore and junior. She has twice received the State 2B tournament Sportsmanship Award.
In the classroom, Hustad is a member of the National Honor Society, has earned two academic letters and received the Biology Scholastic Award.
“We are looking forward to Hannah joining our program,” said Briar Cliff coach Michelle Schaper. “She is an all-around athlete who will make a huge impact for us on the mound.”
Miscellany
Dustyn Baethke, who has spent the last three years as an assistant strength and conditioning coach at the University of Iowa, has been hired as Eastern Washington University’s new assistant athletic director for athletic performance to lead the school’s strength and conditioning program.
Baethke, who began Friday, replaces Nate Brookreson, who left EWU for Memphis in August.
Baethke, 28, played football and graduated from Central College in Pella, Iowa, and received his master’s degree at Boise State.
After Brookreson’s departure, Amir Owens, Mark Jamison and John Lockwood helped fill the void this fall. Baethke will step in immediately to work with the EWU football team.