Cougar women notch at-large rowing berth

Seventh-ranked Washington State University rowing has been selected by the NCAA Division I Women’s Rowing Committee to compete at the 2015 NCAA Division I Rowing Championships held May 29-31 at Lake Natoma at Gold River, California, the NCAA announced Tuesday.

WSU will make its ninth overall appearance, its third straight and its fifth in six years, as it returns to the site of the Pac-12 Championships where the Cougars matched their best conference finish, placing third as a team May 17. The Pac-12 Conference is hosting this year’s event at the Sacramento State Aquatic Center.

With a change made prior to the 2013 season, the team championships are composed of 22 teams. Eleven conferences were awarded automatic qualification and the remaining 11 slots were filled with at-large selections to complete the championship field. California represents the Pac-12 as the league’s automatic qualifier, while four other teams, USC, Stanford, Washington and Washington State were chosen from the conference as at-large selections. Just four conferences had multiple teams receive bids, and the Pac-12 led the way with five.

Baseball

Gonzaga catcher Joey Harris was named the West Coast Conference’s Defensive Player of the Year – the first Bulldog to win the award.

Harris threw out 28 runners attempting to steal. That was the third best total in Division I and was 11 more than any other WCC catcher.

Joining Harris on the WCC’s first team were Mitchell Gunsolus and Taylor Jones.

GU’s Cory LeBrun was named to the second team, while Andrew Sopko earned honorable mention and Tyler Frost landed on the all-freshman team.