Locally: 1976-77 EWU men’s basketball team to be enshrined

The original Screamin’ Eagles are going to be enshrined.

The 1976-77 Eastern Washington men’s basketball team, dubbed the “Screamin’ Eagles” by their coach, Jerry Krause, will become the 14th team inducted into the school’s Athletics Hall of Fame during ceremonies Oct. 1 in Cheney.

Appropriately, the breakfast induction of the shrine’s 16th class is expected to take place at the EWU Special Events Pavilion (Reese Court), which was in its second year of existence when the ’76-77 team had its historic 25-4 season.

Led by Krause and the team’s only two seniors, Ron Cox and Ed Waters, the Eagles put together the second-best winning percentage (.862) in school history, and won a share of the Evergreen Conference and NAIA District I regular-season titles.

Cox earned first-team All-America honors that season after averaging 16.7 points and 12.7 rebounds while making a school-record 66 percent of his shots. He finished his career with school records of 1,741 points and 1,273 rebounds. It took 39 years for his scoring record to fall this past season by Venky Jois (1,803). Jois also broke Cox’s single-season field-goal percentage record, shooting 67.9. Cox’s rebounds record still stands.

Cox and Waters earned All-NAIA District 1 and All-Evergreen Conference first team. Waters averaged 11.0 assists per game, still a school record. His career assists mark of 763 is 332 ahead of No. 2 on the all-time list. Junior Paul Hungenberg would become a third-team All-American a year later.

Cox was inducted into the Eastern Athletics Hall of Fame with the second class in 1998. Krause earned induction in 2005

Only Eastern’s 1945-46 team had a better winning percentage in what is now more than 100 years of Eastern basketball history, 88.6 with a 31-4 record. It was inducted in 2003.

Other team members: Robert Gatlin, Eugene Glenn, Martin Harpole, Mike Heath, Jeff Miller, Ray Palmer, Terry Pepple, Terry Reed, Wayne Robinson, Jim Savage and Vic White.

Krause was assisted by Ron Raver and graduate aides Larry Hinshaw, John Mulvenna and Greg Smith.

Baseball

McKabe Cottrell, a junior left-handed pitcher/first baseman/outfielder at Freeman who was the Northeast A League Most Valuable Player last season, has given a verbal commitment to Gonzaga University, Chad Ripke, his high school coach, announced.

College scene

Four area athletes at Washington State and 10 at other schools have been named to Mountain Pacific Sports Federation 2016 Indoor Track & Field All-Academic teams.

The men’s list includes Matthew Wardell, a WSU senior with a 3.52 grade-point average; three sophomores at Washington, Andrew Gardner of Mead (3.18), Cole Jensen of Shadle Park (3.23) and Carson Murray of Rogers (3.10); Stanford senior Adam Thorne of Ferris (3.60); BYU senior Kyle Brown of Central Valley (3.94); and Arizona junior Aaron Castle of Newport (3.732).

On the women’s team are WSU juniors Alexys Garcia of Pullman (3.49), Steffie Pavey of Oldtown, Idaho, (3.97) and Morgan Willson of Colfax (3.42); two from Washington, junior Katie Knight of North Central (3.44) and senior Baylee Miles of Mead (3.56); BYU junior Sadie Nielsen of Moses Lake (3.06); and Arizona senior Morgan Struble of Coeur d’ Alene High (3.4).

Madison Kerr, a Western Washington freshman from Lewis and Clark, rowed in the two women’s second varsity 8 boats that had runner-up finishes in the 2016 Collegiate Covered Bridge Regatta last weekend on Dexter Lake south of Eugene. Kerr’s boats finished behind Saint Mary’s in both morning and afternoon races.

Led by its varsity 8, varsity 4 and novice 4 boats, WWU, ranked fifth nationally in NCAA Division II, dominated the regatta.

• Gonzaga, Eastern Washington and Washington State collected honors when the NCAA announced Academic Progress Rate Public Recognition Awards for the four-year academic period from 2011-12 through 2014-15.

Gonzaga, led by its women’s golf team that has earned the award each of the 11 years of the program, led the nation with 80 percent of its teams receiving the honor. GU’s other 11 teams ranking among the top 10 percent of their sport are baseball, men’s golf and soccer, and men’s and women’s basketball, cross country, track and tennis.

Eastern honors went to women’s teams in basketball, cross country and golf, which each compiled a perfect score of 1,000 for the fourth straight year.

Washington State women’s cross country was also recognized with a perfect four-year score of 1,000.

Letters of intent

Eastern Washington volleyball – Regan Harr, S, Twin Falls, Idaho, College of Southern Idaho; Katie Mahoney, OH, Dundee, Illinois. Walk-ons – Hannah Absalonson, S, Mead, Southern Oregon; Anya Golubitskikh, OH, Mariner of Everett, Shoreline Community College.

Shooting

Maliya Hillman of the Spokane Junior Rifle Club will compete in the National Rifle Association National Championships after qualifying with a top-three finish in the NRA Open Air Gun Championships.

Shooting in a qualifier at the Spokane Rifle Club two weeks ago, Hillman, 17, of Lewis and Clark, placed third nationally among 457 competitors and second in the Junior Class to earn the invitation to nationals May 28-30 in Centerville, Virginia. She shot 619.1 in the three-position event. Winning score was 623 out of a possible 654.

SJRC had three others with top-20 class finishes in the three-position competition, where shooters took 60 shots from 33 feet, and three with top-20 finishes in the 20-shot standing-only event.

Three position: Michelle Maystrovich, 12th, Sub Junior; Mary Maystrovich, 16, Northwest Christian, 17th Intermediate Junior; Ben Tafoya, 13, St. Alousius, 20th Sub Junior. Team – SJRC Gold (Hillman; Adan Maddox, 16, Riverpoint Academy; David Wright, 17, Riverpoint; Taylor Christian, 14, Horizon Middle School), 15th; SJRC Silver (Mary Maystrovich; Mason Maystrovich; Katie McAdam, 14, home school; Mike Cooper, 18, Mt. Spokane), 16th.

Standing only: Hannah Freund, 14, Glover Middle School, 12th Sub Junior; Hillman, 16th Junior; Tafoya, 20th Sub Junior. Team – SJRC Gold (Hillman, Christian, Mason Maystrovich), 17th.