NIC’s Dajour Reece wins 165-pound NJCAA wrestling title

Sat., Feb. 27, 2016

North Idaho’s Dajour Reece edged Spartanburg Methodist’s Daquon Wilson 7-5 in the 165-pound title match at the NJCAA wrestling championships Saturday in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Reece had two takedowns in the second period to go ahead 6-3 and held on in the final period to secure the national title.

Reece advanced to the finals with a 17-13 semifinal win over Colby’s Gavin Grater earlier in the day.

At 285 pounds, North Idaho’s Damian Trujillo fell to Nassau’s Jenard Rosemond 10-0 in his second consolation match.

Track and field

Washington State’s Kiana Davis won the high jump and the Cougars women took fourth place at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships at the Dempsey Indoor Facility in Seattle. It was the Cougars’ best finish at the event since 2004.

Top-ranked Oregon won and was followed by Stanford and Southern California.

Davis reached 5 feet, 10 1/2 inches in the high jump, a personal best. Teammate Liz Harper finished with same mark, but took third place based on missed attempts.

Davis also took third place in the triple jump (41-2 1/4) and the Cougars’ 1,600-meter relay team of Dominique Keel, Alissa Brooks-Johnson, Christiana Ekelem and Harper took third-place with a season-best time of 3 minutes, 41.05 seconds.

Dino Dodig led the WSU men with a fourth-place finish in the heptathlon. He finished with a school-record 5,635 points. The Cougars men finished in 12th place.

Rebecca Tarbert won the 60-meter dash and the Eastern Washington women finished in third place – its best-ever finish – at the Big Sky Conference Indoor Championships in Bozeman, Montana.

Tarbert finished in 7.51 seconds. She broke the school record on Friday with a time of 7.47. She also took sixth place in the 200 (25.03). EWU’s Sarah Reiter was second in the 3,000 (9:55.99), Dominique Butler was second in the triple jump (39-0 1/2) and Katie Mahoney took third place in the mile (4:58.85).

Jeremy VanAssche led the EWU men with a victory in the 60-meters. He crossed in 6.77, just .02 seconds short of the school record. The Eagles men finished in eighth place.

Whitworth’s Katie McKay and Kayla Brase set school records in leading the Pirates women at the Seattle Pacific University final qualifier meet in Seattle.

McKay broke her own indoor school record in the 800 with a time of 2:11.79. Brase set an indoor school record in the triple jump with a leap of 37-6 3/4.

Swimming

Idaho freshman Janelle Lucas won the platform title and the Vandals women took fifth place at the Western Athletic Conference Championships in Houston.

Lucas posted 278.20 points, 32 better than the second-place finisher. Idaho’s Cara Jernigan was fourth in the 200 breaststroke (2:16.13) and Vivian Crow was sixth in the 200 butterfly (2:03.03).

Kendra Griffin took eighth place in the 1,650-yard freestyle and the Washington State women took seventh place at the Pac-12 Conference Championships in Federal Way, Washington. Griffin finished in 16:30.76, a personal record and second fastest in school history.

Baseball

Washington State scored eight runs in the seventh inning and beat Prairie View A&M 14-3 at the Al Ogletree Classic in Edinburg, Texas. The game was called after the seventh due to the 10-run rule.

Trek Stemp led the Cougars with four hits, four RBIs and three runs and Patrick McGrath added three hits and three RBIs. Stemp has hit safely in all seven games this season. Prairie View fell to 2-4.

Washington State (3-4) plays Houston Baptist at the tournament on Sunday.

Gonzaga (4-3) fell to Bradley (2-3) in 12 innings before beating Incarnate World (3-4) at the Alamo Irish Classic in San Antonio.

Tyler Leffler’s RBI-single in the top of 12th gave the Braves a 5-4 win in the opener. Gonzaga had a chance in the bottom of the inning, but squandered a bases-loaded, one-out opportunity.

Tyler Frost drove in three runs to lead Gonzaga to an 8-3 win over Incarnate World in the nightcap. The Bulldogs play Notre Dame at the tournament on Sunday.

Whitworth opened Northwest Conference play with doubleheader sweep of Whitman in Spokane. The Pirates improved to 10-0, the best start to a season in program history.

Garrett Hughes hit a three-run home run in the seventh inning to lead the Pirates to a 10-4 win in the opener. Joel Condreay added three hits and two runs for Whitworth.

In the nightcap, Pirates’ starter T.J. Orchard threw six scoreless innings and Whitworth benefitted from 11 walks in an 18-1 victory. Jacob Yamane drove in four runs and Nicholas Nerud scored three times.

The Pirates and Missionaries (3-11, 2-3) wrap up the three-game set Sunday in Spokane.

Softball

Shannon Wessel went 4 for 4 with a home run in the opener and Kelsey Downey went deep in the nightcap as Whitworth (5-1, 2-0) opened Northwest Conference play with a doubleheader sweep of Lewis & Clark (5-5, 0-2) in Portland.

Whitworth rallied from a 6-2 deficit in the opener and won 10-7. Wessel, Chelsey Hayes and Morgan Portlock had two RBIs apiece for the Pirates.

In the nightcap, Makayla Lefever pitched all six innings, giving up six hits and two runs in Whitworth’s 10-2 victory. It was Lefever’s third straight complete-game victory.

The Pirates and Pioneers play another doubleheader on Sunday in Portland.