Locally: Gonzaga’s Nigel Goss-Williams, Idaho’s Mikayla Ferenz honored for academics

Nigel Williams-Goss of Gonzaga and Mikayla Ferenz of Idaho have been named to College Sports Information Directors of America Division I Academic All-District basketball teams.

Williams-Goss, a redshirt junior from Happy Valley, Oregon, has a 3.84 grade-point average and leads the Bulldogs in scoring (15.6), assists (4.8) and steals (1.7). He was named to the men’s District 8 first team.

The transfer from Washington, who also has a 4.0 GPA working on his master’s in business, ranks in the top 10 in the WCC in four categories, including second in free-throw percentage (87.7).

Ferenz, a sophomore from Walla Walla, has a 4.0 GPA as a mathematics major and leads the Vandals in scoring with 17.3 average. She was named to the women’s District 7 first team.

The Big Sky Conference tournament MVP last season scored a school-record 41 points in one game this season that included a school-record nine 3-pointers. The 41 points are tied for the 17th most in the NCAA this season and the nine 3-pointers are tied for third most.

CoSIDA Academic All-District teams recognize the nation’s top student-athletes for their performances both athletically and in the classroom. First team selections advance to the CoSIDA Academic All-America ballot where first, second and third teams will be selected later this month.

College scene

Jacob Wiley has been recognized nationally for his success on the basketball court this season. Now he’s being honored by his school.

The senior graduate transfer from Newport and Tisha Phillips, a senior on the women’s basketball team, have been named the Eastern Washington University Athletics Department Scholar-Athletes of the Month for January.

Wiley, who transferred from Lewis-Clark State, led the EWU men to a 5-3 record in January, averaging 24.1 points per game that included 30-point outings in three games. He was twice the Big Sky player of the week and also collected a national award.

Wiley, who has a 3.36 grade-point average in communications, hasn’t slowed down in February. Last weekend he improved his career high twice in successive games with 38- and 45-point outings and for the effort collected a couple of more national honors and another Big Sky award.

Phillips, a guard from Lapwai, Idaho, and 2012 graduate of Lewiston High School, has a 3.15 GPA as an applied developmental psychology major. She averaged 16.3 points and 2.9 assists in five games in January, three times scoring 20 or more. In a career-high 26-point game in a win over Montana, she was 8 of 11 from the field, including 4 of 5 on 3-pointers.

The honors keep coming for Madison Hovren.

The Army West Point sophomore from Central Valley collected her sixth Patriot League Women’s Basketball Player of the Week award after leading the Black Knights to a 2-0 week. She had her 12th double-double of the season (28 points, 15 rebounds) in a 67-48 victory over Loyola Maryland after a 22-point, 9-rebound effort in a 63-55 road win over Lafayette.

Hovren, who has scored 434 points for the 17-6 Cadets, ranks 19th nationally with her league-leading 19.7 scoring average. She is the only Patriot League player averaging a double-double, adding 10.6 rebounds.

Aleisha Hathaway, Western Washington’s senior guard from Shadle Park, had her two best games of the season last weekend as the 19-3 nationally ranked Vikings women’s basketball team ran its win streak to 13 games with two wins. Hathaway hit 3 of 4 3-pointers in each game, scoring 11 in one and nine in the other.

Sekou “Suki” Wiggs, an Alaska Anchorage senior who was the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Newcomer of the Year last season after transferring from Idaho, earned the GNAC Men’s Basketball Player of the Week honor for a second straight week after back-to-back 30-point outings for the second straight week.

Brittany Tackett, a Lewis-Clark State junior forward from Coeur d’Alene High School, averaged 19.5 points and seven rebounds as the second-ranked Warriors won twice in the week ending Jan. 28 to be named Frontier Conference Women’s Division I Basketball Player of the Week for the third time this season and second in three weeks.

Marianna Petrei, an Idaho sophomore from Udine, Italy, earned her third career weekly Big Sky Conference Women’s Tennis Player of the Week award after a pair of dominant No. 1 singles victories and a No. 1 doubles win as the Vandals opened the season going 2-0 in Portland Feb. 4. Petrei is the reigning Big Sky women’s MVP.

Kurtis Bonner, a Lewis-Clark State senior from Lewiston, was the Frontier Conference Men’s Indoor Field Athlete of the Week after winning the heptathlon in the WSU Cougar Indoor with 4,301 points to set school record and post the eighth-best score this season in the NAIA.

Seventeen area athletes at Eastern Washington and eight at other schools have earned Big Sky Conference All-Academic honors for the 2016 fall sports of football, volleyball, women’s soccer and men’s and women’s cross country with grade-point averages of 3.20 or higher.

The EWU athletes by sport:

Football – Zach Bruce, senior, University; Beau Byus, sophomore, Central Valley; Jonah Jordan, so., Mead; Marcus Saugen, junior, North Central; Stu Stiles, jr., Mt. Spokane; Keenan Williams, so., Cheney.

Volleyball – Hannah Absalonson, freshman, Mead; Taylor Larsen, so., Colfax.

Men’s cross country – Isaac Kitzan, sr., North Central; Evan Sanford, fr., Mead; Steaven Zachman, fr., Cheney; Matthew Hommel, jr., Central Valley.

Women’s cross country – Kaelah Corrigan, fr., North Central; Kari Hamilton-Scharnhorst, sr., Clarkston.

Women’s soccer – Paige Gallaway, sr., Central Valley; Laci Rennaker, jr., Central Valley; Chloe Williams, jr., Lewis and Clark.

The others:

Idaho – Morgan Crosby, fr., University, women’s soccer; McCall Skay, so., West Valley, women’s cross country; Kara Story, fr., Coeur d’Alene HS, women’s cross country; Megan Ramseyer, fr., Coeur d’Alene HS, volleyball.

Idaho State – Drew Sharkey, sr., Ferris, football; Meaghan Bare, so., Lake City, women’s soccer.

Montana – Ashlee Pederson, jr., Mt. Spokane, women’s soccer.

Sacramento State – Caitlin Prothe, so., Ferris, women’s soccer.

Six athletes with area ties, half of them at Carroll College, were named to the Frontier Conference Volleyball All-Academic team with grade-point averages of 3.0 or better. All are seniors.

Carroll – Jonni Dorr, Mead; Natalie Kassa, Mead; Paige Montgomery, Mead. Lewis-Clark State – Kennadie Clute, Mt. Spokane/Montana State. Montana State-Northern – Jacy Vining, Colville/Spokane Falls. Montana Western – Callie Hanson, East Valley/Columbia Basin.

The Washington State men and women were named United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Division I Scholar Teams for the 2016 cross country season.

The Cougars men were honored with a 3.32 GPA, third among the seven Pac-12 teams on the list. The WSU women had a 3.57 GPA, third among nine Pac-12 schools on the list.

The 2016 NCAA Division national champions, Northern Arizona men and Oregon women, were named Scholar Teams of the Year. The NAU men had a 3.12 GPA, the Oregon women a 3.42.

Letters of intent

Gonzaga men’s soccer – Joe Corner, MF, Salem, Oregon; Matt Kintzle, F, Broomfield, Colorado; Tomas Nergaard, MF, Lakewood, Colo.; Pato Gomez, MF, Cedar Park, Texas; Quinn Liebmann, MF, Boulder, Colo.

Tennis

Babar Akbar, who has spent time coaching in both the United States and his native Pakistan, has been hired as coach of the women’s tennis team at the University of Idaho, Vandals director of athletics Rob Spear announced.

Akbar, whose brother Abid Akbar is the men’s tennis coach at Idaho, played at Charleston (South Carolina) Southern University, graduating in 2007. He most recently was director of tennis at the Headstart School in his hometown of Islamabad, Pakistan. In 2015, Babar Akbar was the national doubles champion in Pakistan and ranked as high as No. 12 in singles.

Volleyball

Margie Ray, a member of the Spokane Area Volleyball Referees Association, officiated the championship match of the 2016 Women’s NCAA Division I tournament between champion Stanford and runner-up Texas on Dec. 17 in Columbus, Ohio.

It was Ray’s fifth Final Four assignment and fourth championship match. She has worked in every NCAA Division I tournament since 2002.

Other Spokane area officials working college postseason tournaments: Juli Jones, line judge for the first and second rounds of the Division I tourney; Linda Kildew, up official, and Patty Kells, line judge, in the finals of the Frontier Conference Championship; and Dale Goodwin, down referee, in the semifinals of the Northwest Athletic Conference Championship.

Miscellany

The Eastern Washington University football awards presentation Saturday in Showalter Auditorium on the Cheney campus will serve as a sendoff to 12 seniors and former head coach Beau Baldwin.

The cost is $15 per person in advance or $20 at the door, and includes hors d’oeuvres, video productions and highlights from the 2016 season. The event begins with a social hour at 1 p.m., followed by the awards program at 2. Tickets may be purchased through a link at goeags.com.

Team awards will be presented and the seniors recognized for a combined 317 starts that helped produce three Big Sky Conference championships and three playoff berths.

Baldwin, who left after the season to become offensive coordinator at California, is scheduled to be on hand. He will also be recognized the previous night at Reese Court during the EWU-Idaho men’s basketball game. New head coach Aaron Best will also be a guest of honor.