Warren Friedrichs retiring as a Whitworth coach for second time

Warren Friedrichs – basketball coach, golf coach, interim athletic director – is retiring for a second time as a head coach at Whitworth University.

Friedrichs, who first arrived on the Country Homes campus in the fall of 1985 to become the Pirates men’s basketball coach, announced that his second coaching stint will come to an end at the conclusion of the 2017 golf season.

A Whitworth Heritage Gallery Hall of Famer, Friedrichs has led the Whitworth men’s golf team to seven Northwest Conference golf championships in 14 years.

He had previously been one of the most successful basketball coaches in school history. From 1986 through 2001 he won five NWC titles and made three national tournament appearances, guiding Whitworth to a second place-finish in 1996.

“Warren’s legacy at Whitworth can be summed up by two words: success and impact,” said Tim Demant, Whitworth director of athletics in a press release. “While the banners speak of the championship teams he coached in basketball and golf, Warren’s greatest accomplishments were in the impact he had on the lives of the student-athletes he led.”

“I certainly will miss getting to know so many Whitworth athletes and seeing them mature and progress during their college careers,” Friedrichs said. “I have really enjoyed my coaching and teaching experience at Whitworth.”

After his basketball coaching days ended, Friedrichs took over the resurrected golf program in 2003-04, guiding both the men’s and women’s teams. The Pirates men won their first of seven titles one year later that started a three-year run. The seventh came last season when the Pirates made a seventh NCAA Division III tournament appearance. Their best finish was 21st in 2013. The women were NWC co-champions in 2009-10 and played in the 2009 NCAA tournament.

Administration

Pete Isakson has returned to the University of Idaho for a third stint in the athletics department, hired as the Vandals’ associate athletic director (external) after serving the last 14 years at Washington State.

Isakson, who received his bachelor’s degree at Eastern Washington in 1995 and a master’s at Idaho in 2003, began his career at UI as the assistant director for marketing and sales from 1995-96. He spent two years in the Midwest before returning to UI as assistant athletic director for development, marketing and promotions.

After five years, he left for WSU, where he most recently was director of university initiatives for the WSU Foundation.

Bowling

Mason Georgeadis set the pace – only one of 11 games under 200, a 216 average during the day, first place at the end of each of the two qualifying blocks – and claimed his first championship in the final Junior Bowlers Tour tournament of the season last Sunday at Bumpers.

As Georgeadis watched, John Hilden, who led the season-long JBT All-Stars, beat Dinah Seymour in the first roll-off, then knocked off Noah Torres, who had jumped from seventh during match-play qualifying into third place.

That set up Hilden with a match against No. 2 qualifier Toby Mertens, who had rolled a 1,092 in match-play, for a shot at Georgeadis in the championship match. Mertens prevailed 256-246, but he couldn’t sidetrack Georgeadis, who held firm and defeated Mertens 214-198 for the title.

Hilden, who had rolled a 1,046 series, finished third; Torres, who had the day’s high game, a 258, and a 1,067 series, was fourth; and Seymour fifth. Seymour had high game for the girls, a 240.

Hilden scored 206 points to lead the All-Star competition, followed by Mertens (183), Clint Norlen (180), Raymond Worthey (117) and Anthony Huck (112). Hilden also had high season average, a 212. Seymour’s 181 average led the girls.

The fun tournament will end the JBT season Feb. 26 at Valley Bowl.

College scene

Gonzaga’s Przemek Karnowski and Washington State’s Josh Hawkinson are among 10 finalists for the 2016-17 men’s Senior CLASS Award that goes to an NCAA Division I senior with notable achievements in community, classroom, character and competition.

Karnowski, who is averaging a career-high 12.4 points and 5.7 rebounds and leads the WCC in field-goal percentage (68.4) in conference games, is working on his master’s in the MBA program and has a 3.43 grade-point average. He graduated in May with a bachelor of education in sport management. He’s made numerous visits to local hospitals and the Boys and Girls Club.

Hawkinson, in his second year as captain, leads the Cougars in scoring (15.7 points), rebounding (10.1) and minutes. He graduated in three years in May 2016 with a 3.33 GPA in management operations and is working on a master’s in business administration. He has served as a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Council and helps at numerous school and community events.

• Maya Jansen, a graduate student on the California women’s tennis team from Freeman, earned the first Pac-12 Player of the Week honor of her career after leading the Golden Bears in the ITA National Women’s Team Indoor Championship in Connecticut on Feb. 10-12.

Jansen clinched a 4-0 win over Georgia Tech in the first round with her court-five singles victory over the 92nd-ranked player on Friday, then posted an upset of Oklahoma State’s 77th-ranked player on Saturday, and capped her tournament on Sunday by outlasting her North Carolina opponent 6-2, 7-5.

In doubles, Cal’s 49th-ranked pair of Jansen and senior Maegan Manasse upset Oklahoma State’s fifth-ranked team 6-3.

• The West Coast Conference named Gonzaga’s Nevada Apollo, a sophomore from Las Vegas, its Women’s Singles Tennis Player of the Week for the first time in her career. She went 2-0 at No. 2 singles in two 7-0 sweeps, winning 24 of 30 games. She has 12 wins this season and is undefeated inside GU’s The Stevens Center (9-0).

• Robert Dula, an Eastern Washington senior from Croatia, received his fifth career Big Sky Conference Player of the Week award in men’s tennis after leading the Eagles to their first win in nine years over conference powerhouse Sacramento State with wins in No. 1 singles and doubles, and added two more wins in a match against Whitworth.

• Kinsey McNaught, a Whitworth freshman outfielder from Keiser, Oregon, was named the Northwest Conference position player student-athlete of the week in softball for the week of Feb. 6-12 after she led the Pirates to a 5-1 week in California with nine hits and a .600 average.

McNaught had three straight multi-hit games, drove in one run, scored five and stole three bases on the trip.

• Joey Biel, a Monmouth College freshman from Northwest Christian, was named the Special Teams Player of the Year when the Fighting Scots passed out their football awards.

Biel finished the season with 89 points, fourth in the Midwest Conference, and was the NCAA Division III league’s kick-scoring leader. He made 10 of 17 field goals, that included a 50-yarder that is second longest in school history and two 47-yarders that are fourth longest, and 59 of 62 extra points. He had streaks of 23 and 18 in a row. He was twice the Midwest Conference Special Teams Player of the Week.

• Sarah Reiter, an Eastern Washington senior from Renton, Washington, received individual honors and the Eagles men and women were recognized with NCAA Division I All-Academic team honors by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association for the 2016 cross country season.

It is the second straight year Reiter has earned the all-academic award. To qualify, a student-athlete must have a grade-point average of 3.25 or higher and have a high finish in a regional or the national championship meet. She was sixth in the NCAA West Regional.

Eastern teams have regularly been honored by the USTFCCCA for academics, including the women’s team that also was recognized in 2015. This year’s women had a 3.64 GPA. The Eagles men were honored with a 3.33.

• Six women with area ties have been named to the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Women’s Basketball All-Academic team, two for the second time.

Lindsay Lee, a junior at Seattle Pacific from Lewis and Clark with a 3.66 GPA in health and fitness education, is a repeater from 2015-16. Aleisha Hathaway, a Western Washington senior from Shadle Park with a 3.61 GPA in kinesiology, was an All-Academic selection in 2014-15.

The others: Erin Higbie, a Concordia sophomore from West Valley, 3.38, marketing; Madison Wright, a Seattle Pacific sophomore from Gonzaga Prep, 3.47, management/global studies; and two Saint Martin’s sophomores, Emma Kennedy, University, 3.60, biology, and Mallory Kessler, Ritzville, 3.25, mathematics.

• Ryan Walker, a junior right-handed pitcher at Washington State from Arlington, Washington, has been named to the preseason watch list for the National Collegiate Baseball Association Stopper of the Year, which honors the top relief pitcher in NCAA Division I.

Walker was All-Pac-12 honorable mention last season after posting the sixth lowest ERA (2.66) and batting average against (.212) in conference play. Of WSU’s 11 conference wins, Walker figured in eight with four wins and four saves.

Overall, he led the Cougars with a 6-3 record and five saves in 18 appearances, all in relief, along with a 2.40 ERA, a .210 batting average against and 50 strikeouts in 63 2/3 innings. The six relief wins tied for second-most in WSU single-season history.

• Tani Stephens, a graduated senior from Albany, Oregon, received the Washington State volleyball team’s “Our Five” award for the second consecutive year at a season-ending dinner.

The award honors the player who best personifies the “five pillars” of passion, humility, unity, servanthood and thankfulness. Stephens is attending graduate school at the University of Portland and is a member of its beach volleyball team.