Locally: Eastern Washington Athletics Hall of Fame will honor Tiera Como-Irby

Another first for Tiera Como-Irby.

The former East Valley High School standout goalkeeper, who led Eastern Washington to the school’s first Big Sky Conference women’s soccer championship in 2004, will become the first from her sport inducted into the EWU Athletics Hall of Fame with the 2017 class.

She’ll be joined by basketball players Ronn McMahon and Fay Zwarych-Shaw, plus previously announced football players Tony Brooks and Jackie Kellogg and the 1992 Eagles football team, during induction ceremonies Sept. 30 in Cheney.

Como-Irby was a two-time Big Sky Defensive Most Valuable Player (2005 and 2006) and two-time All-Big Sky first team those same years. In 2004, she was second team.

She set school records for career shutouts (12), saves (420), saves per game (6.46) and goals-against average (1.44) that still stand and two others that have since been broken. Academically, she was named to the All-West Region third team by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America as a senior in 2006 and was a four-time Big Sky All-Academic.

McMahon was one of the top point guards in NCAA Division I as a senior in 1989-90 when he helped the Eagles to an 18-11 record and runner-up finishes in the Big Sky regular season and tournament. His school records of 130 steals and a 4.48 average in 1990, as well as his 3.52 career average, still rank among the top eight in NCAA history.

After receiving his degree in 1989, he played for the Yakima Sun Kings in the Continental Basketball Association (1991-92), then played on the Canadian National Team from 1992-94. He was Canada’s starting point guard on the ’92 squad that played in the Tournament of the Americas against the original United States “Dream Team” that included Spokane’s John Stockton. He also played professionally in Mexico.

The high-scoring Zwarych-Shaw set a school record with 509 points (18.9 per game) in 1983 when she was second-team all-conference. She earned first-team All-Big Sky in 1984 when she averaged 17.0 (475 total), and finished her career from 1981-84 with 1,303 points, which was second in school history at the time.

After leaving Eastern, Zwarych-Shaw played two seasons professionally in Australia.

An induction breakfast and ceremony is open to the public for $20 per person. Guests must register via a link that will be available late this month at http://goeags.com/HOF. Inductees will also be honored at halftime of EWU’s football game that day against Sacramento State.

Lt. William “Bink” Wall, one of the inspirational leaders on the 1967 EWU football team whose perfect season ended with a 28-21 loss to Fairmont State in West Virginia in the NAIA Championship game, will be honored posthumously as the 2017 recipient of the Eastern Athletics Hall of Fame Service and Contribution Award. The Tekoa native, killed in Vietnam in 1970 three years after leaving Eastern, will be honored during a reunion Sept. 8-9 commemorating the 50th anniversary of the ’67 team. That squad, the first team inducted into the school hall of fame in 2001, will be honored in pre-game introductions before the EWU-North Dakota State game Sept. 9 at Roos Field.Wall will also be recognized during the 2017 hall of fame induction on Sept. 30. The three-year letterman, who led Eastern’s hard-hitting defense, was an All-Evergreen Conference linebacker as a senior in 1967 and honorable mention on the Associated Press Little All-Northwest and the NAIA All-District I teams. At 6-foot-2 and 210 pounds, he also played at offensive guard. Wall was selected to the school’s “100 for 100” All-Time Football Team in 2008. After finishing his degree in 1968, he helped coach the Eagles for a season and was a commissioned lieutenant in the U.S. Army after being a part of the school’s ROTC program. In 1981, Eastern dedicated its Sports and Recreation Center to the memory of Wall and two other former student-athletes who lost their lives in service to their country, Dick Huston and Michael Hanneman. The strength and conditioning center is named in Wall’s honor.

College scene

Jocelyn Urias, a Washington State sophomore middle blocker from Tijuana, Mexico, who redshirted last season, has been selected to play on the Mexican National Team in the Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) World Grand Prix at international locations the second, third and fourth weekends in July.

Urias was a three-year member of the Mexican Junior National Team and was MVP of the 2015 Copa Federacion (Federation Cup), a qualifying tournament for the Liga Mexicana de Voleibol. She also played on the Mexican National Team at the 2015 FIVB World Grand Prix, but the team did not advance from preliminary rounds in pool play.

Phillip Fishburn, a Gonzaga sophomore-to-be-from Kennewick, earned the bronze medal, placing third in the men’s 10,000 meters at the USATF Junior Championships last weekend in Sacramento, California, and is first alternate for the USA at the Pan American Junior Championships in Lima Peru, July 21-23. In what GU coach Pat Tyson described as “a slow tactical race,” Fishburn took the lead with 3,000 meters to go and led until relinquishing it the last 400 meters. He clocked 31 minutes, 25.37 seconds as the top three opened a gap on the rest of the field. Steven Cross of Florida State won in 31:20.95.

Golf

Victoria Fallgren, assistant women’s golf coach at Gonzaga, won the Washington State Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship last week by nine strokes on The Home Course at DuPont, Washington, finishing at 2-over-par 218.

Fallren, who just completed her fourth season as the Zags’ assistant after a stellar playing career for the Bulldogs that included the 2012 WCC championship, highlighted her championship run in the tournament for women 25 and older with a 3-under 69 in the second round. She started with a 74 and finished with a 75 and had the lowest score all three days.

Shawn Farmer from Renton, Washington, was runner-up. Kristina Ward of Colfax finished ninth at 13-over 270.

High school scene

Cheryl (Byers) Schauble, who stamped herself as one of the greats in high school track and field in the state as an athlete and coach, and Sid Otton, the winningest high school football coach in state history, head a class of eight selected for induction into the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association Hall of Fame.

Schauble was a five-time individual state champion at Pullman before going on to coach the Kamiakin girls track team, leading the Braves to six state championships.

In 49 years on the sidelines, that included four at Colfax (1970-73), Otton compiled a 394-131 record, 27 state playoff appearances and six state championships. The first title came at Colfax in 1971. He spent the last 43 years at Tumwater, retiring after last season.

(By contrast, former Gonzaga Prep coach Don Anderson, with a 272-60 record in 36 years, is Spokane’s winningest football coach.)

Joining them in the Class of 2017 are Duke Washington from Pasco, who made the All-State football team in 1951, becoming the first African-American selected to an all-state team; basketball coach Al Hairston (Garfield, Kent-Meridian and O’Dea); and baseball coach Don Freeman (Prairie and Heritage), both state championship coaches.

Washington, who died in February, went on to have a standout career at Washington State that landed him a spot in the WSU Hall of Fame in 2008.

The WIAA group also includes Ron Jones (Port Angeles, fine arts), Dele Gunnerson (Peninsula and a WIAA executive) and Seattle Times sportswriter Craig Smith, going in as a contributor.

An induction ceremony is planned for the spring of 2018.

Letters of intent

Idaho women’s soccer – Jordyn Dion, MF, South Lake Tahoe, California/Lane (Oregon) Community College.

Lewis-Clark State women’s basketball – Cali Moscrip, G, Lewiston/Community Colleges of Spokane, All-NWAC Tournament second team; Abbey Roy, W, Lewiston, selected to Border Battle and District II all-star games.

Lewis-Clark State men’s track and field – Corbin Maltba, pole vault, Priest River, three-time State 3A qualifier, placed second as senior; Layton Ahlers, middle distance, Lewiston; Isaac Glaze, sprinter/jumper, Orofino, three-time State 2A placer, twice in TJ; Mike Rives, Clearwater Valley, pole vault/multievents, four-time State 1A medalist.

Rowing

Nicole Hare, a 2017 graduate of Washington State and four-year Varsity 8 rower for the Cougars, has been named to the Canadian senior team for World Rowing Cup 3 next weekend at Lucerne, Switzerland.

Hare will compete in the women’s four along with crewmate Hillary Janssens and Canadian Olympians Christine Roper and Susanne Grainger.

Hare, from Calgary, Alberta, competed for Canada in the women’s pair at the 2016 Rio Olympics and she and Janssens won gold at the 2016 World Rowing Under-23 Championships.

Shooting

Spokane Junior Rifle Club Gold finished 29th out of 46 teams at the National 3-Position Air Rifle Junior Olympic Championships on June 22 in Camp Perry, Ohio.

The team and Taylor Christian, 15, Spokane Valley Tech, qualified for nationals last fall. Christian shot 575 out of 600 and placed 135th out of 241.

Other members of the Gold team who also shot in the individual competition were Cassidy Wilson, 16, home school (583, 56th); David Wright, 19, Riverpoint Academy (581, eighth); and Ben Tafoya, 15, St. Aloysius (559, 215th).