Locally: EWU’s Delaney Hodgins named CLASS finalist
Delaney Hodgins doesn’t stand out just on the court, but her well-known skills there along with her other attributes helped the Eastern Washington forward to be named one of 10 women’s basketball finalists for the NCAA Division I Senior CLASS Award.
Candidates are selected for notable achievements in four areas – community, classroom, character and competition. CLASS is an acronym for “celebrating loyalty and achievement for staying in school.”
The Preseason Big Sky Player of the Year from Pasco, who recently set Eastern’s career scoring record, is majoring in health informatics technology and management and has a 3.85 cumulative GPA.
She not only helped the school to three WBCA Top-25 GPA Awards, but also helped the Eagles combine for more than 6,550 hours of community service last year. She volunteered for Step Up for Down Syndrome, Special Olympics, Cheney Guild School, Cheney Clean Sweep, and she was an EAGLE Week speaker.
Fans can vote until March 19 on the Senior CLASS website, with their votes counting for one third of the total to determine the winner. The other two-thirds will come from Division I coaches and the media. The recipient will be announced during the Women’s Final Four.
Hodgins is the only finalist from the West Coast. The others are Ariel Atkins, Texas; Lexi Brown, Duke; Tyra Buss, Indiana; Emily Clemens, Western Illinois; Rebecca Greenwell, Duke; Kaylee Jensen, Oklahoma State; Jackie Kemph, Saint Louis; Victoria Vivians, Mississippi State; and Gabby Williams, UConn.
College scene
Repeat honors were the order of the day for area athletes as college conferences selected players of the week for the week ending Sunday, Feb. 4.
—-Brianna King, the Western Montana junior guard from North Central and Community Colleges of Spokane, received the Frontier Conference honor in women’s basketball for the third straight week and fifth time this season.
She averaged 22 points, eight rebounds, five assists, 3.5 steals and 1.5 blocked shots as the 24th-ranked Bulldogs won twice.
—-Shelby Cloninger, an Alaska Anchorage senior from Kamiah, Idaho, and North Idaho College, was the Great Northwest Athletic Conference women’s basketball player of the week for a second time this season.
She averaged 18 points and eight rebounds in two Seawolves’ victories. Her first honor came the week of Nov. 20-25 after she was MVP of the Great Alaska Shootout.
—-Scott Paz, an Eastern Washington senior from Santa Margarita, California, earned a second straight Big Sky men’s tennis award after going 2-0 in singles and 3-0 in doubles during the week. He and partner Flavien Rayeau improved their record at No. 1 doubles to 4-1.
—-Josh Kallstrom, Oregon Tech’s slugging junior first baseman from Ephrata, Washington, is on a tear. He earned the Cascade Collegiate Conference Baseball Player of the Week award after collecting seven hits, including four doubles and a home run, driving in five runs and scoring four in four games to raise his season batting average to .525.
—- Chandler Teigen, a Washington State junior from Asotin, Washington, was named to the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Division I All-Academic Team for the 2017 cross country season and the Cougars’ men’s and women’s teams were named Division I Scholar Teams.
Teigen has a 3.96 GPA in bioengineering. The WSU women have a 3.51 GPA and the men 3.30.
The Gonzaga (3.26) and Idaho (3.24) men also received D-I Scholar Team awards as did the women’s teams from Idaho (3.7), Gonzaga (3.64) and Eastern Washington (3.62).
In D-III, Whitworth’s men (3.46) and women (3.72) also earned Scholar Team honors and the Pirates’ Thais Pedro-Trujillo, a senior from Burien, Wash.; Marissa Mount, a junior from San Jose, Calif.; and Krystal Roberts, a freshman from Walla Walla, were on the women’s All-Academic Team with GPAs of 3.25 or better.
In the Division II ranks, Tracy Melville, a Western Washington redshirt sophomore from Lamont (Lind-Ritzville/Sprague), was on the women’s All-Academic team with a 3.72 GPA.
High school scene
The Coeur d’Alene/KROC “A” team continued its domination of the Idaho State Water Polo Championships by winning a fifth straight title in its fifth year of existence on Jan. 31 with a 15-5 victory over Twin Falls in the championship game at Boise.
The Vikings, coached by Mark Collingham and Wyatt Surplus, went unbeaten in five games. Seniors Ryan Sorensson (12), Ryan Butera (11), Danielle Chastain (11) and Gabe Markowski (10) led the way with double-digit goals. Josh Simmons was the goalie.
The CdA/KROC “B” team played its way into the division final but lost 12-10 in overtime to Twin Falls to finish second.
Football
The Parker Toyota Football Coaches Clinic, featuring area college and high school coaches and college players, is set for Feb. 23-24 at Coeur d’Alene High School.
College head coaches participating include Rod Sandberg, Whitworth; Tim Camp, Eastern Oregon; Jeff Choate, Montana State; and Ryan Nourse, Montana Western.
Sessions are set for 4-8 p.m. on Feb. 23 and 8:30-11:30 a.m. and 2-5 p.m. on Feb. 24.
Clinic info: Shawn Amos, (208) 659-0611, samos@cdaschools.org or http://idhsaa.org/.
Letters of intent
Gonzaga women’s soccer – Haley Archuleta, MF, Highlands Ranch, Colorado; Sophia Braun, MF, Beaverton, Oregon; Bryanna Carson, MF, Pleasant Grove, Utah; Hanna Hale, F, Phoenix, Arizona; Gabriela Maas, D, San Diego, California; Kayla Thompson, GK, Spanish Fork, Utah.
WSU women’s soccer – Gracie Armstrong, MF/F, Broomfield, Colo.; Ebony Clarke, MF, Richmond, British Colombia; Elaily Hernandez-Repreza, D/MF, Huntington Park, Calif.; Mykiaa Minniss, D, Colorado Springs, Colo; Molly Myers, F/MF, Oceanside, Calif.; Hailey Smith, F, San Jose, Calif.
EWU women’s soccer – Brooke Asbury, CB, Tahoma HS (Maple Valley, Washington); Nicole Bumgarner, MF, Mountain View, Calif.; Sydney Douglas, D, Corona, Calif.; Mya Elder-Hammond, D, Ashland, Ore.; Ariana Escobedo, MF, Wenatchee; Annabelle Hall, F, White River HS (Enumclaw, Wash.); Mareonna Henderson, F/MF, Emerald Ridge HS (Puyallup, Wash.); Vanessa Jones, CB/MF, San Lorenzo, Calif.; Cameron Kieneker, CB, Redmond HS (Woodinville, Wash.); Janae Lee, D, Moreno Valley, Calif.; Bailee Nelson, F, Mountain View HS (Boise); Glory Smith, F, Newbury Park, Calif.; Ashley Valdivieso, D, Scottsdale, Ariz.; Colby Wilson, CB/MF, Redondo Beach, Calif.
Shooting
Cassidy Wilson had a 12th-place finish to lead a good showing by five members of the Spokane Junior Rifle Club at the U.S. Army National Junior Air Rifle Championships Feb. 1-2 in Fort Benning, Georgia.
Wilson, 17, who is home schooled, shot in the final round with the top eight shooters on the first day and wound up compiling 1,226.5 points for the two rounds. Winning score in the field of 127 was 1,245.4.
Mason Maystrovich, 16, Northwest Christian, was 58th (1,190.3) and Taylor Christian, 16, Spokane Valley Tech, was 64th (1,187.2), just missing finishing in the top half of the field.
Other SJRC members were Zach Pearsall, 16, home schooled, 105th (1,151.7) and Ben Tafoya, 15, Gonzaga Prep, 107th (1,150.4).
The SJRC Gold team, combining the scores of Wilson, Maystrovich, Christian and Pearsall, placed 12th out of 26 teams with a score of 4,753.7. The winning score was 4,882.9.