Locally: Victoria Fallgren repeats as Washington State Golf Association Women’s Mid-Amateur champion, Avista Stadium in best ballpark voting
Victoria Fallgren, the assistant women’s golf coach at Gonzaga University, has repeated as winner of the Washington State Golf Association Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship.
Fallgren, who started the final day of the 54-hole tournament at Lake Spanaway Golf Course three shots off the lead, rallied with a tournament-best even-par 72 to finish at 9-over 225 for a one-stroke victory.
“I got off to a good start this morning,” the 2017 WSGA Women’s Mid-Amateur Player of the Year told the WSGA after Thursday’s final round, noting she was 1 under par after five holes. “That got me right back in it. I didn’t grab the lead until the 17th hole. It was a fight all day.”
Tina Papatolis of Issaquah was second.
Kristina Ward of Colfax was eighth at 271 in the 10-player field.
• Kelly Hooper, the former Gonzaga Prep standout who gained All-Big Sky Conference third-team honors following her sophomore season at Montana State, finished fourth in the WSGA Washington Women’s Amateur Championship last week at Lake Spanaway.
Hooper shot 11-over 227 to the 2-over 218 for champion Olivia Benzin of Tacoma, who posted a two-shot victory.
Emily Baumgart from Pullman was 11th at 232.
• Corey Prugh won the Four-Ball competition during the Oregon Open Invitational last week at Aspen Lakes Golf Club in Sisters, Oregon, but medalist honors got away from the Community Colleges of Spokane golf coach.
Prugh, who teamed with Chase Mitchell of Avondale Golf Club in Hayden to win the Four-Ball on Wednesday when he put together a 6-under 66 to grab a 2-stroke lead in the Oregon Open, finished the 54-hole invitational Thursday with a 3-over 75 that left him two shots back in second.
Colin Inglis of Emerald Valley Golf Club in Creswell, Oregon, finished with a 7-under 209 to 211 for Prugh, the 2008 Oregon Open champion.
North Idaho College coach Russell Grove tied for fourth at 1-under 215 and Bill Bomar from Prairie Falls in Post Falls tied for 13th at 3-over 219.
The amateur division had two area golfers in the top 10 – David Ganz of Gonzaga University, seventh at 6-over 222, and Darren Slackman, The Creek at Qualchan, 10th at 224.
Baseball
Voting is underway to select the best ballparks in the country in Ballpark Digest’s annual competition and the Spokane Indians’ Avista Stadium is among 22 teams vying to reach the Sweet 16 of Short Season-A stadiums.
Voting in the second round of the competition ends on Friday (July 6). Avista Stadium entered this segment of the voting ranked seventh. To vote, go to ballparkdigest.com. You can vote as often as you like, but only once a day.
Basketball
Jake Straughan of Colton, who played three years at Idaho while getting a degree in psychology and finished his college career at Fresno Pacific last season, has been selected by Athletes in Action to join its team for a four-week trip to New Zealand this summer.
Straughan, a guard, led the PacWest Conference in 3-point accuracy last season, hitting 40.5 percent while making a team-high 60 of 148. His 12.4 scoring average was second on the team. He earned Big Sky Conference (3.75 GPA) and PacWest (3.68) All-Academic honors during his college years.
College scene
Since the Northwest Athletic Conference named its Athletic Director’s Cup for Spokane’s former longtime Hall of Fame A.D. Maury Ray, Community Colleges of Spokane hasn’t let it out of its grasp.
For a sixth straight year in 2017-18, Spokane won the Dr. Maury Ray Cup in the large-school division for schools that offer eight or more sports.
CCS, which had NWAC champions in women’s cross country and women’s track and field, compiled 156 points to outdistance runner-up Walla Walla, which had 112 1/2. North Idaho College was fourth with 107 behind Bellevue’s 108 1/2 in third.
Lower Columbia won the small-school division with 102 1/2 points.
• Washington State and Idaho women’s swimming collected CSCAA Scholar All-America Team honors from the College Swim Coaches Association of America and four Cougars were named Scholar All-American honorable mention.
WSU earned a fifth straight team honor with a 3.47 team GPA. In the 17 semesters the CSCAA has named Scholar All-America Teams, the Cougars have received the award 15 times. Junior Jasmine Margetts and freshmen Emily Cook, Mackenzie Duarte and Taylor McCory (Pullman) earned individual honors with GPAs of 3.5 or higher.
Idaho’s spring team GPA of 3.63 tied for 14th highest in Division I and earned it a second CSCAA team honor of the 2017-18 school year. It also was honored fall semester. The Vandals’ Alexis Schmidt, a freshman from Cheney, was named to the WAC Women’s Swimming All-Academic team with a 3.7 GPA.
• Four Whitworth athletes collected honors from the College Swim Coaches Association of America.
Senior Patrick Wilber received two CSCAA Division III All-America honorable mention awards for top-16 finishes in the 100- and 200-yard backstroke at the NCAA Championships, duplicating awards from the NCAA.
Sophomore Hannah Galbraith was a first-team women’s Division III CSCAA Scholar All-American with a GPA of 3.5 or higher and freshman Ryan Grady and sophomore Owen Lempert were honorable mention on the men’s D-III Scholar All-America team.
Letters of intent
Western Washington women’s track & field – Michaela Kostecka, Mt. Spokane/UW/CCS, distance; 5-time State 4A qualifier at Mt. Spokane, won 3,000m steeplechase and 800m at 2018 NWAC Championships, 2nd at 2017 NWAC Cross Country Championships at CCS; Rebecca Lehman, University High, distance; 6th in 2018 State 4A 3,200m; Alexis Perry, Arlington, Wash./CCS; 2018 NWAC pole vault champion.
Idaho men’s basketball – RayQuawndis Mitchell, G, Blaine, Washington.
Softball
Peyton Bischoff, 11, from Colbert, was selected to play for the Region 9 Blue team in the 2018 USA Softball 12U All-American Games this weekend in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Bischoff, a pitcher, third baseman and catcher for the Spokane Stealth 12U select team, was the only player from USA Softball of Idaho District 8 (Spokane) named to two 15-player Region 9 teams in the 24-team national exposure tournament.
• Paytland Schnell of Hayden and KaeLee Kolden of Post Falls qualified for the Seattle Mariners’ team championships today at Safeco Field in the softball division of Major League Baseball’s Pitch, Hit & Run competition.
Schnell, in the 7-8-year-old age division, and Kolden, 9-10, advanced through local and sectional qualifying for the three-girl softball finals in each age division. Division winners will have their scores compared with winners from other MLB teams with the top three advancing to the national finals in Washington, D.C., July 16 before the MLB All-Star Game Home Run Derby.
Qualifying in four age divisions for 7-14-year-olds in softball and baseball in the Mariners’ team competition was held in May and June in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska and British Columbia.