Dave Trimmer

Not much has gone right for Nikki Nelson since she took her basketball skills to New Mexico after graduating from Chewelah. As chronicled before, there was the anterior cruciate ligament injury to her left knee before her first season and the ACL injury to her right knee before last season.

Not much has gone right for Nikki Nelson since she took her basketball skills to New Mexico after graduating from Chewelah.

At least it was a team effort, according to the coach, but it was an effort he called pathetic. But there wasn’t much good to say about the Spokane Chiefs’ 2-1 loss to Kamloops at the Arena on Friday night.

At least it was a team effort, according to the coach, but it was an effort he called pathetic. But there wasn’t much good to say about the Spokane Chiefs’ 2-1 loss to Kamloops at the Arena.

There are enough rags-to-riches stories in athletics to erase the national deficit, but few can match that of Ana Overgaard. It’s not so much that the 5-foot-11 junior walk-on from Weiser, Idaho, received a scholarship from Vandals women’s basketball coach Jon Newlee this fall. What makes Overgaard’s story so compelling is the honesty with which she tells it, how she was able to focus so when she first got into a game, or scored, or got that scholarship, she could recount the moment.

Was the off-season long enough to catch your breath or too long with the anticipation of any kind of encore? Either way, the college basketball season tips off tomorrow night and on the women’s side there is the promise of another NCAA Tournament opening weekend in Spokane.

A smile caught Krista Kilburn-Steveskey’s eye and she decided that was a player she should try to recruit for her Hofstra basketball team. Of course, it didn’t hurt that the player poured in seven points in the final minutes to pull out a win.

PASCO – Katie Knight’s big smile as she crossed the finish line was wider by the time she ascended to the top spot of the podium following her race at the state cross country extravaganza on Saturday. The North Central junior’s remarkable run and victory over arch nemesis Amy-Eloise Neale of Glacier Peak highlighted what was Lady’s Day for area runners at Sun Willows Golf Course.

PASCO – As his runners prepared for the state cross country meet, North Central coach Jon Knight was preparing for the worst. If his seniorless team was going to have the school’s five-year reign as State 3A champions end on Saturday, he was going to be ready.

From the first race at 10 a.m. until the last at 2:30 p.m., area runners will be in the mix at the state cross country meet Saturday at Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco. A handful of teams have aspirations of a team championship – led by North Central’s boys gunning for their fifth 3A title – and quite a few more hope to earn a trophy by finishing in the top four.