Five Local Gymnasts Qualify For Junior Olympics

Five members of the Northwest Gymnastics Academy of Spokane - three boys and two girls - have qualified for National Junior Olympics competition.

Aaron Sheck, Ryan Welborn and Beau DeWitt will compete in the boys Junior Olympics May 12-13 in Oakland after qualifying at the Region 2 championships last weekend in Helena.

Jasmine Davey and Katrina Miller will be in the girls national event May 11-14 in West Palm Beach, Fla., after qualifying in the Region 2 meet in Seattle last weekend.

Sheck, 13, from Priest River, placed fifth all-around with a 41.65 score in the Class 3 division for 12-14-yearolds. He also was third in floor, rings and high bar.

Welborn, from Grangeville, Idaho, and DeWitt, Spokane, both 17, were seventh (46.9) and ninth (42.325), respectively, in the Class 1 all-around. Welborn was fourth and DeWitt fifth in floor exercise.

Davey, 14, was fourth all-around (35.925) in the Level 10 for 13-14-year-olds, with a second on the bars, third in floor and sixth on beam. Miller, 11, was ninth all-around (35.025) in Level 10 for 9-12s. She was fourth on the floor with fifths on vault and beam.

Sheila Florin, 12, of Northwest Gymnastics Academy was 14th on the vault with an 8.55 in the Level 9 12-13-year-old division at the Region 2 championships.

Basketball

Eastern Washington University will introduce its new men’s basketball coach, Steve Aggers, at a press conference Tuesday at 2 p.m. at Cavanaugh’s Inn at the Park.

The press conference will be in the Audubon and Manito rooms and is open to the public.

Aggers was named last Tuesday to succeed John Wade as the Eagles’ coach and has been taking care of final details at Kansas State, where he has been an assistant, before arriving in town during the weekend.

Also attending will be EWU president Mark Drummond and several Eastern players.

Priest River High standout Kyle York has signed to play at Community Colleges of Spokane.

York averaged 22.5 points last season and earned his second straight Intermountain League most valuable player award. He was also second-team all-state A-2.

College scene

Alana Klaus of Spokane (Gonzaga Prep), a freshman at Florida Atlantic University, has been selected Player of the Year in Trans American Athletic Conference softball.

Klaus, a pitcher, had an 18-10 record with a 1.85 earned-run average. She led the TAAC with an average of 7.7 strikeouts per seven innings, which ranks 15th nationally.

Eric Jacobs, a 1992 graduate of Chewelah High School and a junior at Spring Arbor College in Jackson, Mich., was the NAIA National Pitcher of the Week in baseball for the week of April 2-8.

Jacobs, a transfer from Central College in McPherson, Kan., pitched shutout ball for 13 innings during the week to earn two wins and run his record to 4-0. He allowed just two hits, struck out 20 and walked six. At the time he had a Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference-leading 1.53 ERA.

Todd Kinley of Spokane (Lewis and Clark), a first baseman-outfielder at Wheaton (Ill.) College, is batting .169 with a double, triple and home run among 10 hits and four RBIs. Wheaton was just 4-22 and mired in an eight-game losing skid entering the weekend.

Football

Sandpoint High School is in need of a varsity game this fall. Sandpoint’s open date is Sept. 15. If another school has a similar opening call Sandpoint athletic director Jack Dyck at (208) 263-3034.

Golf

The 57th annual Pacific-10 Conference men’s championships begin with two rounds Monday at Meadow Springs Golf Course in Richland.

Stanford will compete without U.S. Amateur champion Tiger Woods, who suffered a rotator cuff injury at the U.S. Intercollegiates last weekend. With Woods out, senior Notah Begay III leads the secondranked Cardinal. Washington and Washington State tied for ninth last year.

Junior lessons, for youths aged 8-16, are being offered at Beacon Hill Golf Center.

The five-week program will take place each Saturday, starting May 13. The 1-hour sessions are available at 11 a.m., 3 and 4 p.m. Cost for the five weeks is $25.

Pro Jim Henry said the classes will be limited to a maximum of seven golfers, and more classes will be added to accommodate demand. Info: 482-0622.

Miscellany

Tickets are on sale for the lobster dinner-dance that highlights the 14th annual Orland Killin Weekend at Eastern Washington University May 12-13.

Proceeds from the event go toward athletic scholarships and the Orland Killin Academic Scholarship Fund at EWU. Cost of the dinner is $40, which takes place at 4:30 p.m. at Albers Court and Reese Court.

The weekend also includes the eighth annual Coaches Golf Tournament May 12 at 11 a.m. at The Fairways and the annual Red-White football scrimmage May 13 at 2 p.m., followed by a volleyball scrimmage at 3:30. Info: 359-4339.

Tom Richardson, the strength and conditioning coach at Colorado State, has resigned to take the position of athletic director at the Spokane Athletic Club.

Richardson, 38, has been at CSU since 1987, after serving as strength and conditioning coach at the University of Wyoming.

“This is a tremendous opportunity for me in an area of sports administration that I am excited to pursue,” Richardson said. “One of my career objectives remains to continue to expand my role in athletic administration.”

The Spokane Chiefs have promoted Mark Miles to director of ticket sales and Andrew Zorich to account executive.

Miles, 25, from Buffalo, N.Y., was an account executive for the Chiefs during the 1994-95 Western Hockey League season after working in the same capacity for the Spokane Indians baseball team last summer. He’s a 1992 graduate of Brockport State (N.Y.) College.

Zorich, 27, from Richland, was ticket manager for the Chiefs in the just-completed season. He’s a 1994 graduate of Washington State.

Mike Boone is the new president of the Pullman High School Greyhound Booster Club.

Cor van der Meer, soccer coach at Community Colleges of Spokane, was master of ceremonies at the Washington State Youth Soccer Association awards dinner Saturday night in Seattle.

Volleyball

The Inland Empire Volleyball Club of Spokane breezed through the field to win the 40-team U-18 division at the U.S. Volleyball Association Evergreen Regionals last weekend in Bellevue, Wash., to get its entry paid into the club division at the National Junior Olympics July 1-4 in Orlando, Fla.

But Art Lambert, who coaches the team of girls from Eastern Washington and North Idaho, said IEVC has a good chance at earning one of the eight at-large spots that remain open for the elite 32-team open division that will be held at the same time. IEVC placed fourth at an open qualifier in Denver in which the first three teams earned automatic berths.

In the Evergreen Regionals, IEVC needed just 10 games to win five matches, defeating Club Valley of Spokane 15-4, 15-5 in the championship match. Club Valley finished second and Prim Cut of Spokane fifth.

The Rapids of the River City Juniors of Spokane won the U-14 division of USA Volleyball Regional championships last weekend in Spokane to earn a spot in the National Junior Olympics July 4-7 in Orlando.

The team, made up of players from Chase and Sacajawea middle schools and Mead Junior High, is coached by Doug Hurd and Ron Wendle.

Impact of north Spokane was second in the regional.