Ferris Senior Gymnast Selected For National Meet In Michigan

Liz Miller of Ferris has been selected for the Washington state team that will compete in the May 30-June 2 national high school gymnastics championships in Marquette, Mich.

Miller returned to Greater Spokane League competition after a knee injury washed out her 1994-95 season. She finished second all-around at district and regional meets.

The top six seniors from state competition are eligible for the meet. District and regional champion Kim Meyers of University turned down an offer to compete.

Thirty-five states are scheduled to attend the national meet. Kirk Knestis and Laurene Johnson are Washington’s co-coaches.

Bicycle racing

Spokane’s mother-daughter team, Brenda and Stevie Marie Gildehaus, has started out strongly this year.

Brenda, 29, won her first two national championships in January at the American Bicycle Association Silver Dollar Nationals in Reno, Nev. Stevie, 4, was fourth in her class. The finishes helped Brenda finish second nationally for 1995. Stevie wound up fourth.

Then in the Lumberjack BMX Nationals in Olympia last month, Brenda had two first-place finishes and Stevie two thirds.

College scene

Joel Murphy of Spokane (Northwest Christian) is a freshman outfielder on the baseball team at Western Baptist College, an NAIA school in Salem, Ore., that plays in the Cascade League.

Phil Autrey of Spokane (University High) and Josh Howery of Coeur d’Alene are members of the George Fox College men’s track team.

Autrey, a middle-distance runner, runs the second leg on the Bruins’ 1,600-meter relay. Howery, a sophomore sprinter, leads off the 400-meter relay for the Newberg, Ore., school.

Football

Scott Squires, a 1983 graduate of Mead High School and the son of a longtime former area coach, is the new football coach at Cal Lutheran University.

Squires, 31, whose father, Daryl, coached at Whitworth College and Rogers High School, returns to the Thousand Oaks, Calif., school for a third time. He has twice been an assistant at the NCAA Division III school, and was an assistant at Nevada-Las Vegas last season.

Golf

The Creek at Qualchan 18-hole ladies club will open the season April 1 with breakfast and registrations at 8 a.m. Tee times start at 9:30. Please RSVP by March 26 with Genny Knorr at 926-9467.

Indian Canyon’s 18-hole women’s club will conduct its season-opening meeting March 27 at 9 a.m. in the clubhouse. Nancy Love is club president.

Hydroplanes

The 1996 Budweiser Columbia Cup unlimited hydroplane race is scheduled for July 26-28 off Columbia Park in the Tri-Cities. Tickets will go on sale the first week in July. Info: (509) 547-2203.

Skiing

Cody Smith became the first Spokane native to win the overall title for 17-18 year-olds in the USSA Junior Olympics for Alpine ski racing in Big Mountain, Mont., on March 9-13.

Smith, a senior at North Central High, took third in the downhill, second in the slalom, second in the super-G, and sixth in the giant slalom.

Also from Spokane, Jamin Patton, a senior at Ferris, was fifth in the slalom in the same age group. In the giant slalom, Heath Petersen of Post Falls edged Schweitzer Alpine Racing School teammate Jamie Landwehr of Coeur d’Alene by .17 seconds for third place.

Soccer

A-League champion Seattle will help the Spokane Shadow launch a 22-match season when the Sounders visit the Spokane Falls Community College Stadium April 20 at 7 p.m.

Last year, before the Shadow’s largest home crowd, 4,000, the Sounders won, 3-2.

Season tickets and six-game packages for the Shadow, who play in the Western Premier Division of the minor league USISL, are on sale at the Shadow office, 535-8000. Individual game tickets go on sale in early April.

Wrestling

The Medical Lake Mat Maulers are expecting 1,000 wrestlers ages 5-14 for the Jason Crawford Memorial Tournament next Saturday in the Eastern Washington University pavilion in Cheney.

Wrestling begins at 10 a.m. Admission is $1.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo