Idaho Men Win Relay Minus Star

Colleges

The University of Idaho men defended their 400-meter relay title Saturday at the Big Sky Conference outdoor track and field championships at Sun Angel Stadium at Tempe, Ariz.

The Vandals competed without their strongest leg, Niels Kruller, who suffered a hamstring injury during Friday’s 100 preliminaries. Still, Idaho ran a season-best 40.36 seconds for its ninth conference title in the event.

Kruller’s injury and Jason St. Hill’s false start in the 200 on Friday hurt Idaho’s chances to repeat as team champion. The Vandals had 40 points through seven events, nine behind Northern Arizona.

Eastern Washington won the women’s 400 relay in 46.53. And the Eagles’ Les Timm won the men’s hammer throw with a personal-best 191 feet, 2 inches on his last throw.

Through eight events, the EWU women were seventh with 17 points and the Idaho women were eighth and last with three.

In other events, Montana State’s Katie McGee won her second distance title. McGee, who won the 10,000 on Friday, ran the 5,000 in 17:31.96 seconds to win easily over Weber State’s Nikki Prisbrey.

Meanwhile, Boise State’s Niamh Beirne cruised to victory in the 1,500, capturing the metric mile for women with a time of 4:27.52. It was about 3-1/2 seconds better than Idaho State’s Gretchen Carr.

North Idaho College discus throwers set personal records and placed at the NJCAA championships at Odessa, Texas, where temperatures reached 100 degrees.

Travis Coddington set a school record of 169-7 in the men’s discus and placed fifth. Stacey Cline’s 143-2 was good for fourth in the women’s discus.

Also for the Cardinals, Beau Bonner placed eighth in the men’s 400 hurdles and Kristin Schermerhorn ran 19:17.24 for ninth in the women’s 5,000.

James Ballard of Barton County (Kan.) set a meet record of 7-5 in the men’s high jump.

Softball

Most valuable player Brenda Ruppel pitched a seven-hitter to lead Clackamas over host Community Colleges of Spokane 4-1 for the NWAACC softball tournament championship at Spokane Falls CC.

Ruppel went 3-0 during the two-day tourney, striking out 22 in 19 innings and fashioning a 1.22 earned-run average.

Clackamas finished the tourney 4-0. The Cougars opened the day by beating Edmonds 2-1 on Ruppel’s five-hitter.

The host Sasquatch (38-10) eliminated Walla Walla 2-0 to open the day, then ousted Edmonds 1-0 to advance to the championship. CCS needed to stop Clackamas twice for the title.

Julie Fountain pitched a five-hitter, and Kelly Kinder and Barbara Cossette drove in runs in CCS’ win over WWCC. Laura Schwarz pitched a complete-game three-hitter and Traci Moore scored in the ninth as CCS beat Edmonds.

Cossette, Fountain, Schwarz and Moore were named to the 13-member all-tournament team.

CCS 2, Walla Walla 0

Spokane 000 100 1 - 2 9 1

WW 000 000 0 - 0 5 2

Fountain and Lawler; Carpenter and Sapp. W-Fountain. L-Carpenter.

HITS: CCS Moore 2, Fountain 2, Meddock 2, Fine, Hedbum, Cossette. Walla Walla - Coles, Whitney, Hogle 1, Alvarado.

CCS 1, Edmonds 0

Edmonds 000 000 000 - 0 3 1

CCS 000 000 001 - 1 6 1

Werder and Hanke; Schwartz and Lawler. W-Schwartz. L-Werder.

HITS: Edmonds - Paul, Ahlers, Bennyhoff. CCS Moore 2, Cossette 2, Fountain, Meddock. 2B-Cossette.

Clackamas 4, CCS 1

CCS 100 000 0 - 1 7 1

Clackamas 013 000 x - 4 7 0

Schwartz, Fountain (3) and Lawler; Ruppel and Whitton. W-Ruppel. L-Schwartz.

HITS: CCS Fine 2, Moore, Risinger, Meddock, Cossette, Hedbum. Clackamas - Voil, Scott, Menzia, Haselwood 2, Demos, Ruppel. 2B-Risinger.

Baseball

Right-hander Scott Henderson (8-1) pitched seven strong innings to lead Southern California to a 5-0 win over Washington in Los Angeles, giving the Trojans (41-14-1) their second consecutive Pacific-10 Conference championship.

The Trojans earned the league’s automatic berth to the NCAA Regional playoffs. The Huskies (30-28), the league’s North Division champion, lost the best-of-three playoff 2-1.

Marc Mirizzi had a two-run double in USC’s second off Blair Fowler (3-4).

Tennis

Shyla Gordon won her No. 1 singles match and teamed with Susan Scheckells to win at No. 1 doubles as CCS opened competition at the NWAACC championships in Yakima.

Also winning for CCS was Heather Adams, 7-5, 6-1 over Shoreline’s Sandra Lester in No. 3 singles.

, DataTimes