Former Mead Soccer Star Lands On Academic All-District Team

For a second straight year, Jake Schmidt, senior goalkeeper on the Muhlenberg College men’s soccer team from Spokane (Mead), has been named to the GTE College Division Academic All-District II at-large team.

Schmidt, an economics major, has a 3.732 grade-point average. The district team was selected from athletes in 10 fall and winter sports from NCAA Division II and III and NAIA colleges.

Schmidt, a candidate for Academic All-America honors, was a first-team All-Centennial Conference and second-team All-Mid Atlantic Region keeper for the Allentown, Pa., school.

Academic honors

The Gonzaga Prep boys basketball team and Ferris girls gymnastics team are among seven Inland Empire schools to win WIAA Winter Academic State Championships.

The G-Prep boys have a 3.584 grade point average and the Ferris gymnasts a 3.720 GPA to claim AAA titles.

Other area winners: Class A-Colfax wrestling, 3.33. Class B-Liberty boys basketball, 3.675; Wilbur-Creston girls basketball, 3.90; Odessa cheerleaders, 3.50; and Liberty music, 3.43.

The University boys and Mead girls were academic award winners among the teams participating in the Lamb Weston AAA Regional Basketball Tournament this month. U-Hi had a 3.519 GPA and Mead a 3.663.

Lamb Weston donates $500 to the Greater Spokane League in the schools’ names for its scholarship program.

Ten University of Idaho indoor track and field athletes were chosen to the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation’s all-academic team.

Honored were: Dan Bartosz, Frank Bruder, Tawanda Chiwira, Eric Fredericksen, Jesse Harwell, Geoff Judd, Chris Karchesky, Matt McDonald, Mike Rusca and Bernd Schroeder.

Baseball

The Inland Northwest Men’s Baseball League, which has divisions for players ages 19 and older and 30 and older, will conduct two clinics and tryouts the first two Saturdays in April at Seafirst Stadium.

Clinics will run from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. April 5 and 12. Fee is $5. From 1-3 p.m., there will be a tryout for players 19 and older, followed from 3-5 for those 30 and older.

Info: (509) 990-3900; (208) 699-2900.

Basketball

Spokane teams brought back one championship, three second-place trophies and one for seventh from the 19th annual Inland Empire AAU Grade-Level Boys Basketball Championships in Yakima last weekend.

The Spokane Roughriders beat the Boise Capitals 45-27 for the seventh-grade title. Team members: Kenny Florence, Jade Webley, Todd Reed, Ryan Hite, Joel Knigge, Jake Depell, Jaymie Steck, Aaron Grant, Kyle Jones and Don Turner.

Runner-up finishers: Spokane Super 7, 33-31 victims of NBC Thunder II, fourth-grade; Above the Rim, 47-40 losers to Team 5 of Walla Walla, fifth grade; and Spokane Knights, beaten 31-28 by Walla Walla Blues, sixth-grade. Spokane Storm was seventh and the Colfax Bulldogs sixth in the sixth-grade division.

Bowling

It was a huge night in the Mixed 5 League at Lilac Lanes on March 10.

Steve Toland, in his 23rd year of bowling, and Chad Price, 16, in his first year of adult bowling, both had their first perfect games to highlight 694 series.

That same night, Mel Foster, who has a 206 average, fashioned an 805 three-game series (278, 259, 268).

College scene

Brian Guastella, of Spokane (Gonzaga Prep), a junior forward on the Hamilton College hockey team, had nine goals and 10 assists to tie for sixth in team scoring.

The Continentals from Clinton, N.Y., had a school-record in wins during a 19-6-1 season that saw them ranked No. 1 nationally in NCAA Division III after a 9-0 start. Hamilton was knocked out of the conference playoffs in the semifinals.

Zach Ham of Spokane, a left wing-center on the Bowling Green University hockey team, had five goals and five assists in 35 games for the 17-15-5 Falcons.

Heather Harmon and Aimee Aldendorf, North Idaho College freshmen from Spokane (West Valley), placed at the NJCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships.

Harmon was fourth in the mile (5:20.34) and Aldendorf fifth in the shot put (41-2).

Other NIC placers: Derek Woodske and Jason Kessinger, second and fourth, 35-pound weight; and Amber Sielaff, first 20-pound weight.

Darren Slackman of Washington, a senior from Spokane (Mead), was in a four-way tie for first at even-par 144 to lead the Huskies to the team title at the Oregon Duck Invitational golf tournament in Eugene.

Doug Clark, a freshman pitcher on the Northwest Missouri State baseball team from Cheney, has a 2-0 record with a 3.09 ERA.

Former Coeur d’Alene High standout Eric Wallace, a sophomore on the Ricks College baseball team, is batting .389 with 15 RBIs, three home runs and leads the team in runs scored. He played two seasons ago at Ricks before serving a Mormon mission.

Carla Warrington, a 1996 Cheney graduate, has earned the starting left-field job on the Iowa Wesleyan College softball team.

Gymnastics

Twelve boys from Spokane qualified for the regional championships April 10-13 in Anchorage, Alaska, with their finishes at the Washington State Men’s Gymnastics Championships last weekend in Bellevue, Wash.

Northwest Gymnastics Academy, which won the Level IV team title, will be represented by eight - Brian Velategui, Matthew Croskrey, Stewart Renz, Steven Dunn, Nick Antich, Dillon Reeve, Paul Hannibal and Aaron Sheck.

The other four come from Lilac City Gymnastics - Kevin Olson, Isaac Olson, David Baum and Justin Parks.

NWGA had a 2-3-4 finish in Level IV (ages 12 and over) all-around. Antich, unbeaten in floor exercise this season, was second; Velategui, who won the parallel bars, was third; and Dunn, rings winner, fourth.

Other 1-2 NWGA finishers: Renz, Level IV (ages 10-11), first vault, second pommel horse, second all-around; Lane Morgan, Level VI (7-9), first high bar; Hannibal, Level VI (10-11), first floor exercise, second vault; Reeve, Level II, second pommel horse.

Kevin Olson won the Level IV all-around for a third straight year and Isaac Olson won Level 5 for the second straight year. Baum swept Level 5 all-around for his age group. Parks had a first in floor exercise and second in high bar. LCG’s Andrew Smith tied for second on pommel horse in Level VI.

Track and field

A “learn-by-doing” clinic for athletes and coaches from elementary through high school will be held at Ferris High School on April 5 from 8:30-11:30 a.m.

Cost is $15, which will include a T-shirt.

Info: Arnie Tyler Jr., (509) 466-5801 or (509) 459-3792.

Trap shoot

Twenty high schools from Washington are expected for the Spangle Future Farmers of America trap and skeet meet Saturday at the Spangle Gun Club at 10 a.m. The club is 1-1/2 miles north of Spangle on Highway 195.

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