Eldridge Breaks New Ground For WSU Swimming

Washington State’s Erin Eldridge has become the school’s first swimmer to qualify for the NCAA national championships.

At last week’s Pac-10 championships, she posted NCAA optional times in the 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke. Both times held up when the field for the NCAA Division I women’s swimming championships was announced Thursday.

Eldridge, from Kirkland, posted her 100-yard qualifying time, 1 minute, 3.28 seconds, in a preliminary at the Pac-10 meet. In the 200, her qualifying time of 2:17.28 came in the final, where she placed fourth.

She is ranked 25th nationally in both events.

Washington State has competed in women’s swimming for 21 years.

At the NAIA swimming and diving championships in Federal Way, Whitworth is tied for third in the men’s team standings and is alone in fourth in the women’s team standings.

Freshman Brian Rice led 200 individual medley qualifiers with a time of 1:54.52 seconds, but slipped to third in the final.

Sophomore Ben Swinehart had the best preliminary time in the 500 freestyle, 4:40.93. He entered the meet ranked third in the event.

Whitworth’s Erin Kay (2:12.77) finished fifth in the women’s 200 individual medley.

In relays, Whitworth was sixth in the men’s 400 medley and the Pirates were seventh in the women’s 400 medley.

Track and field

University of Idaho 400-meters standout Tawanda Chiwira will miss the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships after breaking his right ankle last weekend at the USA track and field championships in Atlanta.

Chiwira broke the ankle halfway through his part of the 4x400 meter relay. He managed to finish the race, helping his team set a school record of 3 minutes, 06.38 seconds, third-fastest in the United States this year and an automatic NCAA qualifying time. Curtis Kunkel will take Chiwira’s place at the NCAAs, March 13-14 in Indianapolis. He’ll join Jason St. Hill, Felix Kamangirira and Adekunle Adejuyigbe on the 4x400 team.

Chiwira also qualified for the indoor championships in the 400 meters with an Idaho-record 45.83, .02 seconds off the fastest time in the U.S. this year.

Baseball

Washington State used a 13-hit attack to defeat Lewis-Clark State 11-2 in first-round play at the UNLV Coors Desert Classic at Cashman Field in Las Vegas.

Washington State (6-4) starter Wade Parrish (3-0) kept LCSC (8-3) in check, allowing one run over seven innings. Parrish gave up six Warrior hits and struck out four while improving his team-leading ERA to 2.48. Sophomore Les McTavish threw the last two innings in relief, allowing one hit and one unearned run.

Shortstop Shawn Stevenson led the way for WSU at the plate with a 3-for-5 day. With a third-inning single, Stevenson extended his school record hitting streak to 28 games.

Idaho state basketball

In the A-1 boys tournament in Nampa, Coeur d’Alene advanced to the semifinals with a 75-60 victory over Capital. Casey Hoorelbeke led the way with 26 points.

St. Maries defeated Sugar-Salem 54-51 in the opening game of the A-2 boys basketball tournament in Meridian. The winning score came on a 3-pointer by D. J. Eberlin with 3 seconds left.

Lakeside and Clark Fork were eliminated from the A-3 tournament in Caldwell. Notus defeated Lakeside 63-60 and Deary stopped Clark Fork 72-56.

, DataTimes