San Jose State Inducts Thomas
REPLAY: Sports, November 22, 1999, page C3: Claudia Thomas was recently inducted into the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame. A headline on page C2 of Sunday’s edition incorrectly identified the hall of fame.
They rolled back the clock for Claudia Thomas Nov. 4 in San Jose, Calif. It had to be a part of her past the longtime athletic director at St. George’s was happy to relive.
Thomas, who as Claudia Kolb became the first American woman swimmer to win an Olympic medal in the breaststroke, was inducted that night into the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame.
A Santa Clara, Calif., Swim Club star from age 8 through her Olympic career, Thomas was 14 years old when she won the silver medal in the 200-meter breaststroke at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo.
Her signature event, however, was the individual medley, in which she set several world records and won eight of her 12 national championships. She swept both individual medley races at the ‘68 Olympics, finishing the 400-meter event 13.7 seconds ahead of her nearest opponent.
Baseball
The annual Eastern Washington University Holiday Camp, for players from seventh grade through junior college, will be Dec. 27-30 in Cheney.
Cost is $250 if attending as a resident, $185 for commuters. There’s a $10 discount if five or more campers register together.
Info: Jim Wasem, camp director, 235-5139.
Bowling
Since returning to bowling six years ago after a four-year hiatus, Kristie Auckerman said she felt the going has been slow trying to make her mark.
It speeded up considerably Thursday night.
Bowling in the Classic Scratch League at Valley Bowl, Auckerman, 29, recorded her first 300. She carried a 204 average last year after averaging 208 the season before.
In a thrilling finish, Chad Demmitt emerged as champion of the Junior Bowlers Tour on Nov. 7 at Colonial Bowl.
Demmitt, who qualified second, had to go two extra frames to defeat hard-charging Cory Hultquist before besting top qualifier Eric Morasch 213-194 in the title match.
Hultquist finished third after defeating Matt Descoteaux (fifth) and Steven Riegel (fourth).
Demmitt had high game for the boys, a 279, while Mandy Christensen led the girls with a 233.
Next JBT is Dec. 5 at Players & Spectators.
Members of the Spokane Bowling Association raised $3,506 for the Bowlers to Veterans Link (BVL) during a drive Nov. 7-13. The money will go to the Spokane Veterans Hospital.
College scene
Two sophomores whose steadiness made them team leaders were named athletes of the month for October at Community Colleges of Spokane.
Christine Rehwald of Ferris, a soccer midfielder, is the female winner. She is team captain after earning all-conference honors as a freshman. Her strength has been as a playmaker and earned her all-tournament honors at the Frasier Valley Tournament in Chilliwack, British Columbia.
Rehwald also was honored as a conference scholar-athlete with a 3.73 grade-point average.
Ernesto Espinoza, a cross country runner from Ellensburg, was the male selection for his marked improvement from 1998. He lowered his personal best time by 2 minutes for 8K to 26:01 and was consistently a top-five finisher for the Sasquatch. He was the first CCS runner in the Crystal Springs Invitational in San Francisco. In last weekend’s conference meet, Espinoza placed 17th, clocking 27:06.
Washington State placed four placers on the Pacific-10 Conference All-Academic football team and four others on honorable mention.
First-teamers are linebackers Grady Emmerson (3.29 GPA, math education), Steve Gleason of Gonzaga Prep (3.20, management and information systems) and Serign Marong (3.61, biology) and placekicker Rian Lindell (3.13, biology). Emmerson and Gleason are repeaters, and are seniors, as is Lindell. Marong is a sophomore.
Honorable mention went to quarterbacks Steve Birnbaum, a senior; Jason Gesser, freshman; Paul Mencke junior; and running back Adam Hawkins, junior.
Three Whitworth Pirates and a Lewis and Clark High School graduate were named to the GTE All-District VIII All-Academic College Division football team.
Pirates are senior offensive lineman Jason Ross, (3.58 GPA, elementary education); junior wide receiver Ty McGregor (3.46, elementary ed) and junior defensive lineman Sky Blake (3.43, elementary ed).
Also named was Pacific Lutheran senior offensive lineman Andrew Finstuen of LC (3.79, history).
Giorgio Usai of Spokane (Central Valley), in his first season at Western Washington, was named to the Columbia Football Association All-Conference first team.
Usai, a 5-foot-7 junior running back, was an offensive selection.
Western Oregon’s Corey Sutton, a senior defensive back from Dayton, is the defensive player of the year.
Washington State’s Jason Grove has been named to the second team on the preseason All-America team selected by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.
The junior outfielder/pitcher is the first Cougar to earn a preseason All-American award since the 1991 season when current major leaguers Scott Hatteberg (Boston Red Sox) and Aaron Sele (Texas Rangers) were selected.
As a sophomore, Grove hit .393 with 10 doubles, one triple and 61 RBIs despite being sidelined more than a month with a broken thumb.
Olivia Sementi, a junior outside hitter, and her Wellesley College volleyball team won the NCAA Division III New England Regional Championship and advanced to the elite eight for the third straight year.
Sementi graduated from Lake City High School in Coeur d’Alene and is an alumnus of Art Lambert’s Inland Empire Volleyball Club.
Eastern Washington setter Kim Maxwell has added another honor. She was named to the GTE Academic All-District VIII second team in volleyball as selected by College Sports Information Directors of America.
This is the second consecutive year Maxwell, a senior from Calgary, Alberta, has earned a GTE Academic all-district honor. Last year, she was a first-team pick.
Pacific Lutheran senior setter Ingrid Lindeblad from Spokane (Lewis and Clark) has been named to the GTE All-District VIII College Division All-Academic team for a second consecutive year.
She has a 3.91 GPA in English.
Dawn Trowbridge of Spokane (St. George’s) finished her volleyball career at Middlebury (Vt.) College in a manner to which the Panthers had become accustomed.
A senior tri-captain, Trowbridge had 10 kills and 17 digs as Middlebury won its quarterfinal match in the ECAC Division III Tournament over Williams, and 11 kills and 17 digs in a semifinal loss to top-seeded Bates. Middlebury finished 22-8.
Mindy Wallis of Mead, a setter on the Concordia University volleyball team in Portland, was named freshman of the year in the NAIA Cascade Conference.
Wallis, also first-team all-conference, was named player of the week four times in helping lead Concordia to first place in the conference. Concordia went into the conference tournament this weekend ranked 17th nationally.
Former Reardan standout Katie Supinger had 12 digs and four blocks to help Colorado College, ranked 13th nationally in Division III, win four matches without losing a game to sweep to the volleyball title in the school’s Spike it up Classic.
Regis University junior Danielle Thorn of Gonzaga Prep is one of five members of the school’s women’s soccer team named to the All-Rocky Mountain Conference first team.
It’s the third straight year on the all-conference team for Thorn.
The Rangers went 14-5-1, the best win percentage in school history, and a second-place finish in the RMAC.
Deka DeWitt of Auburn, Wash., Washington State’s leading soccer scorer, was selected to the All-Pac-10 Conference second team.
DeWitt led the Cougars (7-12-0) in both goals (10) and assists (8), while raising her career goal total to 28, second best in school history.
Cascade Conference champion Eastern Oregon University had two Spokane area products in their women’s lineup at the NAIA Cross Country Championships on Saturday in Kenosha, Wis., Angie Simmers of East Valley and Lindsey McElroy Ulrich of Lakeside of Nine Mile. Both also ran for Community Colleges of Spokane.
Two Coeur d’Alene products, Kyle Sexton, a senior backstroke/butterfly specialist, and Lindsay Taggart, a junior butterfly specialist, are members of the University of Puget Sound men’s and women’s swimming teams.
Golf
Ryan Camp of Spokane is one of three high school seniors who have returned national letter of intent to play golf at Washington State.
Also signing were Isaac Woods of Enumclaw, Wash., and Emily De Ath of Henderson, Nev. All are honor students with 3.5 or better GPAs.
Camp, a senior at Ferris, placed 10th at the state championships in 1999. He also played on the American Junior Golf Association tour during the summer, placing in the top 10 in four of eight events and in the top 25 in two others. He was ninth at the United States Junior Amateur Championship and was the Washington Junior Golf Association points leader, representing Washington in the Boys Junior Americas Cup, where the state team prevailed in a field of 16 teams.
Woods has been the South Puget Sound League’s most valuable player the last two seasons and holds the course record at Enumclaw with an 11-under 61 shot in 1998. De Ath, who plays for one of the top girls high school teams in the nation, has won more than 30 tournaments, including the Nevada 4A state title in 1998.
The University of Washington has signed several golfers to letters of intent for 2000, including two Greater Spokane League stars, Corey Prugh of Ferris and Dan Porter from Gonzaga Prep.
Prugh, ranked among the top 50 high school golfers in the country, is an American Junior Golf Association All-American. He was the 1999 State 4A champion and won two major summer tournaments.
Porter, a junior All-American from Coeur d’Alene, was 4A runner-up to Prugh and had several strong showings in summer tournaments, including a second and a third.
Hockey
Kim Mitchell’s goal in overtime gave the Spokane Storm women’s team a 2-1 victory over the San Diego Heartbreakers for the championship of the Senior Women’s AA Tier II Division last weekend in the November Icebreaker Tournament in Burnaby, British Columbia.
The Spokane River Rats placed fifth in their pool in the Senior Rec Division and Play It Again Sports, with players from throughout the Inland Northwest, placed fourth in its pool in the Senior Rec Division.
Senior Games
Dates have been set for the 2000 Washington State Senior Games, which are scheduled for Spokane Aug. 10-13.
The event for participants 50 and older will include several sports and activities. There will also be a fitness festival Aug. 5 with demonstrations and hands-on lessons.
Info: Toni Nersesian, 465-9043.
Track and field
Dori Robertson of Chattaroy, track coach at West Valley High School, is the women’s team leader for the USA Track & Field squad that will compete in the Hanji Aoki Cup ‘99 International Chiba Ekiden on Tuesday in Chiba, Japan.
The event, in both men’s and women’s divisions, is a distance relay, with the women running six legs from 4.767km to 10km.