Thibault earns WCC honor

Gonzaga University sophomore catcher Kiel Thibault was named the West Coast Conference player of the year on Thursday as the conference released its 2004 All-Conference team.

In addition to Thibault, four other Bulldogs earned All-WCC recognition with two on the first team and two on the second team.

Joining Thibault on the first team were sophomore third baseman Bobby Carlson and senior designated hitter Marshall Bratton.

Carlson hit .362 with a conference-high 15 doubles and team-leading eight home runs.

Bratton drove in 27 runs with six doubles and three homers and hit .302.

Pitcher Eric Dworkis and outfielder David Johnson were named to the second team.

Thibault becomes the second Gonzaga player to win the Player of the Year award, joining 2002 selectee Nate Gold.

Thibault finished the season with a .424 batting average to win the West Coast Conference batting title while hitting .432 in league play.

In other WCC awards, Stephen Kahn of Loyola Marymount was named pitcher of the year, Jordan Abruzzo of San Diego was freshman of the year and Frank Cruz of Loyola Marymount won coach of the year.

Gonzaga finished the regular-season with a 24-27 record.

•Owen Williams pitched a two-hitter with six strikeouts and no walks to lead Edmonds Community College to a 4-0 win over Community Colleges of Spokane in opening-round play at the NWAACC Championships in Pasco.

Tim Miller had both Spokane hits.

CCS will play Lower Columbia at 9:30 this morning in a loser-out game.

Track and field

Kevin Hatch and Freeman are off to another good start.

The Scotties’ junior repeated as 1A pole vault champion Thursday at the State 2A/1A/B track and field championships at Eastern Washington University, and with teammate Conor Sayres tucked behind him in second place Freeman got an 18-point jump on a second straight boys team title.

Hatch cleared 14 feet, 9 inches to win the title — a lifetime best by more than 6 inches — while Sayres upped his best by 3 inches to 14-3. Hatch is also among the favorites in the long, triple and high jumps.

Also in the 1A ranks, Tommy Wyatt of Charles Wright won another stirring duel in the 1,600 meters with Northwest Christian’s Steve Vandenburg — both runners breaking the meet record of 4 minutes, 15.6 seconds. Vandenburg, who came in second to Wyatt by four seconds a year ago, cut that gap in half, running 4:14.75 to Wyatt’s 4:12.38.

In the 2A boys 1,600, Washington State-bound Phil Hinrichs of Pullman ran to an easy victory in 4:19.17 — nearly 8 seconds ahead of Saul Hansen of Riverside. Mac McGrath of Kittitas won the B race in 4:26.31.

Underclass runners dominated the girls 3,200 races — freshman Cydney Knight of Connell winning the 2A (11:21.78), sophomore Jane Larson of Cedar Park Christian the 1A (11:30.27) and junior Janel Sislow of DeSales the B (11:58.18).

Tennis

University of Washington’s run at the NCAA Individual Men’s Tennis Championships at Tulsa, Okla., ended when Alex Vlaski and Alex Slovic were beaten in singles and Vlaski and Daniel Chu lost in doubles.