Locally

Bob Lobdell named to ref’s hall of fame

Bob Lobdell, a fixture at Lewis and Clark High School for the better part of 40-plus years, has a new niche: The Northwest Women’s Collegiate Basketball Officials Hall of Fame.

Lobdell, an All-City basketball guard at LC as a student in the 1960s who would come back to teach and coach golf at the school before retiring in 2002, is one of two inductees in the Class of 2004. The other is Toni Turnbull from Seattle.

Lobdell officiated at both the high school and collegiate levels, working the latter from 1974-97. He officiated in the Pacific-10 and it’s predecessor, the Pac-8, the Big Sky and West Coast conferences, as well as small-college conferences.

He also worked Washington state high school tournaments 16 consecutive years.

He resides in Spokane and mentors young basketball officials and is an observer for the West Coast Conference.

Baseball

Two Spokane eighth-graders, Chris Powers and Riley Tubbs, have been selected to play for the Rijo Athletic Junior Olympic team in the J.O. West Championships June 18-26 in the Phoenix, Ariz., area.

Players for the U.S. Junior Olympic team will come from that 72-team tournament and one in the east at the same time.

College scene

Gonzaga University senior rower Kristi Aamodt was named to the Academic All-America District VIII at-large team as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America.

Aamodt, the second GU rower to gain that honor, and the first first-team selection, has a 3.88 grade-point average in public relations. She is one of 10 from the Western U.S. and British Columbia named to the team.

She’s also one of eight from GU honored on West Coast Conference all-academic teams for the spring. Four are from rowing.

Also honored:

Rowing – Kari Durgan, sophomore, 3.80 GPA, English major; Karen O’Hagan, junior, 3.57, engineering; and Courtney Serpa, senior, 3.41, philosophy.

Baseball – John Gonzalez, sr., 3.80, physical eduction.

Men’s tennis – Bryce Cooper, so., 3.41, accounting.

Women’s golf – Erin Picht, sr., 3.21, business; and Kelsey Posedel, sr., 3.63, marketing.

• Two Whitworth swimmers, Cory Bergman and Serena Fadel, were selected to CoSIDA Academic All-District VIII College Division at-large teams for a second straight year.

Bergman, a junior from Bellingham, has a 3.97 GPA in biology. Fadel, a junior from Boise, has a 3.921 GPA in biochemistry.

Ten men and 10 women were selected from small colleges in the Western U.S. and British Columbia to receive the honor.

• Kathleen Nygaard from basketball and Kyler Randall from football were named Big Sky Conference 2004 Scholar Athlete Award winners from Eastern Washington University.

• Fifteen Washington State University student-athletes were named to Pacific-10 Conference all-academic teams for the spring.

Heading the list is Collin Henderson, who received his sixth such Pac-10 honor while maintaining a 4.0 GPA working on his masters degree in athletic administration. He earned three of the honors in baseball and three in football.

Others honored:

Baseball: First team – Brett Beetham, sr., 3.78, political science; Brandon Reddinger, sr., 3.71. biology (his third first-team honor). Honorable mention – Garrett Alwert, sr., 3.09, management information systems; Zach Franklin, so., 3.01, zoology; and Jay Miller, so., 3.20.

Women’s tennis: First team – Lorena Arias, sr., 3.58, communications (her second first-team honor). Honorable mention – Chris Martinez, jr., 3.04, international business; Zsofia Fodor, jr., 3.29, undeclared; and Nora Gaal, jr., 3.32, international business.

Women’s golf: First team – Maria Kostina, jr., 3.94, psychology. Second team – Jay-Lee Longbottom, jr., 3.72, psychology. Honorable mention – Stephanie Parsley, so.; and Kim Welch, jr.

Men’s golf: First team – Jordan Madison, redshirt fr., 3.95, undeclared.

• Drew Piston, a Carleton College junior from Lewis and Clark, was named to the All-Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference first team in tennis for the second time in his three years at the Northfield, Minn., school.

Piston, also honored as a freshman, was an all-conference choice at third doubles, where he had a 6-0 record in MIAC matches and a 12-1 overall record. He finished the season with an 18-3 overall record in doubles and a 14-5 mark in singles.

• Eastern Washington teams finished sixth in the Big Sky Conference All-Sports Trophy competition for 2003-04.

The EWU women had 63 points. Weber State won a fourth straight women’s All-Sports Trophy with 92. Eastern’s men had 47 behind winning Northern Arizona’s 76.

Eastern led the academic portion of the award criteria for the Presidents Cup following fall terms. Spring grades have yet to be posted, after which the Presidents Cup will be awarded.

• Idaho improved to a best-ever third-place finish in the Big West Conference Commissioner’s Cup standings.

UI, fourth a year ago for its best previous finish, had 110 points. UC Santa Barbara won the cup for the fourth consecutive year with 138.1.

Softball

Less than two weeks remain before the women’s United States Olympic team plays an exhibition doubleheader at Franklin Park.

Coach Mike Candrea has promised local officials that fans will see all four of his pitchers, Lisa Fernandez, Jennie Finch, Cat Osterman and Lori Harrigan.

They’ll pitch against a team of local all-stars, most of them collegians, June 12 beginning at 5 p.m. Hallmark Automotive Group, 8801 E. Sprague (922-1450) in Spokane Valley, is the major sponsor and one of three ticket outlets.

Advance tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for students and seniors 60 and older. Ages 6 and under get in free. Tickets will be $15 for adults, $10 for students and seniors at the gate.

Other ticket outlets are Cuda Apparel-Viper Sportswear, 2015 N. Division (325-0135) and the softball office at Franklin Park (483-4653). Spokane Amateur Softball Association officials are hoping for an attendance of 2,500.

U.S. women’s softball teams have won seven world championships, six Pan American Games titles and the last two Olympics. Their international record is 185-16.

• Jessie LaPlante, a senior from Lakeland High School in Rathdrum, has signed to play at Community Colleges of Spokane.

LaPlante, the Intermountain League MVP this spring, had an 18-3 record and 0.11 ERA. She averaged 13.3 strikeouts and .96 walks a game. For her four-year varsity career, LaPlante had a 53-9-1 record, 0.28 ERA with 12.38 strikeouts and .97 walks per game.