Pac-10 tabs Coug punter for honor
Washington State punter Kyle Basler, who set two school records Saturday in the Cougars’ 20-19 Pac-10-opening football win at Arizona, is the Pacific-10 Conference special teams player of the week.
Basler punted seven times for a school-record average of 53.4 yards per punt, eclipsing the mark of 52 yards set by Jason Hanson against Wyoming in 1990.
The highlight was a record 87-yard punt in the fourth quarter. From the WSU end zone, the ball sailed in the air, landing at the Arizona 18, then rolled the final five yards into the end zone for a total distance of 100 yards. The WSU record had been 83 yards by Gavin Hedrick against California in 1975. The Pac-10 record is 89 yards.
Basler has a 46.1-yard season average.
• Darius Washington’s first 100-yard rushing game for Eastern Washington was more than double that and earned the Eagles’ senior offensive player of the week honors in the Big Sky Conference.
He broke out for 228 yards and four touchdowns on 33 carries, the seventh-best rushing performance in school history, in the Eagles’ 47-22 win over Idaho State in Cheney. His previous high had been 92 yard a week earlier against Central Washington.
It is the third highest single-game total among I-AA schools this season and raised his season average to 116.8 yards per game, first in the Big Sky and 11th in I-AA.
Whitworth induction Saturday
Whitworth College will induct two former athletes and a highly successful team as the Class of 2004 into its Heritage Gallery Hall of Fame on Saturday.
Football All-American Wayne Buchert and basketball All-American Nate Dunham will join the 1965 men’s cross country team as this year’s class.
A halfback, Buchert, who died in December of 1988 from bone cancer, was one of two Pirates named to the NAIA All-America first team in 1954 after his senior season when he led the Pirates to an 8-0 record.
Dunham concluded his Whitworth career as the final NAIA basketball All-American in school history. He scored 1,551 points, grabbed 678 rebounds and made 61.2 percent of his shots from the field, still a Whitworth record, in his career.
As a senior, Dunham led the Pirates to a 26-5 record, an NWC championship and to the brink of the NAIA Division II national championships.
The ‘65 men’s cross country team remains one of the most successful teams in Pirates athletics history in any sport.
It easily won the NAIA district championship by placing four runners in the top five and finished second in the NAIA national meet. The team consisted of Monte Moore, Len Long, Loren McKnight, Jerry Leonard, Lanny Clegg, Wayne Henning, Denny Lemmon, Loren Minnick and Jerry Tighe. Arnie Pelluer was the coach.
Men’s golf
Idaho won its own Vandal Fall Classic that wound up Monday by 12 strokes over Portland, with Jason D’Amore of Loyola Marymount the medalist by two strokes with a 54-hole total of 203.
Idaho’s Pete Williams (206) and Bill Witte (208) were third and fourth, respectively, with Stu Bell of Gonzaga and Kevin Chen of Washington State tied for sixth at 210. GU (858) was third as a team.