Locally

Cougars’ Derting on Lott watch list

Washington State University football linebacker Will Derting has been named to the preseason watch list for the Lott Trophy for the second consecutive year.

Named for Hall of Fame safety Ronnie Lott, this is the second year it will be awarded, going to the person considered the nation’s outstanding collegiate defensive player.

Derting had 93 tackles in 2004, including 11.5 behind the line of scrimmage with 3.5 sacks. Despite a preseason wrist injury that forced him to play the season in a cast, Derting earned second-team All-Pacific-10 Conference honors after the Okanogan, Wash., native was first-team All-Pac-10 in 2003.

The WSU senior is also on the 2005 Lombardi Award watch list. It goes to the nation’s top linebacker.

Derting is one of 42 players on the Lott list along with eight other Pac-10 standouts: Spencer Havner and Justin London, UCLA; Darnell Bing, USC; Trent Bray, (Pullman High) Oregon State; Darrell Brooks, Arizona; Donnie McClesky, California; Kevin Schimmelmann, Stanford; and Jamar Williams, Arizona State.

Baseball

Three local high school seniors have signed letters of intent with Community Colleges of Spokane, Sasquatch coach Dave Keller announced.

Slated to join CCS in the fall are Chris Bozo, a catcher/infielder from Ferris who was a first-team All-Greater Spokane League selection at first base in 2004; Logan Davenport, a second-team All-GSL left-handed pitcher from North Central; and infielder Kody Anderson from Shadle Park.

College scene

Warren Friedrichs, who led the Whitworth men’s golf team to the Northwest Conference championship in just its second year as a varsity program, has been named NWC Coach of the Year in golf.

•The Washington State men and women and Eastern Washington women have been honored by national cross country coaches association for academic excellence.

The United States Cross Country Coaches Association selected 48 men’s teams with grade-point averages of 3.00 or higher for All-Academic recognition. WSU had a GPA of 3.18.

The Women’s Intercollegiate Cross Country Coaches Association list of academic All-America teams had WSU ranked ninth with a 3.58 GPA and EWU 38th at 3.435. Both received the honor “with distinction,” meaning they had GPAs of 3.25 or higher. Both also had the second-best GPA in their conference.

•Fourteen athletes with area ties, 10 of them at Eastern Washington, were named to Big Sky Conference All-Academic teams for the winter.

Men’s basketball: Danny Pariseau (Shadle Park), EWU.

Women’s basketball: Christa Brossman (Pullman), Idaho State; Ashley Jamison (Lakeland), EWU; Abby Johnson (Clarkston), EWU.

Men’s indoor track and field: Jake Briles (Lakeland), Idaho State; Dustin Drake (Colville), EWU; Cameron Moore (Ferris), EWU; Ty Weingard (North Idaho College), EWU.

Women’s indoor track and field: Molly Cole (West Valley), Portland State; Emily Dahl (Rogers), Portland State; Kayla Mainer (WV), EWU; Teanna Meinhold (Colville), EWU; Traci Mickle (Ephrata), EWU; Neleigh Olson (Mead), EWU.

•Seattle University senior Stephanie Stone from Gonzaga Prep was selected for the third straight year to the Great Northwest Athletic Conference softball all-academic team. A liberal studies major, she has a 3.98 GPA.

Named to the GNAC all-academic softball team for a second straight year was Mandy Kaestner of Lake City in Coeur d’Alene, a Western Washington junior with a 3.28 GPA in physical education.

Cross country

Kelly Turner from Kamiakin High in Kennewick has signed a letter of intent with Community Colleges of Spokane. She has a best time of 19 minutes, 24 seconds for 5,000 meters.

Hockey

Four local players were on Team Washington at the Chicago Showcase tournament for high school juniors and seniors from throughout the United States.

From Spokane were Michael Jenson (Shadle Park), Billy Newman (Rogers) and Brent Seidel (North Central) from the Spokane Americans’ U-18 Midget AA team, and Sam Read (Shadle) from the Spokane Braves Junior B team.

Team Washington won three of four games.

•Seventeen Spokane area boys ages 14-17 were in Vancouver, Wash., last weekend to attend the Pacific District Select Camp vying for spots in the National Select Camp in July.

Letters are expected to go out this week notifying 20 players in each of four age groups who were selected for the national camp.

Participating from the area in Vancouver were: Ryan Pajimola, Andrew Vega, Brandon Clark, Jeff Smith, Evan Witt, Jason Greenwell, Shane Davis, Alex Edgmond, Justin Schaffer, Tyler Johnson, Jacob Walsh, Kyle Bacon, Cash Ulrich, Michael Smith, Brent Bartel, Lane Mahoney and Tanner Slarks.

Running

Joel Pearson, 19, a 2002 graduate of Mead High School, finished 16th overall and first in the men’s under-20 category at the Vancouver Half-Marathon in the British Columbia city last Sunday.

Pearson covered the distance in 1 hour, 19 minutes, 35 seconds.

Four other area runners were among the 6,606 finishers – Nikki Bavuso, Linda Wetzel and Doliena Lee, all of Spokane, and Patti Bowen of Moscow, Idaho.

Eight area runners were listed among the 4,257 finishers in the Vancouver Marathon – Sarah Bowen and Shannon Donovan, both Moscow; Martin Bavuso, Dave Heyamoto, Bonnie Johnson, Gary Mutchler and Brendalee Vandouris, all Spokane; and Bill Boggs, Coeur d’Alene.

Track and field

Reny Follett of Lewiston, one of the top quarter-milers in Idaho with a personal record of 48.93 seconds, is in a group of 13 high school seniors who have signed letters of intent with Washington State, Cougars coach Rick Sloan announced.

The others, their events and home towns, are: Sam Ahlbeck, distance, Renton, Wash.; Vic Asher, throws, Vancouver, Wash.; Matt Lamb, throws, Emmett, Idaho; Chase Mancuso, throws, Mukilteo, Wash.; Tiffany Maskulinski, pole vault, Elma, NY; Jasmine McCormack, throws, Arlington, Wash.; Clint Osborn, throws, Lake Stevens, Wash.; Marisa Sandoval, distance, Los Alamos, N.M.; Jimmy Schofield, middle distance, Spanaway, Wash.; Dominic Smargiassi, distance, Auburn, Wash.; Devin Timpson, sprinter, Ocean Shores, Wash.; and Moreno Zapata, jumps, Lakewood, Wash.

Among their highlights: Maskulinski was the nation’s top high school girls’ pole vaulter last year at 13 feet, 6 inches; Zapata has the second-best prep triple jump in the country this year, 50-111/2 (wind- aided); Lamb is the defending Idaho champion in the shot and discus; Asher has the top shot put mark in the state, 60-8; and Mancuso leads the state in the discus at 184-0.

Also, Ahlbeck was the Washington 3A cross country champion last fall; Sandoval comes from a distinguished line of runners, including her father, Tony, who won the 1980 U.S. Olympic Trials marathon; Smargiassi is a two-time prep All-American; Timpson was the 2004 State 1A champion in the 100, 200 and 400, placed fourth in the triple jump and scored 35 points for his team.