Both CCS teams in contention after first day at NWAACCs

Jason Dixon and Jacob Shanklin each won throwing events as the Community Colleges of Spokane settled in for a tense battle for team titles at the NWAACC track and field championships in Gresham, Ore.

The defending champion Sasquatch women took a 77-66 lead over Clark and Lane, while the CCS men trail first-day leader Highline, 63-56.

Shanklin got off a lifetime-best throw of 183 feet, 7 inches to lead a 1-2-4-6 Spokane finish in the hammer. Dixon, second in that event, came back to win the discus, though he struggled – trailing Highline’s Ricky Moody through the prelims and finally getting off a winner of 161-6, well below his season best.

The CCS women, who got a 24-point jump in the heptathlon held earlier this month, got seconds from Teona Perkins in the high jump (5-4) and Chelley Corder in the 10,000 meters, with Perkins coming back to take sixth in the 3,000.

•Seattle Pacific’s Danielle Ayers-Stamper won the first two events, the 100-meter hurdles and high jump, and holds a 69-point lead after the first day of the heptathlon at the NCAA Division II track and field championships in Abilene, Texas.

The junior from LaCrosse scored 3,402 points, with national leader Anastassia Kyvelidou of Nebraska-Omaha second at 3,333 and former Community Colleges of Spokane star Alissa Miller of Angelo State third at 3,236. Ayers-Stamper ran the hurdles in 13.70 seconds and high jumped 5 feet, 83/4 inches – both personal bests.

•Bonners Ferry graduate Dirk Bortz set another Eastern Oregon school record in the hammer, but came up short in his bid for a national title at the NAIA championships in Louisville, Ky. Bortz upped his EOU record more than two feet to 194-0, finishing second to Will Moman of Doane, who threw 196-1.

•Colville’s Shannon McGrane of Willamette won her preliminary heat of the women’s 400 hurdles at the NCAA Division III championships in Waverly, Iowa, in 1:02.17. Last year’s runner-up, Sheana Grigsby of Carthage, set a stadium record in her heat with a 1:00.24 time. McGrane also ran a leg on Willamette’s 4x400 relay team which advanced to the finals.

Baseball

Alex Scarpelli’s two-out, three-run double in the first inning launched CCS to an 11-2 win over Centralia (17-24) in the first day of the NWAACC tournament at Lower Columbia College in Longview, Wash.

Scarpelli (Shadle Park High) gave Luke Farden a 4-0 lead. Farden (10-1) pitched a complete game, scattering seven hits.

Dan Lau (Lake City High) added a two-run double during a five-run eighth.

CCS (31-12) plays Edmonds (37-7) at 4:35 p.m. today.