UI’s Olson wins cross country title

Saturday was a pretty good day for the Idaho Vandals’ Dee Olson.

The junior distance runner won the individual Western Athletic Conference championship, was named WAC female cross country athlete of the year and led Idaho to the WAC title at Eagle Island State Park in Boise.

Olson finished the 5,000-meter course in 17 minutes, 31.31 seconds, over 10 seconds ahead of Utah State’s Tiffany Strickland (17:41.83).

Vandals Bevin Kennelly (17:55.46), Mary Kamau (17:55.87) and Mandy Macalister (17:58.18) finished third, fourth and fifth. The trio joined Olson on the All-WAC first team.

With four placers in the top five, Idaho finished with 30 team points, 13 ahead of second-place Utah State.

On the men’s side, Dale Engler finished 12th as seven Vandals finished between 12th and 21st en route to a second-place team finish.

Engler finished the 8,000-meter course in 26:03.95. Engler and Kevin Friesen (14th, 26:12.40) were named to the All-WAC second team as the Vandals finished with 75 points, 13 ahead of third-place Louisiana Tech.

Utah State, sparked by a first-place finish by Trever Ball – the conference’s male athlete of the year – took the top four individual spots and five of the top six en route to a runaway team win, finishing with 16 points. Ball crossed the finish line in 24:12.87.

•Haley Paul finished sixth to lead the Washington State women to a fifth-place finish at the Pac-10 championships at the Dell Ulrich Golf Course in Tucson, Ariz.

Paul, who earned a spot on the All-Pac-10 first team with her placing, finished the 6,000-meter course in 20:59 as the Cougars tallied 159 points, 48 behind fourth-place Washington. No. 2 Stanford, led by a first-place finish from Arianna Lambie (20:20), took first with 34 points, just ahead of Arizona State (40).

On the men’s side, Ryan Freimuth finished 16th, finishing the 8,000-meter course in 24:55 as Washington State finished eighth with 146 points.

No. 4 Stanford, sparked by a third-place finish by Neftalem Araia (24:19), cruised to a first-place finish with 46 points. Arizona took second with 78, led by a first-place finish from Robert Cheseret (23:57 and a second-place finish from Obed Mutanya (24:13).

Washington, led by Mark Mandi’s fourth-place showing (24:20), took fourth with 116 points.

•Jill Semenza finished fourth and Joe Miller sixth as the Gonzaga men and women each finished fifth at the West Coast Conference championships at the Crystal Springs Course in Belmont, Calif.

Semenza finished the 5,000-meter course in 18:16 as Gonzaga tallied 120 points, 15 behind San Francisco.

Portland took first, finishing with 31 points, 27 ahead of Loyola Marymount. The Pilots were led by a first-place finish by Ashlee Vincent, who finished in 17:59.

On the men’s side, Miller finished the 8,000-meter course in 25:50 as the Bulldogs finished with 135 points, 38 points behind Santa Clara.

Portland easily took the men’s team title, finishing with 19 points, well ahead of San Francisco (71 points). The Pilots, led by a first-place finish from Matt Sheeks (25:36), took four of the top five places and six of the top 10.

•John Timeus finished seventh as Eastern Washington had its highest ever placing by finishing fourth at the men’s Big Sky championships at Schneiter’s Riverside Golf Course in Ogden, Utah.

Timeus finished the 8,000-meter course in 25:19.8 as the Eagles tallied 100 points, 32 behind Idaho State.

Northern Arizona won the team title with 43 points, 20 ahead of Weber State. Jon Cardenas of NAU won the individual title, finishing in 25:07.5 Teammate Seth Watkins took second in 25:10.8.

On the women’s side, Camille Gibb led Eastern to a fifth-place showing, finishing the 5,000-meter course in 18:55.1, good for 12th place and just in front of teammate Holly Evans, who took 13th in 18:56.5.

The Eagles finished with 115 team points, 14 behind Montana State. NAU, with 27 points, took first, followed by Weber State with 40 points.

NAU’s Johanna Nilsson won the individual title in 17:28.7, well ahead of teammate Nicole Guedemeister (17:54.0).

•Doug Blackburn took third, leading Whitworth to a third-place team finish at the Northwest Conference championships at Bush Park in Salem, Ore.

Blackburn finished in a time of 25:26 to lead the Pirates to 100 points, well behind Puget Sound, which finished with 46.

Willamette, led by the first-place finish of Nick Symmonds (25:18.1), took first with 26 points.

On the women’s side, Kristi Dickey finished fourth in a time of 22:25.7 as the Pirates racked up 94 points, 19 behind second-place Lewis & Clark, which was led by a first-place finish from Carla McHattie (22:05.4). Willamette took the team title with 51 points.

•Community Colleges of Spokane’s Mark Moeller finished third on the men’s side and Kelly Turner eighth in the women’s race at the Bellevue Invitational at Lake Sammamish State Park.

Moeller finished the 8,000-meter course in a time of 25:43, 10 seconds behind winner Sam Scotchmer (25:33), who ran as an independent.

Turner finished the 5,000-meter course in 19:44. Jan Tonkin of the Seattle Racing Club was first in 18:06.

Wrestling

Heinrich Barnes followed up his collegiate debut with a second pin, and Josh Edmondson also earned a pin to lead North Idaho to a 29-10 win over Montana State Northern in Coeur d’Alene.

Barnes, who also got a pin in his debut Friday, pinned Colt Herger at 4 minutes, 1 second of their 141-pound match. Edmondson pinned Ryan Mattingly at 1:58 of their 184-pound match as the Cardinals improved to 2-0 on the season.

Volleyball

Haley Larsen and Amanda Bowman led the Vandals with 10 kills apiece as Idaho won its third straight by sweeping Louisiana Tech 30-18, 30-16, 30-18 in Western Athletic Conference action at Memorial Gym.

Sarah Loney added eight kills and a .500 hitting percentage for the Vandals (13-10, 5-5), while Meghan Brown led the defensive effort with 16 digs.

Idaho outhit the Broncos (15-12, 2-9) .347 to .049 on the night.

•Sara Vercruyssen had 13 kills as Portland (4-16, 1-7) won its first West Coast Conference match of the season and sent Gonzaga (10-15, 2-6) to its 23rd straight conference road loss, a 30-18, 30-23, 30-21 sweep of the Bulldogs at the Chiles Center in Portland.

•Natalie Danielson had 22 kills as Whitworth (18-3, 13-1) dropped the first game but rallied to win the next three during a 26-30, 30-19, 30-28, 30-25 win over Pacific Lutheran (12-9, 9-5) at Whitworth Fieldhouse.

The win clinched a bid to the NCAA Division III tournament as well as at least a share of the Northwest Conference title.

Men’s soccer

Garga Caserta scored twice and Derek Taylor had a goal and an assist as North Idaho routed Colorado Mountain 5-0 in Region 18 Tournament action in Salt Lake City.

The Cardinals (12-1-3, 5-0-1) outshot the Eagles 25-3 and goalie Mike Hildebrandt needed to make just two saves to earn the shutout.

•Ali Seyedali had a goal and an assist as No.6 Whitworth (14-1-1, 11-0-1) remained unbeaten in Northwest Conference play with a 3-1 win over Pacific Lutheran (10-7, 6-5) at Whitworth.

Todd Sabrowski and Evan Hendrickson also scored for the Pirates. Sabrowski’s goal was his ninth of the season.

Women’s soccer

Beth Storey and Heidi Bushman had goals as Dixie State knocked off North Idaho 2-1 in Region 18 Tournament action in Salt Lake City.

NIC was down 2-0 until the waning moments, when Whitney Melton got the consolation goal for the Cardinals in the 88th minute.

•Kara Tisthammer scored in the fourth minute of the second overtime and Jenn Miller made five saves as Whitworth (7-6-3, 6-5-2 NWC) upset No. 19 Pacific Lutheran (10-5-1, 8-4-1) 1-0 at Whitworth Soccer Field.

Rowing

Washington State’s women’s crew knocked off Gonzaga at the Head of the Snake race at Wawawai Landing.

WSU’s varsity 8 took the 5,000-meter race in 17 minutes, 16 seconds. The Cougar second varsity 8 was second, coming in at 17:22.28. Gonzaga’s varsity 8 was third at 18:13.99.