Locally

Wittwer, Crowley selected athletes of month at CCS

Two former Greater Spokane League athletes are the Community Colleges of Spokane’s scholar-athletes of the month for August.

Nicollete Wittwer of Mead, a sophomore on the volleyball team, is the female choice. The male award went to Jake Crowley of University, a sophomore defender in soccer.

Wittwer, who led the Sasquatch in kills while hitting .191 with .92 blocks a game, graduated with an A.A. degree in the spring but played while taking prerequisites at Eastern Washington University. She has a 3.34 grade-point average in graphic design.

Crowley, one of three returning players and the team captain, is considered by coach Kenny Krestian to be a team leader from his defensive position.

“He comes to play every day and helps raise the level of play for the rest of the team,” Krestian said.

Baseball

The Spokane Crush 11U team won its first four games of the West Coast AAU Nationals to advance to the semifinals, but lost to the Olympia Pepsi.

Olympia lost in the finals to finish second.

“We are extremely proud of the boys and what they accomplished (at nationals)” said coach Kevin Fitzpatrick. “The competition is very tough and we beat some extraordinary baseball clubs.”

Crush players are Blake Bozette, Matt Durant, Kelly Fitzpatrick, Ben Goodwin, Chase Haack, Travis Key, Matt Miller, Michael Renner, Matt Yorlano and Blake Zimmerer. James Key is the assistant coach.

The Crush ended with a 28-5 record.

•Washington State’s annual alumni weekend Oct. 7-9 will have an added attraction – the celebration of former Cougars coach Bobo Brayton‘s 80th birthday.

The weekend kicks off Oct. 7 at 5:30 p.m. at Bailey-Brayton Field with Game 2 in the Crimson & Gray World Series, the annual intrasquad scrimmage that concludes fall practice.

Oct. 8 will be the annual alumni game, including a barbeque and social surrounding the WSU-Stanford football game.

Oct. 9 will be a golf tournament at the University of Idaho course with a shotgun start at 9:30 a.m. Cost is $75 and includes breakfast, lunch and Cougars goodies. The Brayton bash will cap the day.

Info: (509) 335-0301 or email baseball@wsu.edu.

Basketball

Fans in Schwelm, Germany, probably wondered what Eric Avery of Spokane could do for an encore following his professional debut there.

Avery, a 1999 graduate of Lewis and Clark High School and 2004 grad of Whitworth, where he played for two seasons, hit five 3-pointers in the first quarter and scored 24 points by halftime.

Alas, the fans never saw him after intermission. He sat out the second half as his team won handily.

Bicycling

Mike Vincent of Coeur d’Alene capped a championship season by winning the expert 65-plus downhill finals at the NORBA U.S. Cycling Championships last Sunday in Mammoth, Calif.

Vincent, who rides for the Vertical Earth Mountain Bike Racing Team, wrapped up the national points championship for the 2005 series with the victory.

His conquests also included first-place finishes in Deer Valley, Utah; Schweitzer Mountain; and Brian Head, Utah.

Football

Pullman High’s Bob Wollan was named NFL High School Coach of the Week in Washington as voted by the Washington State Coaches Association for Week 3 of the 2005 season last week.

Ranked first in the state in Class 2A, Pullman (3-0) beat third-ranked Class 3A Prosser 35-28 last weekend.

Wollan, in his third year at the school, has a 22-5 record there, including an appearance in the 2003 Class 2A state finals.

This marks the 10th year the NFL has honored Washington high school coaches. Each winner receives a $100 savings bond from Sterling Savings Bank and a $1,000 grant. At the end of the season, one coach will receive the Jim Ennis Award for being selected the state’s high school coach of the year.

Softball

Local girls select fast pitch coaches Duane and LaVonne Schreiber are forming an Amateur Softball Association team for women ages 23 and younger.

“We found there are teams in Everett, Yakima, Seattle and Canada,” said Duane Schreiber, who for 11 years has been a coach, primarily with the Spokane Illusion in the Spokane Girls Fastpitch Association. “We would play practice games here with U-18 teams and just be a traveling team.”

Anyone interested in playing can contact the Schreibers at 926-3003.

Triathlon

Following a 2004 season marked by inactivity after breaking her arm in two places in midyear, Sister Madonna Buder of Spokane showed she’s not ready to call it a career.

Buder, 75, completed her 30th triathlon, celebrating with her fourth age-group record in winning her division at Ironman Canada on Aug. 28 and qualifying for another Ironman Triathlon World Championship in Hawaii on Oct. 15. She’s the oldest finisher in Ironman Canada history, female or male.

A regular in the Hawaii event for more than a decade, she set age-group records there in 1992 and ‘96.