Pirates senior Seyedali earns All-America nod
Whitworth senior Ali Seyedali heads a list of 10 soccer players from the Pirates (seven) and Gonzaga University (three) to collect postseason awards last week.
Seyedali, a midfielder from Kirkland, Wash., was named to the National Soccer Coaches Association of America/adidas men’s Division III All-America third team. He also was named to the All-West Region first team for a second straight year.
He had four goals and team highs of seven assists and 15 points.
•Three Whitworth women were named to NSCAA/adidas Division III All-West Region teams.
Jael Hagerott, a junior midfielder from Mead, and Greta Thibodeau, a junior forward from Juneau, Alaska, were on the first team. Penelope Crowe, a sophomore forward from Bellingham, was named to the third team.
Hagerott also earned a first-team honor in 2003. She was a second-team pick in 2004 and missed last season with a knee injury.
•Gonzaga and Whitworth each had three named to NSCAA/adidas men’s scholar All-Far West Region teams, the Zags placing two on the first team.
Ben Sawyer, a junior from Mead with a 3.57 grade-point average in accounting, and George Josten, a junior from Idaho Falls with a 3.85 GPA in civil engineering, were first-team selections.
Whitworth senior Kevin Bostick from Whitefish, Mont., was a repeater on the second team with a 3.67 GPA in political science.
Named to the third team were GU junior Grant Lundberg from Lewis and Clark (3.67, exercise science), Whitworth junior Skye Henderson from LC (3.69, business/accounting) and Pirates senior Chris Johnson from St. George’s (3.61, business/economics).
College scene
Cintia Alessi, a North Idaho College sophomore from Brazil, was a first-team selection on the NJCAA Division I All-America team following the Cardinals’ school-best fourth-place finish in the national tournament in West Plaines, Mo.
The Cardinals’ Lauren Stern, a sophomore from Lake City High, was an All-America honorable mention and was named to the all-tournament team. Also an all-tournament pick was NIC freshman Amanda Misa from Hawaii.
NIC’s Bret Taylor was named the NJCAA District 0 Coach of the Year.
•Weston Wood, a Puget Sound junior from Riverside, played a big role in the 22nd-ranked Loggers’ record-breaking 140-137, three-overtime men’s basketball victory over Willamette last weekend in Tacoma.
Wood had a tip-in with 15 seconds left in the first overtime to tie the game at 121 and send it to a second OT. He finished with 17 points, one of seven Loggers in double figures, as UPS set a school scoring record, four points higher than the previous mark.
•Eastern Washington will honor its 2006 football team at the school’s annual awards banquet Jan. 13 at 6 p.m. in the Pence Union Building on the EWU campus in Cheney.
The event, open to the public, will feature dinner, video highlights and the presentation of awards.
Tickets are $25 per person and must be purchased in advance by calling the EWU athletic department at 359-2463, 359-6046 or (800) 648-7697. Deadline is Jan. 11. Tickets will not be available at the door. The event sold out the last two years.
•The weekly Eastern Washington coaches luncheon, featuring basketball coaches Mike Burns and Wendy Schuller, as well as other coaches and special guests, will move to Tuesdays starting Jan. 2, at the Holiday Inn Spokane Airport.
The last luncheon before a Christmas holiday break and the change to the new day will be Wednesday at the Holiday Inn Airport.
Cost for the buffet lunch is $11.
Golf
Gonzaga University has signed two men and a woman to national letters of intent, head coach Robert Gray announced.
Slated to join the Bulldogs men are Kyle Huus of Sidney, Neb., who has won nine high school invitational tournaments, won the 2006 Big I state tournament and finished 13th in the Big I national, and Francis Santiago of Lynwood, Wash., a two-time Metro champion before finishing runner-up in 2006 and a four-time state qualifier with three top-11 finishes.
Signing with the women was Sage Suffecool of Tucson, Ariz., who helped her school to state titles in 2004 and 2006 while being named to the all-state team both years. She is a 2006 Arizona Junior Ping Masters champion.
Running
Bloomsday runners can no longer procrastinate on ordering a finish-line photo for posterity. Super Color Photo, Bloomsday’s official race photographer for 20 years, announced that Bloomsday photos from past races will be phased out starting in 2007.
Photos for race years since 1999 will be available online through the holidays at www.RacePhotos.net.
Track and field
Shannon Long, a sprinter who spent last season at Community Colleges of Spokane, has signed a letter of intent to attend Eastern Washington and compete for the women’s team in the 2007-08 season.
The 2004 graduate of Richland High School won three events last May at the 2006 NWAACC Championships – the 100 meters (12.48 seconds) and 200 (25.68; 25.44 in the preliminaries) and the 4x100 relay (48.62) as CCS won the team title.
Volleyball
Spokane referee Margie Ray was selected to officiate in last weekend’s first round of the NCAA women’s championship tournament at Long Beach, Calif.
Ray, working her third NCAA Division I tournament, officiated the Oregon vs. Hawaii and Pepperdine vs. Long Beach matches. Hawaii advanced to this weekend’s regional tournament in Honolulu by defeating Long Beach in the second round.