Locally

SP junior LaFond makes development shooting team

Elisha LaFond, a junior at Shadle Park High School, has been selected for the USA Shooting National Development Team in air rifle and small bore rifle.

LaFond, 17, a member of the Spokane Junior Rifle Club for four years, left this weekend to hook up with the team, which will join the USA Shooting National Team to compete in the German National Championships in Munich.

In the short time she has been involved in competitive shooting, LaFond has drawn the attention of the U.S. Olympic team coaching staff.

She has won several Washington state championships and has qualified for the National Junior Olympics Championships three times, where she’s shot at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Baseball

Brian Munhall of Spokane, who has played in the San Francisco organization for four seasons, has received an invitation to the Giants spring training camp as a non-rostered player.

Munhall, 25, a catcher who graduated from Ferris High School in 1998 and Gonzaga University in 2002, batted .264 with one home run and six runs batted in during 19 games at Triple-A Fresno, Calif., last season after helping the Advanced-A San Jose Giants win the California League championship. There he hit .314 with six homers and 25 RBIs.

He’ll report Feb. 15 to the Giants’ training camp in Scottsdale, Ariz., with other catchers and pitchers.

Bowling

The Spokane Women’s Bowling Association, which is playing host to the Washington State Women’s Tournament from March through May, has extended the entry deadline until Jan. 30.

Officials are hoping for a field of 100 or more teams, but entries have been coming in slow, said Babe Wehr, SWBA secretary.

Competition will be held at Lilac Lanes in four- and five-women teams as well as singles and doubles.

Entry forms are available in all area bowling centers, Wehr said.

College scene

For the second time in his two years at Community Colleges of Spokane, Eric Bell has received a scholar-athlete of the month award.

Bell, a 6-foot-4 forward on the men’s basketball team, and Sarah Scates, a 5-8 forward on the women’s basketball team, are the CCS Scholar-Athletes of the Month for December.

Bell, from Selah, Wash., is averaging a team-leading 21.2 points and 5.9 rebounds a game, the scoring average ranking him second in the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges.

Bell was named to all-star teams in the three tournaments in which the Sasquatch played, earning the MVP award at the Treasure Valley Eastern Region Tip-Off Tournament. In the classroom, he has a 3.2 grade-point average and received the athletic department’s Foundation Scholarship in September.

Scates, from Jenkins High in Chewelah, has been the most consistent Sasquatch, averaging 13 points and six rebounds a game during the non-conference portion of the season. She averages 48 percent shooting from the field and 80 percent from the free-throw line.

Scates has a 3.64 GPA.

•Jalen Pendon, a freshman libero, was named most valuable player when the Washington State volleyball team passed out awards at its banquet last weekend.

Other awards went to junior April Lott, strength and conditioning; junior Kelly Rosin and sophomore Maureen Perez, coaches awards; freshman Brittany Johnson, most improved; and senior Gwen Davis, scholar-athlete.

The team raised $2,523 in a raffle to help with medical expenses for Drew Chimento, a 10-year-old from Louisiana with leukemia, whose family was displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

•Four area athletes are among 26 Idaho Vandals who received all-academic recognition from the Western Athletic Conference for the fall.

Those honored, who have at least a 3.0 grade-point average, are at least a sophomore and played in at least half the team’s competitions, include:

Men’s cross country – Ian Chesnut, sophomore, Ferris, forest products/wood major.

Women’s soccer – Kayla Constable, senior, Lewis and Clark, psychology; Katie Quinn, sr., Lake City, biology.

Volleyball – Andrea Fox, sr., Garfield and North Idaho College, sport science.

•Washington State sophomore Molly Alexander is on Canada’s Under-20 women’s national soccer team, which is in Veracruz, Mexico, defending its Confederation of North and Central American and Caribbean (CONCACAF) championship.

Three teams from the eight-team tournament, that also includes the United States, qualify for the FIFA Under-20 Women’s Championships this summer.

Alexander, a midfielder from Vancouver, British Columbia, has been active in the Canadian national team system starting with the U-16 team.