WSU’s Prince earns baseball honor

Washing State University standout Jared Prince has been named to the 2006 Baseball America All-Freshman team.

The honor is the latest in a string of accomplishments for the pitcher/outfielder. Prince was the first Cougars freshman to earn All-Pacific-10 Conference first-team honors. He led the conference in hitting with a .401 average, which ranked him 24th in the nation among Division I players.

Prince also finished third in the Pac-10 in RBIs (58), and fourth in slugging (.618) and hits (83).

Prince was named a third-team All-American by the American Baseball Coaches Association and a first-team Freshman All-American by Collegiate Baseball newspaper.

Prince is one of 35 players invited to the USA Baseball National Team Trials.

•Ferris graduate Brian Munhall has been selected to the Double-A Eastern League All-Star team.

Munhall, a catcher for the Connecticut Defenders, graduated from Ferris High School in 1998 and from Gonzaga University in 2002. The All-Star Game will be held on July 12 at Blair County Ballpark in Altoona, Pa.

College scene

Mead High School 2005 graduate Kim Watson has been named to the College of Business Dean’s Honor List for the spring semester at New Mexico State University.

Watson, a sophomore pitcher for the Aggies softball team, held a 3.91 grade point average.

•The University of Washington placed 18th among NCAA Division I institutions in the annual U.S. Sports Academy Directors’ Cup competition.

The final standings were released after the completion of the NCAA baseball championship. This is the seventh top-20 placing for Huskies athletics since the program began in 1993-94.

•With a team GPA of 3.3, the North Idaho College softball team has been named as an Academic All-American Team by the National Junior College Athletic Association.

To qualify, teams must earn an average GPA of 3.0. This is the second consecutive year that NIC’s softball team has earned this honor.

Cross country

Community Colleges of Spokane’s men’s program has announced the addition of Tyler Rapp to the 2006 team. Rapp, of Lakewood (Wash.) High, won the State 2A cross country title in 2005 and won the 1,600- and 3,200-meter track titles to sweep the distance events for 2005-06.

Hockey

Tim Holmstrom has been announced as the athletic therapist and strength and conditioning coach for the Spokane Chiefs.

The 29-year-old has spent the past four seasons as the athletic trainer and strength coach for the Seattle Thunderbirds. Before joining the Thunderbirds, Holmstrom was a graduate assistant athletic trainer for the Portland State University football and basketball teams.

Rowing

Former Ohio State assistant Robbie Tenenbaum joined the University of Washington’s coaching staff on Saturday.

Tenenbaum, who earned the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association’s 2006 award for Assistant Coach of the Year, will rejoin head coach Eleanior McElvaine after working under her direction during the summers of 2000 and 2001.

In October 2001, Tenenbaum was named the head coach for the U.S. Junior National team.

Soccer

Three college transfers have signed financial aid agreements to attend the University of Idaho and play for the Vandals in the fall.

Four-year transfer Ali Buswell of Corban College, Ore., and junior college transfers Tianna Meduri and Amanda Triller of Clackamas (Ore.) Community College, are former players from Peter Showler’s club teams who will rejoin the Vandals coach.

Volleyball

The University of Idaho has announced the addition of Moritz Moritz as an assistant coach.

Moritz was a volunteer assistant coach at Colorado State University from 1998-2002 and later graduated from the university in 2006.

Miscellany

The Northwest chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research, meeting last Wednesday in Seattle, unveiled a commemorative plaque at the gravesite of John Barnes, organizer of the Pacific Northwest’s first professional baseball league. Barnes managed the Spokane franchise for two seasons, including 1890, when it claimed the Pacific Northwest League’s first championship.

Jim Price, the chapter’s founding president and a retired writer and copy editor for The Spokesman-Review, was the principal speaker. Barnes, his wife, daughter and granddaughters are buried in Evergreen-Washelli cemetery.

The ceremony helped launch SABR’s national convention, which continued through Saturday in the Renaissance Hotel.