Kephart sets another butterfly record

Whitworth’s Samantha Kephart shattered her own NCAA Division III record in the 200-yard butterfly Saturday at the NCAA Division III women’s swimming and diving championships at the university of Minnesota Aquatic Center in Minneapolis, Minn.

Kephart, a sophomore from Santa Maria, Calif., won the event in a time of 2 minutes, 0.15 seconds, 1.3 seconds ahead of the record she set in the Northwest Conference Championships.

With a strong showing in three events over the three-day meet, Kephart, whose time qualifies her to compete at both of this year’s USS national championship meets, totaled 51 points for the Pirates, as Whitworth took 22nd place out of 51 teams.

Emory University edged Ken-yon College for its second consecutive team title.

Track and field

Spokane’s Becca Noble and Washington State’s Julie Pickler narrowly missed individual titles at the NCAA Division I indoor track and field championships in Fayetteville, Ark.

Noble, a Rogers High School graduate now at Oregon, finished second in the women’s 800 meters to fellow freshman Heather Dorniden of Minnesota, who clocked 2 minutes, 5.64 seconds to beat Noble by just .08.

Pickler, meanwhile, finished second in the women’s pentathlon to Arizona State’s Jacquelyn Johnson – beating Johnson in three of the five events but losing by 20 points with a total of 4,247, a lifetime best.

Idaho’s Dee Olson finished third in the women’s mile with a time of 4:41.01. WSU’s Tamara Diles took 10th in the women’s pole vault (13 feet, 11/2 inches) and BYU’s David Pendergrass, a Central Valley graduate, was 12th in the men’s high jump (6-113/4).

Arkansas won the men’s team title. The Razorbacks now have 19 indoor championships and 42 overall titles in track and field and cross country.

Texas won its sixth women’s team championship and first since 1999.

•Ferris’ Cameron Elisara won the boys shot put competition at the 2006 National Scholastic Indoor Championships at the New Balance Track & Field Center in New York.

Elisara, a senior, threw 61 feet, 2 inches, 7 inches beyond Wesley Wright, a sophomore from Marietta, Ga.

Baseball

Gonzaga scored 12 runs in the first three innings en route to a 12-4 victory over Chicago State in Lewiston, the fourth straight victory for the Bulldogs.

Zach Woodward was 3 for 5 and finished with four RBIs, and Scott Campbell was 4 for 5 on the day for Gonzaga (11-7).

Patrick Donovan (3-1) shut down CSU (2-7), allowing one hit over four innings and striking out three for GU.

•George Fox (8-5, 3-2) hit five home runs and took advantage of seven Whitworth errors as the Bruins beat the host Pirates (5-9, 2-3) 15-5 and 9-3 in a Northwest Conference doubleheader.

Softball

Whitworth and Pacific Lutheran split a Northwest Conference doubleheader in Tacoma. PLU won the first game 4-0; the Pirates took the second game 3-0.

In the opener, the Lutes (8-2, 5-1) scored all four runs in the fourth inning behind three Whitworth errors. All the runs were unearned.

Whitworth (4-4, 4-2) scored three times in the top of the eighth to win the second game. Jennifer Eckhoff (1-1) threw a six-hit shutout, walking one, striking out seven and getting an RBI single.

Golf

Mary Kate Morgan shot a final-round 71, and Jennifer Swanson added a 74 as Gonzaga finished in second place at the Northern Illinois University Springlake Invitational at Sebring, Fla.

Gonzaga shot 600 as a team, four shots behind Lynn. Morgan took seventh place in the individual standings, her 146 total was seven shots behind Texas State’s Christine Brijalba.