Area players on district all-academic teams

Washington State, Idaho and Eastern Washington all had a player selected to the 25-man ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District VIII University Division team in football.

The offensive unit included WSU quarterback Alex Brink, a junior with a 3.54 grade-point average in sport management, and Idaho running back Jayson Bird, a sophomore with a 3.71 GPA in biology.

Eastern senior safety Nick Denbeigh from Lewis and Clark, who has a 3.63 GPA in communications studies, is on the defensive squad.

•Seven players from Whitworth and Lewis and Clark High School grad Steve Martin are among 23 players named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District VIII College Division team in football.

Martin, a senior linebacker at Puget Sound, has a 3.45 GPA in exercise science.

Whitworth selections include two repeaters, seniors Cam Collings, a punter/place-kicker from Mead with a 3.96 GPA in athletic training, and offensive lineman Steve Honeyman, who has a 3.95 GPA in international business and economics.

Other Pirates are linebacker Greg Caster, junior, 3.65, business management; defensive lineman Peter Clark from Mead, jr., 3.46, athletic training, health and fitness; defensive lineman Jermane Easterlin, jr., 3.51, business management and computer science; defensive back Marc Grow from Warden, jr., 3.77, accounting; and defensive back Jay Tully from Mead, jr., 3.64, education.

All-district selections are eligible for the Academic All-America teams.

Baseball

Shea Vucinich, an infielder from Coeur d’Alene High School, is among 13 high school seniors signed to letters of intent by Washington State.

Cougars coach Donnie Marbut said 11 are from Washington and two from Idaho.

Other Washington signees expected to enroll next fall are: Matt Argyropoulos, right-handed pitcher, Longview; Dustin Biell, center fielder, Kenmore; John Desmarais, CF, Renton; Keaton Hayenga, RHP, Redmond; Garry Kuykendall, CF, Bonney Lake; Brodie McCormack, catcher, Brewster.

Also, Ryan Peterson, first base, Renton; J.R. Rowland, utility, Maple Valley; Stephen Souza, infielder-pitcher, Everett; David Stilley, left-handed pitcher, Silverdale; and Riley Tubbs, utility, Renton.

James Wise, a RHP from Boise, is the other recruit from Idaho.

Bowling

No. 2 qualifier Todd Benner knocked off leading qualifier Mike Federico 245-237 to win the Junior Bowlers Tour stop at Valley Bowl on Oct. 29.

Daniel Seifert finished third, Brandon Roush fourth and Matt Benner fifth. Roush climbed from eighth and Benner from 15th to claim the last two qualifying spots.

Federico had high game for the boys, a 279, and joined Jared Nichols with 927s in their first four-game blocks. Lacey Kerr was high for the girls with a 236.

The next JBT is next Sunday at Lilac Lanes.

College scene

A freshman volleyball player and sophomore soccer player are the Community Colleges of Spokane scholar-athletes of the month for October.

Brandy Sonderland from Riverview in Finley, Wash., earned the female award. She has been a player of the week three times and twice was named to all-tournament teams. She leads the Sasquatch with a .250 hitting percentage and has 279 kills.

Male honors went to Keith Kirsch from Mt. Spokane. The starting midfielder and captain is second on the team in assists and third in goals. He was a conference academic all-star with a 3.83 grade-point average.

•Washington State sophomore outside hitter Brittany Johnson was named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District VIII University Division third team in volleyball. She has a 3.71 GPA majoring in management information systems.

•Two Whitworth players were named to ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District VIII College Division teams in volleyball.

Senior right-side hitter Nicole Vander Meulen, who has a 3.97 GPA in business management, was selected to the first team. Angie Florence, a senior outside hitter with a 3.73 GPA in elementary education, was picked on the second team.

•Katie Wysham from St. George’s, who had what the Tufts University press release called “one of the best blocking seasons in team history,” was rewarded by being named to the All-New England second team and earning honorable mention on the American Volleyball Coaches Association All-Region team.

They are her first conference and regional honors.

Wysham ranked second in the conference with 1.34 blocks per game, totaling 147, and sixth with a .281 hitting percentage. She finished with 321 kills, a 2.92 average per game, and her 35 service aces led the team.

Tufts finished with a 23-8 record, losing a five-game match in the first round of the conference tournament.

•Rachae’ Bell from Davenport, a senior libero at Redlands, was named to the All-Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference first team in volleyball for a third straight year.

Bell had what the school called “a career year,” racking up 419 digs in 90 conference games, an average of 8.55 per game. She had 55 in one four-game match, setting an NCAA Division III record. She had 30 digs in a match on 11 occasions.

•Two former Mead High School teammates, Megan Thigpen, a freshman at Alaska Fairbanks, and Rachael Schurman, a sophomore at Central Washington, were honored by the Great Northwest Athletic Conference in volleyball.

Thigpen, an outside hitter, was a first-team All-GNAC selection and shared the Freshman of the Year Award after finishing third in the league in aces (0.56 per game) and 11th in kills (3.05). Schurman, a middle hitter, received honorable mention.

•Sarah Krabacher from Sandpoint is a reserve goalkeeper on the Puget Sound women’s soccer team that won its fifth straight Northwest Conference championship and opened play in the NCAA Division III championships at home Saturday against Hardin-Simmons. UPS lost in a shootout.

Golf

Dustin Poe from Ferris is among four high school seniors – three men and a woman – to sign letters of intent with Washington State, Cougars coach Walt Williams announced.

Poe was an All-Greater Spokane League first-team selection the last two years and was the Saxons’ team MVP his sophomore and junior seasons. As a sophomore, Poe finished first in the GSL district championships, and during his junior season his team was first at the Junior America’s Cup.

Also signing with the Cougars were Nick Ellis from East Wenatchee, the Washington 4A state champion last spring; Bryan Sheridan from Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., a consistent winner in high school and junior events; and Kaitlin Parsons from East Wenatchee, a three-time all-league selection who was second in the 4A district meet as a junior and Washington Junior Golf Association district champion after her sophomore season.

Miscellany

Washington State has a world champion on its staff.

Andrea Thornton, a record-holder and All-American while a student at WSU and a member of the school’s physical education department, won several events in the 35th World Highland Games Heavy Events Championships during the summer in Pleasanton, Calif.

Thornton won five of the eight events she entered – the heavy (16 pounds) and light (12) hammer, weight (28 pounds) for height and the braemar stone (16 pounds) and light weight (14 pounds) for distance.

She also won the challenge caber, becoming the first woman in several years to flip the 17-foot, 80-pound implement. “I was pretty happy about that one,” she said. “It was hard and I barely got it.”