Area Roundup: GU wins WCC championship
The Gonzaga University women’s rowing team swept all three of its races Friday at Rancho Cordova, Calif., and won its 10th West Coast Conference championship in 11 years.
The Bulldogs, whose streak of nine consecutive titles was broken by Loyola Marymount in 2006, reclaimed the championship, easily winning all three races by an average of 17 seconds.
Gonzaga took first by amassing 30 points, while Loyola Marymount, Saint Mary’s and Santa Clara finished in a three-way tie for second with 17 points. San Diego finished fifth with nine points.
The Bulldogs won the Varsity 8 race with a time of 6 minutes, 43.3 seconds, finishing ahead of second-place Saint Mary’s by nearly 13 seconds.
Gonzaga’s second Varsity 8 and Varsity 4 boats also won.
Gonzaga had three all-conference selections in Nicole Aadland-Lewis, Hanna McClintock and Kelly Steinhaus. Gonzaga’s Glenn Putyrae was named coach of the year for the fourth time.
Basketball
The University of Idaho men’s program announced the signing of Brandon Brown, a 6-foot-1, 205-pound guard who played last season at West Hills Community College at Coalinga, Calif. He signed with Utah State earlier this signing period before opting to join the Vandals.
“Adding Brandon to our program is a huge coup,” Idaho coach George Pfeifer said in a UI release. “What he does is score in a variety of ways.”
Brown averaged 18.4 points and 5.2 rebounds per game at West Hills last season and shot 50 percent from the floor and 38 percent from the 3-point line. He was an All-California Junior College selection and was honored as first-team all-conference last season.
Baseball
Aaron Poreda allowed seven hits and no earned runs in a complete game as San Francisco (22-22, 5-8) beat Gonzaga 4-2 in a West Coast Conference game at Benedetti Diamond in San Francisco.
Ryan Wiegan went 3 for 4 with a two-run home run to lead the Bulldogs (26-20, 9-4).
“Paul Gran had three hits and three RBIs as Washington State defeated Southern California 5-4 in the opening game of a Pac-10 Conference series at Dedeaux Field in Los Angeles.
Wayne Daman Jr. (3-3) threw seven strong innings to earn the win for the Cougars (21-18, 4-9).
Spencer Pabst had two hits to lead the Trojans (21-22, 4-9).
Tennis
The Eastern Washington men (13-10) won their first postseason match in 41 tries since joining Division I by topping Weber State 4-0 in a quarterfinal match of the Big Sky Championships in Gold River, Calif.
Next up for the third-seeded Eagles is the second seed, Montana (11-8).
The fifth-seeded EWU women fell to fourth-seed Montana 4-3. The Eagles finished the season 8-15 overall and 4-3 in Big Sky Conference play.
“Washington State’s doubles tandem of Bianca Selaru and Anastesia Opata, playing together for the first time, advanced to the semifinals of the Pac-10 Championships in Ojai, Calif. They will play California’s Claire Ilcinkas and Bojana Bobusic today at 2 p.m.
Football
Eastern Washington begins it stretch run of spring practices with a scrimmage today at 9:30 a.m. at Woodward Field.
The Red-White game a week from today will conclude the spring session.
Softball
Community Colleges of Spokane (17-17, 11-9) swept a NWAACC doubleheader from Treasure Valley (11-32, 4-16) at Spokane Falls CC.
The Sasquatch scored four runs in the first and coasted to a 4-1 victory in the opener.
CCS won game two 2-1.
“A second-inning, two-run home run by Oregon State’s Stefanie Ewing was all the scoring the Beavers needed as OSU (34-16, 6-6) defeated Washington (30-13, 7-6 Pac-10) 2-0 in Seattle.