Cardinals place third

Three North Idaho wrestlers won their weight classes Saturday, helping the Cardinals take third place at the NJCAA Wrestling National Championships in Rochester, Minn.

Sophomore Heinrich Barnes won 13-11 over Iowa Central’s Joe Soto in the 141-pound weight class. The victory was extra special for Barnes, who lost two matches against Soto last year.

At 184 pounds, sophomore Kyle Sand defeated Highline’s Brad Padgett 10-6. After a first-round bye, Sand won four straight matches to en route to the title.

Also winning his weight class for the Cardinals was Evan Mattingly, who won 4-3 over Alfred’s Jamie Luckett at 197 pounds.

This marks the first time that North Idaho coach Pat Whitcomb has had three national champions.

Also placing for the Cardinals was Robbie Shaw, who fell to Labette’s Willie Weber in 6 minutes, 29 seconds to take sixth place in the heavyweight division.

Defending champion Iowa Central took first place and Labette came in second.

Track and Field

Idaho junior Russ Winger earned Co-Outstanding Performer of the Year, helping the Vandals men take third at the Western Athletic Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships in Boise.

Winger finished first in the shot put with a throw of 64 feet, 1/4 inch.

Junior Bastien Tardy also led the men with a first-place finish in the 800-meter run. Tardy clocked a 1:52.18.

On the women’s side, Idaho placed fifth out of nine teams.

Senior Melinda Owen took first place in the pole vault, clearing 13 feet, 3/4 inches.

Cal State Northridge won the women’s team title and Boise State finished first for the men.

•Washington State’s women finished sixth, while the men placed seventh at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Indoor Track & Field Championships at the University of Washington’s Dempsey Facility.

Cougars senior Diana Pickler won the high jump with a leap of 5-feet, 11 1/2 inches. Pickler also finished second in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.31 seconds, and ran the lead leg of the 4x400 meter relay.

Julie Pickler finished third in the high jump with a leap of 5-feet, 7 3/4 inches, placed fourth in the 60-meter hurdles (8.77) and ran the third leg of the 1,600-meter relay.

On the men’s side, sophomore Justin Woods won the 60-meter dash with a time of 6.78 seconds after placing second in the 200-meter dash on Friday.

Tyson Byers was one of only three men to clear 17-feet, 5 1/2 inches in the pole vault. Byers placed third due to missed attempts, but the height was a season-best for the senior from Spokane Valley.

•Ryan Brown won the 800 meters and ran the decisive leg of Washington’s winning 4x400-meter relay, leading the Huskies’ fifth-ranked men’s team to its second-consecutive MPSF Indoor Track & Field crown.

The Arizona men took second, followed by Oregon and Stanford.

The Huskies women took fourth place. Top-ranked Arizona State snapped Stanford’s string of four straight MPSF titles and took first place. The No. 5 Cardinal finished second.

•Eastern Washington University senior David Paul was named the Field Athlete of the Meet after winning the weight throw and helping the Eagles men finish fifth at the Big Sky Conference Indoor Championships in Bozeman, Mont. Paul earned All-Big Sky honors with a throw of 68-8 1/2 that broke the school record by more than a foot.

Joining Paul by earning All-Big Sky honors were sophomores Chad Buturac and Jeff Kaune.

Buturac improved on his fourth-place finish in the 400-meter dash last year by taking second this year with a time of 48.65.

Kaune finished second in the triple jump with a leap of 48-7 1/4. He placed fifth at last year’s meet.

On the women’s side, EWU’s Teanna Meinhold was the lone female to earn All-Big Sky honors by placing third in the triple jump at 38-4.

The Eagles women placed eighth out of nine teams.

Weber State won the women’s team title and Sacramento State finished first for the men.

Baseball

Bradley Suttle drove in five runs, leading Texas to an 11-2 win over Washington State in a non-conference game at Disch-Falk Field in Austin, Texas.

The Longhorns banged out 11 hits and scored the first 11 runs of the game to put the Cougars away early.

Nick Ison took the loss for Washington State, which fell to 2-3 on the season. Texas improves to 9-5.

•Brandon Blank, Dustin Colclough and Ryan Wiegand all had three hits as Gonzaga beat Dallas-Baptist 6-4 in the final day of the Southwest Diamond Classic in Frisco, Texas.

Wiegand also scored three runs and drove in two for the Bulldogs, who finish the Classic 2-1 and improve to 4-8 on the season.

Dallas-Babtist drops to 5-5 overall, including 1-2 for the weekend.

Softball

Whitworth swept a doubleheader from Albertson College (6-3), 5-3 and 3-1 at Symms Field in Caldwell, Idaho.

In the opener, the Pirates (2-0) rallied from a 3-1 deficit to force extra innings, scoring a pair of unearned runs in the top of the ninth inning to notch the victory.

In game two, Whitworth scored a run in the second, third and fourth innings, building a 3-0 lead it would never relinquish.

Junior Hockey

Nelson scored five first-period goals and beat Spokane 7-1 in Game 3 of the KIJHL playoffs in Nelson, B.C. Brandon Lassiter scored the Braves lone goal in the first period. Nelson leads the best-of-7 series two games to one.