Whitworth softball spurned by NCAA

Whitworth’s softball season is over. The Pirates learned Monday they were not extended an invitation to the 59-team NCAA Division III tournament.

Despite a 30-6 record (a school record for victories) and late-season No. 8 national ranking, Whitworth was passed over when the eight-member national softball committee doled out 17 at-large invitations.

After failing to wrap up the Northwest Conference’s automatic berth by losing three of four games to No. 2-ranked Linfield on the final weekend of the regular season, Whitworth was hoping for a second straight at-large invitation. A year ago the 26-12 Pirates were selected.

“I am totally surprised by this,” Pirates coach Fuzzy Buckenberger was quoted as saying in a school press release. “But we still take great satisfaction in our season. We set many records along the way and I am proud of our players.

“I am sure they will recover from this disappointment and we will go forward to … 2008.”

The Pirates graduate only one player, All-NWC catcher Lindsay Davis.

Volleyball

Kelli Tikker of Lakeside (Nine Mile Falls), a junior who has been a two-time all-state tournament selection, has orally committed to play for Gonzaga University after she graduates in 2008, her high school coach, Kara Moffatt, announced.

Tikker, an outside hitter, was named the Great Northern League’s most valuable player as a sophomore and was Northeast A League MVP this past season as a junior. After being an all-state tournament selection in 2006, she was co-MVP of the 2007 State 1A tournament.

Track and field

For the second time this season, Washington State’s Diana Pickler has been named the Pac-10 Conference women’s track athlete of the week, this time for winning the Pac-10 heptathlon title during the weekend at Stanford, Calif.

The WSU senior co-captain compiled a conference-record 6,018 points in winning her first league title.

Golf

Community Colleges of Spokane finished second to Concordia College in the five-school Southwest Oregon Invitational women’s tournament in Bandon, Ore.

CCS, whose low scorers, Sadie Green and Kara Winey, tied for 10th at 184, had 546 to Concordia’s 521.

•CCS was third in the 13-school men’s tournament with a 654 to team champion Walla Walla’s 628.

Fishing

Idaho’s spring chinook salmon season will open Friday on four river stretches, including the Clearwater, Upper Snake in Hells Canyon, Lower Salmon and Little Salmon.

The Idaho Fish and Game Commission last weekend also set a May 26 opening for the Lochsa River.

Fishing will be allowed Fridays through Mondays. Closing dates vary from late-June to late-August, depending on the river and how the salmon run progresses.

Changes in fishing boundaries were set in some river stretches, including:

•The Clearwater from Cherrylane Bridge to the Orofino Bridge is closed.

•The Little Salmon from Timezone Bridge to the mouth of the Little Salmon is closed.

•The Salmon River has a smaller section open to fishing this year.

Details on open river stretches and other rules are in the 2007 spring chinook seasons available at license dealers.

Idaho Fish and Game officials are forecasting that 27,700 adult chinooks will swim over Lower Granite Dam, the last of the eight federal dams on the returning salmon’s way up the Snake River to Idaho. That’s about 5,000 fewer than the 2006 run of 32,664.

As of Sunday, 3,187 adult fish had crossed Lower Granite this year. The 10-year average is about 20,343 by that date. Biologist believe the bulk of the run is late to migrate into the Columbia system.