Johnson double winner as JBT year wraps up
It was Michael Johnson’s day as the Junior Bowlers Tour season wound up last Sunday at Lilac Lanes.
Johnson, bounced from the lead during qualifying by Todd Benner, came back to knock off the top qualifier 200-192 in the championship match.
It allowed Johnson to win the JBT season title with Benner finishing second, followed by Brandon Roush, Kyle Casey and Chris Gray. Benner, however, wound up with top average for the season, a 203. Lacey Kerr was tops for the girls with a 182 average.
In Sunday’s finale, Terran Travis finished third, Jared Descoteaux was fourth and Thomas Locke fifth. Benner had high game for the day, a 264, and averaged 227 for 10 games. Kerr had a 211 for high girls game.
Baseball
University’s Danny Jordan has committed to play at Lower Columbia Community College in Longview, Wash., as an infielder. LCCC has won nine NWAACC titles and played in 20 of 37 championship games.
“The thing I liked when I visited,” said Jordan, “is they play hard and are always at the top of the NWAACC. They have a 95 percent rate of moving guys on (to four-year colleges or professionally) and that will be good.”
Jordan is a four-year starter and leadoff hitter at U-Hi as a shortstop, third baseman and pitcher.
College scene
One present and two former Washington State swimmers turned in solid performances in recent meets.
Rugile Mileisyte, who just completed her freshman season at WSU, set a Lithuanian record with a time of 1 minute, 5.45 seconds in the 100-meter backstroke at the European Championships in The Netherlands. She finished 28th. She also had the fastest split on her 400 free relay team, a 56.47, under the Olympic B standard of 57.17.
Ex-Cougar Erin McCleave won the 1,500-meter freestyle at the Australian National Championships in 16:50.41. Her first national title did not qualify her for the Australian Olympic team, however, since the 1,500 is not an Olympic event for the women.
Lina Daugvilaite, who just finished her career at WSU, set the Lithuanian record in the 1,500 freestyle with a time of 17:35.29 during the Western Region Spring Long Course Championships. She placed ninth.
•Dakota State senior Greg Biagi from Colfax High, a preseason NAIA baseball All-American, is batting .438 with team-leading figures of four home runs and 17 RBIs in 18 games for the 11-7 Trojans.
Half his 28 hits are for extra bases. He also has nine doubles and a triple.
Football
The Mike Utley Foundation, which recently received a $14,466 grant from NFL Charities, has given a grant of $110,000 to Craig Hospital in Englewood, Colo., for the construction of an outdoor physical therapy facility.
The Mike Utley Terrain Park is scheduled to open in July and will provide opportunities for patients to learn to walk or control a wheelchair in a variety of outdoor terrains. US News & World Report named Craig Hospital one of the top rehabilitation programs in America.
Utley, the paralyzed former Washington State and Detroit Lions star, is a graduate of the program. His foundation supports research and rehabilitation of spinal cord injuries.
Soccer
Eastern Washington has signed seven players for its women’s team, coach George Hageage announced.
Signing with the Eagles are Kirsten Fausko from Auburn Mountainview of Auburn, Wash., an All-South Puget Sound League forward in 2006 and 2007 and her school’s all-time leading scorer; Kylie Balstad, an All-Narrows League defender from South Kitsap in Port Orchard, Wash.; and midfielder Melanie Kitsman from El Dorado Hills, Calif., a two-time All-Sierra Valley Conference selection.
Also, Whitney Brannan, a forward from Kamiakin in Kennewick, who led the Columbia Basin League in goals (15) and assists (eight) in an all-league season as a senior; defender Sara Byrne from Thomas Jefferson in Auburn, an All-South Puget Sound League pick who helped her team to two league championships; midfielder April Coffin from Surrey, British Columbia, a member of a U18 travel team for four years; and Maria Herrera, a midfielder from Lafayette, Colo., who helped the her school to a league championship her junior year.
Track and field
Two area athletes had top-six finishes at the USA Masters Championships last weekend in Boston.
George Mathews of Hayden Lake, a week after winning a world title in France, won the men’s 60-64 20-pound weight throw with a toss of 60 feet, 2 inches, and the 44-pound super weight throw with a toss of 31-8 3/4. He also was fourth in the shot put (41-1/4).
Jeff Schaller of Pullman was sixth in the 60- (8.34 seconds) and 200-meter (28.39) dashes in the men’s 60-64 division. He’s ranked ninth nationally in the former and 11th nationally in the latter.
Volleyball
Ashley Magee, a 5-foot-11 middle blocker from North Central, has signed to play at Walla Walla Community College, Warriors coach Tim Toon announced.
She was team captain her senior year at NC and was twice named the school’s most improved player.
•Caitlin Barschig, a 6-foot All-Greater Spokane League middle hitter at Mt. Spokane, has signed a letter of intent with Lewis-Clark State, the Warriors announced.
Barschig holds the school record for blocks in a match (13), kills in a match (24), career solo blocks (101) and career kills (350).
•Noelle Carstens from Reardan, a 5-9 outside hitter at Walla Walla CC, has committed to play at Eastern Oregon University, WWCC announced.
Top-five in statistics at WWCC, she was selected an NWAACC sophomore all-star, was team captain and earned the coach’s award.
Wrestling
Scott Miller, the men’s and women’s coach at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Ore., the last six years, is leaving coaching after 18 years to enter private business in the Spokane area.
Miller, a native of the Inland Empire who served one year as interim head coach at his alma mater, Eastern Washington, was head coach at Syracuse and Campbell University before arriving at Pacific.
In a school release, Miller said he would continue to be involved in wrestling, especially working to help start more women’s programs in the Northwest. Pacific placed second in the first women’s national tournament this past season.