Top North Idaho athletes honored

They handed out a boat load of awards Saturday night at the annual North Idaho Sports Banquet.

The annual banquet honors the top coaches, teams and athletes in the region.

Here are the winners:

In the college categories, North Idaho College softball coach Don Don Williams was named coach of the year; the Idaho women’s cross country team was named team of the year; NIC softball player Kelsey Cavan was named female athlete of the year; and Idaho track thrower Russ Winger and Lewis-Clark State College baseball player Beau Mills were named co-male athletes of the year.

In prep categories, Coeur d’Alene girls basketball coach Dale Poffenroth was named female coach of the year and Lake City baseball coach Cory Bridges was named male coach of the year.

The Coeur d’Alene girls basketball team was named female team of the year and the LC baseball and Troy boys basketball team were named co-male teams of the year.

Priest River three-sport standout Lacy Hopkins was named female athlete of the year and CdA boys basketball player Nate Clinton was named male athlete of the year.

Here were the other individual athletes for various sports, beginning with boys:

In football, Byron Hout of LC was the 5A/4A athlete of the year and Nick Puckett of Timberlake was the 3A/1A athlete of the year.

In cross country, the honor went to John Coyle of LC.

In boys basketball, Clinton and CdA teammate Andrew Prohaska were named co-players of the year in 5A/4A, while Jason Smith of Troy was named the 3A/1A athlete of the year.

In wrestling, Kyle McCrite of Lakeland was honored. Mason Shaw of LC (swimming), Alex Capaul of LC (baseball), Chris Williams of Moscow (golf), Coyle and Ryan Bowen of Lewiston (5A/4A track), Frank Lagrimanta of Timberlake and Mark Weller of Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy (3A/1A track), Jalon Eborall of CdA (soccer) and Stephen Kwaitkoski of Moscow (tennis) also were honored.

For the girls, Maddie Dolny of Moscow and Shawna Heath of St. Maries were honored in volleyball.

Other winners were: CdA teammates Kama Griffitts and Ali Johnson (5A/4A basketball) and Morgon VanderEsch of Grangeville (3A/1A basketball); Mamie Lash of Post Falls (swimming); CdA teammates Jenna DeLong and Lindsey Stark (softball); Megan Bartlett of Sandpoint (5A/4A track) and Ellen Rouse of Orofino (3A/1A track); Ciara Kremer of LC (soccer); Genna Dodge of Post Falls (golf); Kinsey Gomez of CdA (cross country); and Rayna Allen of Clark Fork (tennis).