Team St. Luke’s reaps multiple medals

Team St. Luke’s, a sports team created by St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Institute for children with physical disabilities, traveled to Piscataway, N.J., to compete July 19-27 in the National Junior Disability Championships at Rutgers University.

The team sent 15 athletes who brought home 134 medals and broke 35 national records. Five were also invited to compete in the International Junior Disability Championships, also at Rutgers that week. Team St. Luke’s won 96 gold medals, 19 silver medals and nine bronze medals.

Carly Allen set three national records, winning gold medals in the shot put, discus and javelin. She also won a swimming silver in the 100-meter freestyle and two bronze medals in the 50 and 100-meter backstrokes, plus a silver in 3-on-3 basketball.

Kasey Andrews won gold medals in the shot, discus, javelin and club, and set national records in the 100, 400, 800 and 1,500. She also set a national record winning the pentathlon and won silver in 3-on-3 basketball.

Kelsie Christenson set five national records, winning gold in the shot, discus, long jump, softball and javelin. She won three track and field golds in the 100, 400 and 800, plus two silvers in the 60 and 800.

Jordan Clyburn won six track and field golds in the 60, 100, 200, 400, 800 and 400 relay. He also won three golds in powerlifting.

Bob Hunt won bronze in the javelin and pentathlon, gold in the 800 medley relay, three golds in power-lifting, and a silver in 3-on-3 basketball.

Michelle Kazuaba broke three national records, winning gold medals in the shot, discus, javelin, softball and long jump. She also won gold in two swimming events: 50-meter freestyle and backstroke.

Chelsea McClammer won track and field gold medals in the 800, 1,500 and 5,000, silver in the 100, 200 and 400, plus silver in pentathlon and 3-on-3 basketball.

Emily Owens won golds in the shot and discus, silver in the javelin and bronze in the club. She also won gold in the 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1,500, pentathlon and two 400 relays.

Mica Price won gold medals in the shot, discus, javelin, and four golds in swimming.

Austin Pruitt won gold medals in the shot, discus and javelin, long jump and club, breaking two national records, plus golds in the 100, 200, 400 and pentathlon.

Isaiah Rigo won gold medals in the shot, discus, javelin, 60, 100, 200, 400 and the 400 relay, plus silver in softball.

Mikila Salazar won gold in the shot and discus, silver in javelin and gold in the 400 relay.

David Watts won gold in the 100, 200, 400 and 800.

Amber Weber won gold medals in the 100, 200, 400, 400 relay, 800 medley relay and pentathlon; silvers in the 800, 1,500 and 5,000; and silver in 3-on-3 basketball.

Casey Zeigler won golds in the shot, discus and javelin, three golds in power-lifting and silver in 3-on-3 basketball.

The NJDC was founded in 1984 for athletes with spinal injuries, cerebral palsy, visual impairments, amputations, limb deficiencies, and other congenital anomalies from the United States and several foreign countries. Athlete’s ages range from 7 to 21.

Baseball

The 13-U Spokane Heat took third place at the United States Amateur Baseball Federation World Series in San Diego last weekend. The team finished 3-1 in pool play and 3-2 in double elimination. To reach the World Series, the Heat won championships in Pasco, Ellensburg, Everett and Manteca, Calif. The Heat’s overall record this season is 40-14.

The roster includes Carson Cook, Hayden Brooks, Jacob McKnight, Scott Hilpert, Austin Breckenridge, Matthew Adams, Mitch Bevacqua, Sean Hill, Anthony Hinkson, Sammy Sprague, Levi Pereira, Jordan Quast and Cody Snider.

The Spokane Heat are coached by Ed Snider and Parker Brooks. The club is in its 12th season. More than 150 players have moved on to play collegiate baseball, and 37 players have been drafted by major league teams.

•The Spokane 10U All-Stars finished fifth overall in the West Zone Pony/Mustang Tournament in Chino Hills, Calif., last weekend.

After losing to host Chino Hills 11-4 in the first round, Spokane rebounded with a 19-3 rout of West Jordan, Utah, in four innings. It faced Chino Hills again in the double-elimination round and lost 4-3 to exit the tournament.

•Last week in a report on the Washington State Little League tournament in Auburn, we incorrectly stated that results from the 10-U Spokane South West Little League were not available. The team was actually the Spokane Southeast 10-U, which went undefeated at the district tournament and played in the State Little League tournament in Vancouver, where it lost 5-2 to Capitol and 13-3 to Mill Creek.

The Spokane Southeast 10-U All Stars include Nelson Cantrell, Brett Freshler, Chauncye Garigan, Tyler Hojnaki, Kazden Lee, Nick Merkel, Jake Ochoa, Neil O’Keefe, Jack Paukert, Michael Thew, Evan Weaver and Ryan Young. Coaches are Neil O’Keefe and Darren Young.

Basketball

The Spokane Stars completed a two-week swing with generally fruitful results in Washington, D.C., and South Carolina.

As the only West Coast entrant, they went 5-0 in pool play during the 162-team United States Junior Nationals in D.C. and advanced to the 26-team tournament. They won once before losing to Boo Williams of Georgia, one of the top teams in the country.

“To be honest, I didn’t think we’d win a game with all the injuries we had,” said coach Ron Adams.

The Stars were down to eight players – minus Kama Griffitts and Carli Rosenthal from Coeur d’Alene and Katelyn Loper from Post Falls – but beat Maryland Sol Reebock 63-23; the Canadian National Junior U16 team 70-31; New England Crusaders 51-49 in overtime; Florida Sun Coast 56-22; and Blue Star Select from Pennsylvania 50-33.

In the tournament proper they beat New York New Heights 57-53 before losing to Boo Williams 63-45.

Kenzie De Boer from Lynden, Wash., averaged 17.1 points per game in the tournament. Moses Lake products Carly Noyes and Jordan Loera provided offensive backing. Noyes led in rebounding and Loera in assists.

Then it was on to the 24-team Nike Nationals for Nike-sponsored teams, in North Augusta, S.C., where the Stars drew a tough pool and went 2-3. Two of the pool teams, CY Fair from Texas and West Coast Premier, reached the eight-team Gold (top) tournament semifinals. A third, Georgia Metros, won the Silver Tournament.

The Stars lost 40-27 to the Metros; 46-34 to the GA/Lina 76ers; 60-37 to West Coast Premier; but then upset CY Fair 57-52 on Loera’s five 3-pointers; and beat the Alabama Roadrunners 55-38 as Noyes and DeBoer scored 14 points each and Loera added 13. The Stars finished 38-6 for the summer.

Other team members are Ally Schmitt from Snohomish, Wash., Jordin Juker from Boise, Danielle Love from Cascade High of Everett, Sarah Hartwell from Bellarmine Prep of Tacoma and Brooke Gallaway, an incoming freshman to Central Valley.

•The Spokane Wild eighth-grade girls AAU Team won the 2007-2008 Inland Empire Cup Competition.

Each year the Inland Empire AAU awards points based on the performance of each team from Eastern Washington and Idaho in AAU-sanctioned events.

The Spokane Wild finished first with 180 points.

The team is made up of Spokane, Spokane Valley, Coeur d’Alene, Cheney and Rosalia players. The roster includes, Katie Estey, Erin Legel, Whitney Black, Mandy McDowell, Page Reidt, Mackenzie Via, Veronica Dringle, Maci McLain, Briann Maley, Julia Rambo and Maggie Heidenreich. The team is coached by Mark Estey and Tom Legel.

•The Northwest Blazers beat NorCal Elite 72-35 to win the MSNM Western Championship in San Diego last week. The Blazers won eight straight games in the highest division of the tournament, beating their opponents by an average of more than 20 points per game.

This season the Blazers won five tournaments in Las Vegas, Phoenix, Seattle, Los Angeles, and San Diego while playing in the highest division of each event. The roster includes Joselyn Tinkle (Missoula), Kellie McCann-Smith (Clarkston), Jazmine Redmon (Mead), Daisy Burke (Lewis and Clark), Danielle Walter (Pasco), Jordan Sullivan (Sidney, Mont.), Tori Hill (Anaconda, Mont.), Hana Potter (Minneapolis) and Tiffany Idler (Burbank, Wash.) The Northwest Blazers are coached by Steve Klees, Laura Walter and Bill Hill.

Track and field

Several local athletes qualified for the July 22-27 Junior Olympic National Track and Field Championships in Omaha, Neb.

Courtney Hutchinson of the Spokane Mercury won the youth girls shot put with a throw of 46-51/4. Sarah Kenny finished 29th in the intermediate girls shot with a throw of 26-1.

Hovhannes Melkonyan of the Greater Spokane Track Club finished second in Intermediate Boys 2 javelin with a throw of 181 feet.

In the young girls javelin, Courtney Hutchinson finished 12th at 86-0.

In the 1-kilogram young women’s discus, Ashley Kenny of the Greater Spokane Track Club finished fourth at 136-6 and Anna Albrecht, also with Greater Spokane, finished sixth at 133-5.

In young women’s pole vault, Morgan Dunning was 12th with a leap of 10-10.

Parker Bowden finished 24th in the midget boys 80-meter hurdles with a time of 15.33 seconds.

Girls golf

Spokane’s Chessey Thomas, 16, helped lead Team Washington to a fifth-place finish at the Junior Americas Cup team competition, held at Willow Park Golf Course in Calgary, Alberta, July 29-31. Thomas, who shot scores of 77-78-77 on the par-73 course, was one of four players representing Washington in the 18-team event. Other members of the team were Katrina Hegge, Lauren Sewell and Kristin Tan, all from the Seattle area.