Whitworth men take NWC lead

The defending champion Whitworth men’s track and field team used a win by Nicholas Gallagher in the final event Friday to take a 13-point lead into the final day of the 2009 Northwest Conference Championships at Pacific University’s Lincoln Park Stadium in Forest Grove, Ore.

Gallagher won the 10,000 meters in a time of 30 minutes, 45.93 seconds as the Pirates finished with 79 points. Linfield is in second with 66.

Cody Stelzer and Ron Whitley also had individual wins for Whitworth. Stelzer won a third straight title in the high jump (6 feet, 7 inches) and Whitley won the discus (152-7), setting a Lincoln Park Stadium record. Stelzer also took third in the long jump.

The Whitworth women are also in first with 62 points, seven ahead of Willamette.

Leading the Pirates were Kelly Bradley and Erica Cox in the discus. Bradley won with a throw of 114-6 and Cox took second, 5 inches behind.

The meets conclude today.

Baseball

•Pac-10: Brad Boxberger struck out 11 to lead USC to a 5-1 win over visiting Washington State in the opener of a three-game conference series in Los Angeles. USC (21-17 overall, 10-6 Pac-10) moved one-half game ahead of WSU (19-18, 8-5). The Trojans scored three times in the first with two outs. The Cougars scored their run in the fourth.

•Washington, paced by three homers, handled Oregon 11-1 at Eugene. Kyle Conley, Troy Scott and Jake Rife each homered.

•WCC: Ryan Wiegand tied the game with a double and scored on Anthony Synegal’s double as Gonzaga (26-13, 8-5) scored three runs in the ninth inning to defeat Santa Clara (15-22, 4-9) 6-5 in West Coast Conference play at Santa Clara, Calif. The Bulldogs’ other three runs came in the sixth inning of the game that eclipsed four hours.

Reliever Reedy Berg (3-3) got the win with three scoreless innings while Cody Martin picked up his third save.

Women’s tennis

•Big Sky tournament: Northern Colorado eliminated Eastern Washington 4-1 in a quarterfinal match at Gold River, Calif. Rachel Berger led EWU with a 6-2, 6-0 win, finishing her career with a school-record 42 singles victories.

Softball

•NWAACC: CC Spokane took a pair of games from host Yakima Valley Community College (13-21, 6-14), 11-1 and 10-2. In the first game, Jessica Solbrack allowed one hit in four innings with six strikeouts and no walks. Sean Topp (13-4), a Post Falls graduate, picked up the win in the second game. CCS improved to 30-7 overall and 16-4 in league with the sweep. The Sasquatch combined for 25 hits in the doubleheader and Solbrack accounted for five straight hits.

Women’s golf

•Pac-10: It was a rough first round if you were from the state of Washington as the three-day conference championships began at Palo Alto, Calif.

UW and WSU are 14 and 15 strokes behind, respectively, UCLA. The Bruins shot a 5-over-par 291 at the par-71 Stanford Golf Course. UW is seventh at 305 and WSU is eighth at 306.

Jennifer Song of USC and Carlota Ciganda of Arizona State each shot 2-under 70 for first-day medalist honors.

WSU’s Amy Eneroth was two shots back at 72. Teammates Jessica Black and Andrea Rosete shot 76 and 77, respectively.