Youth sports notebook: Martin captures air rifle title

Denise Martin is the area’s most recent nationally acclaimed rifle marksman.

The 15-year-old, who will be a sophomore at Chewelah High, won the 2009 Junior Olympic Three-Position Air Rifle championships in early July a week after helping Washington to its second straight national team championship at Camp Perry, Ohio.

She scored a match-record aggregate 1,292.4 points during standing, prone and kneeling rounds over two days of competition and capped things with a final score of 103.4 in a shoot-off against the top eight individuals for her eight-point victory. The initial rounds were scored on 20 shots per position each day and the finalists get an additional 10 shots at a target over a 90-second time frame.

In June, competing in the USA Shooting National Championships at Fort Benning, Ga., Martin won the junior women’s title with an 886.7 score.

Her effort at Fort Benning, said Craig Speirs, who coaches her at the Davenport Gun Club, qualified her for the Junior World Cup traveling team. She also has shot with the Spokane Junior Rifle Club.

Martin has been ranked among the top two through age 14 before moving up in classification this year, has been invited for three years to the Junior Olympics in Colorado and aspires for the 2012 Olympics in London, Speirs said.

“She’s the best ones I’ve ever coached,” he said.

End of the Trail

Clarkston’s Kellie McCann-Smith was an MVP and her Northwest Blazers reached the Final Four of the End of the Trail Basketball Tournament in Oregon City. The Blazers won the Silver Bracket in the National Division. The Spokane Stars Blue finished third in the Platinum Bracket. The Spokane Sandpipers were second in the American Division Blue.

Ambitious undertaking

Lewis and Clark cross country runner Chris Ennis and his friend Connor Simpson are nearing the end of an ambitious cross-state adventure.

The pair began running and biking on June 22 from near the Idaho border and expect to arrive at their ultimate destination, Ocean Shores, on Friday. Ennis’ mother, Spokane Public Schools community relations director Terren Roloff said Ennis had wanted to make the trek for more than a year.

The pair’s itinerary was broken into roughly 20-mile daily segments traveling west along Highway 2 and staying with friends and relatives in the many communities as well as motels along the route. They crossed two passes, Blewitt and White, and are expected to reach Centralia today.

The pair will have traversed, by their estimate, nearly 490 miles when they arrive at Ocean Shores.

Legion baseball playoffs

The Spokane Blue Devils captured the American Legion AAA championship with a 12-4 league record and will host the four-team Colfax regional Saturday and Sunday as the Division V No. 1 seed.

The remaining four teams – Spokane Northstars (11-5), Bandits (8-8), Cannons (7-9) and Pullman Patriots (2-14) – are playing a double-elimination tournament that concludes today with games at Shadle Park’s Al K. Jackson Field beginning at 4:30 p.m.

They are vying for spots in the Selah and Bellingham regionals, also over the weekend.

Eight teams coming from four region sites qualify to state.

•A late charge by Newport sent the American Legion AA baseball team into post-season playoffs beginning today.

Newport finished third in the American North by winning back-to-back doubleheaders, 8-2 and 12-3 over Colville and 6-5 and 10-0 over Chewelah on Saturday and Sunday. The Grizzlies (8-9) are at American South No. 2 Riverside (11-7) in a loser-out game.

Other loser-out contests are American South No. 3 North Central (10-8) at American North No. 2 Mead (13-4); National East No. 3 West Valley (8-9) at National West No. 2 Whitman County (14-4), and National West No. 3 Asotin County (12-6) at National East No. 2 Central Valley (10-7).

The playoffs continue through Monday with best-of-three series to determine four berths to state, which will be in Spokane.

Two are already filled – by host teams Cheney, which went 18-0 in the American League South, and University, the National East champion with a 14-3 record. Mt. Spokane (16-1 in the American North) and Ferris (17-1 in the National West) are other divisional champions awaiting playoff foes.

State Little League

A Central Valley nine-and-10-year-old baseball team has advanced to the Washington State Little League tournament beginning Saturday at Vista Park in SeaTac.

CV won the local District 13 tourney, outscoring area teams from SouthWest, West Plains and Mead twice by a combined 56-8 score.