Tennis

Mead senior Ethan Vaughn and Britta Stime, a Gonzaga University recruit from Mead, had the best showing by eight area athletes in the U.S. Tennis Association Sectional tournament recently in Beaverton, Ore.

Vaughn and Stime both had 4-1 records in the U18 division of the tournament that drew 400 competitors from four states working toward year-end rankings in several age divisions.

Vaughn finished third in his division, losing to No. 1 seed Alex Rovello of Portland in the semifinals. Vaughn, seeded ninth going into the tournament, beat fourth-ranked Stuart Tierney of Hillsboro, Ore., 7-6, 6-1 in the quarterfinals.

Stime won the consolation championship in her division, defeating Sanjana Rao of Beaverton 6-2, 6-1 in the final.

Golf

Beth Wrigley will be back to defend her Spokane Area Women’s Golf Association’s championship Sept. 15-17 at three area golf courses.

Wrigley has won the last four SAWGA titles, including a 12-stroke victory last year.

The stroke-play tournament will start at the Fairways, move to MeadowWood the second day and finish at Qualchan.

Football

Mike Utley, the former Washington State All-American who received a paralyzing injury playing for the Detroit Lions in 1991, will receive the newly named Ricky Sandoval Award at the 16th annual Lions’ Courage House Dinner Oct. 13 at Ford Field.

The award Utley will receive was called the Community Courage Award, recognizing individuals who have made contributions both in sports and the community. It was renamed to honor the late Lions’ director of security who lost his battle with pancreatic cancer earlier this year.

Since his injury on Nov. 17, 1991, in a game against the Rams, Utley has focused his time and energy helping others. His Mike Utley Foundation provides financial support for research, rehabilitation and education for spinal-cord related injuries.

College scene

Two players from Gonzaga and five from Washington State were named top prospects for 2009 summer collegiate leagues by Baseball America.

Gonzaga’s Ryan Carpenter and Drew Heid were honored out of the Alaskan Summer League. Carpenter, a sophomore left-handed pitcher, was ranked the second-best prospect in the league while Heid, the Bulldogs’ senior center fielder, was ranked the 10th-best prospect.

Carpenter was named to the all-league team after leading the league in strikeouts (54) and posting the league’s second lowest earned run average (0.67).

Heid won the league’s most valuable player award, the Silver Slugger Award and was also named to the all-league team after posting league highs in batting average (.427), hits (73) and doubles (18).

WSU pitchers Adam Conley, a left-hander, and right-hander Chad Arnold were singled out as the No. 7 and No. 8 prospects, respectively, in the New England Collegiate League; southpaw Rusty Shellhorn was No. 9 in the Prospect League; and right-handed pitcher Seth Harvey was No. 7 and outfielder Kyle Johnson No. 10 in the West Coast League.

Conley had 37 strikeouts, allowed just 14 hits and one earned run in 341/3 innings while going 2-0 with one save in eight games; Arnold was 3-1 with a 2.68 ERA and 49 strikeouts in 401/3 innings; Shellhorn led his league with eight wins and 89 strikeouts and was fourth with a 1.45 ERA; Harvey had 11 saves and 32 strikeouts in 271/3 innings; and Johnson led his league with a .340 average with 25 RBIs and 18 stolen bases.

•Gonzaga was one of 25 men’s teams to receive an All-Academic team award from the Golf Coaches Association of America with a grade-point average of 3.0 or higher.

•Washington State’s outdoor tennis facility, which has undergone some major renovation in the last couple of years, is one of 12 winners of a U.S. Tennis Association award in its program that recognizes excellence in the construction and/or renovation of tennis facilities throughout the country.

Running

Spokane’s Bill Misner, 69, was recognized on the All-American list by National Masters News for his qualifying time at 8K.

It was his third All-American award in two years.

Equestrian

Angelica Lengyel of Spokane was awarded an American Morgan Horse Association Hunter Seat on the Flat silver medal for her performance at the C-Fair Charity Show a month ago in Monroe, Wash.

Hunter Seat on the Flat is one of six seats in which AMHA awards medals.

Lengyel, a junior rider, qualified to compete for the gold medal at the 2009 Grand National & World Championship Morgan Horse Show Oct. 10-17 in Oklahoma City, Okla.

Rowing

Former Washington State rower Sarah Waterfield won a bronze medal in helping Team Canada to a third-place finish in the women’s four at the 2009 World Rowing Championships in Pozan, Poland, last weekend. Canada was .86 of a second behind second-place USA. The Netherlands won by five seconds.

Waterfield, a native of Kingston, Ontario, completed her career at WSU in 2007 as a member of the Cougars’ varsity eight that ranked as high as eighth nationally and finished fourth at the 2006 NCAA Championships.

Track and field

Forest Braden has been hired as distance running coach at UCLA, after serving as a volunteer assistant in that capacity to Pat Tyson last year at Gonzaga.

A multiple All-American and seven-time Western Athletic Conference champion at Boise State, the Bonners Ferry graduate will oversee the men’s and women’s cross country and distance programs under head track coaches Jeanette Bolden and the recently hired Mike Maynard, Braden’s coach at Boise State.