Kerr an All-NWC pick for 2nd time

Softball: Lacey Kerr, Whitworth’s senior outfielder from Mt. Spokane, is a first-team All-Northwest Conference selection for a second straight season to lead a contingent of six Pirates honored by the conference.

She batted .378, leading the Pirates with 13 doubles and a .474 on-base percentage and tying for first with five home runs. A three- season starter in center field, she leaves as the school’s all-time leader in RBIs with 86.

Emilee Lepp, Linfield’s sophomore catcher from Colville, was also first team.

Selected to the All-NWC second team on a vote of the league coaches were Whitworth’s Heather Hesselgesser, a freshman infielder from Lakeside of Nine Mile Falls; Sami Parr, a sophomore infielder; and Jessica Mangis, junior pitcher from Liberty.

Freshman infielder Jamie Brunner from Chelan and senior catcher/designated player Ashley Carey from Enumclaw, Wash., were honorable mention.

Rodeo buddies recover together

Rodeo: Bareback riders Ryan Gray and Bobby Mote travel together. They also have surgery together. And, they recover together.

The two PRCA cowboys from the northwest – Gray is a Cheney native, Mote ranches in Oregon – had surgery April 27 in Dallas.

Mote, the defending and three-time champion, had neck surgery to remove bone spurs in his spinal cord. He is expected to be out until the second week of June. Gray had a torn meniscus repaired and floating particles removed from his right knee. Mote went to Gray’s house in Texas for a few days where his friend’s wife, Lacy, took care of both of them.

“Surgery went well,” Gray, the bareback leader, told ProRodeo News. “There was a large bucket tear in the meniscus that Dr. Tandy Freeman cleaned up. There was also a hole in the cartilage, so he drilled a hole in the bone to stimulate growth where the hole was.”

Gray expects to return to action the weekend of May 21 at a rodeo in Canada.

Pac-10 honors Cougs’ Tucker

Men’s golf: Washington State senior Kevin Tucker, who had 10 top-25 finishes, was named to the All-Pac-10 second team.

An honorable mention selection as a junior, Tucker’s 71.71 scoring average this season is the best in school history. His career scoring average of 73.31 is also a school record.