GU student Goodwin chosen to officiate NCAA volleyball championships
Ben Goodwin of the Spokane Area Volleyball Referees Association was chosen to work as a line judge at the 2014 NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championships that took place in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on Thursday and Saturday.
Goodwin – a junior at Gonzaga University, where he is a resident assistant in the Kennedy Apartments and a bio-chemistry/pre-med major – was chosen after working the University of Washington Regional in Seattle last weekend, where he worked a semifinal and the final.
The Ferris graduate, a football and baseball standout in high school, has been a college-certified volleyball official since he was 12 years old.
Bowling
A couple of girls made a statement in the Junior Bowlers Tour doubles tournament last Sunday at Deer Park Lanes.
Shelby Snyder and partner Raymond Worthey won the tournament after going into the three-team roll-off finals in first place and the team of Vanessa Vanderweide and Clint Norlen placed third.
Snyder rolled a 992 four-game series (a 248 average) in the first round of qualifying and she and Worthey won three of four matches in the second round to take the top spot into the finals.
Vanderweide and Norlen faced Casey Schierholz and Toby Mertens in the first roll-off, dropping a 466-449 decision in which Schierholz rolled a 276 game and Norlen a 268.
The finals were a nail-biter with Snyder and Worthey defeating Schierholz and Mertens 447-427.
The next JBT will be Jan. 4 at Valley Bowl.
College scene
Savannah Blinn, a redshirt junior outside hitter at Gonzaga, earned honorable mention on the American Volleyball Coaches Association Division I All-America team.
The Lewiston native led the West Coast Conference with 566 kills this season, 11th in the nation, and moved into fifth on Gonzaga’s career kills list with 1,253. She also finished second on the team with 84 blocks this season.
She is GU’s first All-American from the AVCA and first since 1992, when Kelley Cunningham earned All-America Honorable Mention from ASICS/Volleyball Monthly Magazine.
• Chelsea Harkins, a Washington State freshman from Surrey, British Columbia, participated in the Canada Women’s National EXCEL soccer camp in Vaughan, Ontario, in sessions through Friday.
One of five forwards in the 20-player camp, Harkins is eligible for selection to the Canadian team for the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in 2016. She scored two goals in 19 matches for the Cougars, who reached the postseason for a fourth straight season.
• Heather Johnson, a Gonzaga junior midfielder from Kennewick, received second-team honors on the National Soccer Coaches Association of America University Division Scholar All-West team with a 3.71 grade-point average as a finance and human resources management major.
She earlier received West Coast Conference All-Academic honors and was named to the All-WCC first team.
Football
Four members of the Spokane Collegiate Football Officials Association have received postseason assignments, three of them in FBS bowls.
Jim Northcott will be the replay official for the Independence Bowl between Miami and South Carolina on Dec. 27 in Shreveport, Louisiana. It is the 15th bowl assignment in 16 years for Northcott, who is finishing his fourth season as a replay official after 30 years on the field.
With field assignments are Steve Currie, Music City Bowl, Dec. 30 in Nashville, Tennessee, between Notre Dame and Louisiana State, and Steve Hudson, Gator Bowl, Jan. 2, in Jacksonville, Florida, between Iowa and Tennessee.
John Love received two FCS playoff assignments. He worked a quarterfinal Dec. 13 in Fargo, North Dakota, between Coastal Carolina and North Dakota State, after working a second-round game Dec. 6 in Normal, Illinois, between Northern Iowa and Illinois State.
High school scene
The Greater Spokane League, in conjunction with the National Electrical Contractors Association and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, announced the fall sports winners of the NECA/IBEW GSL Award that go to a girl and boy from each school for demonstrating superior balance in academics, athletics and community involvement.This is the 14th year of the award. The winners by school:
Central Valley: McKenna Stocker, soccer; Briton Demars, cross country. Ferris: Sineva Areta, volleyball; Keegan Bray, football. Gonzaga Prep: Evelyn Maddigan, slowpitch softball; Houston Eymann, cross country. Lewis and Clark: Jackie Hambry, soccer; Jason Summers, football. Mead: Erin Kautzman, slowpich softball; AJ Layton, football.
Mt. Spokane: Selena Styren, volleyball; Dorian Miller, cross country. North Central: Rebecca Landron, slowpitch softball; Andrew Vandine, cross country. Rogers: Kabao Xiong, volleyball; Roberto Lopez, cross country. Shadle Park: Lauren Dunnell, cross country; Brett Rypien, football. University: Kelsi Walker, soccer; Tate Orndorff, football.
Letters of intent
Brittany Gay, a two-sport letter winner at Lake City of Coeur d’Alene, has signed to play volleyball and softball at North Idaho College.
Gay earned four letters in volleyball, where she was first-team All-Inland Empire League this fall. She has three letters in softball, where she will play her senior season in the spring, and helped LC to the 2013 5A State championship.
Shooting
Randi Loudin of the Spokane Junior Rifle Club placed sixth in the 2014 Washington State Civilian Marksmanship Program Championships last month.
Loudin, 18, a student at Post Falls High School, shot a score of 578 out of a possible 600 in the three-position air rifle competition at 10 meters at Spokane Rifle Club.
SJRC’s Gold and Silver teams just missed earning a medal. The Gold shot 2,266 and the Silver 2,264. Only two medals were awarded. Second place shot 2,271.