Sunday locals: Idaho’s 2014 hall class includes 6 individuals, 2 teams
Six individuals and two sets of teams will be honored this fall during the University of Idaho department of athletics biennial Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and Banquet.
The 2014 class includes contributors Bob and Jan Cowan, Jake Scott (football), Russ Winger (men’s track and field), Jackie Ross (women’s track and field), Sherrie Crang (women’s track and cross country), the 1966-73 men’s tennis teams and the 1937-41 cross country teams.
The class will be inducted during a banquet Sept. 12 at the University Inn-Best Western in Moscow, Idaho, and will be recognized at the Hall of Fame football game the next day in the Kibbie Dome when the Vandals play Western Michigan.
The Cowans, for whom the Cowan Spectrum is named, are being honored for their longtime contributions to Vandals athletics. Both are Idaho graduates and past recipients of the alumni association’s Jim Lyle Award. Bob was inducted into the Alumni Hall of Fame in 2004.
Scott, a native of Lewiston, was a four-year starter for the Vandals before embarking on a 10-year professional football career. He played for the 2006 Super Bowl champion Indianapolis Colts and was on the 2004 Football Digest All-Rookie team.
Winger is a six-time NCAA All-American thrower and a 10-time NCAA championship meets qualifier. He finished second in the NCAA indoor shot put three times, and was an NCAA top-five finisher six times.
Ross was a 10-time Big Sky Conference champion and in 1990 set a record in the outdoor triple jump that still stands. She was the Big Sky’s indoor field athlete of the year in 1990, 1991 and 1992 and competed in the 1988 Olympic Games for St. Vincent.
Crang was the 1982 AIAW national champion in the 3,000 meters and helped the Vandals to a second-place national finish. She was a member of the 1982 regional cross country championship team, which had a 41-4 dual record, and still holds Idaho’s record in the 5,000 meters and is second all time in the 3,000 and fourth in the 1,500 and 10,000.
UI men’s tennis teams that will be inducted won seven successive Big Sky Conference titles while the men’s cross country teams similarly dominated the Pacific Coast Conference with titles in all four of the years in which they are being recognized.
College scene
Collin Slaybaugh, a Washington State senior catcher/outfielder with a 4.0 grade-point average in movement studies, was named the Pac-12 Conference Baseball Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
It is the sixth award Slaybaugh has received in 2014 that recognizes academic achievement.
He was also selected to the Capital One CoSIDA Division I Academic All-America second team, the District 8 All-Academic first team, the Pac-12 All-Academic first team, and he received a WSU Senior Excellence in Academics award and a Cougar Pride trophy, which goes to one male and one female student-athlete and also takes into account athletic and personal qualities.
• Kara Soucek, a Gonzaga sophomore, was named to the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association All-West Region second team. She had been a first-team selection in 2013 and is the fourth rower in school history to receive all-region honors in consecutive seasons.
• Kate Nelson, a junior from Moscow, Idaho, was the coxswain that led the Western Washington varsity four to victory in the 13th annual NCAA Division II National Women’s Rowing Championships last weekend in Indianapolis.
It was the seventh national championship for the WWU varsity four, which did not lose to a D-II school this season. The Vikings, bidding for an eighth NCAA D-II championship, placed third in the team standings in the tightest finish in history after its varsity eight placed third by .06 seconds. Two points separated the top three schools. Humboldt State claimed its second title in three years.
• Four members of the Washington State women’s crew with area connections were named to the Pac-12 Conference All-Academic team.
Erin Schuster, a junior from St. John-Endicott with a 3.95 GPA in construction management, was selected to the first team, while seniors Katelyn Maley (Rosalia) and Mallory Wordell (Spokane Falls CC) and junior Carter Marks (Warden, Washington) earned honorable mention.
• The Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association named 11 Gonzaga Bulldogs to its Scholar-Athlete team – Sarah Atkins, senior, 3.66 GPA, nursing major; Alyssa Bashor, sophomore, 3.96, international relations; Naseeb Bhangal, sr., 3.95, psychology; Laura Brasch, junior, 3.79, sport management; Casey Burt, jr., 3.63, mechanical engineering; Eleanor Hammond, so., 3.75, pre-med; Madison Keaty, sr., 3.73, sport management; Malori McGill, sr., 3.78, business; Lillian Rorick, so., 3.57, psychology; Jordan Schroeder, sr., 3.56, biology; and Madeleine Verspieren, so., 3.63, accounting.
Atkins, Bhangal, Keaty and McGill earned the honor for a third straight season, and Brasch, Burt and Schroeder were selected for the second consecutive year.
• A.J. Maricich entered the University of Washington as a freshman in 2010 coming off a second straight State 4A high jump championship for Mead and leaves this spring as the fourth-rated high jumper in UW history both outdoors and indoor.
Maricich jumped a personal-best 7 feet, 2 1/2 inches in 2012 to earn a spot in the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, where he finished 23rd, and had an indoor-best 7-2 1/4 this season. Both are the fourth-best jumps in school history. He finished 30th at the 2014 NCAA regionals.
• Emily Ebaugh, a Bloomfield College freshman from North Central, hit .320 for the Deacons’ softball team. The catcher played in 11 games, going 11 for 25 with nine runs scored and three RBIs as the NCAA Division II school in Bloomfield, New Jersey, had a 20-20 record.
• A pair of track and field competitors, junior Emma Murillo and senior Jon Buchanan, have been selected the Eastern Washington athletic department’s Scholar-Athletes of the Month for June.
Murillo, a special education major from Kennewick with a 3.61 GPA, received the female award after she uncorked a personal-best (by more than 20 feet) javelin throw, 158-2, to win the Big Sky Conference championship. She went on to place 10th in the NCAA West Preliminaries at 156-11 to qualify for the NCAA Championships next week in Eugene.
Buchanan, from East Valley (Yakima) in his final conference meet, won the shot put with an outdoor-best 57-11 3/4, fourth best in school history. He will be named to his third Big Sky All-Academic team this spring.
• Gonzaga shared the West Coast Conference men’s all-sports trophy with BYU and finished second to the Cougars for the Commissioner’s Cup.
BYU compiled 92.0 points to 79.5 for GU to capture its second straight Commissioner’s Cup. Both schools had 37.5 men’s points. GU was third behind BYU and San Diego for the women’s all-sports award.
Letters of intent
Community Colleges of Spokane softball: Michele Strauss, pitcher, Ferris; Markee Jackson, first baseman, Mt. Spokane; Berkley Fisher, outfielder, Shadle Park; and Ashlynn Bocook, outfielder, Mead, all first-team All-Greater Spokane League; and Jessi Wittmeyer, outfielder, Colville, and Katelyn Sage, catcher, West Valley, both first-team All-Great Northern League.
• CCS baseball: Sawyer Sims, Cheney, a two-time first-team All-Great Northern League right-handed pitcher.