Locally: Lewis and Clark senior Sierra Kersten named Junior All-American
Sierra Kersten, a senior at Lewis and Clark High School, has been named an HP Scholastic Junior All-American, the American Junior Golf Association announced.
Kersten, two-time reigning Greater Spokane League MVP and State 4A runner-up as a junior after winning the title in 2013, scored a 2,060 on the SAT and carries a 4.0 grade-point average. She is a 2014 AP Scholar.
This summer she was runner-up at the Ryan Moore Junior Championship in Lakewood, Washington; placed third in the girls 16-17 division at the Washington Junior Golf Association state championship at Manito; and tied for 15th at the ClubCorp Mission Hills Desert Junior in Rancho Mirage, California.
Despite a full golf schedule, she made time to volunteer at Canyon Kids Club, a weekly summer golf clinic at Indian Canyon that promotes sportsmanship, teamwork and fun on the course.
Since 1988, HP and the AJGA have recognized 12 boys and 12 girls annually who excel both on the golf course and in the classroom. They will be honored at the Rolex Junior All-America Awards Banquet Nov. 23 at PGA National Resort & Spa in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, and are eligible for the Polo Golf Junior Classic Nov. 22-28 on PGA National courses.
Baseball
Chris Duff, the Spokane Indians vice president and general manager, has been named 2014 Northwest League Executive of the Year.
Duff, an Atlanta-area native who joined the Indians in 2002, has been at the forefront of multiple Spokane Indians projects, including the team’s rebranding in 2006, Avista Stadium’s 2013 renovation project and the upcoming inaugural 2015 Northwest League/Pioneer League All-Star Game set for next August at Avista Stadium.
Bowling
Steven Talbot and Brian Long turned a hot hand into victory in the Junior Bowlers Tour season-opening alumni event Sept. 28 at Valley Bowl.
Talbot and his alumni partner vaulted from 10th place into first during the match-play portion of qualifying then waited through the first three rounds of the five-team roll-off to get a shot at Clint Norlen and Larry Harris, who qualified second. Talbot and Long won 491-355.
Kendall Weller, bowling in his first JBT, and partner Wade Rees finished third after qualifying fifth; Toby Mertens and Chris Gray were fourth; and Mathew Shears and Nick Powell fifth.
Grace Martin had high game for the girls, a 203, and Marcus Goss was high for the boys with a 248. Megan Smith, with a 207, and Long with a 279 led the adults.
The JBT is at River City Lanes in Post Falls today.
College scene
Kristen Hansen, a Western Washington junior from Mead, collected the fifth Great Northwest Athletic Conference Women’s Golfer of the Week award of her career for the week ending Oct. 5 after she tied for seventh in the Golfweek DII Fall Invitational in Sunriver, Oregon.
Hansen, the GNL Player of the Year for 2013-14, shot rounds of 72, 71, 75 for 218 over 54 holes in leading the Vikings to a seventh-place finish in the 12-team field.
• Sarah Reiter, a sophomore cross country runner, and Mario Brown, a senior football player, were selected as the Eastern Washington athletic department October Scholar-Athletes of the Month for their performances in September.
Reiter, a marketing and international business major from Renton, Washington, with a 3.75 grade-point average, won the Big Sky Conference Triangular Meet, covering 5,000 meters in 17 minutes, 42 seconds, for which she was named the conference Female Athlete of Week.
Brown, from Berkeley, California, with a 3.29 GPA as a communications major, scored a pair of touchdowns and rushed for 78 yards on 13 carries in a 37-14 win over UC Davis. Through six games he was averaging 55 yards per game and scored three touchdowns.
• Dan Anderson , a Western Washington junior from Sandpoint, scored his first two goals of the season in back-to-back games last week to ignite victories for the Vikings men’s soccer team (4-5-1), which had started the season 2-5-1.
• Three players with area ties figure to play prominent roles for the Western Washington women’s basketball team.
Jenni White, a 5-foot-5 point guard from East Valley, is one of four senior starters returning. She was the Great Northwest Athletic Conference tournament Most Valuable Player.
Among players battling for starting roles with the 15th-ranked Division II team will be Kayla Bernsen, a 6-3 junior center from Moses Lake, who missed last season with a torn ACL, and Aleisha Hathaway, a 5-9 guard from Shadle Park, who received a medical hardship for 2013-14. She played in only four games before suffering a concussion and missing the rest of the season.
Golf
Area teams had five of the top nine scores at the Pacific Northwest Pro-Amateur Championship at Circling Raven Golf Club in Worley Oct. 2-3, a tournament that dates back 90 years.
Pro Darin Vaughan of Twin Lakes Village in Rathdrum and amateur partner Darren Slackman of The Creek at Qualchan tied for second at 130, 14 under par and a stroke back of winners Brian Nosler and Spencer Klapp of Portland.
Sharing fourth at 131 were pro Craig Schuh and Colin Guhlke of Deer Park Golf Club and pro Derek Siesser of Spokane and Erik Olson.
Pro Corey Prugh of Manito and Kevin Braegger of Deer Park were in a four-way tie for sixth at 132 that also included pro Mike Roters of Gateway Golf Center in Clarkston and Bill Hood.
Another stroke back in a four-way tie for 10th was the team of David Nuhn and Brad Tensen from the University of Idaho.
Softball
Ken Mathia, an Amateur Softball Association umpire for 24 years, is the new Spokane ASA umpire in chief, commissioner Fuzzy Buckenberger announced.
A former Spokane ASA deputy at UIC, Mathia replaces Randy Harnasch, who filled the position for the better part of five years.
Mathia, a former Washington State basketball letterman who is a youth sports director for the YMCA, started umpiring in St. Louis, Missouri. He has umpired in Spokane for 17 years.
• Sandi Miller , longtime former secretary/office manager for Spokane Metro Softball, received the inaugural Fuzzy Buckenberger Distinguished Service Award at the Spokane Metro Softball Hall of Fame inductions last month at the Elk’s Lodge in Spokane Valley.
Eight individuals, including five former players, composed the shrine’s second class. Inducted as players were Lonnie Wharf, Gene Yarnell, Mike Bippes, Keith Briggs and Al Greenwood. Larry Chatterton went in as a player/contributor, Ron Turner as a sponsor/contributor and Bob West in the umpire category.
• North Idaho Softball Club played 11 games and finished fifth among 62 teams in the 50-plus AAA division at the World Masters championships in Las Vegas on Oct. 4.
It is North Idaho’s fourth straight top-10 finish.
Team members: Lee Libera, Mike Reeder, Marlin Harris, Chuck Ether, Jack Foster, Mike Callahan, Steve Turbin, Al Martin, Steve Saunders, Chris Hayes, Don Owen, Dick Stauffer, Greg Hart, Lundy Larson and Jim Palombi.
Wrestling
Ten athletes with area ties are expected to take to the mats when North Idaho College conducts its annual Red vs. Gray intrasquad match at Mead High School on Oct. 22 at 6 p.m., Mead coach Phil McLean announced.
A Sumo-suit wrestling exhibition will get the evening started at 5:30. Admission is $2.
Among the 2014-15 Cardinals are Tyler McLean (Mead), Tyler Booth (Post Falls), Dillon Miller (Deer Park), Aaron Frank (Deer Park), Billy Marshall (Deer Park), James Ost (Post Falls), Jordan Lacelle (Moses Lake), Kit Major (Riverside), Luke Soumas (Priest River) and Jake Konzal (Deer Park).