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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Local sports roundup

LaVe’
From Local And Wire Reports

Juliana LaVe’ collected three gold medals and Heather Hoeck-Mills two to lead 15 members of KTigers Taekwondo in Coeur d’Alene who came home from the Washington State Governor’s Cup Taekwondo Championships in Lacey last weekend with 11 first-place gold medals, three silver medals and three bronze.

LaVe’ and Hoeck-Mills combined for first place in the All Team Traditional and Creative Form category, where each was awarded a gold medal. LaVe’, an assistant instructor at KTigers from Post Falls, won individual gold in the women’s 18- 32-year-old black belt division in Traditional Form and Board Breaking competition. Hoeck-Mills, from Coeur d’Alene, won the Advanced gold in Traditional Form.

Other firsts went to: Julia Tickemyer, ages 6-7 women’s all-belt-level Traditional Form; Chase Watson, ages 8-9 men’s intermediate Traditional Form; Danielle Henson, ages 8-9 women’s beginner Traditional Form; Sasha Westly, ages 15-17 women’s intermediate Traditional Form; Jacob Smith, ages 15-17 men’s black belt Board Breaking; and Benjamin Henson, ages 18-32 men’s beginner Traditional Form.

Capturing silver were: Giovanni Carlino, ages 8-9 men’s intermediate Traditional Form; James Sanders, ages 10-11 men’s intermediate Traditional Form; and Marcie Fairchild, ages 33-41 women’s intermediate Traditional Form.

Bronze-medal winners: Hailie Valesco, ages 8-9 women’s advanced Traditional Form; Brandon West, ages 12-14 men’s black belt Board Breaking; and Braedon Parsons, ages 15-17 men’s black belt Traditional Form

The Governor’s Cup attracted 724 competitors from 65 taekwondo schools from eight states and Canada.

College scene

Riley Stockton, a Seattle Pacific senior from Ferris, is one of 15 players named to the Great Northwest Athletic Conference men’s basketball Preseason All-Conference team.

The 6-foot-4 guard, the GNAC Defensive Player of the Year in 2013, averaged 8.1 points and led SPU with 5.8 rebounds and 44 steals last season.

Jenni White, a 5-5 senior point guard at Western Washington from East Valley, was named to the Great Northwest Athletic Conference women’s Preseason All-Conference basketball team.

White, the MVP of the 2014 GNAC tournament, ranked second in the conference in assists last season at 4.7 per game and was an all-conference honorable mention.

Golf

Nate Hair of Edwall, Washington, and Justin Kadin, a former University of Idaho golfer, contributed two points apiece for the amateurs to help forge a 10-10 tie with the professionals in the 66th Hudson Cup matches last week at Tualatin, Oregon.

It’s just the fifth tie in the Ryder Cup-style matches that the pros have won 54 times.

Hair had wins in four-ball and foursome and Kadin in foursome and singles. Corey Prugh of Manito Golf & Country Club was on a winning four-ball team for the pros.

For just the second time in the 23-year history of the Senior Hudson Cup, the amateurs prevailed, winning 12 ½ -7 ½. Tom Phillips of Spokane halved matches in four-ball and singles. Mark Gardner of The Creek at Qualchan had a point in foursome for the pros.

• Gamble Sands, a new daily-fee course outside of Brewster, Washington, has been selected by Golf Digest editors as the Best New Course to open in America in 2014.

Golf Digest said in its November edition that Gamble Sands, designed by David McLay Kidd atop a sandy mesa above the orchards on the Century-old Gebbers Farms, can’t be described as totally original, “because nothing in golf architecture ever is. But the layout, best described as a high-desert links, is different enough” to warrant the selection.

“Part of its unique appeal is the vast scale of the place – nearly 120 acres of tightly mowed turf on a 1,000-acre parcel atop a treeless plateau overlooking the Columbia River Valley in central Washington,” wrote Ron Whitten.

“Part of it is the sheer playability of the course, with firm, fast fescue fairways that allow popcorn drives to roll out prodigious distances and massive-yet-docile fescue putting surfaces so flawless as to make 10-footers seem like gimmes.”

High school scene

Sandpoint and Moscow collected Idaho High School Activities Association academic state championships during the fall sports season.

The IHSAA and the United Dairymen of Idaho honor the varsity team in each classification with the highest cumulative grade-point average.

Sandpoint received its award in 4A girls soccer with a 3.79 grade-point average and Moscow in 4A girls cross country with a 3.994 GPA.

Softball

David Birdsell, finishing up a one-year term as secretary, was elected president of the Spokane Softball Umpires Association.

Birdsell will replace two-term president Dallas Williams, who moves into the past president position, replacing Andy Weiss.

Gil Peckham, the at-large board member, was elected secretary while Mike McCaskill was elected to replace Peckham as the at-large board member.

The other two board members up for election, Ron Snyder, vice president, and Gary Kuck, adult director, were re-elected. Bob Kuck returns for the second of a two-year term as youth director.