WSU will celebrate late coach Brayton’s life
It’s baseball season and no better time to celebrate the life of legendary former Washington State coach Bobo Brayton.
WSU athletics director Bill Moos and the Brayton family announced they will host a celebration of life on May 30 at 1:30 p.m. in the Bohler Athletic Complex in Pullman to remember the former Cougars athlete and coach who died at age 89 on March 28. The public is invited.
“There has never been a greater Cougar icon than Bobo Brayton,” said Moos. “At the time of his passing, I took it upon myself to make sure his legacy lives on for generations and the celebration of life … will be a tremendous opportunity to reconnect with Cougars everywhere and relive so many wonderful memories that Bobo inspired.”
Brayton, a three-sport varsity letterman at WSU who was the school’s first baseball All-American in 1947, coached the Cougars for 33 seasons (1962-94) and won nearly 70 percent of his games. His Cougars captured 21 conference titles, made 10 NCAA postseason appearances and two trips to the College World Series.
The Cougars’ baseball facility, Bailey-Brayton Field, is named for him and his predecessor, Buck Bailey, who combined to win two-thirds of their games in 65 seasons.
At the time of his retirement, Brayton’s victories ranked fourth on the NCAA all-time list. Among his numerous awards and honors are inclusion in the College Baseball Hall of Fame, State of Washington Sports Hall of Fame, Inland Empire Sports Hall of Fame, WSU Athletic Hall of Fame and Yakima Valley Community College Athletic Hall of Fame.
For more information, contact WSU athletics at (509) 335-7156.
College scene
Saryn Mooney, a women’s tennis player from Centennial, Colorado, was named the first recipient of the Aaron Leetch Inspiration Award when the Whitworth University athletics department recognized the school’s outstanding senior athletes with year-end awards.
The Leetch award was created this year to honor the memory of the former Whitworth director of athletics who perished in a plane crash in April. It recognizes a student-athlete who embodies inspiration, passion, perseverance and dedication.
That’s Mooney. Not quite 5 feet tall, Mooney has persevered through bouts of severe rheumatoid arthritis to have a standout career. She was first-team All-Northwest Conference as a sophomore and junior and is a second-team choice this spring.
Dan Scheibe, a baseball pitcher from Richland (Hanford High), received the 2015 Dennis Spurlock Award, while Matt Bray, a men’s soccer midfielder from Ferris, and Peyton McMahon, a softball outfielder from Deer Park (Riverside High), were named the Male and Female Athletes of the Year.
The Spurlock award, in memory of the former Pirates All-America football quarterback (1958-61), honors a student-athlete who models the characteristics of the award’s namesake, specifically modesty, poise, and leadership in addition to excellence in athletics. Scheibe led the Pirates back to the NCAA Division III tournament, going 9-2 while leading the Northwest Conference in wins, strikeouts and earned-run average.
Bray, a team captain and second-team All-American last fall by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, helped lead Whitworth to nine shutouts and a 0.92 goals-against average as the Pirates captured the NWC title before winning two matches in the NCAA D-III tournament.
McMahon, a first-team All-Northwest Conference and second-team All-West Region selection, batted .359 and finished highly among NWC leaders in several offensive categories as she helped lead the Pirates to the school’s first regular-season conference title.
• Elizaveta Luzina and Lize Leenknecht of Washington State have been recognized by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association for their sportsmanship and leadership.
Luzina, a senior from Moscow, Russia, was the Northwest Region recipient of the ITA Cissie Leary Award for Sportsmanship for the second straight year. Leenknecht, a junior from Heule, Belgium, is the Northwest Region winner of the Arthur Ashe Jr. Sportsmanship & Leadership Award.
Luzina, the fifth different Cougar to win the Leary award and first to win it twice, and Leenknecht, the third Cougar to receive the Ashe award, are finalists for the national awards that will be announced later this month at the NCAA Championships.
• Drew Brigham, a Whitworth junior tennis player from Boise, has been selected to the Capital One Academic NCAA Division III All-District 8 men’s at-large team with a 3.96 grade-point average as an engineering physics and mathematics double major. Brigham is eligible for selection to the Academic All-America men’s at-large team.
• Britta LaVoie, a Pacific junior from Mt. Spokane, broke her own school record in the women’s pole vault for the second time in two weeks when she cleared 11 feet, 8 1/2 inches at the George Fox NCAA Last Qualifier last week. She entered the season with a school record of 11-1 before going 11-8 on May 9.
• Six area athletes, three of them at Western Washington, were named 2015 Great Northwest Athletic Conference Academic All-Stars in track and field.
Mark Seely, a junior at Western from Central Valley, was named to the men’s team with a 3.59 GPA in plastics & composite technology. Kali Klotz-Brookes, a junior from Cheney, was a repeater on the women’s academic all-star team with a 3.20 GPA in business and sustainability, and was joined by Sofia Marikis, a sophomore from Lakeside of Nine Mile Falls with a 3.68 GPA in kinesiology.
Kelsey Chase, a Seattle Pacific senior from Northwest Christian with a 3.98 GPA in English, is a two-time repeater on the women’s team, joined by Danielle Maldonado, a Central Washington senior from Mead with a 3.67 GPA in law and justice. Central teammate Kevin Stanley, a senior from CV, was named to the men’s team with a 3.72 GPA in business administration.
Fishing
Nathan Portch, a junior at University High School, joined with Cully Scroggins, a senior at R.A. Long in Longview, to win the Washington State High School Team Bass Fishing championship last weekend on the Pot Holes Reservoir.
Portch, the 2014 Washington Junior State Champion, and Scroggins, who signed the first college bass-fishing scholarship by a state student, with Bethel University in Tennessee, caught fish totaling 18.40 pounds to defeat the defending champions by 17 ounces in the largest event since its inception. Fourteen teams took part.
The winners made their biggest haul from an area deep into the dunes where Portch and his father, Jason, the team coach, had pre-fished. The runners-up were fishing the same area and, with the boats in sight of one another, each side was doing some long-distance comparison to see the size of fish each was keeping.
Hockey
Sean MacFarlane and Riley Bowles of Spokane, who have spent the winter as on-ice officials in the junior amateur North American Hockey League and United States Hockey League, received championship tournament assignments.
MacFarlane is one of two referees selected to work the NAHL’s Robertson Cup final series while Bowles is one of four linesmen working the USHL’s Clark Cup finals.
The Robertson Cup is the oldest junior hockey trophy in the U.S. The Clark Cup is the symbol of supremacy in the country’s only Tier 1 league.
• Nick Farmer of Spokane, a 6-foot forward who had 23 goals, six of them game-winners, and 30 assists for the Wichita Falls Wildcats in the NAHL, has committed to play at Division I Niagara University. He had two goals and two assists in six playoff games as Wichita Falls was eliminated in the first round after winning a play-in series.
Shooting
Mason Maystrovich, a student at Northwest Christian Middle School, placed seventh in the men’s J3 Class for shooters 14 or younger to lead the showing by four members of the Spokane Junior Rifle Club at the National Junior Olympic Shooting Championships at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Maystrovich, 14, scored 1,159.7 out of a possible 1,308 in the 10-meter Air Rifle competition.
Aidan Maddox, 15, Riverpoint Academy, scored 1,180.8 to place 34th in men’s J2 (15-17-year-olds). There were 195 male competitors with the winning score 1,241.6.
Taylor Christian, 13, Horizon Middle School, was 21st in women’s J3 with a 756.9 out of 872 while Cassidy Wilson, 14, who is home schooled, placed 34th in women’s J2 with a 794.4. There were 184 females with the winning score 836.2.
Soccer
The Spokane Shadow ’97 U17 girls team won its age division in the U.S. Youth Soccer Washington State Championship last weekend by defeating the defending champion Pacific Northwest G97-Maroon from the Renton area 2-0 to qualify for the 2015 U.S. Youth Soccer Region IV (West) Championships June 22-28 in Boise.
The regional will bring together champions and select runners-up in U12 through U19 age groups bidding for berths in the national finals July 20-26 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.