Locally: Spokane Junior Rifle Team secures national medals
Spokane Junior Rifle Team collected four NRA national medals for top-six finishes when scores were validated for the 2015 NRA Junior Sectional Indoor Championships.
The Spokane Silver team earned national awards by placing second in the Intermediate Junior class in Air Rifle 3-Position with a score of 2,274 out of a possible 2,400, which earned it 15th overall among 59 teams, and third in Intermediate Junior in Smallbore (0.22) Rifle 3-Position with 2,186 out of 2,400, which was 15th overall among 99 teams. Silver was also eighth in Intermediate Junior Team in Air Rifle 40-Shot Standing.
Team members are Mary Maystrovich, 15, Northwest Christian High School; Aidan Maddox, 15, Riverpoint Academy; Mason Maystrovich, 13, Northwest Christian Middle School; and David Wright, 16, home school.
Mason Maystrovich earned a national award by placing sixth in Sub Junior in Smallbore 3-Position individual competition with a 542 out of a possible 600. He was also 11th Sub Junior in Air Rifle 3-Position.
Taylor Christian, 13, Horizon Middle School, earned a national award by placing fifth in Air Rifle 40-Shot Standing in the Sub Junior class with a score of 377 out of 400. He was also eighth Sub Junior in Air Rifle 3-Position.
Other SJRT top-20 class or national finishes:
Smallbore Rifle 3-Position – Bronze team ( Katie McAdam, 13, home school; Christian; Hannah Freund, 12, Glover Middle School), seventh in Sub Junior Team; Gold team ( Randi Loudin, 18, Post Falls; Maliya Hillman, 16, Lewis and Clark; Mike Cooper, 17, Mt. Spokane; Cassidy Wilson, 14, home school), 12th in Junior Team and 16th overall; McAdam, 11th Sub Junior.
Air Rifle 40-Shot Standing – Gold team, ninth in Junior Team and 13th overall.
Air Rifle 3-Position – Gold team, eighth in Junior Team and ninth overall; McAdam, 19th Sub Junior.
It is the largest junior rifle competition in the U.S.
Baseball
For the 11th straight season and 17th time in 19 years, the Spokane Indians’ playing surface at Avista Stadium was named the Northwest League Field of the Year.
The award puts head groundskeeper David Yearout in the running for minor league baseball’s Sports Turf Manager of the Year, an award the 24-year-old Lewis and Clark High School and Washington State University graduate won in 2014.
Basketball
Spokane Basketball Officials Association, dealing with an industry-wide shortage of officials, is recruiting men and women for the 2015-16 season.
The SBOA provides officials for all area high school, middle school, AAU and YMCA games.
Interested individuals should contact association executive director Steve Ayers prior to Oct. 15 at 951-5566 or spokanebasketball@msn.com. Training is provided. The season starts Nov. 1.
Bowling
Spokane Junior Bowlers Tour alumni returned to help kick off the 2015-16 season last Sunday at Valley Bowl, but it was junior Noah Torres who made the loudest noise.
Torres led the opening qualifying round with a 919 four-game series and maintained the hot hand to claim the top spot in the five-person roll-off. There he joined alum Justin Oens to win the championship in a tight if not high-scoring doubles final, 358-355, over Clint Norlen (youth) and Chris Gray (alumni).
Mathew Shears (youth), who had qualified second after rolling an 878 series, and Alex Earle (alumni) finished third; Toby Mertens (youth) and Terry Auckerman (alumni) were fourth; and Makayla Hoover (youth) finished fifth.
John Hilden led the boys with a 254 game and Klarissa Ader led the girls with a 213. Kolette Foster had a 257 game and 872 series for the women and Terry Auckerman led the men with a 255 game. His 225 average was high for the day.
The next JBT is at River City Lanes in Post Falls on Sept. 27.
College scene
Four former Pullman Greyhounds, including Sarel Loewus, a senior at Oberlin, are competing on collegiate cross country teams.
Loewus was named North Coast Athletic Conference Runner of the Week after dominating the women’s 5K portion of the NCAC Preview last week in Gambier, Ohio. Loewus scored a 10.2-second victory in the 124-runner field, timing 18 minutes, 48.1 seconds. Oberlin placed second.
Other former collegiate Greyhounds include Alexys Garcia, a junior running No. 5 at Washington State; Haley Varnum, a freshman at Bryn Mawr College in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, who placed 14th in the Delaware Valley University Invitational on Sept. 5; and Katy Akmal, a freshman at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California.
• Kristen Hansen, a Western Washington senior from Mead and former Great Northwest Athletic Conference Player of the Year and tournament medalist, is ready for her final season.
“Kristen has become the leader of the team, and she is ready to assume that role,” said coach Bo Stephan of the three-time All-GNAC selection.
Softball
Five former players led the group of eight that the selection committee said played a major role in the growth and development of ASA youth and adult softball in Spokane who were inducted as the third class into the Spokane Metro Softball Hall of Fame on Sept. 12.
The players are Ken Vazanko Biggerstaff, fastpitch; Rick Nelson, slowpitch; Tom Crouch, fastpitch and modified pitch; Roger Risinger, modified; and Fred Farrell, modified, fastpitch and slowpitch.
Also inducted were the father-son umpiring tandem of Don Brock Sr. and Don Brock Jr., and Ken VanBuskirk as a player/contributor.
Connie Kuck was the second recipient of the Fuzzy Buckenberger Distinguished Service Award named for the longtime Spokane ASA commissioner. Kuck is the longtime SASA secretary.