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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Locally: Former Idaho basketball standout Geraldine McCorkell signs with pro team in Sweden

EWU forward Amy Hartleroad (11) battles Idaho forward Geraldine McCorkell for a loose ball, Friday, Jan. 12, 2108, in Cheney, Wash. (Dan Pelle / The Spokesman-Review)
From staff and wire reports

Geraldine McCorkell from Melbourne, Australia, who completed her four-year basketball career at Idaho last season, has signed to play with the Norrköping Dolphins in Sweden’s top professional women’s league.

The 6-foot post player, who will join the Dolphins in August, closed her career at Idaho with 1,552 career points, eighth all-time, with 546 coming her senior year when she averaged 16.5 points and 7.8 rebounds to earn second-team All-Big Sky Conference honors.

She was 12th in the NCAA as a senior with an 88.8 free-throw percentage, highlighted by making 56 of 58 in her last seven games. Her 81.6 percent career mark is fifth all-time at Idaho.

She becomes the seventh former Vandal from recent years to make the jump to the pro ranks, following Alyssa Charlston (Luxembourg), Ali Forde (Germany), Stacey Barr (Australia), Yinka Olorunnife (Spain/Australia), Rachele Kloke, (Australia) and Bianca Cheever (Australia).

College scene

Delaney Hodgins, who completed a record-setting basketball career at Eastern Washington in March and graduated this spring, has been selected as the school’s NCAA Woman of the Year nominee.

The award honors graduating female athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and have distinguished themselves throughout their career in academics, athletics, service and leadership. A record 581from 20 sports have been nominated. The list will be pared to 10 finalists in each of the NCAA’s three divisions.

The Pasco native was a four-time Big Sky Conference All-Academic selection and third-team CoSIDA Academic All-American as a senior who graduated with a 3.86 GPA. She scored a school-record 2,120 points, third all-time in the Big Sky, capping it with a single-season record 692 points. Her community service in Cheney and Spokane included Special Olympics.

Domonique Garley, who will be a senior at Gonzaga this fall, continued her success on the International Tennis Association Summer Circuit with championships in singles and doubles last week in Plano, Texas.

As the No. 5 seed, Garley dropped just one set in winning the singles title, defeating the No. 1 and No. 2 seeded players along the way, then she and her partner won in doubles as the No. 3 seed. The week before she won singles in Tyler, Texas, dropping just one set as the No. 6 seed.

• Two recruits at Washington State and one recruit and one returning player at Gonzaga have elected to forgo the start of pro careers after being selected in the Major League Baseball draft in favor of playing in college the two schools announced.

Brandon White, a right-handed pitcher from W.F. High School in Chehalis, Washington, who was drafted in the 14th round by the Los Angeles Dodgers, and left-handed pitcher Ky Bush from Fremont, Utah, selected in the 40th round by the Kansas City Royals, will be freshmen at WSU.

Gonzaga said Casey Legumina, a RHP who had a school-record 13 saves last season and was selected by the Cleveland Indians in the 35th round, will return for his junior season, and Nick Trogrlic-Iverson will continue his collegiate career at GU after being selected in the 15th round by the Milwaukee Brewers. The RHP is transferring from Central Arizona College.

• TopDrawerSoccer.com has named Washington State redshirt senior Ella Dederick as one of the top-10 goalkeepers in the country in its preseason list of players to watch in 2018.

Last season Dederick led the Cougars into the third round of the NCAA Tournament, posting a shutout over No. 8 Central Florida in the first round and collecting a shootout win over No. 20 Tennessee in the second round.

Her 11 shutouts were second in WSU history, the second most in the Pac-12 and ninth in Division I and earned her a spot on the All-Pac-12 third team. She played for the U23 U.S. Women’s National Team and earned a 1-0 shutout over the professional Chicago Redstars.

• Spokane’s Kelly Hooper at Montana State was joined by four student-athletes at Eastern Washington and three each at Washington State and Idaho who were named All-American Scholars by the Women’s Golf Coaches Association with GPAs of 3.5 or better.

Hooper, a sophomore from Gonzaga Prep, was honored for a second time by the WGCA.

Eastern senior Kirsten Ishikawa (3.88 GPA) and junior Kimberlie Miyamota (3.85) were honored for a third straight year, sophomore Madalyn Ardueser (3.77) picked up a second and freshman Alexa Clark (3.81) earned her first.

WSU’s Alivia Brown, Madison Odiorne and Elodie Bridenne were recognized together for a second straight year.

For Brown, it was the fourth straight season she earned the WGCA’s top academic honor. She graduated in May with a degree in business management and a 3.60 GPA. Odiorne earned her third straight WGCA award while it was the second for Bridenne.

Idaho’s Kendall Gray also was a WGCA Scholar All-American all four years of her career and was joined by Michelle Kim for the second time and Laura Gerner, who received her first. Gray, who has a 3.97 GPA, will serve as an undergraduate assistant coach with the Vandals next season as she completes her degree in mechanical engineering.

• Thirty-eight area athletes, 18 of them at Eastern Washington, are among the 637 the Big Sky Conference named to Spring All-Academic teams.

Eastern’s list brings to a school-record 201 honored during the 2017-18 academic year. That surpasses the record 180 set the previous school year. Three Eagles were honored for a fourth straight year.

EWU: Men’s outdoor track & field – Isaac Barville, freshman, University; Parker Bowden, junior, Central Valley; Jacob Christner, fr., North Central; Matthew Hommel, senior, CV; Dawson Lack, sophomore, Medical Lake; Domenic Rehm, jr., Medical Lake; Jackson Sloan, fr., U-Hi; Austin Upmeyer, sr., U-Hi. Women’s outdoor track & field – Leanne Asper, sr., Lake City; *Dominque Butler, sr., Lewis and Clark; Emma Chappell, jr., LC; *Erin Clark, sr., Cheney; Chrissy Fitzgerald, fr., Ferris; Kari Hamilton, sr., Clarkston; Selina Koon, sr., Moses Lake; *Megan Murohy, sr., NC; Jessica VanOrman, jr., Gonzaga Prep. Men’s tennis – Jeremy Mueller, fr., Spokane. * – indicates fourth straight honor.

Idaho: Men’s outdoor track & field - Josiah Anderson, so., Moscow (Logos); Rikki McCaw, jr., Lake City; Robbie Van Idour, so., Lewiston. Women’s outdoor track & field - Kaleala Bass, jr., Grangeville; Jocie Osika, fr., Lake City; Jordyn Rauer, so., West Valley; Hannah Reiman, so., Central Valley; McCall Skay, jr., WV; Kara Story, so., Coeur d’Alene HS; Krista Story, so., CdA; Cecilia Watkins, jr., Lewiston.

Montana State: Women’s golf – Kelly Hooper, so., Gonzaga Prep. Men’s outdoor track & field – Alex Lewis, jr., Moscow; Brock Winegar, fr., Cheney; Samuel Bloom, jr., Ferris. Women’s outdoor track & field – Megan Ralstin, sr., Lewiston.

Montana: Men’s outdoor track & field – Luke Hilmes, jr., Mead. Women’s outdoor track & field – Madison Ward, fr., St. George’s. Softball – Anne Mari Petrino, so., Pullman.

Idaho State: Women’s outdoor track & field – Anna Gardom, so., Athol (Timberlake).

• Community Colleges of Spokane landed six men and three women on All-Northwest Athletic Conference teams in tennis.

Named to the men’s first team were Sean Singco, Michael Manion and Kyle Smithgall (University). The second team included Christian Flannery, Marshall Coleman and Niamh Lakewolf (Deer Park). Manion is a freshman, the others sophomores.

Freshmen Chelsea Li made the women’s first team while Kellee Bates (Mt. Spokane) and Alex O’Dell were on the second.

• Three CCS athletes with local ties in baseball, softball and track & field and one each in men’s and women’s tennis and women’s golf received NWAC Academic Excellence Awards for the 2018 spring quarter with GPAs of 3.25 or higher.

Baseball: Jesus Lopez, Palouse (Garfield-Palouse); Brayden Olson, Rogers; Cory Wagner, Medical Lake.

Softball: Leslie Jones, Shadle Park; Katelyn Sage, West Valley; Tory Wolf, Ferris.

Track &field: Men - Ben Giachetti, Central Valley. Women - Becca Henry, Northwest Christian; Maggie Nelson, Liberty.

Men’s tennis: Kyle Smithgall, University.

Women’s tennis: Ashley Rotchford, Rathdrum (Lakeland).

Women’s golf: Jordan Dahl, Rogers.

John Sage, a Yakima Valley sophomore from West Valley in baseball, also received an NWAC Academic Excellence Award.

• For the third time in four years, Eastern Washington has won the Big Sky Conference President’s Cup, capturing the honor for the 2017-18 school year in a competition based on a points system that takes into account academic and athletic success.

The Eagles compiled 89 athletic points that included top-four finishes in four sports, including the Big Sky Conference women’s soccer championship; led all schools with a GPA of 3.42; and had the second-best Academic Progress Rate.

North Dakota had interrupted a two-year run by the Eagles in 2016-17. It is Eastern’s fourth cup since the competition began in 2002-03. It also won in 2009-10. Weber State, which finished third this year behind runner-up Northern Colorado, is the only other school with four cup wins.

Hockey

A service to remember former longtime Spokane hockey broadcaster Tom Mableson and his wife, Muriel, will be held Friday (July 20) at 11 a.m. at Manito Presbyterian Church, 401 E. 30th Ave. in Spokane.

Mableson, the voice of senior hockey in Spokane for more than two decades starting in the mid-1950s, died at age 95 on June 4. Muriel, his wife of 64 years, died July 28, 2016.

Letters of intent

Gonzaga baseball – Ryan Sullivan, Aurora, Colorado/Iowa Western Community College; 1B.

Idaho men’s track & field/cross country – Timo Dohm, Placentia, California; distance; Cole Alteneder, Newberg, Oregon; hurdles, 400m.

Idaho women’s track & field/cross country - Nathalia Campos, Meridian, Idaho; distance.

Shooting

Cassidy Wilson placed 14th out of 285 competitors to lead the showing by five members the Spokane Junior Rifle Club in the 2018 Civilian Marksmanship Program National Championships June 26 at Camp Perry, Ohio.

Wilson, 17, who is home schooled, shot 591 out of 600. Mason Maystrovich, 17, Northwest Christian, was 89th; Zachary Pearsall, 16, home schooled, 100th; Taylor Christian, 16, Spokane Valley Tech, 108th; and alternate Ben Tafoya, 16, Gonzaga Prep, 284th.

The SJRC Gold team of Wilson, Maystrovich, Pearsall and Christian was ninth out of 55 teams.

Tennis

The Hayden Peak men’s 55+ 8.0 team from Post Falls took first place in the USTA League Pacific Northwest doubles championships in Sun River, Oregon, earlier this month, qualifying it for the National 55+ Doubles Championships Oct. 19-21 in Orlando, Florida.

Team members are John Williams, Cornell Clayton, Tad Brooks, Glen Satre, Kevin Campbell, Tim Qualls, Mark Jackson and Mike Aageson.

Trang Huynh, who put herself in the Washington State women’s tennis record book in her lone season playing for the Cougars, is returning to Pullman as assistant women’s tennis coach, head coach Lisa Hart announced.

Huynh’s 32 victories in 2015-16 after transferring from Troy University are tied for third most in a season.

She will replace Robin Cambier on the WSU staff after serving the last two seasons as assistant coach at Northern Illinois, where she obtained her master’s degree in management information systems.