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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Locally: Tekoa’s Susannah Scaroni sets world-best time en route to win at New York Mini 10K

Susannah Scaroni crests the top of Doomsday Hill during Bloomsday 2013. (Tyler Tjomsland / The Spokesman-Review)
From staff and wire reports

Susannah Scaroni, who has come out of Tekoa to become one of the world’s top women’s wheelchair road racers, established what is believed to be a world-best time in winning the first professional wheelchair division of the New York Road Runners New York Mini 10K last weekend.

Scaroni, 27, a two-time U.S. Paralympian and four-time Bloomsday champion, covered the 6.2-mile distance in a personal-best time of 22 minutes, 48 seconds.

Five-time New York City Marathon champion Tatyana McFadden was second in 23:34 as the inaugural division in the 47th annual race exclusively for women attracted five in the field of 8,273.

It’s the second victory in a NYRR event for Scaroni, who won the 2017 United Airlines New York City Half (marathon) in 55:06.

Baseball

Wyatt Mills, a former Gonzaga Prep and Gonzaga University (2014-17) pitcher, has been named a 2018 California League North Division All-Star and will appear in the All-Star Game on Monday in Lancaster, California.

The right-hander for the Modesto Nuts, a third-round selection by the Seattle Mariners in the 2017 MLB draft, has compiled a 5-0 record with five saves and a 2.39 earned-run average in 26 1/3 innings this season.

In his senior year at Gonzaga, he had 12 saves, a 1.79 ERA and a 58-4 strikeout-to-walk ratio as the Bulldogs’ closer.

College scene

Washington State junior rower Paige Danielson, a member of the Honors College with a 4.0 GPA in electrical engineering, has been named to the 2017-18 Google Cloud Women’s At-Large Academic All-America second team selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America.

The native of St. Cloud, Minnesota, was named to the All-District 8 team in May for a second time and is also a two-time Pac-12 All-Academic first-team and CRCA Scholar-Athlete first-team selection. She also was the 2017 and 2018 Elite 90 Award recipient at the NCAA Rowing Championships given to the student-athlete with the highest GPA at each NCAA championship.

Kelly Graves, the former Gonzaga women’s basketball coach who took the Oregon Ducks to the NCAA Tournament Spokane Regional final and a 33-5 record, is a finalist for the Oregon Sports Awards’ Slats Gill Sportsperson of the Year award.

Other finalists in the category are Rob Conner, who coached the University of Portland men’s cross country team to a runner-up finish in the NCAA Championships; and Mark Parsons, coach of the 2017 National Women’s Soccer League champion Portland Thorns.

The 66th Oregon Sports Awards winners will be announced Wednesday.

Golf

Kevin Tucker, a two-time NCAA Golf West Regional participant for Washington State as a student-athlete from 2006-10, returns to Pullman as the Cougars’ assistant men’s golf coach, head coach Dustin White announced.

The 2010 graduate spent the past seven years playing professionally while working at various golf clubs. He competed on the PGA Tour Canada for four years (2011-14), two seasons on the All-American Tour (2011-13) and one season on the Dakotas Tour (2016).

A two-time All-Pac-10 honorable mention as a junior and senior, Tucker compiled nine top-10 and 26 top-25 tournament finishes for WSU.

Gunnar Knutson, a Mt. Spokane junior who was Greater Spokane League MVP, placed 32nd in the boys 16-18 division at the 2018 Pacific Northwest Section Junior PGA Championships earlier this month at the Oregon Golf Association’s OGA Course in Woodburn, Oregon.

Knutson, the only area boy or girl in the competition, shot a pair of 7-over-par 79s.

Hall of fame

Gunnar Kayser has only been gone from Montana Tech for about two years. The school has made sure he won’t be forgotten.

The former defensive back from Colbert and Mead High School, who helped spearhead back-to-back Frontier Conference football championships for the Orediggers in 2015 and 2016, will be inducted into the Digger Athletic Hall of Fame with the Class of 2018 during Hall of Fame Weekend at the Butte, Montana, school Sept. 21-22.

He was named the Victory Sports Network Defensive Player of the Year and first-team All-American in 2016. He was also on the second team of the American Football Coaches Association NAIA All-American team and was Frontier Conference Defensive Player of the Year.

Kayser led the conference with seven interceptions, third most in a season, and had 64 tackles. The finalist for the Cliff Harris Award that goes to the top small-school defensive player and a two-time All-Frontier Conference selection, he finished his career with 168 tackles, 13 1/2 tackles for loss, 15 pass breakups and eight interceptions.

Montana Tech student-athletes who earn first-team All-America honors enter the school Hall of Fame two years after their athletic careers end.

Letters of intent

Carroll College volleyball: Paige Wollan, Central Valley, MH; 2017 All-State 4A honorable mention, two-time All-GSL first team.

Lewis-Clark State men’s track & field: Jalen Kirk, Deary, Idaho, hurdler; state placer in 110m and 300m hurdles in 2017 and ’18, 2017 State 300m hurdles champion.

Rowing

Former Washington State Cougar Ieva Adomaviciute (2013-15; 2017) finished third in the A Final as a member of Lithuania’s women’s double sculls crew earlier this month at World Rowing Cup I in Belgrade, Serbia.

The native of Kaunas, Lithuania, and her teammate won their opening heat to advance to the A/B semifinal, where they finished second to gain the A final. They were second behind runner-up Germany in the final and about three seconds behind the Netherlands.