Local briefs: EWU to honor Dick Hannan at Hall of Fame festivities
Richard “Dick” Hannan, a long-time coach and administrator from Spokane who received two degrees from Eastern Washington University, has been named the 2018 recipient of the Eastern Athletics Hall of Fame Service and Contribution Award.
He will be recognized as part of the 18th class of inductees into the Eastern Athletics Hall of Fame on Sept. 22.
A native of Spokane and a North Central High School graduate, he played basketball for the legendary W.B. “Red” Reese at Eastern in 1960 and 1961 before receiving his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in 1963 and 1969, respectively.
He went on to spend nearly 50 years as a coach and administrator, much of it in the Inland Northwest.
His coaching stops included his high school alma mater, North Central; Columbia Basin College, where he played two years before transferring to Eastern; and Lewis-Clark State, where he was also athletic director. He was also A.D. at Weber State and Southwest Texas and was the first commissioner of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, serving for 10 1/2 years from its inception in 2001.
While at Lewis-Clark State, Hannan won 212 games in 15 seasons as basketball coach, including five seasons with 18 or more wins and a school-record 21 in 1985-86. As A.D., he played a critical role in bringing the NAIA World Series to Lewiston and helped keep the championship baseball tournament there for eight years (1984-1991). Since 2000, Lewiston has been the annual home of the NAIA showcase event.
The induction breakfast and ceremony are open to the public; cost is $20 per person. Guests must register via a link that will be available in July at http://goeags.com/HOF.
Bowling
Grace Martin couldn’t have designed it any better in her final year of eligibility on the Spokane Junior Bowlers Tour.
The 20-year-old Rogers graduate returned from a year at Savannah College of Art and Design, where she bowled for the Bees’ women’s team, and proceeded to become what is believed to be the first girl to lead the SJBT season-long standings and finish atop the five-person All-Star team.
Martin compiled 191 points to outdistance runner-up John Hilden by 21 points. Both had top-five finishes in seven of the nine season tournaments with Hilden winning three and Martin two. Hilden had high season average, a 211. Martin averaged 207.
Blake English finished third with 154 points; Shaynie Montee was fourth with 120, giving the girls two spots in the top five; and Mason Georgeadis was fifth with 116.
Martin finished second in the season-ending tournament at Players last weekend after qualifying first and Hilden wound up fifth, matching his qualifying position.
Nic Riorden, whose steady day earned him the No. 2 qualifying position, won the finale with a 243-193 victory over Martin. Montee was third and Kyle Grove, who recorded his first 700 four-game series (703) in qualifying third, finished fourth after dropping a 9th- and 10th-frame roll-off with Montee.
Riorden had high game for the boys, a 278, and high average for the day with a 222. had a 279 for the high girls’ game. Grove averaged 215, Martin 212, Montee 210 and Hilden 209.
The fun tournament will cap the season at Valley Bowl on March 11.
College scene
Tyler Blakeley, a Lewis-Clark State junior from Freeman and Community Colleges of Spokane, cleared 6 feet, 10 3/4 inches to win the NAIA Indoor National high jump championship Friday in Pittsburg, Kansas.
Blakeley won by 1 1/2 inches over runner-up Qua Stocks of Reinhardt University in Waleska, Georgia.
—- Laura Lavine, a three-time NCAA Track and Field All-American in the discus at Washington State from 1984-88, is among 12 former student-athletes who will be inducted into the Pac-12 Conference Hall of Honor on Friday in Las Vegas, during the conference men’s basketball tournament.
She placed fifth in the discus at the 1986 NCAA Championships, earning her first All-America honor, and followed with back-to-back Pac-10 and NCAA discus titles in 1987 and ‘88. In ’87, she became WSU’s first female NCAA outdoor champion, and won in ’88 on a dramatic final throw. Her lifetime-best of 189 feet, 10 inches still stands as the school record.
After earning four letters in the discus and shot put, Lavine competed in the 1988 and ’92 U.S. Olympic Trials, placing seventh in the discus in ’88. In 1996, she was selected WSU’s Woman Athlete of the Decade as part of the Pac-10’s celebration of 10 years of women’s athletics and was inducted into the WSU Athletic Hall of Fame in 2006.
The other 2018 Pac-12 honorees: Michael Wright, Arizona basketball, 1999-2001; Linda Vollstedt, Arizona State golf, 1980-2001; Matt Biondi, California swimming, 1983-87; Bill Toomey, Colorado track and field, 1958-61; Andrew Wheating, Oregon track and field, 2006-10; Carol Menken-Schaudt, Oregon State basketball, 1979-81; Kerri Walsh Jennings, Stanford volleyball, 1996-99; Rafer Johnson, UCLA track and field, 1955-59; Cheryl Miller, USC basketball, 1982-86; Missy Marlowe, Utah gymnastics, 1989-92; and Sonny Sixkiller, Washington football, 1969-72.
—-Alexis Rolan of Eastern Washington and Idaho’s Kasin Pendergrass-Anderson have been named the 2018 Big Sky Conference Indoor Track and Field Freshmen of the Year.
Rolan, a sprinter from Medical Lake, led all female freshmen in points at the Big Sky Indoor Championships with 17.
She was second in both the 60m dash, her 7.45-second time ranking ninth all-time in the conference, and the 200m (24.18). She also placed eighth in the triple jump (18 feet, 11 1/4 inches) as the Eagles scored 52 points and placed fourth.
Pendergrass-Anderson, a jumper from Portland, was the men’s choice after he scored 13 points in two events. He earned silver in the long jump (24-2¼ ) and placed fourth in the triple jump (49-3½ ).
—-Jason Fram, the former Spokane Chiefs captain who helped lead the University of Alberta into the Canada West hockey playoff championships, was named the conference Defenseman of the Year a week after he was named a first-team all-star.
The Chiefs captain during the 2014-15 and ’15-16 WHL seasons had 23 points (nine goals, 14 assists) and a conference-best plus-25 rating in 28 games for the Golden Bears.
—-Madison Hovren, the former Central Valley standout, capped another stellar season at Army West Point by being named to the All-Patriot League second team in women’s basketball.
The league’s Preseason Player of the Year coming off a sophomore campaign in which she averaged a double-double to lead the league in scoring and rebounding and earn first-team all-league honors, averaged 14.6 points to tie for fifth in scoring, 9.8 rebounds to finish third and was second in shooting percentage (.459), all team-leading figures.
She had 17 double-doubles, seven 20-point games and was player of the week three times. After three years, Hovren is one of eight Cadets in program history to record over 1,000 points and 600 rebounds. She has 1,129 and 674.
—-Shelby Cloninger, an Alaska Anchorage senior from Kamiah, Idaho, and North Idaho College, was named to the second team, and McKenna Walker, a Northwest Nazarene junior from Moses Lake, received honorable mention on the All-Great Northwest Athletic Conference women’s basketball team.
The All-GNAC men’s team included Fuquan Niles, a Central Washington senior transfer from NIC, who received honorable mention for a second straight season.
• Four Washington State volleyball players and Sarah Sharp from Idaho were among 234 athletes from 89 colleges invited to a three-day open tryout for the U.S. Women’s National Team, U.S. Collegiate National Teams and U.S. Women’s Junior National Team last week at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.
The Cougars invited are juniors Claire Martin, a middle blocker, and Taylor Mims, an opposite hitter, and sophomores Ashley Brown, a setter, and Alexis Dirige, a libero.
Sharp is a junior outside hitter and first-team All-Big Sky selection.
Mims, first-team All-Pac-12, was a member of the 2017 U.S. Collegiate National Team-Europe Tour that won gold at the Global Challenge Tournament in Pula, Croatia, where she earned all-tournament honors in leading the USA to its second consecutive championship.
—-For the second time this season, Washington State freshman Michaela Bayerlova has been named the Pac-12 Women’s Tennis Player of the Week after she led the Cougars to three victories with straight-set wins in the three matches at No. 1 singles and teamed with Aneta Miksovska at No. 3 doubles for three wins while surrendering just one game.
—-Kris Jackson, a Corbin senior from Lakeland of Rathdrum, was named the Cascade Collegiate Conference Baseball Pitcher of the Week after he tossed a second straight complete game, a two-hit shutout victory over Oregon Tech, striking out eight.
—-Kelly Hooper, a Montana State sophomore from Gonzaga Prep, won the Grand Canyon Invitational golf tournament last weekend in Phoenix in a playoff after recording the fourth-best mark in Bobcats history with a 54-hole score of 3-over-par 219 (70-76-73). She recorded 10 birdies In collecting her first collegiate victory.
—-Joey Biel, from Northwest Christian, was named the Monmouth College Special Teams MVP in football for a second straight year. He finished second in the NAIA Midwest Conference in both kick scoring (70 points) and punting (40.14 yards on 37 punts) and was named to the All-South Division first team.
• Scout Cai, a Seattle Pacific sophomore from Colfax, will be competing in the pole vault, pentathlon and distance medley relay at the NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships next weekend in Pittsburg, Kansas. Her 3,709 points are fifth best among pentathlon qualifiers.
—-Whitworth’s men and women and have been selected behind defending champion George Fox teams in the Northwest Conference preseason track and field coaches polls.
The Pirates women will be led by senior All-American distance runner Kayla Leland (Gonzaga Prep) while the men have back senior All-American javelin thrower Andrew Bloom.
Hockey
The Spokane Chiefs announced they have extended the contract of Joe Everson, who has been the team’s education advisor the last 10 years.
Everson has been involved with the Chiefs for 28 years, beginning as a liaison counselor while he was a counselor at Ferris High School.
Under Everson’s guidance, the Chiefs earned the WHL’s Scholastic Team of the Year award for the 2015-16 season and have been finalists on two other occasions the past five years. Defenseman Reid Gow was the WHL Scholastic Player of the Year in 2011-12.
North Idaho banquet
Jim Zorn, who launched a 12-year NFL career as quarterback of the Seattle Seahawks their first eight seasons, will be the featured speaker at the 56th annual Idaho Athletic Hall of Fame and North Idaho Sports Award Banquet on April 14 at the Best Western Plus Coeur d’Alene Inn.
The annual event honors northern Idaho high school and college athletes, coaches and teams who excelled during the spring and fall of 2017 and the winter of 2017-18. There will also be an induction ceremony for those elected into the Idaho Hall of Fame.
Zorn was named the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year in 1976 when he led the league with a then-rookie-record 2,571 passing yards, which also was a record for an expansion team. In 1978, he earned numerous awards, including AFC Player of the Year by the Washington D.C. Touchdown Club and first-team All-NFL.
Tickets can be purchased online at idahoathletic halloffame.org/banquet/ or at the Best Western Plus Coeur d’Alene Inn. Tickets are $25 for adults and $15 for children 12 and under.
Officials
A couple of veterans, one making his 19 th appearance at Mat Classic in Tacoma the other his first, are among 29 officials from Washington and North Idaho assigned to state high school championship tournaments in wrestling and basketball.
Pat Girtz of Spokane, a 48-year veteran and the 2012 Wrestling Official of the Year in Washington, returned for his 19 th tournament Feb. 16-17.
Joining him from the Spokane Wrestling Association was Mike Owen, a longtime former coach and official in Montana before moving to Washington. The Treasure State’s 2016 official of the year received his first Washington assignment.
There are a couple of other interesting storylines in wrestling. Terry Cochran and Dan LejaMeyer from Southeast Washington worked not only Mat Classic XXIX in Tacoma but also the Idaho championships in Pocatello as members of the District 2 association. And North Idaho District 1 received a bonus of two slots, sending five officials to state for the first time.
The other state tournament officials from the area:
Wrestling
Idaho District 1 – Ryan Wood, Lloyd Moe, Damon Roe, Josh Harvey, Bryce Olberding.
Basketball
Spokane – Nick Harmon, 3A/4A boys; Joel Murphy and Damon Taggart, 3A/4A girls; Geoff Asan, 1A/2A boys; Garret Daggett, 1A/2A girls; Aaron Erickson and Ryan Olson, 1B/2B boys; John Urquhart, 1B/2B girls.
Colville Valley – Bob Richartz, 1A/2A girls; Jeff Hawley, 1B/2B boys.
Southeast Washington – Phil Hinrichs, 1B/2B boys; Josh Davis, 1B/2B girls.
North Idaho – Girls tournaments: Bill Bopp, Neal Pederson, Dave Oakes, Jeff Ward. Boys: Todd Bitterman, Mike Floch, Mike Martin, John Nelson.
Soccer
Cameron Bushey, a local product who comes most recently from the Spokane Shadow of the National Premier Soccer League, has been named a new assistant coach of the Gonzaga University men’s team.
Bushey, the son of former Whitworth coach Sean Bushey, spent one season as men’s first-team head coach of the Shadow, but served as director of youth coaching since 2015.
He spent two seasons as an assistant at Spokane Falls Community College and also led the Colorado Rush Soccer Club, serving as youth boys director of coaching from 2012-15 and the women’s league team assistant from 2012-13. His coaching career began in the Shadow youth program in 2010.
Bushey grew up playing youth soccer with the Shadow, which his father coached, and played collegiately at Whitworth, where he was a four-time All-Northwest Conference honoree – two on the first team, two on the second – and was a second-team all-region pick. The 2009 Pirates on which Bushey played made the NCAA Division III Elite Eight.
—-Greg Sheen, head coach at Texas-San Antonio the last four seasons, has been named an assistant women’s coach at Washington State.
Sheen, who replaces Sandy Davison, who departed for Indiana after the 2017 season, is a former Conference USA Coach of the Year after he led the UTSA Roadrunners to one of the largest turnarounds in conference play.
Previous to serving at UTSA, Sheen spent three seasons at Wright State as the associate head coach and recruiting coordinator. He played professional soccer with Atlanta Ruckus during the outdoor season and the Atlanta Attack of the National Premier Soccer League indoors.
Miscellany
Tickets are on sale for the 37th annual Killin Dinner, Dance and Auction on April 28.
The featured event of “Eagle Week” at Eastern Washington University follows the annual Red-White spring football game at 2 p.m. at Roos Field. Eastern’s women’s soccer team, two-time defending Big Sky Conference tournament champions, will play Central Washington at 1 p.m. on the EWU Soccer Field.
The event, in memory of the late Orland Killin, an EWU football letterman, professor and faculty athletic representative who died in 1981, takes place at the sports and recreation center, starting with a social hour and auction at 4:30 p.m. The dinner, program, live auction and dancing follow.
Tickets are $100 a person and $700 for a table of eight. Net proceeds benefit areas of greatest need within Eastern athletics. Info: goeags.com/killin.