Locally: Area athletes earn numerous achievement awards in basketball, track, wrestling

Brianna King of Spokane picked up at Montana Western this season right where she left off at Community Colleges of Spokane last season.

The 5-foot-5 junior guard from North Central and CCS tripled up in honors when the All-Frontier Conference women’s basketball team was announced.

King was named the Frontier Player of the Year, Newcomer of the Year and a member of the all-conference first team after she led the league in scoring with an 18.875-point average, good for seventh in the nation among NAIA Division I schools.

A season ago, she was named the NWAC Player of the Year after leading CCS to its first conference championship since 1984 while being named NWAC tournament MVP and collecting a second straight East Region Player of the Year award.

This season, King is 10th in the nation in free-throw percentage (82.4 percent), 15th in steals (74), was a five-time player of the week and was selected the NAIA National Player of the Week once in January.

Unfortunately, one of her better games wasn’t enough to keep the Bulldogs alive in the Frontier tournament. They were knocked out 59-54 in the semifinals by Rocky Mountain last weekend despite King playing 38 minutes, scoring 32 points on 12 of 21 shooting (57 percent) and contributing three rebounds, three assists, three steals and two blocked shots.

Brittney Tackett, a Lewis-Clark State senior from Coeur d’Alene HS, was named honorable mention after back-to-back first-team honors and a second-team NAIA All-America award as a junior. The 6-1 senior averaged 8.9 points and 4.0 rebounds per game. She shot 54.7 percent from the field, finishing her career with a 61.1-percent average.

College scene

Riley Lupfer, a Boise State sophomore from Lewis and Clark, was named to the 10-player All-Mountain West Conference team in women’s basketball to cap a season in which she set a record for 3-pointers in conference play.

A member of the all-freshman team last season, Lupfer made 79 3s in 18 conference games and a single-season school record of 108 in 29 games.

She broke the conference record of 111 with five in a 19-point game that led the top-seeded, 21-9 Broncos past Air Force 60-46 in the first round of the conference tournament. Boise State won the conference tournament and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Lupfer was named MVP of the conference tournament.

• Michaela Kay, an Oklahoma City junior from Lewis and Clark, was named to the all-tournament team after helping lead the Stars to the school’s 12th Sooner Athletic Conference women’s basketball tournament championship last weekend.

Kay, in her first season at Oklahoma City after transferring from Portland State, played 34 minutes and scored 18 points, hitting 6 of 8 from the field that included 5 of 6 on 3-pointers, in an 89-63 championship-game win over Science & Arts.

Her 58.6-percent 3-point shooting during the season ranks in the top five nationally among NAIA leaders.

• Race Martin, a Lewis-Clark State junior from Pullman, was named to the first team, and Match Burnham, a Carroll junior from Liberty, was a second-team choice when the All-Frontier Conference men’s basketball team was announced.

Martin, a transfer from Community Colleges of Spokane, where he was NWAC all-tournament after the Sasquatch won the championship and All-East Region as a sophomore, led the Warriors in several statistical categories – scoring, 13.6; field goal percentage, 56.5 (second in the conference); offensive rebounds, 1.59; blocked shots, 0.66; and double-doubles with two.

Burnham, the Saints’ second-leading scorer at 13.1, is fifth in NAIA Division I in 3-point field goal percentage at 48.6 percent. He is also top-50 in total steals (45) and 3-pointers made (70).

• Cierra Devorak, a North Idaho College sophomore guard from Lake City, was named to the first team and sophomore teammate Ronnie Harris was selected to the All-Defensive team when NWAC All-Eastern Region women’s basketball honors were bestowed.

Devorak, who led the Cardinals with a 14.0 scoring average, was second in the conference in steals (3.5 per game) and 15th in assists (4.0). Harris averaged 12.0 points, finishing 11th in 3-point shooting (37.6 percent), and averaging 2.3 steals per game.

Jessica Olson, a Community Colleges of Spokane freshman from Moses Lake, was named to the second team. She was 10th in the NWAC in scoring (17.7), eighth in blocked shots (1.6) and averaged 7.1 rebounds per game.

• Three Washington State Cougars were named to Pac-12 Conference All-Academic teams in men’s basketball in their first year of eligibility.

Jeff Pollard, a sophomore, is on the first team with a 3.72 grade-point average; sophomore Malachi Flynn is on the second team with a 3.48 GPA; and redshirt freshman Milan Acquaah received honorable mention with a 3.04 GPA.

• Scout Cai of Seattle Pacific, who did four events on the same day, won gold in two and silver in one, has been named NCAA Division II West Region Field Athlete of the Year by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.

The Falcons’ sophomore from Colfax captured the pentathlon and the pole vault at last month’s Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships in Nampa, Idaho, placed second in the high jump and 15th in the long jump, contributing 28 points to SPU’s championship effort.

• Chandler Rogers, a three-time state champion at Mead before moving to Stillwater, Oklahoma, for his senior year, earned his first Big 12 wrestling championship last weekend.

The Oklahoma State junior, a Big 12 runner-up as a freshman and sophomore, went in as the No. 2 seed at 165 pounds and beat fourth-seeded Andrew Fogarty of North Dakota State 12-9 for the title.

It gave Rogers a 20-3 season record – he leads the Cowboys with 11 pins – heading into the NCAA Championships, where he’s a returning All-American.

• Eli Mason from Cheney, an assistant wrestling coach at Mead last year and now a junior at Embry Riddle University in Prescott, Arizona, earned All-America honors with an eighth-place finish at the NAIA National Championships in Des Moines, Iowa, last weekend.

A two-time state champion for Cheney and NJCAA All-American at Highline Community College, Mason was pinned 15 seconds into his opening match at 197 pounds. He bounced back to record three straight victories – two by one point, one by two – to get into the 7th-place final, where he lost an 11-3 decision and finished eighth.

• Three Whitworth Pirates will participate in the 2018 NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships March 21-24 in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Senior Patrick Wilber is headed to his second nationals and will compete in the 200- and 100-yard backstrokes and 50 freestyle. His Northwest Conference-record time of 1 minute, 45:63 seconds is the second best qualifying time in the 200. He’s seeded 10th in the 100 with an NWC-record time of 48:88. His first national was in 2016 as part of the Pirates’ 200 medley relay team that finished 16th.

Headed to their first nationals are sophomores Byron Rossmiller and Hannah Galbraith. Rossmiller will also swim the 200 back, where he’s seeded fourth (1:47.22) and the 400 IM. Galbraith will swim the 200 and 100 backstrokes and 50 free.

• Owen Lempert, who figured in four Northwest Conference championships in swimming, and Madelyn Carlson, who had a three-win weekend on the road in softball, are the Whitworth men’s and women’s student-athletes of the month for February.

Lempert, a sophomore from Auburn, Washington, won the 50-yard freestyle in conference-record time (20.54 seconds) and 100-yard backstroke and contributed legs on the Pirates’ winning 200- and 400-yard medley relays to be the top scoring male swimmer at the NWC Championships in Federal Way, Washington.

Carlson, a freshman from Enumclaw, Wash., won her first three collegiate starts, one a shutout, compiling a 2.21 earn-run average and averaging 4.7 strikeouts per seven innings on the Pirates’ season-opening trip to southern California. That earned her a NWC Softball Player of the Week honor.

• Junior Janelle Lucas, the Western Athletic Conference champion in the event, placed 27th on platform for the best finish by five Idaho Vandals at the NCAA Zone E Diving Championships last week in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Maren Seljevold was 31st in 3-meter and 32nd in 1-meter, posting her best scores in her third Zone appearance; Hailey Kessler was 33rd in 1-meter and 41st in 3-meter; Emi Smith was 43rd in 1-meter and 52nd in 3-meter; and Heather Carlson was 55th in 3-meter and 58th in 1-meter.

• Eighteen Whitworth Pirates were selected as Division III All-West Region honorees by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association for achieving top-five marks during the indoor track and field season.

Leading the list are Isabel Clark, a junior from Northwest Christian and one of just three women nationally to be recognized in five events; Kayla Leland, a senior from Gonzaga Prep, honored in four events; and John-Robert Woolley and Daniel Harper, who lead men with three regional selections apiece.

Women: Clark, 400 meters, 60-meter hurdles, long jump, pentathlon, 4x400 relay; Leland (Gonzaga Prep), 800 meters, mile, 3,000 meters, 5,000 meters; Sarah Martinez, 400 meters and 4x400 relay; Kameha Medallada, 60-meter dash, 4x400 relay; Sarah Cool, 4x400 relay; Kayla Brase, triple jump.

Men: Woolley, 400 meters, 60-meter hurdles, 4x400 relay; Harper, 800 meters, mile, 4x400 relay; William Glick, 800 meters, 4x400 relay; Nicholas McGill, high jump, heptathlon; Grant Bingham, 3,000 meters; Nathan Drotts, pole vault; Travis Herrera (Ferris), pole vault; Jacob Hubbard, weight throw; Come Nzibarega, 3,000; Jalen Robinson-McClure, 400 meters; Jacob Sturtevant, 4x400 relay; Joseph Tingstad (Pullman), heptathlon.

• Morgan Weaver and Ella Dederick of Washington State are among 24 players invited to the soccer U-23 Women’s National Team training camp in Portland beginning Thursday in preparation for the Thorns Spring Invitational on March 11-17.

It’s the third straight camp for Weaver, a sophomore, and one of seven forwards invited. She led the Cougars in scoring in 2017 (seven goals, two assists) and was third-team All-Pac-12 and All-West Region. Dederick, a redshirt junior in her second camp, will be one of two goalkeepers. She also was third-team All-Pac-12. She registered 11 shutouts.

The Thorns round-robin tournament in Portland will pit the U-23 team against three National Women’s Soccer League teams – the 2017 NWSL champion Portland Thorns, Houston Dash and Chicago Red Stars.

High school scene

With three Class 2B schools leading the way, area schools claimed six Winter Team Academic state championships in Washington sponsored by the WIAA, Dairy Farmers of Washington and Les Schwab Tires.

Kettle Falls won in 2B girls basketball with a 3.917 grade-point average; Springdale was the 2B girls wrestling state academic champion (3.305) and Davenport won in 2B boys wrestling (3.394).

Other area academic state champions included Central Valley, 4A gymnastics (3.876); Clarkston, 2A boys basketball (3.726); and Freeman, which tied in 1A boys basketball (3.740).