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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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Wally Heidenson, seven-time NWAC tennis coach of the year, is retiring after 37 seasons at Community Colleges of Spokane.
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Wally Heidenson, who is retiring after 37 seasons as tennis coach at Community Colleges of Spokane, was named the Northwest Athletic Conference Men’s and Women’s Coach of the Year for the seventh time.

At the 2018 NWAC Championships on the Spokane Falls campus, Heidenson’s Sasquatch men finished second to Bellevue, which swept the men’s and women’s titles, and the CCS women placed third.

Both the men and women had three champions. Men’s winners were Christian Flannery, No. 4 singles; Niamh Lakewolf (Deer Park), No. 6 singles; and Flannery and Bryce Robinson, No. 3 doubles. Women’s champions were Chelsea Li, No. 3 singles; Kellee Bates (Deer Park), No. 5 singles; and Bates and Alex O’Dell, No. 3 doubles.

The Sasquatch have won two NWAC women’s titles (2001, ’02) and had seven runner-up finishes under Heidenson while the men captured seven team championships (1982, ’89, 2008, 2019-13), with 10 runner-up finishes.

He played at Spokane Falls and Eastern Washington, where he led the Eagles to a district title and the only nationals appearance in school history.

College scene

Lauren Reid, a Portland senior from Ferris, was named to the All-West Coast Conference Women’s Rowing Team that was dominated by 17-time champion Gonzaga.

Reid, a port-side rower who received the Pilots’ Novice Oarsman Award in 2015, had been named to the All-WCC Preseason Rowing Team and was an all-academic selection as a junior.

Gonzaga’s Glenn Putyrae collected his fourth straight, and ninth overall, Coach of the Year honor as the Bulldogs swept the individual awards and landed four on the All-WCC team. Sophomore Alexa Jadalla repeated as Coxswain of the Year, senior Isabelle Belzil was Rower of the Year and freshman Lauren McCallum shared Newcomer of the Year.

Belzil, junior twin sisters Lauren and Lindey English and senior Megan Seifert were named to the all-conference team.

• Gonzaga’s varsity eight, which twice turned in season-best times and won one four-boat race in tuneups for the West Coast Conference Championships, was named the WCC Crew of the Month for April.

GU went on to win a 17th straight WCC title and qualify for the NCAA Championships. The Bulldogs in the boat: coxswain Alexa Jadallah, Lauren English, Caroline Maguire, Lindey English, Isabelle Belzil, Lauren McCallum, Zoe Calambokidis, Charlotte Lepp, Megan Seifert.

• Washington State junior rower Paige Danielson was named to the 2017-18 Google Cloud Academic All-District 8 Women’s At-Large Team with a 4.0 grade-point average in electrical engineering. A second-team choice as a sophomore when two teams were selected, she is eligible for the CoSIDA Academic All-America team.

• Pitcher Madi Mott, infielder Kylee Curtan and utility player Megan Carver from North Idaho College were named to the National Fastpitch Coaches Association’s NWAC All-America softball team.

Mott, a freshman from Gladstone, Oregon, took a league-best 24-1 record and 1.65 ERA into the NWAC tournament this weekend in Spokane, where the Cardinals were the No. 1 seed. She has 179 strikeouts to 22 walks in 128 2/3 innings, while holding opponents to a .159 batting average. Mott hit .445 with 11 doubles, 14 home runs, 65 RBIs and 66 runs.

Curtan, a sophomore from Roseville, California, leads the NWAC with a .603 batting average, 108 hits, 32 doubles, 95 runs and a .635 on-base percentage, with 11 home runs and 62 RBIs.

Carver, a sophomore from Auburn, Washington, is third in the conference with a .522 batting average and is second with 22 doubles. She also has 83 hits, four triples, 12 homers, 66 RBIs and 69 runs.

Vanessa Shippy, the Oklahoma State senior from Lake City, was named to the NFCA Division I All-Midwest Region first team for the third straight year.

The Big 12 Player of the Year, who hasn’t missed a game in her four years with the Cowgirls, was also extended an invitation by a start-up professional women’s team, Scrap Yard Fast Pitch from Conroe, Texas, which will begin play next month. Earlier this spring, Shippy was selected 11th in the National Pro Fastpitch draft by the Cleveland Comets.

• Brothers Damon and Kirk Unland from Ferris, who attend Wyoming, and Air Force senior Calvin Berstler from Cheney were named to the 2018 Mountain West Outdoor Track & Field Men’s All-Conference team.

Damon Unland, a senior, repeated as MWC hammer champion with a throw of 199 feet, 1 inch to collect his second all-conference honor. Kirk, a sophomore, was second behind his older brother in the hammer at 182-8 for his first All-MWC award.

Berstler won the MWC decathlon championship with personal-record score of 7,203, which is second all time at Air Force, to collect a second all-conference award. His previous PR of 6,616 came in the 2017 meet, where he finished third.

Rylie Pease of Cheney, a freshman at Princeton, finished second in the women’s javelin at the Ivy League Track & Field Championships on May 5 with a PR 148-3 on her fifth throw.

The following weekend she placed fourth in the ECAC & IC4A Championships at Princeton, throwing 146-0, as the only Ivy League competitor in the 20-woman field.

• Seattle Pacific sophomore Scout Cai from Colfax was named to the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Division II All-West Region Outdoor Track & Field Team for the second straight year in the pole vault and heptathlon.

• North Idaho sophomores Todd Henderson and Madi Brown received NWAC men’s and women’s golf Players of the Tournament awards, respectively, after winning Southwest Oregon League matches last week.

Henderson won the men’s match by five strokes, with six birdies and no bogeys in his final round, to help the Cardinals secure the 2018 men’s regular-season championship.

Brown captured the women’s match by six strokes over the previous week’s winner and the 2017 women’s player of the year by seven strokes in the process.

• Senior Kayla Leland (Gonzaga Prep) of track and field and sophomore golfer Keegan Loo were named Whitworth Student-Athletes of the Month for April.

Leland collected the women’s honor for breaking a school record, a Boppell track record, and winning three Northwest Conference championships. She opened the month by breaking the school record in the 10,000, followed by setting a track record in the steeplechase the next week and finished April by winning NWC titles in the 10,000, 5,000 and 1,500.

Loo finished in the top 10 in all three of the tournaments in which the Pirates competed during the month, including earning medalist honors in the NWC Spring Classic. He finished April with the second-best average round on the team.

• Freshman Michaela Bayerlova, Washington State’s first All-Pac-12 first-team selection, captured MVP and academic excellence honors when the women’s tennis team passed out honors for the 2017-18 season.

Bayerlova had a 27-5 singles record, a No. 23 national ranking and was selected for the 2018 NCAA Singles Championships.

Other awards went to sophomore Melisa Ates, most improved; junior Aneta Miksovska, strength and conditioning; and sophomore Ege Tomey, coaches award.

• The Eastern Washington women finished second and the men sixth in the Big Sky Conference All-Sports Trophy competition that Northern Arizona swept.

The Eagles women compiled 7.8 points to NAU’s 9.5 that earned it a second straight trophy. The EWU men had 6.9. NAU won a fifth straight title with 10.

High school scene

Sally Greene of Moscow, who spent her entire 34-year educational career working as a teacher, coach and administrator in northern Idaho, will be inducted into the Idaho High School Activities Association Hall of Fame in the 39th class on Aug. 1 in Boise.

The Lewiston High School and University of Idaho graduate was inducted into the Idaho Athletic Hall of Fame in 2016.

A girls basketball coach with numerous state titles to her credit, she also coached tennis, softball and golf, and coached basketball and tennis at Grangeville from 1981-86 before landing the Moscow job. She retired in 1996 after winning her fourth state championship in five years with a 239-90 career basketball coaching record.

She also served in leadership positions for numerous professional organizations, including the Idaho District II Board of Control, the Idaho Athletic Administrators Association Board of Directors and the Idaho Association of School Administrators.

Northwest Christian softball and boys track and field repeated as 2018 Spring Team Academic State Champions when the WIAA, in conjunction with Dairy Farmers of Washington and Les Schwab Tires, honored 51 boys and girls teams for their work in the classroom.

The Crusaders won again in 2B softball with a 3.75 grade-point average and in boys track and field with a 3.72.

For the first time in a while, no Greater Spokane League schools were among the eight others from the area to win academic state championships.

The others: 2A – Clarkston girls tennis, 3.915; Pullman, boys soccer, 3.558. 1A – Freeman baseball, 3.67. 2B – St. George’s boys tennis, 3.683; Kettle Falls girls tennis, 3.858. 1B – Almira/Coulee-Hartline baseball, 3.675; Colton softball, 3.727; Oakesdale girls track and field, 3.921.

Olivia Willis of Riverside received a $1,000 scholarship from the WIAA, Dairy Farmers of Washington and Les Schwab Tires as a 2018 Smart Choices Scholarship finalist.

Candidates are judged on their participation and success in athletics and activities and community involvement. One girl and one boy each received $5,000 scholarships and four boys and four girls finalists each won $1,000.

Shooting

Led by Caden Kight, Spokane Junior Rifle Club picked up 10 medals, including four golds for first-place class finishes, in the Washington State Conventional Outdoor Smallbore (0.22) Championships last weekend in Wenatchee.

Kight, 14, Northwest Christian, was first in 3-Position B Class and Prone-only B Class to earn two golds; Mason Maystrovich, 17, NW Christian, was first in Prone Junior Expert; and Genesis Middlebos, 16, Washington Virtual Academy, was first in Prone D Class.

Maystrovich was seventh overall for the best finish of 13 SJRC shooters in Prone-only. Cassidy Wilson, 17, home school, was fifth overall for the best finish in 3-Position.

Other SJRC medalists:

3-Position – David Wright, 20, Alaska Fairbanks, 3rd Junior Expert; Ben Tafoya, 15, Gonzaga Prep, 5th A Class; Joel Moore, 14, The Oakes Academy, 4th D Class.

Prone-only – Zach Pearsall, 16, home school, 3rd A Class; Anna Pearsall, 15, home school, 2nd B Class; Garrett Pearsall, 13, home school, 3rd D Class.

3-Position Team – SJRC Gold, 5th (Wilson, Maystrovich, Taylor Christian, 16, Spokane Valley Tech).

Soccer

Four Spokane Sounders and Spokane Shadow teams won Washington Youth Soccer State Cup or President’s Cup championships the past month, capped by the Sounders’ 2001 A girls defeating their nemesis, Pacific Northwest Soccer Club, 3-2 on penalty kicks for the U17 State Cup last weekend.

The teams also met in the U16 title game a year ago with Spokane winning 3-1, but in three previous meetings this season, PacNW from Tukwila, Washington, had prevailed.

The previous weekend, three Spokane teams won WYS President’s Cups – the 2006A Sounders Valley girls capturing the U12 D1 championship, the 2006 A Sounders Valley boys winning U12 D2 and the 2004 Shadow United girls winning U14 D2.