Area roundup: Washington State’s Stephanie Cho qualifies for NCAA track and field championships

Washington State’s Stephanie Cho qualified for the NCAA Championships on Friday by setting a personal best in the women’s 400-meter hurdles during the NCAA West Regional in Sacramento, California.

Cho, a junior, finished in 58.12 seconds – the fifth-best time in Cougars history – to top the 58.90 she ran in Thursday’s first round. She qualified for the semifinals June 8 in Eugene.

Also at the meet, Gonzaga’s Kellen Manley ran the second-fastest men’s 3,000 steeplechase in program history (8:49.35) to place eighth in his heat the 20th overall.

Eastern Washington’s Paula Gil-Echevarria ran a personal-best 10:16.73 in the women’s 3,000 steeplechase to place 27th overall.

• Whitworth’s Andrew Bloom placed third in men’s javelin during the second day of the NCAA Division III Championships in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Bloom, the 2016 national champion, placed third for the second consecutive year. He threw 216-9 on his first attempt. Northwest Conference rival Seth Nonnemacher of George Fox won with a throw of 241-11. Also for the Pirates, Nick McGill finished fifth in the decathlon and Isabel Clark (Northwest Christian) took sixth in the heptathlon. McGill scored 6,654 points, closing well in the javelin (183-4) and 1,500 (4:45.21). Clark totaled 4,598 points, moving up from 11th place with good marks in the javelin (121-9) and 800 (2:25.26). Teammate Sarah Cool (4,397 points) finished 10th.

Baseball

Utah 9, Washington State 3: Chandler Anderson’s two-run double in the seventh snapped a 2-all tie and the Utes (15-39, 7-22 Pac-12) piled on late runs to rally past the Cougars (16-32-1, 8-20-1) at Bailey-Brayton Field.

JJ Hancock had a pair of RBI singles for the Cougars, who will honor their 10 seniors Saturday when they complete their season.

Washington 4, Stanford 2: Jordan Jones pitched into the eighth inning and Nick Kahle hit a three-run homer in the first as the Huskies (30-22, 20-9 Pac-12) defeated the visiting Cardinal (43-10, 21-8) to close within one game of first place.

Jones (6-3) allowed seven hits and two earned runs in 7 1/3 innings, striking out four and walking one.

The teams will close out the regular season Saturday.

Lower Columbia 10, CC Spokane 3: Jared Akin pitched into the sixth inning and Kyle Sandstrom scored three times and the Red Devils (33-7) defeated the Sasquatch (36-15) to advance to the Northwest Athletic Conference title round in Longview, Washington.

LCCC, which built a 9-0 lead in the sixth, advanced to play Yakima Valley (43-9) Saturday. CCS will meet Lane (25-26) at 2:05 p.m. in a loser-out game.

Softball

Washington 3, Alabama 2 (9): Taylor Van Zee’s no-out RBI single in the ninth gave the Huskies (48-8) a win over the visiting Crimson Tide (36-19) to open the best-of-three Super Regionals.

Van Zee’s hit scored Kelly Burdick, who reached on a leadoff error and stole second base.

UW scored twice in the seventh on Sis Bates’ two-run single to force extra innings.

Women’s rowing

Washington State’s Division I varsity four won its repechage heat during the opening day of the NCAA Championships in Sarasota, Florida.

The Cougars, ranked No. 17, won the heat in 7 minutes, 7.393 seconds to advance to Saturday’s A/B semifinals.

WSU also placed fourth in 6:19.642 and Gonzaga (6:23.654) was fifth in the varsity eight repechage. That marked GU’s fastest repechage time in school history.

Gonzaga’s varsity four finished in 7:19.997 in its repechage heat to place fourth, just ahead of 15th-ranked Syracuse. It was the Zags’ second-fastest time in program history at the event.

The event, originally set for three days, has been rescheduled to end Saturday because of impending poor weather on Sunday.