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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Locally: Gonzaga Prep grad Daniel Roy ends junior swimming career on high note

Gonzaga Prep grad Daniel Roy celebrates his gold at in the 200-meter breast stroke at the World Junior Championships in Indianapolis in August. (Michael Roy / Courtesy)
From staff ,wire reports

Daniel Roy went out on top.

The Gonzaga Prep graduate, a freshman at Stanford, ended his junior career as the top-ranked 18-and-under swimmer in the world in the men’s 200-meter breaststroke.

USA Swimming, which last month announced that Roy was named to the 2018-19 U.S. Senior National Team, revealed the 2018 world rankings last week. Roy is among six top-ranked Americans.

Roy’s time of 2 minutes, 9.73 seconds, set at the TYR Pro Swim Series in Indianapolis in May that established a national age-group record, was the best time in his age group in the world in 2018. Mykyta Koptelov of Ukraine was second at 2:10.41.

Roy also had a second swim under 2:10, going 2:09.76 at the U.S. Summer Nationals, that led to selection to the senior national team.

Bowling

Austin Brown and Greg Au teamed to win the season-opening Junior Bowlers Tour stop at Valley Bowl last Sunday from the No. 1 qualifying spot.

It was the first JBT victory for Brown, who contributed a 257 game and 909 four-game series in the second round of qualifying in the junior-alumni event. Brown and Au defeated Mason Georgeadis and Grace Martin, who had qualified third, 390-379 in the championship match.

Michael Bushyeager and Jason Haight, who had qualified second but lost to Georgeadis and Martin, finished third. Eli Storer, making the cut for the first time, and Wade Reese finished fourth with Kaleb Ramelow and Nik Gosselin fifth.

Brendan Haight had high game (267) and high average (209) for the boys while Madison Hilden’s 219 game led the girls. Jason Haight had a 985 series for the adults.

College scene

Two Coeur d’Alene athletes collected athlete-of-the-week honors in the Cascade Collegiate Conference.

Natalie Taylor, an Evergreen senior from Lake City, was the CCC Volleyball Attacker of the Week. A first-team all-conference outside hitter as a junior, Taylor had 34 kills in the Geoducks’ two road victories with just six errors and a .308 attacking percentage. She added 21 digs and eight block assists.

Josee Bassett, an Eastern Oregon junior from CdA HS, was the women’s soccer defensive POW. As the Mountaineers allowed just one shot on goal in two shutout victories, Bassett played a key role in the middle of the back line, regularly denying Rocky Mountain’s reigning CCC Player of the Year. EOU has three shutouts in its last four matches.

• A couple of former Clarkston High School golfers captured player of the week awards in their conferences.

Travis Hansen, a Lewis-Clark State sophomore, was the Frontier Conference Men’s Golfer of the Week after shooting a 5-under 211 for 54 holes to earn medalist honors at the Argo Invitational in Great Falls, Montana. His second-round 65 was low round of the tournament.

Sami Birney, a Pacific Lutheran junior, was the Northwest Conference Women’s Golfer of the Week after shooting a 150 for 36 holes to collect her first collegiate victory, a four-shot margin in the PLU Invitational.

• Washington State sophomore Michaela Bayerlova finished second in the ITA Hilton Head tennis tournament in South Carolina last week as the No. 3 seed. Bayerlova, who ranks No. 601 in the world, fell 7-6, 6-2 to the top seed.

• Shadle Park grad Nick Hauger, a senior at Portland, was the West Coast Conference Men’s Runner of the Week following a sixth-place finish in the Nuttycombe Invitational last weekend in Wisconsin that led the Pilots to third place.

The USTFCCCA preseason All-American ran the 8K course in 23 minutes, 24.0 seconds.

• Athlete-of-the-week recognition from the Big Sky Conference helped propel football quarterback Gage Gudrud and women’s golfer Alexa Clark to selection as the Eastern Washington athletic department September Scholar-Athletes of the Month.

Gubrud, a senior with a 3.24 GPA, gained his seventh Big Sky POW honor after leading a nail-biting 31-26 victory over Northern Arizona on Sept. 8. In five games in September, he compiled 1,585 yards of total offense – 1,416 passing, 169 rushing – in leading Eastern to a 4-1 record overall, 2-0 in the Big Sky and a No. 4 national ranking.

Clark, a sophomore with a 3.82 GPA, was Big Sky POW on Sept. 12 after claiming medalist honors and helping EWU win the Battle at Old Works Tournament in Anaconda, Montana. Her career-best, 54-hole total of 219 tied for fifth all-time at Eastern. She was co-medalist the following week at The Challenge at the Coeur d’Alene Resort that EWU also won.

• Seniors Jessica Schmautz and Garrett McKay are the Whitworth Student-Athletes of the Month for September.

Schmautz, an outside hitter in volleyball from Lakeside of Nine Mile Falls and Community Colleges of Spokane, received the female award after she led the Northwest Conference with 3.95 kills per set in September, amassing 229 kills during the month. She received three weekly honors from the Northwest Conference, twice for her hitting and once for her defense.

McKay, a wide receiver, was an all-around star for the Pirates in September, averaging 170 all-purpose yards per game. He also averaged 13.1 yards per catch with two touchdowns as Whitworth went 3-0.

• The Gonzaga men are the latest area cross country team to receive national recognition from the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.

For the first time in program history, the Bulldogs received votes in the Division I national poll, collecting three. They are ranked eighth in the West Region for a third straight week.

The Washington State men are No. 17 nationally and No. 6 in the West Region; Idaho’s men are No. 15 in the West; the Idaho women are No. 9 and the WSU women No. 14 in the West.

In Division III, the Whitworth men and women are both No. 8 in the West.

• The Gonzaga men and women and Whitworth women have received 2017-18 Team Academic Awards from the United Soccer Coaches.

The GU men, with a 3.88 GPA, were honored for a 16th straight year while the women were recognized for a 10th straight year with a 3.46 GPA. The Whitworth women have a 3.72 GPA.

Golf

Area entries were among eight of the top 14 teams in the 2018 Pacific Northwest Pro-Amateur Championship that wound up Thursday at Suncadia Resort in Cle Elum, Washington.

Amateur Darren Slackman of The Creek at Qualchan teamed with pro Jeff Gove of Seattle to tie for second at 13-under 130 in the 36-hole, four-ball team competition behind the 17-under 126 of pro Jeff Coston of Blaine, Wash., and amateur Kyle Cornett of Kenmore, Wash.

Pro Corey Prugh (Community Colleges of Spokane coach) and amateur Reid Hatley (Hayden Lake Country Club) were sixth at 133, followed by pro Derek Siesser (Indian Canyon) and amateur Erik Olson (Kent, Wash.) and Russell Grove (North Idaho College coach) and amateur Brennan Stillinger (Coeur d’Alene Public), who were in a three-way tie for seventh at 134.

In a tie for 10th at 135 were pro Billy Bomar (Prairie Falls) and amateur Mike Kerns (Kent); pro Gordon Corder and amateur Jeff Sweat, both Manito; and pro Todd Pence and amateur Andrew Von Lossow, both Fairways. Pro Taylor Porter and amateur Michael Porter, both Avondale, were a stroke back at 136.

Rowing

Records fell in abundance at the eighth annual Head of the Pend Oreille Regatta at the “Mudhole” on the Pend Oreille River outside of Priest River on Sept. 29.

There were a record 47 shells, a majority of them in the junior class, that went about setting 23 course records on a generally calm day and with flat water.

Five of the records came in a new event for the regatta, a stakes race where rowers are required to round a buoy and return to the start line. It drew 10 entries, ranging from singles to eights.

Among the day’s winners were Roberta Rogers from the Rockies Rowing Club in Cranbrook, British Columbia, who captured two stakes races to go with two she won in pursuit-style head races. One win in each came with Barb Fenwick.

Juniors Isaiah Harrison from Coeur d’Alene and Josie Schmidt from Rockies also were winners in both head and stake races.

The host Pend Oreille Rowing and Paddling Association of Priest River won several medals with its five entries, including golds in mixed masters 8+ in both a head race and a stake race. Members who participated in both victories were Greg Miller, Read Tuddenham, Warren Foersch, Silas Thompson, Gayne Seas and coxswain Addie Barnwell.

Track & field

Brett Olsen, who has been a graduate assistant at Division III University of La Verne in California, has joined the University of Idaho track and field coaching staff as an assistant coach for throws, Vandals head coach Tim Cawley announced.

During his time at La Verne, the former Southeastern Louisiana standout coached one All-American and five conference champions. As a competitor, Olsen was the 2015 Southland Conference discus champion, a four-time NCAA regional qualifier and competed in the 2018 USATF Championships in the discus.

Miscellany

Sarah Adams, an administrator at Northern Colorado the last 10 years, has accepted a position as senior associate athletic director/senior woman administrator at Eastern Washington University, EWU director of athletics Lynn Hickey announced.

Adams, who begins Oct. 21, replaces Pam Parks, who retired after 40 years as a student-athlete, coach and administrator at Eastern.

Since February 2014, Adams served Northern Colorado as associate A.D./SWA after filling various other positions since joining the school’s A.D. staff in 2008. Prior to her arrival in Greeley, she worked at the University of New Mexico and Weber State.

Krista Gray, hired last month as director of student-athlete support services at the University of Idaho, has been appointed the school’s senior woman administrator, interim athletics director Pete Isakson announced.

Gray, who had been assistant director for academic services at the University of Illinois before joining the Idaho staff, fills the position that has been held on an interim basis for much of 2018 by volleyball coach Debbie Buchanan. Buchanan stepped in following the departure of compliance director Jessica Atkins.

Gray, who spent nearly five years at Missouri before she left for Illinois, will be a member of the Idaho athletic department senior staff. Her day-to-day responsibilities will include providing resources and programming to support student-athletes. She will oversee a staff that includes two full-time academic coordinators and two graduate assistants.