Sunday locals: University High graduate Tate Orndorff wins Greco-Roman event
Tate Orndorff’s impressive redshirt freshman wrestling season at Utah Valley University just keeps getting better.
After collecting a pair of All-America honors with podium finishes at the prestigious 2019 U.S. Marine Corps U.S. Open National Championships, the University High School graduate won the USA Wrestling U23 Greco-Roman World Team Trial title last weekend in the 130-kilo bracket to qualify for the World Championships.
The top-seeded Orndorff went 5-0, capped by back-to-back technical fall wins over Haydn Maley of Stanford in the championship series. The World Championships are Oct. 28-Nov. 3 in Budapest, Hungary.
Orndorff also wrestled in the freestyle portion of the trials in Akron, Ohio, and placed eighth at 125 kilos.
In the Marine Corps event in Las Vegas, Orndorff fashioned a 3-1 Greco record at 130 kilos to finish second and was sixth at 125 kilos in freestyle.
Older brother Tanner, a three-time NCAA qualifier, had a 3-2 record at 86 kilos in Senior Men’s Freestyle in the Marine Corps tournament.
In the NCAA Division I Championships in Pittsburgh, Tate, who wrestled at 285 pounds, and Tanner, a junior, who wrestled at 197, both had 2-2 records. Tate, who finished his first collegiate season with a 29-6 record, had been seeded 15th. Tanner, who finished 20-14, was seeded 19th.
Utah Valley, in Orem, Utah, wrestles in the Big XII Conference. Both Orndorffs were seeded fourth in the conference championships, with Tate finishing third in the heavyweight division after losing to the eventual champion in the semifinals. Tanner was sixth at 197.
Tate was also named by the National Wrestling Coaches Association a Division I Scholar All-American with a 3.79 GPA in mathematics.
College scene
Eastern Washington and Idaho had two players apiece named to Hero Sports 2019 Preseason NCAA Football Championship Subdivision All-America teams.
Junior quarterback Eric Barriere of Eastern was named to the first team and sixth-year senior center Spencer Blackburn was on the second team. Blackburn earned second-team All-America honors last season, and Barriere was honorable mention on the Hero’s Sophomore All-America team.
The Eagles, 2018 national runners-up, were tabbed seventh by Hero Sports in its preseason team rankings.
Idaho landed senior offensive lineman Noah Johnson on the first team and junior punter/kicker Cade Coffey from Lakeland of Rathdrum as the punter on the second team. Johnson was on Hero Sports’ third All-America team in 2018. Coffey, who earned All-America accolades each of his first two seasons, was honorable mention on the Hero Sports Sophomore All-America team.
Barriere and Blackburn were instrumental in Eastern averaging 528.2 yards of offense on the way to a 12-3 record in 2018. Barriere has won 11 of the 13 games he’s started, and Blackburn has started 37 of the 39 games in which he’s played in an injury-interrupted career.
Johnson, a three-time all-conference selection, has started 23 games in his career, including the last 20 at strong guard. Coffey averaged 44.1 yards per punt in 2018, fifth best in the FCS, with 19 of 50 yards or longer, highlighted by a season-long 80-yarder.
• Two area athletes are members of the Pacific Lutheran women’s crew that finished seventh overall at the 2019 NCAA Division III Rowing Championships last weekend in Indianapolis.
Kylee Dickinson, a junior and former four-year track standout at University, rows on the four-time Northwest Conference champion Lutes’ second varsity eight that finished sixth in the grand final. Hannah Beach, a sophomore from Rosalia, was in the varsity eight that was second in the petite finals and eighth overall.
• Nora Hefte, a Washington State junior from Pullman, earned Pac-12 All-Academic honors in women’s rowing with a 3.23 GPA.
• Kyler Little, a senior from Lake City with a 4.0 GPA, led the showing by a half-dozen Washington State men and women when the Pac-12 announced its 2019 All-Academic teams in outdoor track & field. It was Little’s third straight first-team honor.
Joining Little on the men’s team were Cameron Dean, a junior from Mead with a 3.50 GPA, on the second team; Justin Janke (3.13), a junior from North Central; and Paul Ryan (3.25), a junior from Logos of Moscow, who gained honorable mention. It’s Ryan’s second honor. He was on the second team as a sophomore.
The women’s team included honorable mention selections Kaitlin Krouse (3.61), a senior from Chewelah, who received her third HM award, and Josie Brown (3.60), a senior from Coeur d’Alene High School.
• Don Don Williams, who led North Idaho College to the 2019 NWAC championship, was named the NWAC Softball Coach of the Year, and Community Colleges of Spokane’s Corey Prugh (men’s golf) and John Gant (men’s tennis), whose teams were runners-up, received conference coach of the year awards in their sports.
Ray Fabien, a former standout athlete at Whitworth and coach at Whitworth and CCS who is coaching at Southwestern Oregon CC, was named the NWAC women’s golf coach of the year in his seventh season leading the Lakers, who finished second in the conference.
• CC Spokane landed sophomore relief pitcher Reed Harrington on the 2019 All-Northwest Athletic Conference baseball first team and freshman pitcher McKabe Cottrell from Freeman on the second.
• Women’s track and field competitor Madison Doepker and men’s tennis player Jeremy Field have been selected the Eastern Washington athletic department Scholar-Athletes of the Month for May.
Doepker, a junior accounting major from Walla Walla with a 3.98 GPA, had a season-best throw of 154 feet, 8 inches to win the javelin at the Big Sky Championships in May and was third in the hammer at 193-2, qualifying for the NCAA Division I West Preliminaries in both. She was 34th in the javelin there and 41st in the hammer.
Field, a senior from France with a 3.55 GPA as an economics major, compiled a 12-7 singles record during the 2018-19 season, playing primarily at No. 1. He was 7-3 in Big Sky play, landing him a spot on the All-Big Sky first team after he was second team in 2018.
• Gonzaga student-athletes earned an athletic department-record 166 academic honors and posted a combined 3.40 GPA, second highest in program history, for the spring semester. The 25 perfect 4.0s tied a department record. The volleyball team had the highest team GPA, 3.63, and the baseball team set a program record with a 3.32 team GPA.
EWU Hall of Fame
Volleyball and track and field will be represented by two women slated for induction in the 19th class of the Eastern Washington Athletics Hall of Fame.
Keva Sonderen, a 2001 Gonzaga Prep graduate who was the 2004 Big Sky Conference Volleyball Player of the Year and led the Eagles to 92 victories, and Lisa Sorrell, who set two school records in the 400 meters 40 years ago that still stand, are the first individuals announced as inductees in the Class of 2019.
The 1980 men’s track and field team was previously announced.
Sonderen (2001-04) was twice a first-team All-Big Sky selection after receiving honorable mention as a sophomore, was twice all-tournament and three times was named to the all-academic team.
Her .333 career hitting percentage still ranks fourth in school history. She finished with 950 kills to rank seventh at the time, and her 326 total blocks still rank eighth. She also closed her career with 79 service aces and played in 116 total matches.
She helped lead Eastern to three Big Sky regular-season titles (2002-04), one Big Sky Tournament crown (2001), a 47-9 (.839) league record and 92-26 (.780) overall mark. The 2001 and 2002 teams have been inducted into the Eastern Athletics Hall of Fame.
She lives in Spokane with her husband and two children.
Sorrell (1976-79) set the outdoor school record in the women’s 400 at 54.80 seconds in Eugene in 1979 that helped her qualify for a third straight national championships when they were conducted by the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women that preceded the NCAA.
She advanced to the semifinals at the AIAW nationals in 1978 and finished 12th, and won the AIAW Region Nine 400 title in 1977 and 1978. She was third in her record-setting 400 in 1979 behind a 1976 Olympian.
Sorrell also had a time of 55.9 indoors that also still ranks No. 1 at Eastern, and her best 800 time indoors (2:14.0) was a school record for 26 seasons until it was broken in 2005. In the 300 meters, her indoor time of 39.6 is a school record, but the event is rarely held.
Formerly from Tenino, Washington, she later coached track & field and cross country from 2004-2013 at Orting (Washington) High School.
The hall of fame induction breakfast and ceremony will be Sept. 28 at the Pence Union Building’s Nysether Community Room on the EWU campus. The public is invited; cost is $25 a person. Guests must register via a link that will be available in July at goeags.com/HOF.
Inductees will be honored at halftime of EWU’s football game against North Dakota that day and recognized the night before EWU’s home volleyball game against Portland State.
Golf
Gonzaga women’s signee Cassie Kim from Yakima won the girls 16-18 division at the Pacific Northwest Junior PGA Championship last weekend at The Home Course in DuPont, Washington.
Kim, who will join the Zags this fall, had rounds of 71-70, the only player in the field to go under par in both rounds of the 36-hole championship, won the regional title by one shot and earned a berth in the 44th Girls Junior PGA Championship in Hartford, Connecticut, July 9-12.
High school scene
The Greater Spokane League, in conjunction with the National Electrical Contractors Association and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, announced spring sports winners of the 18th annual NECA/IBEW GSL Award.
NECA/IBEW, which encourages high school students to consider a career in the electrical construction field, and the GSL select a girl and boy from each school for demonstrating superior balance in academics, athletics and community involvement.
The 2019 spring recipients by school:
Central Valley – Molly McCormick, track & field; Reece Bumgarner, soccer. Ferris – Mariya Pirmyan, tennis; Grant Lucke, tennis. Gonzaga Prep – Abby Welsh, golf; Ned McEwen, tennis. Lewis and Clark – Shannon Curran, golf; Grant Skinner, baseball. Mead – Cami Culp, golf; Zane Mularski, golf.
Mt. Spokane – Myranda Wilsey, tennis; JT Smith, baseball. North Central – Hana Nelson, tennis; Greg Johnson, soccer. Rogers – Gabrielle Rickman, fastpitch; Issac Sweeney, soccer. Shadle Park – Megan Gallagher, track & field; Brenden Archer, tennis. University – Makayla Marshall, fastpitch; Fraser Robertson, soccer.
• Three area schools – Mead (4A), Northwest Christian (2B) and Almira-Coulee/Hartline (1B) – won 2018-19 WIAA Scholastic Cup championships for exhibiting academic, athletic and sportsmanship excellence throughout the school year.
Mead collected a seventh Scholastic Cup title, earning a majority of its points thanks to its academic success. The Panthers won academic state championships in girls cross country, orchestra and boys soccer and had three runner-up finishes. The girls golf team added a State 4A second-place finish.
It was the fifth Scholastic Cup win for Northwest Christian, which had academic championships in band, drama, girls soccer and softball with numerous other academic top-10 finishes and four top-seven state finishes athletically, including a third in softball and a fourth in boys track & field.
ACH won state championships in baseball and softball and academic state titles in football and wrestling to propel its third consecutive Scholastic Cup title and fourth overall.
Other top 10 Scholastic Cup finishes for area schools:
4A – Gonzaga Prep, second; Lewis and Clark, ninth.
3A – Mt. Spokane, fourth.
2A – Pullman, sixth.
1A – Freeman, sixth; Lakeside (Nine Mile Falls), seventh.
2B – St. George’s third; Colfax, fourth; Kettle Falls, sixth; Davenport, 10th.
1B – Odessa, third; Oakesdale, seventh; Selkirk, eighth.
Letters of intent
Lewis-Clark State men’s basketball – Dedrick Pakootas, G, Lewis and Clark/CC Spokane, All-NWAC East Region second team as a sophomore.
Whitworth lacrosse – Carcie Chappell, MF/attacker, Murrieta, California; Madison Perry, MF/attacker, Curtis of Tacoma; Sidney Triepke, MF, Hellgate of Missoula; and Kylee Walker, MF, Bishop Kelly of Boise.