Locally: Whitworth athletes bring home Northwest Conference weekly awards
It was a clean sweep for the Whitworth Pirates when the Northwest Conference passed out player of the week honors for the week of Feb. 9-15, including all three awards in football.
Two junior first-time starters, place kicker Nate RaPue and quarterback Jaedyn Prewitt, and senior defensive back Bryce Hornbeck were honored for their performances in the Pirates’ season-opening 53-6 football win over Puget Sound on Feb. 13 in the Pine Bowl.
In receiving special teams honors, RaPue amassed 22 points with his foot, making a school-record six field goals (he was a perfect 6 for 6 from 28, 23, 24, 34, 27 and 22 yards) and all four of his extra points. He also averaged 39 yards on two punts and 56.1 yards on 11 kickoffs.
Prewitt, who played only one series into the third quarter and gave Whitworth a 37-0 lead, was the offensive honoree. He completed 8 of 16 passes for 201 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions.
The defensive award went to Hornbeck, who saved a touchdown by forcing a fumble at the 2-yard line, which turned into a Whitworth touchback. He also intercepted a pass to start the third quarter. Both turnovers led directly to Whitworth points. He also made a solo tackle and broke up a pass.
Another first-time starter, men’s basketball guard Brad Lackey, was honored for leading the Pirates in scoring and assists in two weekend wins over visiting Puget Sound. He shot 63% from the field and 46% from 3-point range and averaged 22 points. His 23 points in the first game on Feb. 12 was a career high. He added 14 assists, including 11 in the second-game win.
Women’s basketball honors went to Quincy McDeid, a sophomore guard from North Central HS, who led Whitworth in scoring in a weekend split with UPS. She averaged 17.5 ppg, making 54.5% of her 3-point attempts. She also added 10 rebounds and three assists.
College scene
Three of the area’s four Division I schools received conference women’s basketball weekly awards for the week of Feb. 7-14.
For the seventh time this season, Washington State guard Charlisse Leger-Walker was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week. She averaged 24 points in a pair of road losses and her career-high-tying 29 points in one game was her school-record 10th 20-point performance. She entered last week with the Pac-12 scoring lead at 19.5 ppg.
Gonzaga senior forward Jenn Wirth was the WCC women’s player of the week for the second time this season after she averaged 13.0 ppg while shooting 52.4% from the floor. She added 9.0 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 0.5 blocked shots and 0.5 steals as the Zags won twice.
She narrowly missed double-doubles with 14 points and nine rebounds in one game and 12 and nine in the other.
Idaho’s Gabi Harrington was a first-time recipient of the Big Sky women’s award. The grad transfer guard had her second and third double-doubles of the season that included a career-high 25 points. She averaged 23.5 points, 11 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 1.0 assists while shooting 47% from the field and 38% on 3-pointers. She leads the Vandals with a 16.8 scoring average.
• Micah Sharples, a College of Idaho freshman from Post Falls, collected two individual wins and swam the lead leg on the victorious 400-yard medley relay as the Yotes dominated a two-school Association of Independent Institutions Virtual Swimming and Diving Championships last week.
Swimming in the J.A. Albertson Aquatics Center in Caldwell, Sharples won the 200-yard individual medley (2 minutes, 22.19 seconds) and 200 backstroke (2:22.54) before leading off the 400 medley win.
C of I outscored Loyola New Orleans 734-299 in the meet for NAIA schools that don’t compete in swimming and diving in a conference.
• Senior Melisa Ates, who collected two wins at No. 6 singles and two in doubles as Washington State posted road victories over Montana State and Gonzaga on Feb. 14, was named Pac-12 Women’s Tennis Player of the Week on Feb. 17. The singles wins gave the native of Antalya, Turkey, 93 for her career, fifth most in program history.
• Two returning all-conference seniors are among three Gonzaga Bulldogs selected to the Preseason All-West Coast Conference Women’s Rowing Team and the Bulldogs were selected to finish second to San Diego in a tight coaches’ preseason poll.
Lauren McCallum, a two-time All-WCC selection, and Zoe Calambokidis, a 2019 All-WCC pick, were joined on the preseason team by sophomore Grace Dojan, who rowed with the varsity eight in 2019.
• Six players with area ties who are at least a sophomore and maintain a 3.2 GPA were named to the 2020-21 Academic All-Frontier Conference football team.
Selections by school: Carroll College: Dustin McLean, junior, Lewiston HS; Jack Peed, jr., Rathdrum (Lakeland HS). Montana Tech: Thomas Anselmo, senior, Priest River Lamanna HS; Paul Sundquist, sr., Kootenai (Sandpoint HS). Montana Western: Danny Bradbury, jr., Newport HS; Derek Rauch-Edwards, sophomore, Moscow.
• College of Idaho freshman forward Maddie Smith from Lake City HS had two goals and an assist in a 3-3 tie at Idaho State to earn Cascade Collegiate Conference Women’s Soccer Offensive Player of the Week for Feb. 8-14. It was the NAIA Yotes’ first point against an NCAA Division I school.
• Kyle Manzardo, the Washington State junior first baseman from Lake City HS, picked up his second preseason All-America honor when he was named to the 2021 Preseason All-America third team by the Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.
A Collegiate Baseball third-team All-American in the shortened 2020 season when he hit .435, Manzardo was named to that publication’s Preseason All-America third team in December.
Manzardo had seven doubles and three home runs among his Pac-12-best 27 hits with 14 RBIs last season.
• Former Shadle Park HS standout Jaya Allen started the 2021 softball season at Dickinson State in Aberdeen, South Dakota, impressively on Feb. 13, pitching a three-hit shutout with no walks and nine strikeouts in a seven-inning 2-0 victory over Doane University inside the Presentation College dome in Aberdeen, S.D.
Golf
A charge during Wednesday’s third round in the Outlaw Tour’s The Stableford major last week in Mesa, Arizona, where he collected nine points in the final round, enabled Derek Bayley from Rathdrum to climb 10 places and finish 29th in the 54-hole tournament using the Stableford scoring system.
The former Lakeland HS and Washington State standout had rounds of 70, 69, 66 with 12 birdies and 48 pars. His nine points on the final day was one more than he in the first two rounds combined.
Hockey
The Spokane Chiefs added a third contender for their goaltending position for the upcoming Western Hockey League season when they signed 16-year-old Manny Panghli to a standard player agreement.
The 6-foot Panghli, who the Chiefs’ release said started playing highly competitive hockey in the seventh grade, played 16 games at the U16 AAA level in Kamloops, British Columbia, in 2019-20 with a 3.16 GAA and earned the team’s MVP award.
At the Okanagan Hockey Academy in Penticton, B.C., in the 2020-21 season with a U17 team he had a 1.31 GAA and .940 save percentage in seven games.
Chiefs’ general manager Scott Carter said both the team’s goalie coaches “have worked with him at (the Okanagan Hockey Academy) and given high praise, especially for the work ethic and character he exhibits every day. He has earned this opportunity.”
Goalies returning for the Chiefs are Campbell Arnold, 19, who played 22 games last season with a 10-8 record, one shutout, a 2.59 GAA and .902 save percentage, and Mason Beaupit, 17, who played three games with a 1-0 record, 4.55 GAA and a .833 save percentage.
Soccer
Former Gonzaga defender Jalen Crisler, who ended his four-year Zags’ career in 2017, will begin his third professional season with the USL One’s Richmond Kickers after signing with the Virginia team last week.
The 2016 All-WCC first team selection from Everett, Washington, played in USL One last season in Madison, Wisconsin, and has had summer and post-GU stints with the Seattle Sounders’ U-23 team and in the national independent pro league.