Locally: Spokane Chiefs’ Mason Beaupit and Graham Sward earn ‘C’ ratings by NHL scouts

A couple of 18-year-old Spokane Chiefs, goalie Mason Beaupit and defenseman Graham Sward, received ‘C’ ratings on the NHL Central Scouting Service’s preliminary list of players to watch ahead of the 2022 NHL draft.

The rating indicates a current projection of being drafted in the fourth, fifth or sixth rounds. The draft is July 7-8 in Montreal.

This is the first year the 6-foot-5 Beaupit is eligible for the NHL draft. In in his second full season with the Chiefs after being a fourth-round pick in the 2018 WHL draft, he registered his first career shutout Oct. 15 at Tri-City and had a 3.25 GAA and .906 save percentage in 17 career games when the NHL ratings were announced.

Sward, 6-2½, and a first-round pick by Spokane (17th overall) in the 2018 WHL draft, is on the NHL draft prospects list for a second time. After missing a good portion of the 2020-21 season with an injury, he attended the Colorado Avalanche development camp this year.

College scene

The Whitworth softball team, with a 3.67 GPA during the 2020-21 academic year, was 27th out of nearly 400 schools in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association academic rankings of NCAA Division III schools.

Sixteen Pirates were named Easton Scholar-Athletics with GPAs of 3.5 or higher: Ashley Bartels, junior; Nashoni Boyd, senior; Sara Gayer, sr.; Rylee Gentner, jr.; Kylie Harris, sr.; Tiegan Hoffman, freshman; Kaylie Lowery, sr.; Heather Menzer, sophomore; Mattea Nelson (Northwest Christian HS/CC Spokane), jr.; Brynn Radke, sr.; Khaila Rollins, jr.; Jessica Rusconi, fr.; Andrea Schwaier-Wolf, jr.; Corinne Vasiloff, fr.; Delayna Waite, jr.; Natalie Wilson, fr.

• Travis Swallow, a Seattle Pacific senior from Lake City, received his fourth GNAC All-Academic award in men’s soccer with a 3.94 GPA to lead the showing by six former area high school players who were honored for the 2021 season with GPAs of 3.20 or above.

Seattle Pacific senior teammate Aidan Chaparro from North Central (3.43) received his second award, while Montana State Billings junior Bryan Maxwell from NC (3.60) and Landon Butler, a Northwest Nazarene senior from Ferris (3.49), earned their third awards.

Northwest Nazarene freshman Noah Taigen (Mead, 3.44) and Saint Martin’s freshman Nathan McLellan (Lakeside-Nine Mile Falls, 3.31) received their first awards.

• Thirty area athletes are among the record 515 in the Cascade Collegiate Conference who earned all-academic honors in the fall sports of men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s soccer and volleyball with GPAs of 3.2 or better.

Carroll: Kaitlynn Anderson, sr., Mead, women’s soccer; Dade McDevitt, sr., Lakeland of Rathdrum, men’s soccer.

College of Idaho: Lukas Brown, so., Mt. Spokane, men’s cross country; Ali Carpenter, jr., Post Falls, volleyball; Logan Hunt, so., Timberlake, MCC; Madyson Smith, so., Lake City, WS; Chloe Teets, jr., Lake City, WS.

Eastern Oregon: Lindsay Balkenbush, jr., Freeman, WS; Noah Galow, so., St. George’s, MS; Darby McDevitt, so., Lakeland of Rathdrum, WS; Nicholas Ridgely, so., Mead, MS; Erika Skindlov, jr., Coeur d’Alene HS, WS; Winston Telford, so., Davenport, MCC; Corynn Vigil, jr., Gonzaga Prep, WS.

Lewis-Clark State: Ciera Bailey, sr., Sandpoint, WCC; Rylee Brown, sr., CdA HS, WCC; Kenzie Dean, jr., Timberlake, VB; Carter Gordon, so., Lake City, MCC; Abigail Gorton, so., Bonners Ferry, WCC; Abigail Peightal, jr., Timberlake, WCC; Brooklyn Shell, sr., CdA HS, WCC; Connor Turpin, sr., Lewiston HS, MCC.

Multnomah: Kiara Anctil, sr., Post Falls, WCC; Anais Mills, jr., Garfield-Palouse, WCC.

Northwest: Allie Flynn, so., Mead, VB; Hannah Pylant, jr., Freeman, WS; Olivia Sine, so., Central Valley, WCC.

Oregon Tech: Roni Rountree, jr., CV, MS.

Providence: Taylor Ward, jr., Ferris, WS.

Rocky Mountain: Emilie Tangeman, sr., Shadle Park, WS.

• The Whitworth men were selected to finish first and the Pirates women second in the Northwest Conference swimming coaches’ preseason polls for 2021.

Ryan Grady, a senior three-time NWC champion in 2019, leads the Pirates men. The women have back juniors Carly Hoff and Ashtyn Peterson.

• For a second-consecutive week, Idaho senior Vicky Tsai was named Big Sky Women’s Golfer of the Week on Oct. 20 after being the conference’s top performer at the Colonel Wollenberg Ptarmigan Ram Classic, tying for 12th with a 6-over-par 222 (72,74, 76).

It was the third career weekly honor for Tsai, who has led the Vandals in three consecutive tournaments, averaging 74.33 strokes per round.

• Easton Pomrankey, a Western Oregon freshman from Kettle Falls, was the Great Northwest Athletic Conference men’s cross country runner of the week for the week of Oct. 11-17. He clocked 27 minutes, 12.5 seconds for 8K.

ShootingMorgan Christian, Megan Max and Cole Featherstone from the Spokane Junior Rifle Team finished ninth, 10th and 11th, respectively, overall, and fourth, fifth and sixth in the Marksmen class at the Washington State 2021 Outdoor Conventional Prone Championship last month.

Christian, 14, University HS, shot 2,997 out of 3,200; Mix, 16, Medical Lake, 2,912; and Featherstone, 16, Ferris, 2,888.