Locally: Community Colleges of Spokane promotes Ryne Webb to head baseball coach

Community Colleges of Spokane has promoted one of its own to be its new head baseball coach. Ryne Webb, a 2005 CCS graduate who has been a Sasquatch assistant coach since 2017, has been named to replace retiring four-year head coach Bryan Winston.

Winston, a four-time ABCA Regional Coach of the Year, is stepping down to spend more time with his family, athletic director Jim Fitzgerald said in announcing the change.

“I am confident coach Ryne Webb will continue the rich tradition of the CCS baseball program,” Fitzgerald said in the announcement.

Webb, who is also the school’s fitness center manager on the Spokane Falls campus and an adjunct instructor, joined the Sasquatch staff in 2017 after serving as head coach at Mead High School from 2015-17 after serving a year as an assistant coach at Whitworth University in 2014.

Since 2015, Webb has owned Warehouse Performance Baseball in Spokane and is also the head coach and program director for the Spokane Expos 19U summer team.

Webb, who earned an associate of arts degree, was the Sasquatch team captain and starting shortstop.

“Ryne is ready to be our head coach,” Fitzgerald said.

“His passion for academic and athletic success for our baseball student-athletes will help in guiding them through their collegiate journeys.”

College scene

Idaho junior Grady Leonard shot to the top of the Big Sky Conference in the men’s shot put and weight throw during Lauren McCluskey Memorial Open in Moscow, Idaho, on Jan. 22 with performances that earned him Big Sky men’s field athlete of the week honors.

Leonard hit 59 feet, 11¾ inches in the shot and 69-7½ in the weight throw to move to the top of both Big Sky lists. His mark in the weight throw is fourth best in Big Sky history and ranks 14th nationally this season. His shot mark is 38th nationally.

• Lewis-Clark State freshman Madigan Kelly from Lewiston was the Cascade Collegiate Conference women’s indoor track athlete of the week for the second straight week Jan. 24 after she broke her program record in the 60-meter hurdles in Moscow. She finished the prelim-finals day at 8.92 seconds, the 10th-fastest time in the country.

• Five runners and 10 teams from area schools were recognized by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association with Academic All-America awards for the 2021 college cross country season.

Individual honors went to Madelyn Buckley, a Whitworth sophomore from Lakeside-Nine Mile Falls, in Division III; Annika Esvelt, a Seattle Pacific freshman from West Valley, in Division II; and three in Division I from Gonzaga, men Wil Smith, a freshman from Lewis and Clark, and redshirt junior Cullen McEachern, and junior Kristen Garcia on the women’s team.

Division I and II athletes need at least a 3.25 GPA and those in Divisions III at least a 3.30.

Team awards in Division I went to the Idaho (3.74 GPA), Gonzaga (3.43), Washington State (3.19) and Eastern Washington (3.03) men, and the Eastern (3.97), Gonzaga (3.6), Idaho (3.49) and WSU (3.4) women.

Whitworth women (3.751) and men (3.535) were honored in Division III.

Minimum team GPAs are 3.0 in Division I and 3.1 in Division III.

• Area schools have come in for some high regional rankings in the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches’ Association (USTFCCCA) first indoor ratings.

Idaho is ranked third, Eastern Washington fourth, Washington State seventh and Gonzaga 22nd in the Division I men’s West Region. There are no area teams in the national rankings.

In Division I women, Washington, which is 21st nationally, is No. 1 in the West with WSU 10th, Eastern 12th, Idaho 13th and Gonzaga 15th.

• Heidi Sellmann, a senior basketball player who transferred to Lewis-Clark State College after her sophomore season at North Idaho College, was named to the Cascade Collegiate Conference winter quarter All-Academic team with a GPA of 3.2 or above. Her name was inadvertently left off a list that ran last week.

• Washington State and Idaho in Division I and Whitworth in Division III earned College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America Scholar All-America Team awards for the fall semester.

It was the 11th straight semester, and 21st in program history, for WSU. The Cougars posted a 3.47 team GPA. Seven Cougars had 4.0 GPAs. Idaho had a 3.27 GPA and Whitworth a 3.45.

• Idaho student-athletes earned a 3.26 cumulative GPA in the fall semester, the 16th consecutive semester with a GPA greater than 3.0. A record 236 student-athletes earned a 3.0 or better with 85 earning a perfect 4.0.

Twelve of the 14 programs had a 3.0 or higher, led by men’s cross country with a program-best 3.74 and women’s tennis (3.67). Women’s soccer (3.65) and men’s track and field (3.60) tied program bests.

Letters of intent

Northwest Nazarene baseball: Charles Daniel “CD” Sharples, IF, Post Falls.

Blue Mountain CC softball: Harley See, IF, Lakeland.

Shooting

The Spokane Junior Rifle Club had four top-three finishers at the 2022 Washington State USAS Junior Olympic Rifle Championships Dec. 11-12.

Ben Tafoya, 18, scored 535 out of a possible 600 to win the gold medal in the men’s division of the smallbore rifle (0.22), three-position event. The state championship earned the Spokane Falls CC student an automatic qualifying spot in the National Championships in Hillsdale, Michigan, in May.

SJRC teammates Zach Pearsall, 19, Maine Maritime Academy (533), and Derek Phipps, 17, Gonzaga Prep (523), finished second and third, respectively, in the men’s division to earn the silver and bronze medals.

Taylor Christian, 20, University of Memphis, shot 560 for second place and the silver medal in the women’s division.

Christian, Tafoya, Phipps and Pearsall combined to win SJRC Gold the state team championship.