Locally: Patriot League selects Madison Hovren as preseason player of year
Madison Hovren, a junior at Army West Point from Central Valley who averaged a double-double last season to lead the Patriot League in scoring (18.7) and rebounding (10.2), has been selected the women’s basketball preseason player of the year in the conference.
Hovren, a player of the week six times last season, headlines the preseason all-league team selected by Patriot League head coaches and sports information directors, who also tabbed the Cadets and defending champion Bucknell as preseason co-favorites.
College scene
Joellee Buckner, a Western Washington senior from Colville, appears back in the groove after her 2016 volleyball season was impacted by injury, collecting her second Greater Northwest Athletic Conference player of the week honor this month.
Buckner earned defensive honors after she helped lead the No. 8 Vikings to two road sweeps by averaging 6.17 digs per set, 1.5 blocks and 2.17 kills. She was the offensive choice the week of Oct. 2-8.
“Joellee has been an all-around presence for us this year. She does so many things well that she doesn’t stand out in just one statistical category,” WWU head coach Diane Flick-Williams said.
Buckner is among the GNAC leader in five categories.
“I am proud of her as all of this comes after suffering a devastating shoulder injury last year,” added Flick-Williams. “She is the definition of a six-rotation volleyball player.”
- Spokane and North Idaho, which won NWAC crossover volleyball tournaments at Aberdeen, Washington, and Moses Lake, respectively, last weekend also led the all-tournament teams at those sites. Setter Kendall Collins (University) of CCS was named MVP of the West Region Crossover in Aberdeen with libero Kaitlin Ramsey (Quincy) and middle blocker Joelle Mahowald (Lakeside-Nine Mile Falls) named to the all-tournament team. Outside hitter Halle Ness (Shelley, Idaho) of NIC was MVP of the East Region Crossover in Moses Lake with outside hitter Kayla Nuemann (Sandpoint) and libero Rachel Leshikar (Kamiakin) on the first all-tournament team. The Cardinals also had outside hitter Macy DuCoeur (Lake City) and middle blocker Hailee Etter (Shadle Park) on the second team.
Summer Reid, a St. Olaf College first-year player from Ferris, was named the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Hitter of the Week in volleyball after posting 47 kills as the Oles went 2-1, including a season-best 22 while hitting .439 in a five-set loss. She has 17 double-digit kill matches in the Oles’ 20-9 season.
Race Martin, a Lewis-Clark State junior from Pullman, was the Frontier Conference’s first men’s basketball player of the week after the 6-foot-6 forward averaged 23 points, 7.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists and two steals as the Warriors opened the season with two wins. He shot 75 percent from the field (15 of 20) and 3-point range (6 of 8) and was 10 of 10 from the free-throw line.
Valeria Patino, an Idaho freshman from Panama who collected the first top-10 finish of her career, was named Big Sky Conference Women’s Golfer of the Week. Patino, who attended high school in Katy, Texas, shot rounds of 71-68-73 in blustery conditions for a 4-under 212 and a tie for sixth that led UI to a fourth-place finish at the Las Vegas Collegiate Showdown.
Michele Wahn, Whitworth’s senior midfielder from Reno, Nevada, was named Northwest Conference Offensive Student-Athlete of the Week in women’s soccer for her two goals and playmaking in two victories.
Riley Sine, a Northwest College sophomore from Central Valley, was named the Cascade Conference men’s cross country runner of the week after he won the men’s race at the William Jessup Warrior Invitational at Spring View Park, California. Sine covered the 8,000-meter course in 24 minutes, 29 seconds, finishing 6 seconds ahead of the runner-up in a field of 114 that included runners from four NAIA Top 25 teams.
Andrew Gardner from Mead and Amy Eloise-Neale, Washington seniors, and Washington State seniors Michael Williams and Devon Bortfeld were their schools’ nominations for the Pac-12 Men’s and Women’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year awards in cross country. Sam Prakel of Oregon and Kaitlyn Benner of Colorado were the recipients. The Pac-12 honors a male and a female who stand out athletically and scholastically in each of the 24 sports it sponsors.
Shelby Cloninger, an Alaska Anchorage senior forward from Kamiah, Idaho, and North Idaho College, was a unanimous selection to the Great Northwest Athletic Conference preseason all-conference team in women’s basketball after she came off the bench last season to average 8.3 points, 4 rebounds and provide a solid interior presence for the Seawolves. Fuquan Niles, a Central Washington senior center from Seattle and NIC, was selected to the GNAC men’s basketball preseason all-conference team. He led the GNAC with a Central school-record 74 blocks as a junior and averaged 9.5 points and 8.3 rebounds per game.
Hockey
Dawson Weatherill of the Spokane Chiefs, who registered his first career shutout in a 6-0 win at Edmonton on Oct. 22, was named the Western Hockey League Goaltender of the Week for the week ending Oct. 22. Weatherill, from Red Deer, Alberta, made 22 saves in that game and finished the week with a 0.97 goals-against average and .960 save percentage in three games – two wins and a shootout loss.
Wrestling
Logan Stieber, a four-time NCAA champion at Ohio State and 2016 world champion at 61 kg, will be the clinician at the Fall Kickoff Wrestling Clinic on Saturday at the Inland Northwest Wrestling Training Center at Gonzaga Prep, designed for athletes ages 4-18. Online preregistration at www.inwtc.com is open until Friday and costs $20. On-site registration the day of the clinic, from 8 -8:45 a.m., will be $25. Spectator passes are $5. The first clinic session begins at 9.