Locally

Back from Athens, Whyte joins Idaho track staff as assistant

Angela Whyte, a former University of Idaho standout, has returned to her alma mater as an assistant track coach.

Whyte, who competed at UI from 2001-03, earned four All-America awards and holds 13 school records, will assist in the sprints, hurdles and jumps for both the men’s and women’s teams.

A native of Edmonton, Alberta, Whyte competed in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, finishing sixth in the 100-meter hurdles.

Basketball

North Idaho College’s women’s team has added two players and two assistant coaches.

The players joining the Cardinals are Megan McIntyre, a 5-foot-11 forward from Melbourne, Australia, who was selected her high school team’s most valuable player, and Stephanie Jones, a 5-5 point guard from Gallup, N.M., who was a second-team, all-state selection after earning first-team, all-district. She was selected her team’s all-around best defensive and offensive player.

Joining coach Chris Carlson‘s staff are his wife, Carey Carlson, and Alison Chase.

Carey Carlson, most recently at Post Falls High, where her teams won consecutive State 4A championships, has 11 years’ coaching experience, including stops at Central Washington, Big Bend and Idaho. She’s in her fourth year of teaching biology at Post Falls.

Chase worked two years as a graduate assistant at Eastern Washington, where she played for four years. As a senior, she started every game, averaged 9.4 points and earned All-Big Sky Conference honorable mention.

Boxing

Kevin Keefe, a 2004 Gonzaga Prep graduate, won his first college boxing match at the University of San Francisco Hilltop Cup Intercollegiate Boxing Tournament Saturday. He decisioned Brian Eden of San Francisco City College in the 141-pound division as his USF team won the team title.

Softball

Shawn Montee Timber Company of Coeur d’Alene, a men’s team made up players older than 50 from Eastern Washington and North Idaho, will compete in Las Vegas for the Senior Softball-USA Men’s 50 Slowpitch World Championships, starting Wednesday. The roster consists of Denny Webster, Jim Palombi, Greg Hart, Ted Coey, Cliff Endicott, Carl Clark, Lee Libera, Jack Semanta, George Quiggle, Tom Fordham, Bob Legasa, Bill Krueger, Joe Partington, and Don Reid.

College scene

Anna Vagstad, a 2000 graduate of Mead who went on to star in volleyball at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., is the state of South Carolina’s finalist for the NCAA Woman of the Year.

Vagstad helped lead the Eagles to back-to-back Big South championships in 2002-03 and was the recipient of the school’s 2004 senior academic award for highest female student-athlete grade-point average.

She was not among the 10 national finalists selected last week, but will attend the awards ceremony in Indianapolis on Oct. 31. The prestigious award honors outstanding female student-athletes who have excelled in academics, athletics and community leadership, and have completed their collegiate athletics eligibility.

Since June, Vagstad has been completing organic chemistry research at the Marie Curie Institute in Paris as the recipient of a 2004 National Science Foundation grant. She graduated last May with a degree in chemistry and compiled a 3.976 grade-point average.

Her family resides in Aurora, Colo.

Track and field

Idaho coaches Wayne Phipps and Yogi Teevens have announced the addition of 19 athletes to the 2005 roster – 10 men and nine women.

Phipps noted that Matthew Wauters, a freshman from Bainbridge, Wash., who will compete in the shot put, discus and hammer, is one of the top recruits in the nation. At the end of his senior season, he was ranked fourth in the nation in the shot, seventh in the hammer and 16th in the discus.

Wauters was the 2003 and 2004 Washington state champion in the shot put and discus.

Other recruits include Eamonn Torgison from Polson, Mont., a transfer from Dickinson State University, and walk-on Jake Boling from South Kitsap High School in Port Orchard, Wash., who ranked eighth in the nation in the hammer.

Also, Sydney Makuwaza from Bindura, Zimbabwe, 800 through 5,000 meters; Lars Moeller, Angerstein, Germany, and Dale Engler, a steeplechase specialist from Mt. Gambier, South Australia, both also distance; Antwuan Sherman from Portland, a transfer from San Francisco Community College who is also playing football, and Jose Acevedo from Venezuela, sprinters; Victor Solarte, Venezuela, hurdles; and Sebastian Knabe of Halle, Germany, who will compete in the decathlon.

The women’s team has added eight freshman and transfer Manuela Kurrat from Halle University in Germany, who will compete in heptathlon and javelin.

Freshmen joining the Vandals are throwers Jane Demme of Vancouver, Wash., a two-time Washington State 3A discus champion; Candace Knuths of Shedd, Ore., second in the Oregon 2A shot and discus; Acacia Foster of Orofino, Idaho; who ranked seventh in the nation in the hammer; sprinter Sarajane Rosenberg of Pendleton, Ore., the state triple jump championship in 2004 and 2003; hurdler Megan Radel from Boise, a two-time top-three placer in the State 5A championships; sprinter Brittney Leigh Hodges of Medford, Ore., a three-time state placer; and walk-ons Meagan Garcia and Natalie Hammons, both off the 2003 and 2004 Idaho state title team from Lake City HS.