Back injury forces Vandals’ Halliday to end basketball career

Idaho’s Emily Halliday decided to end her collegiate basketball career because of a back injury, UI announced Tuesday.

Halliday played in all 29 games for the Vandals as a freshman during the 2003-04 season. She played just one game the following year because of the injury and was given a medical redshirt. Halliday played through pain for 26 games last season, averaging 17 minutes per game. Her .345 career average from 3-point range ranks eighth in history at Idaho.

Track and field

Pacific’s Brooke Barker successfully defended her heptathlon title and Seth Harris of George Fox upset the defending decathlon champion at the Northwest Conference multievent track and field championships in Salem, Ore.

Barker ran away from the competition, finishing nearly 500 points ahead of Linfield’s Riley Bernard. She was the top finisher in the shot put, 200 meters and javelin. Whitworth’s Kristin Dormaier placed fourth overall, and the Pirates’ Sarah Marken finished first in the long jump.

Harris collected three first-place finishes and a pair of runners-up to edge last year’s champion, Erik Jensen of Pacific Lutheran. Michael Tucker was Whitworth’s top finisher, placing ninth overall.

Softball

CC Spokane blew a lead in the first game, then used solid pitching to grab an easy win in the second of a doubleheader against Big Bend in Moses Lake, Wash.

CCS (14-6, 8-3) led 7-4 entering the bottom of the sixth inning, but Big Bend (13-8, 7-7) rallied for nine runs to win 13-7.

Jessie LaPlante struck out five to get an 8-1, complete-game win for the Sasquatch in the nightcap.