Spokane gymnast wins at Western National

Katya Finta, an eighth-grader at Cataldo Middle School, picked up a gold medal for winning the floor exercise in Junior D (14- to 15-year-olds) at the USAG Western National gymnastics championships last weekend in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Finta, 14, who led the scoring for a trio of entries from Spokane’s Northwest Gymnastics Academy, scored 9.525 to place first. She was 15th on the uneven bars with a 9.0.

Lianne Walker, 14, an eighth-grader at Sacajawea Middle School, was eighth in floor exercise in Junior C (13-14) with a score of 9.4.

Meghan Ballou, 15, a ninth-grader at Mt. Spokane, was 12th in floor exercise (9.375) and 18th on uneven bars (9.225) in Senior A (15-16).

Mike and Nancy Armstrong coach the NGA team.

Awards

Mick Holien, the radio voice of University of Montana since 1985, was named Montana Sports Broadcaster of the Year for the seventh time by the National Sportswriters and Broadcasters Association.

Holien, a graduate of Gonzaga Prep and Eastern Washington, is the dean of Big Sky Conference broadcasters.

Basketball

Community Colleges of Spokane have both halves of North Central’s 1-2 punch after Damal Neil committed to play for the Sasquatch men this fall.

Neil, a first-team All-Greater Spokane League selection, averaged 16.5 points and 9.0 rebounds a game to help lead NC to its first state tournament appearance since 1951.

Neil’s NC teammate, GSL MVP Eric Beal, earlier committed to CCS.

•Mike Dorr, a 2004 graduate of Mt. Spokane who played last season at Highline Community College in Des Moines, Wash., will transfer to Carroll College, the Helena school announced.

Dorr, a 6-foot-5 wing, averaged 10.0 points for the Thunderbirds, shooting 58 percent from the field and 41 percent on 3-pointers.

He will have three years of eligibility for the Saints.

Bowling

Valley Bowl Pro Shop from Spokane Valley shook up the A Division last weekend during the sixth week of competition in the 2006 Washington Women’s Championship Tournament at Lilac Lanes.

Sandy Hanson, Kim Gellhaus, Cheryl Gould, Julie Twiss and Julie Heath not only charged into the lead in the five-woman team event, but also claimed first place in singles and all-events and second in doubles.

As a team, the women compiled a 3,033 score in the scratch competition, led by a 700 series from Gellhaus. That score, combined with a 671 in doubles and 624 in singles, enabled Gellhaus to assume the all-events lead with a 1,995.

Hanson took the lead in A singles with a 671.

The person both supplanted was Shari Cawley of Spokane Valley.

It wasn’t a lost weekend for Cawley, however. She and partner Jamie Nelson retained the A doubles lead with a 1,324 as Twiss and Gellhaus moved into second at 1,257.

Eastettes of Spokane Valley lost first in the five-woman team B division.

Area teams that retained division leads were Lucky Ladies, Spokane, tied for first in five-woman team E; Hopefuls, Coeur d’Alene, four-woman team A; Charlie’s Angels, St. Maries, four-woman team E; and Dana English, Spokane, G all-events.

The tournament takes next weekend off for Bloomsday and runs through May 21.

•At 92 years of age, Bert Lindgren of Liberty Lake doesn’t move as quickly as he once did or bowl as well as he’d like, but he still gets a thrill from walking down the center aisle at the United States Bowling Congress Open Championships.

He did it for the 50th time Tuesday in Corpus Christi, Texas.

“I’ve waited a long time for this and I enjoyed today very much,” said Lindgren, who was escorted down the aisle to a standing ovation and received a plaque, emblem and diamond lapel pin to commemorate the occasion.

Then Lindgren, who still bowls twice a week and averages 147, had games of 111, 99 and 122 for a 332 series in the team event. His Spokane BA 1 team – Charles Elmore (542), Harry Krepps III (535), Walt Utt (499) and Del Tucker (396) – had a 2,304 total.

Lindgren added 364 in singles and 329 in doubles for a 1,025 all-events.

“I get a little angry because most of my strength is gone, but I still enjoy it,” he said. “I really enjoy the competition, and I also do it because it’s the best exercise you can get at my age.”

College scene

Track and baseball had the scholar-athletes of the month for March at Community Colleges of Spokane.

Shannon Long, a freshman from Richland, is the female choice. She leads the NWAACC in the 100 meters (12.66 seconds), 200 (25.87) and 400 (59.48) and runs on the conference-leading 400 relay. She had a winter grade-point average of 2.92

Chad Flett, a sophomore starting pitcher from Mead, is the male winner. Flett is second on the team in earned-run average at 1.05 in 33 1/3 innings. Opponents are hitting just .215 off him. He has a 2.76 GPA.

•In the Northwest Conference track and field championships last weekend in Salem, Ore., Jena Robinson, a Puget Sound senior from Lewis and Clark, finished second in the triple jump at 37 feet, 9 1/2 inches, which would have won it last year.

Michele Hegg, a 2005 graduate of Mead and a freshman at Pacific Lutheran, was fifth in the 1,500 with a time of 4 minutes, 54.22 seconds.

•Notre Dame senior co-captain Katie Brophy from Gonzaga Prep earned her third All-Big East golf selection after finishing seventh in the conference meet last week with a 227 total that included a closing 1-under-par 71.

•Ellie Brophy, a G-Prep grad and a sophomore golfer at Yale, tied for eighth with a 123 as the women’s team defeated rival Harvard by five strokes to win the Ivy League championship.

•Washington State sophomore Haley Paul and the 2005 Cougars women’s cross country team received academic honors from the Women’s Intercollegiate Cross Country Coaches Association.

Paul has a 3.93 GPA. The Cougars posted a 3.399 team cumulative GPA that was 54th-best among 116 Division I school recognized, and fourth among Pac-10 Conference women’s teams.

Hockey

The Graydon Bishop Medical Fund initiated by Western Hockey League trainers to help the son of Spokane Chiefs trainer Darcy Bishop has raised $33,279, the Chiefs announced.

The Chiefs raised an additional $20,035.26, putting the total at $53,314.26.

Graydon Bishop, 4, was diagnosed with leukemia in early January. The family announced he has been responding positively to treatment.

Swimming

Crystal Streight from Las Vegas, a regional champion who swims the distance medley and breaststroke, has signed a letter of intent with the University of Idaho, Vandals coach Tom Jager announced.

Tennis

Gonzaga men’s coach Peter MacDonald announced the signing of two players to letters of intent.

Roman Dojcak, an exchange student in Sioux Falls, S.D., was a member of the Slovak national team in 2001-03. Zack Radetzky from Calgary was the top-ranked U-18 singles and doubles player in Alberta in 2005.

Track and field

Steven Gimple, a member of Mead’s nationally ranked cross country teams as a junior and senior and an All-Greater Spokane League selection, has signed a letter of intent with Montana, the Grizzlies announced.

Gimple’s personal bests are 15 minutes, 20 seconds for 5K in cross country and 4:26 for 1,600 and 9:23 for 3,200 on the track.

•Nick Atwood from East Valley, an All-GSL pick and top-10 state cross country finisher, has signed a letter of intent to run track and cross country at Montana State, the Bobcats announced.

•Two athletes with area ties have signed letters of intent with Seattle Pacific, the Falcons announced.

They are sprinter Anna Walters from North Central, the State 4A runner-up in the 400 meters and eighth in the 200 as a junior, and Kysa Cronrath from Odessa, seventh in the state B 3,200 a year ago.

Miscellany

Maury Ray, the former Community Colleges of Spokane athletic director who retired after 31 years at the schools, will be feted at a dinner June 9 at the Red Lion River Inn.

Reservations are required and are available by contacting Nancy Zacher at 533-3630 or e-mail at nancyz@spokanefalls.edu. Cost is $15 per person. A social hour will begin at 5:30 p.m.