Area roundup: Local runners prevail
As sensational as the high school runners from Spokane were at the state championships on Nov. 6, they may have been even better Saturday in Boise for the Nike Northwest Regional cross country meet.
It started with North Central sophomore Katie Knight winning the girls title and setting an Eagle Island State Park course record of 17 minutes, 34 seconds for the 5K run.
Lewis and Clark’s Kenji Bierig and NC’s Vince Hamilton went 1-2 – separated by one second – to lead their teams on to nationals in Portland on Dec. 4.
Knight was 23 seconds faster than the previous record and 11 seconds faster than Amy-Eloise Neale, who beat Knight by seven seconds in setting a course record at the state meet.
Jesuit of Portland won the girls title with 91 points, holding off surprising Bozeman, Mont., the Tracy Walters Invitational champions, by three points.
While Bierig, the State 4A champion, was chasing down Hamilton to win in 15:35, NC was winning the regional boys title for the fourth straight season. The Indians, fresh off a fifth straight State 3A title, had 76 points. LC, second to Eisenhower in the State 4A race, had 103 points to edge Ike by 11 to earn its trip to nationals.
Hockey
Spokane Chiefs captain Jared Cowen was named Team WHL captain for Wednesday’s game against a touring Russian team in Kamloops, British Columbia.
The Russians swept two all-star teams from the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League last week, 5-4 and 4-3, but lost to the Ontario Hockey League stars 4-0 on Thursday and 2-1 in a shootout Monday.
After Wednesday’s game, the Russians close the series with another WHL game in Prince George on Thursday. Most WHL players are playing in just one of the games.
Cowen, a defenseman, played in the SUBWAY Super Series last season and played for Team Canada in the World Junior Tournament last year.
With the probability of Cowen playing for Team Canada again this year and Garrett Leedahl injured, the Chiefs added a defenseman Monday.
They picked up 18-year old Kyle Krzyzaniak, who has played 12 games for the Daughpin Kings of the Manitoba Hockey League. Krzyzaniak, who played one game in each of the past two seasons with Brandon, has one goal, two assists and eight penalty minutes for the Kings.
The Chiefs, who have won three straight for the first time this season, play three road games this weekend against U.S. Division rivals. They face Seattle for the first time this year on Friday, go to Tri-City on Saturday and tackle WHL-leading Portland on Sunday.
Volleyball
Idaho couldn’t sustain a hot start and dropped a 3-1 Western Athletic Conference decision to visiting Fresno State on Monday.
After winning the first set 25-17, Idaho (13-13, 8-7 WAC) saw the Bulldogs (12-15, 6-9) rally behind sophomore Marissa Brand’s 12th double-double to win 25-21, 25-18, 25-20.
Alicia Milo had 18 kills, Cassie Hamilton 21 digs and Allison Walker 15 kills and 10 digs for UI.
Women’s basketball
Katelan Redmon, Gonzaga’s junior guard from Lewis and Clark, is the West Coast Conference player of the week.
Redmon averaged 19.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 3.0 assists while shooting 76.2 percent (16 of 21) from the floor as the Bulldogs split two games.
• Lyndi Seidensticker, a senior at Montana State from LC, is the season’s first Big Sky Conference player of the week.
Seidensticker averaged 19.3 points, including a career-high 26 in the season opener against Rice, during a three-game tournament in Waco, Texas.
• Idaho completed its recruiting class with the addition of 5-foot-6 point guard Krissy Karr from Orange, Calif.
Karr averaged 9.5 points, 4.0 assists and 2.2 rebounds as a junior, earning all-league and All-CIF Section honors.
Rodeo
Brian Hill, who spends most of his time as a loan officer in Lewiston, made his return to PRCA this year and won the Columbia River Circuit tie-down roping at the Finals in Redmond, Ore., last weekend.
Hill, 36, who had not competed in PRCA rodeos since 2006, beat a field that included four ropers who had a combined 43 NFR appearances, including Colbert’s Tyson Durfey, who is headed back to Las Vegas next month.
Durfey, second in the all-round, won the CRC season title in tie-down roping. The finals and season-long champion in each event qualify for the Dodge National Circuit Finals in March.
Former world champion Bobby Mote won the bareback title at the circuit finals but Ryan Gray of Cheney held on to the season title. It’s Gray’s fifth straight NFR as the season bareback leader.
Spokane was voted Small Rodeo of the Year for the CRC while Omak received the Large Rodeo honor. The size is determined by prize money.