2 going to Hoop Shoot nationals
Tatiana Mendoza from Tekoa and Zach Mackimmie from Coeur d’Alene will be competing the Elks Hoop Shoot National Finals on April 20 in Springfield, Mass., after winning the 12-13-year-old division regional titles last weekend in Vancouver, Wash.
Mendoza, 13, an eighth-grader who has been playing basketball since the second grade, made 23 of 25 free throws to win the girls division. She finished second in the state finals last year in her first year in the event before winning state this year to advance to the regionals. She is sponsored by the Moscow, Idaho, Elks Lodge No. 249.
Mackimmie, 12, a sixth-grader at Bryan Elementary and two-time Idaho Hoop Shoot champion, will be making his second straight trip to the National Finals after winning the boys division by making 22 of 25 free throws. He qualified this year for the Idaho state finals for the fourth time in five years. He is sponsored by the Coeur d’Alene Elks Lodge No. 1254.
Bowling
Jesse Covington, the leading qualifier, emerged as the champion of a low-scoring Junior Bowlers Tour stop at Zeppoz in Pullman last Sunday, defeating Ryan Gately 160-140 in the finals after both cooled off.
Robbie Winchell, who had the day’s high game (256) and high series (849), finished third; Steven Ficca was fourth; and Heather Lundgren fifth.
Savahnnah Stocker had high game for the girls, a 234.
Next JBT is March 24 in Deer Park.
• The West Valley boys team finished second in the high-school-level North Idaho Invitational in Lewiston Feb. 15-16.
Members are Casey Schierholz, Kevin Ficca, Jake Van Stralen and Justin Adams. Marshall Pancoast is the coach.
• Nik Gosselin from Central Valley had a boys-leading 214 average to win the Boys Division I singles title at the Washington State Bowling Proprietors Association High School Varsity Championships Feb. 16-17 in Tukwila, Wash.
Gosselin, who was misidentified in the results and inadvertently left out of the tournament recap in last Sunday’s Locally column, gave Spokane championships in three of the four singles divisions.
College scene
Brittany Kennedy from Lewis and Clark capped a stellar senior women’s basketball season at Florida Gulf Coast by being named the Atlantic Sun Conference Defensive Player of the Year and also earned spots on the All-A-Sun first team and all-academic team.
Kennedy led the A-Sun in steals per game (3.2) and ranked second in assists (5.5) and assist-to-turnover ratio. She also ranked 35th in the nation in steals and led the team in steals 21 times and blocked shots on 10 occasions. While limiting opposing teams’ top scorers well below their averages, Kennedy contributed 10.3 points per game, helping the Eagles to their second straight 18-0 A-Sun regular season and third straight regular-season championship.
• Riley Stockton, a Seattle Pacific sophomore from Ferris, enjoyed an award-filled week last week.
Stockton was named the Great Northwest Athletic Conference men’s basketball Player of the Week after leading SPU to a pair of home victories a day after he was announced as the GNAC Defensive Player of the Year and an honorable mention selection on the all-conference team.
Along with exceptional play on the defensive end, the 6-foot-4 guard compiled 27 points, 27 rebounds and 16 assists as the Falcons swept the Alaska schools last week.
Stockton finished the regular season as the conference leader in rebounds, averaging 7.6 per game, and ranks seventh in assists (3.8) and third in assist/turnover ratio (2.8).
• Preston Wynne, a junior guard from Wellpinit on the Vanguard men’s basketball team in Costa Mesa, Calif., was named to the 10-man All-Golden State Athletic Conference team after leading the NAIA league in scoring with a 17.8 average.
Wynne ranked fifth in the GSAC, and 31st in the NAIA, in free-throw percentage at 80.4 and second in the conference with 2.14 steals per game. Nationally, he also ranked 10th in 3-point field goals (2.96 average); 11th in 3-pointers (83); 20th in steals (60); 27th in steals per game; 23rd in scoring average; and 27th in total points (497).
• A couple of basketball guards, senior Jeffrey Forbes on the men’s team and sophomore Lexie Nelson on the women’s team, have been selected the Eastern Washington athletic department scholar-athletes of the month for March.
Forbes, a communications major with a 3.06 cumulative grade-point average, has set career records with 106 starts and 120 games played and became the 16th player in school history to reach 1,000 points in his career.
Nelson, a transfer from Montana who has maintained a 3.65 GPA in exercise science in her two years at Eastern, leads the Eagles in scoring with a 13.9 average last week that ranked fifth in the Big Sky Conference. In late January, she set a school record, making 12 of 12 free throws in a game.
• Alice Kim, a Gonzaga sophomore, was named the Golfweek Player of the Week after winning the UC Irvine Invitational to help the Bulldogs to their second straight team title and give them individual medalist honors for the third time in as many outings this spring.
Kim won the tournament with rounds of 67-72-76 for a 54-hole total of 215 to tie the school record. Her opening-round 67 also tied the school record.
• Tucker Rudy, a Western Washington sophomore from Freeman, got the outdoor track season started in winning fashion, capturing the men’s 200 meters in 23.11 seconds at the Puget Sound Quadrangular last weekend.
Golf
North Idaho College announced that three of its athletes have signed letters of commitment with four-year colleges.
Taylor Reed, from Sheridan, Wyo., signed to play at Division I Nicholls State in Thibodeaux, La.; Dylan Morrison, Victoria, Australia, signed with Division II University of Charleston in Charleston, W.V.; and Austin Westphal from Kennewick signed with Division II Montana State-Billings.
Letters of intent
Walla Walla Community College volleyball: Kiendra Chester, Central Valley, 5-foot-11 outside hitter, three-year varsity starter, seven years of club volleyball, played in 2010 Junior Nationals, 3.25 GPA.
University of Sioux Falls volleyball: Kate Hart, Riverside High and Community Colleges of Spokane, middle blocker, American Volleyball Coaches Association first-team junior college All-American, two-time All-East Region and two-time All-NWAACC All-Star.
Skiing
Four members of the Spokane Ski Racing Association U16 Alpine Team qualified for championship races, three of them advancing to the Western Region Championships, the J3 Junior Olympics.
Elyse Burandt, Nic Dixon and Michael Estrella will represent SSRA and the Pacific Northwest Ski Association in the event March 19-23 at Alyeska, Alaska. Only 21 women and 26 men, ages 14-15, qualify from the PNSA division of Oregon, Washington and North Idaho. Burandt was the overall women’s winner last year and Estrella finished sixth overall among the men.
Also qualifying for the J3 Junior Olympics was Matt Duchow of the Schweitzer Alpine Racing School.
SSRA coach Mark Burandt will serve as the PNSA men’s head coach. Selections for the race were based on results of U16 qualifier races, the first of which was at Mt. Spokane in January. The others were in Oregon last week.
Rianne Ellingwood of SSRA competed in the second annual CanAm championships last week at Panorama, B.C., with her top finish a 34th in the super G.