Locally: Double state champions Elizabeth Bolich, Tommie Sue Swannack lead area rodeo competitors
Elizabeth Bolich of Mead and Tommie Sue Swannack of Sprague were double state champions to lead the showing by area competitors in the Washington junior high and high school rodeo association state championships last weekend in Kennewick.
Bolich, an eighth-grader at Mountainside Middle School, won barrels and goat tying in the junior high division, and Swannack, an 11th-grader, was first in goat tying and breakaway in the high school division. Bolich also was awarded the girls all-around title.
Area athletes claimed three state championships in the junior high division and five in the high school. Five junior high and 13 high school competitors had top-four finishes to qualify for the national finals. The junior high will be June 19-25 in Lebanon, Tennessee. The high school nationals will be July 17-23 in Gillette, Wyoming.
Mollee Gray of Liberty Lake, who attends Medical Lake High School, was crowned Washington state queen and will compete in the national finals in Gillette. She also qualified to compete in the reigning cow competition.
Junior high division:
Paige Thomson of Deer Park, a seventh-grader, was state champion in ribbon roping, second in light rifle shooting and fourth in barrels.
Bolich’s sister, Cassidy, a sixth-grader at Home Links in Deer Park, won average both days in pole bending, but her season points placed her fifth overall. She also placed second both days in breakaway roping and won the weekend average in ribbon roping and was third overall for the season.
Other national qualifiers – Megan Calvert, Post Falls, breakaway roping; Nolan Burrill, Colfax, third goat tying, second ribbon roping (with Elizabeth Bolich), fourth team roping.
High school division:
Dakota Melton of Post Falls won the state championship in trap shooting; Jared Flo of Colbert was state champion in bareback riding, third in saddle bronc riding and qualified in trap shooting; and Jake Warren of Deer Park was state champion in team roping and third in tie-down roping.
Other national qualifiers – Colton Melton, Post Falls, third light rifle shooting; Ally Billings, Deer Park, fourth barrels; Grant Rogers, Deer Park, third steer wrestling; Kaycee Rogers, Deer Park, fourth goat tying; Makenly Davis, Post Falls, third breakaway; Jacey Johnson, Rosalia, third goat tying; Callie Rae Marker, Colfax, fourth breakaway; and Chance Gleave, Cheney, team roping.
Basketball
Ali Forde, a recent Idaho graduate from Woodinville, Washington, signed her first professional contract with the Bad Aibling Fireballs of the German Bundesliga.
“I am so pumped to have been given this opportunity,” said the 6-foot-2 post. “Playing professionally has been a goal of mine. I love the game of basketball and to be able to continue to play in a beautiful country like Germany is an amazing next step. I definitely feel blessed.”
Forde, All-Big Sky Conference honorable mention as a senior, was a four-year starter who finished her career with 1,106 career points. She is second in school history with 244 career blocks and fourth with 931 rebounds.
The Fireballs, led in scoring last season by former Gonzaga Bulldog Lindsay Sherbert, are coming off a Bundesliga South championship and will move up to the top league in the country in 2016-17. Their season begins in late September.
College scene
Lindsie Scholwinski of Coeur d’Alene, a junior at Southeasten University in Lakeland, Florida, has been named to the NAIA All-America second team in softball.
It’s the highlight of a season that was capped by a third-place finish in the NAIA Softball World Series and includes selection to the National Fastpitch Coaches Association NAIA All-East Region second team.
The left-handed pitcher, who led Coeur d’Alene High School and Community Colleges of Spokane to championships, was the workhorse of the Fire pitching staff during a 44-16 season. She established school records in wins (33), shutouts (11), innings pitched (283), strikeouts (304) and opponent batting average (.218). Her innings pitched led the nation and she had top-three finishes in wins and strikeouts.
In the World Series, where the Fire won their first two games before losing two, Scholwinski pitched 28 innings with a 2-2 record, allowing 15 earned runs and striking out 15. Sophomore shortstop Sydnie Malloy (Timberlake of Spirit Lake), a Scholwinski teammate at CCS, was 4 for 12 with a double, a run scored and a stolen base for the Fire.
Don Don Williams and Chloe McIntosh of North Idaho College led the showing by the Cardinals and Community Colleges of Spokane on the Northwest Athletic Conference All-Eastern Region softball team.
Williams was honored as co-Coach of the Year after guiding the Cardinals to the East championship in the school’s first season in the NWAC and a 35-13 overall record. She shared the honor with Justin Speer from East runner-up Walla Walla.
McIntosh, a sophomore infielder, was a National Fastpitch Coaches Association NWAC All-American and one of six Cardinals on All-East Region teams. Joining her on the first team were freshman pitcher Katie Barron, sophomore infielder Lexi Courtney, freshman outfielder Abby Howard (Coeur d’Alene High) and freshman designated player Brittany Gay (Lake City). Freshman infielder Emily Aspden was named to the second team.
CC Spokane landed sophomore pitcher Michele Strauss (Ferris) and freshman outfielder Ashlynn Bocook (Riverpoint Academy) on the first team and infielders Kylee Andreason, a sophomore, and freshman Madilyn Naccarato (Lakeside-Nine Mile Falls) on the second team.
Iris Rodriguez, a Corban University junior infielder from Warden, Washington, was named to the NFCA All-West Region first team and Katie Rowe, a College of Idaho senior shortstop from Lake City, was on the second team.
Brendan McClary of Gonzaga Prep, a sophomore shortstop at Columbia Basin, wound up his baseball career with the Hawks by winning the Northwest Athletic Conference batting championship with a .408 season average and was a unanimous selection to the All-NWAC and All-East Region first teams.
McClary, who will play at the University of Dayton next year, also received the East Region Gold Glove at shortstop for fielding supremacy. In conference games, McClary set a CBC wood-bat-era record with a .419 batting average. He played in 40 games, driving in 30 runs and scoring 34, primarily from the top of the batting order.
Cory Meyer and Evan Douglas (Shadle Park) of Community Colleges of Spokane joined McClary and two other former area high school players named to All-NWAC teams.
Meyer, a freshman catcher, and CBC sophomore outfielder Colton Kelly (Moses Lake) were named to the first team. Douglas, a sophomore infielder, and Walla Walla sophomore infielder Blake Macdonald (Mt. Spokane) were on the all-league second team.
They all were also on All-East Region teams that also included CCS freshman infielder Jordan Ross (Lake City) on the first team. Infielders Tanner Parker (Ferris) of Yakima and Drew Loera (Moses Lake) of CBC, CCS pitcher Kade Woods (Lewiston) and CCS designated hitter Mitchell Cox (Shadle Park) were on the second. Loera is a sophomore the others freshmen.
The Ulrich brothers of Spokane have collected another Northwest Athletic Conference baseball championship.
Cash Ulrich (Gonzaga Prep, Eastern Washington) is an assistant coach for the Yakima Valley Yaks, who claimed the 2016 title with a 5-2 victory over Everett a year after younger brother Kane (Ferris) was a key player for Lower Columbia, which won the 2015 championship.
Kyle Krustangle, another Spokane product, is the first-year head coach of the Yaks, who went 34-17 and also won the Eastern Region title. Krustangle, who played for Ferris and Whitworth and was an assistant coach at Whitworth when he got the Yakima job, was named the NWAC Baseball Coach of the Year.
Taylor Jones, Gonzaga’s senior infielder from Kent, Washington, was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-America third team in baseball. Jones, the seventh Zag to earn Academic All-America honors, graduated in May with a 3.52 GPA in communication studies.
Mark Seely, a senior from Central Valley on the Western Washington track team, was named the Vikings’ 2015-16 Male Scholar Athlete of the Year. Seely will graduate this week with a 3.60 grade-point average as a plastics and composite engineering major.
He was the Great Northwest Athletic Conference outdoor champion in the triple jump and was runner-up in the event during the indoor season. He leaves WWU as the indoor record holder in the triple jump (47 feet, 3 1/2 inches) and second outdoors (48- 3/4). He is a two-time selection to the GNAC track and field All-Academic team.
The Eastern Washington women’s soccer team collected a pair of accolades to highlight the school’s eighth annual “EeeWoo” Awards last week.
Coming off a record-setting season that included 12 victories, six in Big Sky Conference play, an eight-game winning streak and 34 goals, women’s soccer was named Team of the Year and Chad Bodnar was Coach of the Year.
NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Player of the Year Cooper Kupp and Big Sky Outdoor Track and Field Championships Most Outstanding Performer Kaytlyn Coleman were the EeeWoos’ Male and Female Athlete of the Year, respectively, and football’s Clay DeBord and cross country/track and field’s Katie Mahoney received Career Achievement Awards.
Soccer’s Jenny Chavez and track and field’s Larry Still were named Freshmen of the Year; men’s basketball’s Austin McBroom was Newcomer of the Year; football’s Jake Withnell was the third recipient of the Dr. Rodolfo Arevalo Eagle Award for leadership and excellence on the field and in the classroom.
Lacrosse
Led by the showing of Gonzaga Prep in the playoffs, Greater Spokane League schools made a strong statement in the Washington High School Boys Lacrosse Association this year.
Jack Martin, Ashton Atwood and Coner McKenna scored two goals apiece for G-Prep, but it wasn’t enough as the Bullpups fell 20-8 to Union in the Division II semifinals late last month. G-Prep had defeated Liberty of Renton 12-11 on the Patriots’ home field in the quarterfinals. Union went on to defeat Richland 12-11 for the Division II state championship.
G-Prep, which made one of the deepest runs in the playoffs for an east side team, started the season 7-0 and finished with a 14-4-0 record. The Bullpups and Mt. Spokane tied for third in the WSPL Eastern Division II with 5-3-0 records followed by Central Valley (2-6-0) and Lewis and Clark (1-7-0).
Mt. Spokane also has players from Mead and Shadle Park; CV players from University, West Valley and Freeman; and LC players from Ferris and North Central. G-Prep has no players from other schools.
GSL teams claimed 10 of the 11 spots on the WHSBLA Eastern Division II all-conference first team, including five repeaters from 2015.
Attack – Nate Hucke, senior, Ferris (LC); *Bryce Lesher, junior, CV; *Connor Gilbert, sr., Freeman (CV). Midfield – *Cian Peterson, sr., G-Prep; *Lucas Bacon, sophomore, Mead (Mt. Spokane); Brian Munro, so., Mead (Mt. Spokane). Defense – *Brandon Iris, so., Freeman (CV); Joel Miley, sr., Ferris (LC); JD Gruber, sr., G-Prep. Goal – Ben Fox, so., LC. * – repeaters.
Shooting
Ben Tafoya and Matthew Moore had first-place finishes to lead a dozen members of the Spokane Junior Rifle Club who had top-five placings at the Washington State Junior Outdoor Smallbore (0.22) Championships last month in Wenatchee.
Tafoya, 13, who attends St. Aloysius, was first in 3-position sub-junior C Class. Moore, 14, Oaks Christian Academy, was first in prone sub-junior C Class.
Mike Cooper, 18, Mt. Spokane had top-three placings in both disciplines. Shooting in the junior category, he was second Junior Expert in 3-position and third Junior Expert in prone.
SJRC had 19 in each match at the Washington State Rifle and Pistol Association-sponsored event.
Other 3-position placings: Hannah Freund, 14, Glover Middle School, third sub-junior A Class; Sophie Grassel, 14, Oaks, second sub-junior B class; and Devin Sjoquist, 15, Salk Middle School, second intermediate junior C Class.
Other prone placings: Mary Maystrovich, 17, Northwest Christian, fourth junior Junior Expert; Aidan Maddox, 16, Riverpoint Academy, fifth intermediate junior Junior Expert; Katie McAdam, 14, NW Christian, second sub-junior A Class; Cameron Berreth, 16, Oaks, fifth intermediate A class; and Ben Jones, 12, Spirit Lake Elementary, second sub-junior C Class.