Locally: Washington State’s Taylor McCoy named Pac-12 swimmer of the week
Taylor McCoy made history at Washington State.
The sophomore from Pullman became the first Cougar in the history of a program that began in 1976-77 to be named Pac-12 Women’s Swimmer of the Week after she posted three individual wins against No. 14 Arizona on Jan. 11.
McCoy won the 100- and 200-yard backstrokes and 400 individual medley and also swam the leadoff backstroke leg on WSU’s winning 400 medley relay. The next day she won the 200 IM at Arizona State.
McCoy, who coach Matt Leach calls “one of our quiet leaders in the classroom, pool and weight room,” leads the team with 13 individual first-place finishes this season. She has top-10 program times in the 200 back (second), 400 IM (sixth) and 100 back (ninth).
• McCoy is also one of the scholastic leaders on the women’s swimming and diving team that earned a sixth straight College Swimming Coaches Association of America Division I Scholar All-America Team award for posting its highest team GPA in 10 years, 3.48 in the fall 2018 semester.
In the 18 semesters the CSCAA has given the award, WSU has received it 16 times. Two Cougars had 4.0 GPAs and McCoy is one of five with a GPA of 3.5 or better.
• Idaho women’s swimming and diving, with nine student-athletes posting 4.0 GPAs, was honored as a Division I Scholar All-America Team by the CSCAA with a 3.62 GPA for the 2018 fall semester. That ranks 17th among 194 Division I programs. It is the 10th consecutive semester UI has earned the distinction.
• Whitworth women’s and men’s swimming and diving received Division III CSCAA Scholar All-America Team awards. The women had a 3.37 GPA in the fall, the men a 3.32.
College scene
“We’ve got spirit, yes we do! We’ve got spirit, how ’bout you?”
The Washington State Spirit Squad answered affirmatively at the Universal Cheerleaders Association and Universal Dancers Association College Cheerleading and Dance Team National Championships last weekend at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports in Orlando, Florida.
Both the WSU cheer squad and Crimson Girls dance team advanced through the semifinals to the finals in four separate competitions in the highest division, producing three top-six finishes.
The Crimson Girls earned their highest finish in school history in the Division IA Jazz finals, placing fifth. Last season they were eighth. In the new Dance Game Day category, the Crimson Girls were third behind UNLV and Tennessee.
In the inaugural Cheer Division IA Game Day category, WSU’s cheer squad placed sixth. It was 15th in the Division IA Coed category after recording its highest finish last year, placing sixth.
“In the spirit world, advancing to finals is the equivalent of making the NCAA tournament at the highest level,” said WSU spirit coordinator and head cheer coach, Jordan Benedict.
But unlike in most sports, where teams have competitions to prepare for nationals, in the spirit world, “you get only one chance,” said Crimson Girls coach Kaila Evenoff.
Evenoff, a Crimson Girl when she was a student at WSU and a three-time All-GSL gymnast and state qualifier at Shadle Park and Mead, and five members of the teams have area connections.
Elise Ramsden, a sophomore from Moses Lake, and Elaina Morrow, a freshman from Roseville, California, who was born in Spokane and attended Wilson Elementary School before the family moved, are on the Crimson Girls. Austin Anderson, a senior from North Central; McKinzie Carter, a junior from Central Valley; and Julie Lindquist, a sophomore from Hayden who attended Coeur d’Alene High School, are on the cheer squad.
• Sophie Hausmann of Idaho, the reigning Big Sky Conference Player of the Year and two-time defending champion, has been invited to play in the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur on April 3-6 that will feature the top 72 women’s amateur golfers in the world.
The first two days the field will play 36 holes at Champions Retreat Golf Club with everyone then playing an official practice round at Augusta National on the third day. On April 6, the top 30 from the first two rounds will be back at Augusta National to complete the 54-hole tournament and decide the championship.
“This is the first women’s amateur that will be played on the Augusta course,” said Hausmann, who is ranked No. 63 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings after a career-best 53rd in 2018. “That’s a really big deal and I am happy to be part of it. Long term, the goal is to play on the LPGA so this is a good step toward it.
• Despite returning the top two individual finishers and four of its top five, defending champion Idaho was picked to finish second in the Big Sky Conference coaches preseason women’s golf poll and the Vandals men were tabbed for third.
Sacramento State was picked ahead of the UI women, who have back seniors Hausmann, the defending champion, and runner-up Michelle Kim. Eastern Washington was tabbed sixth. Defending champion Northern Colorado was picked first in the men’s poll.
• With her 12th double-double of the season and a just-miss in two games, Army West Point senior Madison Hovren from Central Valley earned her second Patriot League Women’s Basketball Player of the Week Award of the season and 11th of her career.
Hovren had 23 points and 16 rebounds in a 65-50 win over Lafayette and 16 points and nine rebounds in a 55-52 win over Navy as Army snapped a five-game losing streak to the Middies in the 72nd meeting of the rivals.
She received her first Patriot honor this season on Dec. 11 when she was also named the Met Basketball Writers Association Division I Women’s Player of the Week for averaging 31 points and 18 rebounds in two Army victories.
Hovren, who has five games of 15 or more rebounds, leads the Patriot League with a 12.9 rebounding average and is No. 2 in scoring at 17.9.
• Whitworth collected Northwest Conference student-athlete of the week honors in men’s basketball and men’s swimming with standout performances by Kyle Roach and Owen Lempert.
Roach earned basketball honors after leading the Pirates to a pair of NWC wins by averaging 27.0 points. He made nearly 70 percent of his field goals, including 66.7 percent on 3-pointers. The senior also went 16 of 19 at the free-throw line and added 11 rebounds and 11 assists.
Swimming honors went to Lempert, a junior who won both his individual events with his best times of the season and swam breaststroke on the winning medley relay against Lewis & Clark. It was Lempert’s first honor of the season but the Pirates’ fourth in six weeks.
• Gonzaga’s Jake Perrin broke the program’s 5,000-meter indoor record by finishing in 14 minutes, 15.36 seconds on Friday at the University of Washington Invitational.
• Izzy Clark, a junior from Northwest Christian, broke Whitworth’s six-year-old school record in the women’s 60-meter hurdles when she ran 9.24 seconds in finishing third at the WSU Indoor Open on Jan. 18.
• Idaho juniors Ben Doucette and Zachary Short repeated as Big Sky Conference Male Athletes of the Week in indoor track and field for their performances at the WSU Indoor.
Doucette ran a personal best for a second straight week in winning the 60-meter hurdles in 7.87 seconds, which leads the Big Sky and is 24th in the nation. Short, the Big Sky leader, dominated the shot put, winning with a throw of 59 feet, 1 1/2 inches. He was also fourth in the weight throw with a personal-best 55-2 3/4.
• Cole Olsen, a sophomore at Lewis-Clark State collected two men’s indoor track athlete of the week honors after he ran the fastest 3,000 meters in the NAIA this season, an 8:31.30, in winning the event at the WSU Indoor last weekend.
Olsen received the NAIA’s national men’s award and was honored by the Frontier Conference for a second straight week. Olsen’s personal-best time is more than 2 seconds faster than anyone in the NAIA has posted this season and earned him a spot in the national championships with an A qualifying standard.
• Idaho senior Maria Tavares earned the third Big Sky Conference Women’s Tennis Player of the Week award of her career after she collected her first victory over a ranked opponent, defeating Gonzaga’s 79th-ranked Domonique Garley in straight sets, 7-5, 6-4.
• Janelle Lucas, a senior at Idaho, won the 1-meter springboard by 21 points and was second on the 3-meter board at Northern Colorado to earn the Western Athletic Conference Women’s Diver of the Week award for the third time in her career.
• Washington State’s Gardner Minshew and Morgan Weaver are among six finalists in each of the men’s and women’s categories for Seattle Sports Star of the Year that will be announced at the 84th annual event Feb. 7.
Minshew is the transfer senior quarterback from East Carolina who grabbed headlines across the country in leading the Cougars football team to its first 11-win season, capped by an Alamo Bowl victory against Iowa State.
Weaver earned All-West Region and All-Pac-12 first-team honors after finishing her junior soccer season with a career-best 13 goals, third most in the Pac-12 and 20th in the nation.
The other finalists: Women: Devon Adelman, Special Olympics USA Games stand-up paddleboarding; Sis Bates, University of Washington softball; Alexis Montgomery, Seattle University basketball; Breanna Stewart, Seattle Storm; Jodie Taylor, Seattle Reign FC. Men: Ben Burr-Kirven, University of Washington football; Mitch Haniger, Seattle Mariners; Tyler Lockett, Seattle Seahawks; Phil Mack, Seattle Seawolves rugby; coach Brian Schmetzer, Seattle Sounders FC.
• Jordan Phelan, a junior at Lewis-Clark State from East Valley, was named to the Frontier Conference Volleyball Academic All-Conference team with a GPA of at least 3.0.
Hockey
Two Spokane Chiefs, products of the team’s 2016 WHL Bantam Draft, Adam Beckman and Luke Toporowski, have been listed by NHL Central Scouting in its midterm rankings ahead of the 2019 NHL draft set for June 21-22.
Beckman, a left-winger who leads WHL rookies in goals (18) and is second in points (35), is listed 44th. Toporowski, a center in his second season with Spokane who has career highs in points (32), goals (13) and assists (19), is listed 82nd.
Letters of intent
Gonzaga baseball: Alex Brenner, INF, Skyline HS, Sammamish, Washington; Brody Jessee, RHP, South Anchorage HS, Alaska; Jack Moffitt, RHP, Seattle Prep.
Idaho women’s golf: Linnea Jerlebo, Skane, Sweden.
Shooting
The Spokane Junior Rifle Club had an individual and a team state champion and three medalists when results of the Washington State USA Shooting Junior Olympic Air Rifle Championships were tabulated.
Cassidy Wilson, 18, homeschooled, won the gold medal and women’s state championship, shooting 580 out of a possible 600 in the event in which competitors took 60 shots from a standing position at a distance of 33 feet. That earned her an automatic qualifying spot in the National Junior Olympics in April in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Taylor Christian, 17, Spokane Valley Tech, shot 575 to place second in state and receive the silver medal. The men’s individual leader, Mason Maystrovich, 17, Northwest Christian, shot 569 and earned the bronze medal for his third-place overall finish.
SJRC’s gold team – Wilson, Christian and Maystrovich – combined to shoot 1,724 out of a possible 1,800 to win the gold medal and state team championship.
Soccer
Spokane FC Shadow will have an expansion team in the Women’s Premier Soccer League in 2019, the club announced in a news release.
“We are excited to be accepted into the WPSL,” club technical director Abbas Faridnia said. “The ability for soccer fans and players in our community to be a part of the women’s game at the highest possible level is now available. We look forward to having a competitive, exciting, hard-working and attacking brand of soccer.”
The WPSL, in its 22nd season and the largest women’s soccer league in the world with more than 100 clubs from coast-to-coast, was to set its schedule at a league meeting this weekend in Las Vegas. WPSL rosters feature elite collegiate, postcollegiate and international players.
The Shadow men’s team is a member of the National Premier Soccer League and won the Northwest Conference title during its second season in the league in 2018. The women’s team previously played two seasons in the local Northwest Premier League, winning the inaugural league championship in 2016 and tying for the regular-season title in 2017.
The organization’s youth program is an affiliate of Seattle Sounders FC.
Summer camps
The Spokesman-Review is accepting submissions for summer camps that will appear in the Summer Plus section, which publishes May 1. They will also be included in an online directory at spokesman.com that will be available all spring and summer.
Information about any residential or day camp in our readership will be accepted at no charge, including athletic camps, academic camps, theater camps, special needs camps and equine camps.
All we need is its name, location, cost, age range and a short description. Please include contact information for the public, such as a phone number, email or website.
Information can be submitted by email to summercamps@ spokesman.com or uploaded online at spokesman.com/ summercamps-form/
Submissions received after 5 p.m. March 14 will be included in the online directory, but not guaranteed for the print version.