Locally: Shadle Park grad Tanner Groves named Big 12 Scholar Athlete of the Year
The Big 12 Conference has named Shadle Park graduate Tanner Groves its Scholar Athlete of the Year for men’s basketball.
Groves, a two-time College Sports Communicators All-American, is pursuing a master of arts degree in organizational leadership. He has maintained a cumulative GPA of 3.92 in two years of study at Oklahoma after earning a bachelor of arts degree in interdisciplinary studies when he attended Eastern Washington and played basketball for the Eagles.
Groves started 66 games in his two seasons with the Sooners, averaging 10.9 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game. This past season he averaged 10.2 points and a team-high 7.2 rebounds per game.
Groves was named 2021 Big Sky Conference MVP in his last season at EWU and was a three-time Big Sky All-Academic Team selection.
Softball
Haley Loffer, a graduate student from Lake City High, has been named Cascade Collegiate Conference Softball Player of the Year after leading College of Idaho to a No. 6 national ranking.
Loffer batted .414 and led the conference in walks (39), runs (70) and on-base percentage (.568). She finished second in slugging percentage (.827), home runs (11), stolen bases (35) and assists (95), and won a Gold Glove for her defensive play at shortstop. She is an outstanding student, having been named CCC All-Academic, NAIA Scholar-Athlete, and CSC Academic All-American.
• Central Washington’s Alyssa Benthagen, a senior catcher from University High, garnered her second-straight unanimous All-Great Northwest Athletic Conference first-team honor.
Benthagen finished with a .351 batting average, with seven home runs, three doubles and 41 RBI. She threw out nine of 30 base stealers and posted a .995 fielding percentage.
She is a three-time GNAC All-Academic honoree.
Golf
Washington State men’s golf senior Pono Yanagi has been selected to play in the 2023 NCAA Morgan Hill Regional, becoming the first Cougar to play in an NCAA Regional in 13 years.
Yanagi is just the third WSU men’s golfer to play in an NCAA Regional as an individual. The senior led the team in scoring average at 71.42 strokes per round and finished third at the Pac-12 Championship, shooting a 12-under 268 at the Stanford Golf Course. Yanagi’s season scoring average this season is the second-lowest average in program history.
Yanagi was also named honorable mention All-Pac-12 Conference, as was freshman Sam Renner.
Renner added a second honor, also receiving honorable mention for the All-Freshman team. Renner finished fourth on the Cougars in scoring average at 72.93, which is the second-best season scoring average by a WSU freshman in school history. He finished tied for eighth at the conference championship.
The Morgan Hill Regional, hosted by San Jose State and the San Jose Sports Authority, will take place May 15-17.
• Wastern Washington’s Megan Billeter, senior from Mt. Spokane High, was named second-team All-Great Northwest Athletic Conference, marking her fourth All-GNAC honor.
Billeter, the conference co-Player of the Year in 2021-22, averaged 78.67 this season and won her first collegiate tournament at the Saint Martin’s Invitational in the fall.
Hockey
Berkly Catton of the Spokane Chiefs was among 21 CHL players who helped win the bronze medal for Canada at the 2023 IIHF U18 World Championship.
Canada defeated Slovakia 4-3 in overtime in the bronze-medal game.
Macklin Celebrini scored the OT winner after Matthew Wood tied the game at 3 with just 1:11 left in regulation.
It’s the fourth time Canada has claimed bronze at the U18 World’s and first time since 2015. Canada is a four-time gold-medalist at the tournament, most recently in 2021.
• The Western Hockey League named the Spokane Chiefs the winner of the WHL Business Award for the 2022-23 WHL regular season.
The WHL Business Award is presented annually to the WHL Club that best exemplifies giving back to the community and producing an electrifying game-day experience for fans.
“On behalf of the Spokane Chiefs, I would like to thank the Western Hockey League for recognizing the organization as Business of the Year,” said Jay Stewart, Chiefs vice president of Business operations. “There are a number of people, vendors, and agencies that help the Chiefs put on a family-friendly event and give back to the community.”
Lacrosse
Three players from Whitworth University made the 2023 All-Northwest Conference list in women’s lacrosse.
Maddie Jennings earned a second-team selection, while Rebecca Irwin and Megan Whitman received honorable mention.
Jennings, a junior, made the second team as a defender. She started 17 of the team’s 18 matches this season and finished with 24 caused turnovers and 34 ground balls.
Irwin, a sophomore from Deer Park, also played in all 18 matches as a midfielder. She scored 20 goals and led Whitworth with 13 assists, finishing second on the team in total points (33).
Whitman, a first-year midfielder from Ferris, led the Pirates with 31 goals this season. She also had four assists to lead the team in total points (35).
Tennis
Idaho men’s tennis’ Francisco Bascon was named Most Valuable Player of the Big Sky Conference for the second time, after leading the Vandals to the conference tournament title.
Bascon was 19-4 in singles matches this season and 6-1 in conference play. He was one of four Vandals to earn All-Big Sky honors. Francisco Gay made the second team, while Bruno Casino and Taiyo Kurata earned honorable mentions.
Idaho’s Annabel Davis was named to the All-Big Sky women’s first team and Eastern Washington’s Kenzington Mann earned a women’s second-team honor.
• Northwest Conference coaches selected Whitworth University’s Nathan Tjelle to the 2023 All-NWC Men’s Tennis Team as a second-team honoree.
Tjelle, a junior, played both No 1 and No. 2 singles for the Pirates this season. He finished 4-6 at the top of the ladder and 2-5 at No. 2 singles. He had a 9-9 record in doubles.
• Washington State freshman Eva Alvarez Sande has been named to the 2023 All-Pac-12 Women’s Tennis second team.
Alvarez Sande, from Coruna, Alicia, Spain, is the first Cougar freshman to earn All-Pac-12 honors since Michaela Bayerlova was a first-team selection in 2018. In the 2022-23 season, Alvarez Sande posted a team-best 19-16 singles record and 21-15 doubles mark.
• Whitworth’s Gracie Smyley is a member of the 2023 All-Northwest Conference Women’s Tennis Team as a second-team honoree.
Smyley played at the top of the Pirates’ singles ladder and on the No. 1 doubles team throughout the 2023 season. She finished 6-11 in singles and 7-10 in doubles with three different partners.
Track and field
Western Washington’s Jonah Bloom, a sophomore from Ferris, was named Great Northwest Athletic Conference Athlete of the Week for men’s track after his standout performance at the Ralph Vernacchia Invitational on April 29.
Bloom out-sprinted the competition at the end of the 800m race to win with a personal-best time of 1:50.75. His time is No. 5 in program history and obtained an NCAA Championships provisional qualifying mark to rank 30th in NCAA Division II this season.
Volleyball
North Idaho College stayed in-house and named Brittany Tilleman head volleyball coach.
Tilleman has a successful history in Coeur d’Alene, having led Lake City High to multiple state appearances in volleyball and softball, including a state softball championship in 2013.
She was on the 2015 NIC volleyball team that finished fifth in the NJCAA National Tournament and was a 2016 All-American. She was an assistant coach at NIC for the 2022 season.
Tilleman also played at the University of Montana and coached at Hellgate High School for three seasons before returning to NIC.