Locally: Gonzaga soccer’s Giana Riley named to United States U20 Women’s Youth National Team
From staff reports
Gonzaga University women’s soccer standout Giana Riley was named to the United States’ Under-20 Women’s Youth National Team roster.
National team head coach Tracey Kevins named a 24-player roster for the team’s first training camp of the year Jan. 15-22 at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California.
The camp marks the first steps toward the 2024 FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup, to be held in Colombia in September, for which the USA qualified last June at the CONCACAF Women’s U20 Championship in the Dominican Republic.
Academics
Two Washington State volleyball fifth-year student athletes, Iman Isanovic and Magda Jehláová, were named to the 2023 Academic All-America women’s volleyball teams as announced by the College Sports Communicators (CSC).
Both student-athletes were voted onto this year’s Academic All-America third team, with Isanovic representing the only three-time CSC Academic All-America honoree, having been named second and third team in 2022 and 2021, respectively. Jehláová was also a second-team honoree in 2022 as the Euro tandem represented the only teammates on this year’s Division I Academic All-America teams to have each earned the award more than once in their careers.
Jehláová, a master’s student in Management, was the 2022 Pac-12 Women’s Volleyball Scholar Athlete of the Year. Jehláová was the second overall pick in the Professional Volleyball Federation (PVF) inaugural collegiate player draft in December and is the only five-time first-team All-Pac-12 honoree in the history of the Conference of Champions.
Isanovic is a graduate student in Political Science.
Baseball
Gonzaga University has released its 2024 baseball schedule. The 50-game spring lineup includes 18 games at Patterson Baseball Complex and Coach Steve Hertz Field and eight games against teams who participated in the 2023 NCAA Tournament.
The Zags will face 21 opponents in 2024, 12 of which finished in the Top 150 in the NCAA’s final RPI rankings from 2023.
Most notably, GU’s second opponent, Vanderbilt, finished seventh in those final rankings before hosting the Nashville Regional of the NCAA Tournament.
The full schedule can be found at gozags.com.
Golf
Circling Raven Golf Club improved by 10 places from last year’s ranking of “Top 200 U.S. Resort Courses, 2024,” an annual compilation of America’s finest places to play that is published conjointly by Golfweek and USA TODAY.
The Gene Bates-designed layout climbed to No. 104 in this year’s list, which was recently unveiled. The Coeur d’Alene Resort made the list at No. 150.
Owned and operated by the Coeur d’Alene Tribe (and named for a seminal tribal chief), Circling Raven covers more than 600 acres of ancestral homelands – nearly five times more acreage than the average course globally.
Indoor track and field
In their first action of 2024, the Gonzaga men’s and women’s track teams returned to The Podium for the Spokane Sports Showcase and two program records were set.
Ellie Armbruster broke the first program record of the day in the 400m race, improving her previous record with a 57.32, sixth place time. Armbruster came from behind to win her heat, and Bailee Carr secured the program second-best time of 1:00.18 in her GU 400m debut.
Willow Collins and Alicia Anderson headlined the Zags’ finish in the 800m race. Both would break the previous school 800m indoor record, but it was Collins (2:12.40) who narrowly edged Anderson (2:12.48) to secure the record and a second-place overall finish.
Shooting
Tanner Krebs of Spokane Junior Rifle Club won the junior state championship at the 2023 Washington State Indoor International Rifle Championships in November.
Krebs, 15, competing in the intermediate junior category for ages 15-17, had the top score among three junior divisions with a score of 1,134 out of a possible 1,200 points.
Sean Kegley, 19, placed third overall and first in the Junior category, ages 18-21, with a score of 1,105. Anna Pearsall, 20, was fifth overall and second in the Junior category with a score of 1,086.
Also in the top 10 overall for SJRC were Breeden Ensley, 14, seventh at 1,059 and Spencer Fitzpatrick, 17, 10th at 1,039.
Kaylee Geller, 14, placed third in sub juniors (14 and under) with a score of 975.
The match was a full-course match consisting of 40 shots in each of three positions (kneeling, prone, standing sequence) and shot indoors using small bore (0.22) rifles. Targets were hung at 50-foot distance and only metallic sights allowed.