This Tri-Cities champion is going pro in a new league of elite athletes

Richland High graduate Lisa Bratton is switching teams in the upcoming International Swimming League season.

Bratton, 25, swam last season for the DC Trident out of Washington, D.C. But this year, she has signed with the expansion Toronto Titans — the first Canadian-based team in what is now a 10-team league ready to begin its second season next month.

Last season, there were eight ISL teams based in the United States and Europe. This year, the league has added Toronto and the Tokyo Frog Kings franchise.

If you’re wondering what is the ISL is, it’s a professional swimming league started last year by some entrepreneurs who felt swimming would be a great spectator sport. After all, swimming has always been popular in Olympic years and during world championships.

Team rosters consist of most of the top men and women swimmers in the world, and meets are scored like the team swim meets of high school and college competitions — points in each event are assigned by each placing in an event.

Bratton won the women’s 200 backstroke in 2018 at the FINA World Short Course Swim Championships in Hangzhou, China.

She’s also been an NCAA All-American, and competed for the United States national team.

While working as a graduate student at Texas A&M last year, Bratton was invited to compete in the ISL.

Pasco’s Arline getting some notice

Congratulations to Pasco High senior Isaiah Arline, who has been invited to the Ford Sports Performance’ Class of 2021 and 2022 College I.D. Camp All-Star Weekend.

Players are allowed to partake by invitation only, and it’s a padded camp with three practice sessions capped with a scrimmage.

It’s also a chance to get some current game film, something high school football players need to show college recruiters.

Arline is a 6-foot-3, 240-pound defensive end or tackle.

He was named to the Mid-Columbia Conference’s second-team all-conference squad last season.

He’s tough and strong.

But I also remember that Pasco High coach Leon Wright-Jackson used Arline as a fullback on offense at times last season, scoring a couple of touchdowns as the big fella powered into the end zone a few times in short-yardage, goal-line situations.

Talented player.

NWAC stuff

The Columbia Basin College men’s and women’s golf teams got their first taste of competition of the 2020-21 season this past Monday at the Suncadia Invitational.

North Idaho CC won both the men’s and women’s portion of the tournament.

CBC placed fourth as a team in the men’s tourney, and sophomore Clayton Whitby (Chiawana grad) finished tied for seventh with a 76 – 4-over par.

On the women’s side, CBC finished fifth as a team, and freshman Janae Martinez (Pasco) placed seventh with an 88 (16 over par).

• Former Pasco High boys basketball standout Diego Gutierrez signed a letter of intent in early September to play this school year for Grays Harbor Community College.

Gutierrez, a 2019 Bulldogs grad, had originally intended to play community college basketball last season. But instead — he’s also a talented tennis player — he played tennis at Spokane Community College until the coronavirus shut things down in March.

Now, he’s back on the basketball court.

Notes

• Things can move fast in the NFL.

Take Brett Rypien’s case, for example. MCC football teams may remember Rypien, who played at Shadle Park in Spokane and set the state of Washington high school career passing yardage mark of 13,044 yards — the record previously held by Prosser High grad Kellen Moore.

After a stellar college career at Boise State, Rypien – who is the nephew of former NFL quarterback Mark Rypien — was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Denver Broncos in 2019.

This season, Rypien was one of the last Broncos cuts out of training camp. But he then signed again for the team’s practice squad.

Last week, he was elevated from the practice squad after an injury to regular starter Drew Lock.

Rypien came off of the bench in Sunday’s game against Tampa Bay.

But this week, the Broncos have named him the starter in the Broncos game Thursday against the New York Jets.

• The Tampa Bay Lightning won the Stanley Cup trophy this week, beating the Dallas Stars in the finals 4 games to 2.

Among the players on the Lightning’s roster is Spokane native Tyler Johnson.

A long time ago, in 2008, the now 30-year-old Johnson helped his hometown Spokane Chiefs win a Memorial Cup too.

But this season, the center helped the Lightning win the NHL title in the bubble.

Johnson scored 14 goals and 17 assists in 65 games this season.

• Wine Valley Golf Club assistant pro Brady Sharp lost in a four-hole playoff to Corey Prugh of Community College of Spokane in the Pacific Northwest PGA Professional Championship at Canyon River Golf Course in Montana last week.

Sharp, Prugh and Bo Baker of The Creek at Qualchan all finished tied for first after three rounds, each scoring 202 at 14-under-par.

Sharp fired rounds of 67, 66 and 69 to get there.

Prugh walked away with $8,000, while Sharp and Baker each earned $4,425.

More importantly than the money, Sharp also earns a spot in the 103rd PGA Championship, scheduled for May 20-23, in South Carolina.

He also earns a spot in the 2021 PGA Professional Championship, set for Aug. 25-28 in Port St. Lucie, Fla., next year.

• You might have noticed all of the high school football jerseys draped over seats at CenturyLink Field in Seattle during the Seahawks game.

For a number of years, the Seahawks have had a large display of each state of Washington high school football team’s helmet underneath the stands.

But in looking for ideas to put something in the stands — fans aren’t allowed in for games right now — Seahawks staff came up with the idea of representing high schools in the state.

So far, I’ve seen Kennewick and Richland jerseys. Hanford was sending its jerseys to the Hawks this week, and it wouldn’t be surprising that eventually every high school in our region would be represented — just like with the helmet display.