Eastern snags Mid-Columbia volleyball star for next year’s team

Connell senior Alyssa Radke signed last week to play volleyball at Eastern Washington University.

Radke is a hitter, both on the outside and right side.

“Alyssa is a stud from Connell, she hits with so much velocity,” said EWU head coach Leslie Flores-Cloud. “I cannot wait to work with her to hone in her skills to play in our EWU system. She will surely be a great attacker for us.”

As a sophomore and junior, Radke was a first-team, All-South Central East Athletic Conference selection, and was a second-team all-state selection last year.

As far as the current EWU is concerned, the school released a shortened Big Sky Conference schedule a few weeks ago that begins play in January.

The Eagles will open at Weber State with games Jan. 24-25.

Eastern has two Tri-City athletes on its roster: senior outside hitter Catelyn Linke (Pasco High grad), and freshman outside hitter Sage Brustad (Richland).

• Richland High senior Megan Revell signed a letter of intent last week to compete on Gannon University’s acrobatics and tumbling team.

Revell is a Junior Olympics level 9 gymnast at Mid-Columbia Gymnastics.

She has also received an academic scholarship from the Erie, Pa., school too, and has already been admitted into the school’s Criminal Justice program.

• More signings will be announced over the next week.

If you know of one, please send the information to sports@tricityherald.com.

GNAC winters sports done

The CEO board of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference voted last week to cancel winter sports because of the coronavirus situation.

That is, six of the conference’s schools — Alaska Anchorage, Central Washington University, Montana State University Billings, Simon Fraser University, Western Oregon University, and Western Washington University — have all shut down winter sports.

Only four GNAC schools — Alaska Fairbanks, Northwest Nazarene University, St. Martin’s University, and Seattle Pacific University — are forging ahead with a smaller conference schedule beginning in January.

The good news is the officials who run the NCAA Division II organization have already said that no athlete in this school year will accrue a year’s worth of eligibility.

• Two more area baseball players have signed letters of intent to play baseball at the community college level starting in the 2021-22 season.

Kennewick High senior Cade Puckett has committed to playing for Columbia Basin College.

Pasco High senior Estevan Ruiz is headed to Shoreline Community College to play there.

Prep basketball

• Nikole Thomas has just one season of high school basketball under her belt.

Yet the Kamiakin sophomore has already received five NCAA Division I scholarship offers.

Thomas, who averaged 11.8 points a game last season for the Braves, has offers from Washington State and the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley.

In recent weeks, she’s gotten offers from Weber State University, Eastern Washington University, and Montana State University.

• Scorebook Live Washington, in anticipation of eventually having a high school basketball season, has put out its list of candidates for Class 4A state players of the year in both boys and girls hoops.

Chiawana has a player on each list: senior Kobe Young for the boys, and Talia von Oelhoffen for the girls.

Young missed most of last season with a foot injury he suffered playing football. But he has D-1 offers in both football and basketball.

Von Oelhoffen, meanwhile, signed her letter of intent last week to play for the Oregon State women’s team beginning next year.

Motorsports

Hermiston Raceway held its final race of the strange 2020 season Oct. 25, calling it the Saturday Spooktacular.

The track has had a rough year, considering COVID-19 has kept the facility closed for much of 2020.

But track officials decided to have one final blowout in late October to finish the season on a strong note.

The result was 89 race teams showed up to compete in seven different divisions.

In the 11-car Late Model division, Spokane’s Dave Garber finished first.

The 18-car INEX Legends division featured a number of local drivers near the top of the standings. Brock Denney of Kalispell, Mont., won the event, but West Richland’s Trace Thompson, Hermiston’s Jose Zamudio, Richland’s Broc Nelson, and Hermiston’s Larry Badoux finished third through sixth, respectively.

There were 10 cars in the Street Stock division, and Yakima’s Brandon Little placed first. Walla Walla’s Luke Klingenberg finished third.

In the 11-car Hobby Stock division, Yakima’s Travis McKinney won.

Spokane’s Scott Murphy finished first in the 11-car Mini Stock division.

There were seven cars in the Bombers division, with Kedric Preston of Pilot Rock, Ore., winning. Milton-Freewater’s Shade Coe placed second.

Finally, in the 14-car Hornets division, Ephrata’s Colton Fisher crossed the finish line first.

Umatilla’s Kris Marlow placed second, while Stanfield’s Sean Zieske was third, and Kennewick’s Kyle Franklin finished fourth.