Kennewick driver has first run at Daytona International Raceway

Kennewick’s Brittney Zamora got a chance to drive at Daytona International Speedway for the first time earlier this month.

Zamora drove the No. 7 Ford, owned by Eric Caudell of CCM Racing, in the ARCA Menards Series Test at the world famous track Jan. 15-16.

Zamora drove on the track by herself as well as practiced drafting in 180 mph speeds with the other drivers.

College signings

▪ Grady Lemma, a senior at Walla Walla High School, will compete for the men’s track and field team at Grinnell College in Iowa, beginning next school year. Lemma is a sprinter for the Blue Devils, and can run the 100, 200, and 400 meters, as well as any of the relays.

Athletes who have signed to Northwest Athletic Conference community college teams:

▪ Warden senior Chance Conahan is set to play baseball at Walla Walla Community College.

▪ Hanford High senior Abigail Meyer will play volleyball next year at Spokane Community College.

▪ Walla Walla High School’s Citlali Perez will be playing women’s soccer for Walla Walla Community College.

▪ Kamiakin senior Tatum York-Bement will be playing women’s golf for Columbia Basin College.

Basketball

▪ Sophomore Macey Morales (Chiawana) and her Whitworth women’s basketball teammates have yet to play a game this season because of COVID. But the Pirates are scheduled to play host to Northwest Conference rival Pacific Lutheran this coming Friday and Saturday.

▪ Ashlee Maldonado, a sophomore from Sunnyside, has started 10 of 13 games for the Santa Clara University women’s basketball team so far this season. The Broncos are 8-5 as of Jan. 18, and Maldonado averages 4.5 points and a team-best 3.7 assists per game so far.

▪ The Lewis-Clark State College women’s basketball team has a 6-3 record through games of Jan. 25. Hermiston graduate Jansen Edmiston is averaging 11.3 points and 4.1 rebounds for the Warriors, while Madeline Weaver (College Place) is averaging 2.5 points coming off of the bench.

▪ The St. Martin’s women’s basketball team is off to a 1-2 start this season, and freshman forward Rian Clear got into her first college game in the Saints’ opener, an 80-69 loss to Seattle University. Clear, who played at Walla Walla High School last season, played five minutes in the contest, going 0-for-2 from the floor.

▪ Kamiakin graduate Garrett Paxton has started at guard in all seven games so far this season for the Whitworth Pirates men’s basketball team.

The 6-foot-3 junior is averaging 13.1 points a game for the Pirates (2-0 Northwest Conference, 4-3 overall). Whitworth opened NWC play last weekend, beating University of Puget Sound on the road on consecutive nights 87-63 and 83-63.

In the first game, Paxton scored 13 points, grabbed 6 rebounds and had 4 assists; in the second game, he scored 15 points.

▪ As of games through Jan. 25, the Lewis-Clark State College men’s basketball team has a 12-1 record. Guard Jake Albright (Walla Walla Community College) is averaging 8.9 points and 7.5 rebounds for the Warriors.

▪ Scorebook Live Washington has pinpointed four girls as potential state 2B basketball players of the year, when or if there is high school basketball later this year. Two of them are from this region: Tri-Cities Prep’s McKenna Martinez and Warden’s Kiana Rios.

Martinez averaged 15.6 points last season for the Jaguars. She’s already signed a letter of intent to play for the Oregon State University women’s soccer team next fall.

Rios averaged 15.0 points for Warden last season when the school was in the 1A SCAC East. Now the school has dropped down to the 2B EWAC for this school year.

Here is other news from around the Mid-Columbia:

▪ Richland High graduate Nick Zohn is an infielder playing at Yakima Valley College. The infielder graduated last June and never got a senior season in for the Bombers. But he’s already got summer plans as the Cascade Collegiate League announced recently that he’ll be playing in the summer league.

▪ Richland swim coach Wes Bratton let me know that while girls high school swimming and diving are normally part of fall sports — and would likely be part of the first batch of sports set to begin Feb. 1 – girls and boys swimming and diving actually will be moved to the last sports season in the spring by Mid-Columbia Conference athletic directors.

“That’s due to pool space availability for competition mostly, and ease of practice schedules,” Bratton told the Herald. “We are working with the cities to get the local outdoor pools open in mid- to late-April, for a season start of May 1.”

▪ Calendar update: the 2021 dates for the HAPO Columbia Cup hydroplane races are set for July 23-25.

▪ Richland’s Tim Frederickson carded his third career hole-in-one Jan. 6 at Meadow Springs Country Club in Richland. Frederickson used a 7-iron on the 135-yard No. 17 hole.

▪ The Greater Spokane League announced a few weeks ago that football season — which the WIAA has OK’d to start Feb. 1, as long as the region is in Phase 2 – will begin in Spokane on Feb. 15, and run until April 11.

Again, that’s if the Spokane region is in Phase 2. Right now, every region in the state is in Phase 1.

▪ The Tri-Cities Sports Council is working with the Ironman Triathlon organization to possibly bring a Half Ironman competition to the Tri-Cities in August. It could field around 2,000 participants, but organizers feel confident they could sell it out.