Richland grad Weissenfels named MVP of college sprint football league
Richland High graduate Adam Weissenfels completed his collegiate sprint football career this fall by being named his conference’s Most Valuable Player.
Weissenfels, a senior at the U.S. Naval Academy, was not only named the Collegiate Sprint Football League MVP, but a week before that he was named the CSFL Defensive Player of the Year, as well as first-team defensive back and first-team punt returner.
All honors were voted upon by the conference coaches.
What is sprint football, you ask?
It’s the same thing as regular college football, except players can weigh no more than 178.0 pounds.
That’s the only difference.
The CSFL consists of nine schools, including Navy, Army, Cornell and Penn. The coaches of the nine schools picked among the CSFL major award winners to select the MVP.
Weissenfels, a senior, finished his collegiate career with 11 interceptions.
This season alone, he had four picks, was in on 25 tackles (2 for loss), and 17 of them were solo tackles.
He also had three pass breakups and a forced fumble.
Weissenfels was a major part of Navy’s team that finished with an 8-0 record, and the team won the CSFL title.
▪ Kamiakin strong safety Elijah Allen will be playing football next fall for Carleton University, an NCAA Division III school in Minnesota.
College volleyball
Seattle Pacific University’s Hannah Hair (Walla Walla) was named an NCAA Division II honorable mention All-American by the American Volleyball Coaches Association.
Hair — a 6-foot-1 sophomore middle blocker — had 217 kills and was in on 115 blocks for the Falcons, who finished the season with a 15-10 record.
Hair was a unanimous first-team all-GNAC honoree, was an honorable mention selection for the AVCA All-West Region team, and was second team on the D2 Conference Commissioners Association All-West Region squad.
Hair was also named to the GNAC All-Academic team, as well as the CoSIDA Academic All-District team.
▪ Fifth-year middle blocker Leanna Shymanski (Kamiakin) was named honorable mention to the Great Northwest Athletic Conference volleyball team.
Shymanski finished the fall with 164 kills for Central Washington University, which finished the season at 17-9.
She also had a team-best 99 kills for the Wildcats.
College, high school wrestling
Corban University defeated Simpson University 31-21 in men’s wrestling on Dec. 13. Tyson Stover (Chiawana) won his match for Corban, scoring a 10-1 major decision over Trinidad Diaz.
That gave Stover a 7-6 record this season through Dec. 13.
▪ Prosser’s Reyden Huizar was the lone individual boys champion last weekend, Dec. 17-18, at the Best of the West tournament at Pasco High School.
The annual tournament has two parts to it: a team dual-meet competition on the first day, and then an individual tournament on the second day.
Newberg, Ore., a perennial team title contender at this event for years, did it again by beating Selah 59-15 in the title match.
▪ Corban University’s Iyazely Barraza (Othello) placed third in the Spokane Open women’s wrestling tournament on Dec. 13. Barraza has an 8-4 college record, with five pins, through Dec. 13.
▪ Chiawana senior Darion Johnson just keeps on winning.
Now 14-0 in this young wrestling season, Johnson went 5-0 with four pins en route to winning the 170-pound title at the Tri-State Invitational in Coeur d’Alene on Dec. 17-18.
Johnson beat Conan Northwind of Granger 16-8, a major decision, in the title match.
Notes
▪ Former Richland High fastpitch softball star Kaylie Northrop has transferred from UNLV. The pitching standout will be playing this spring for Appalachian State. She is a sophomore.
▪ Southridge grad Keanu Daos, competing at Western Oregon University, placed 11th overall at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference men’s cross country finals at Saint Martin’s University in late October.
Daos covered the 8,000-meter course in 24 minutes, 55.70 seconds.
▪ So what’s going on with the Christensen boys — Cooper and Caleb?
The two Royal football standouts, who are not relates, graduated in June of 2021 and led the Knights to a state title in 2019. Cooper caught a lot of passes from Caleb for a few seasons.
Cooper went on his two-year Latter Day Saints mission, reports Royal football coach Wiley Allred, and is in Ohio.
After his mission, he’s looking to play baseball, but hasn’t ruled out football either, reported Allred.
Meanwhile, Caleb Christensen worked his way into the starting lineup as a true freshman quarterback for Whitworth University this past fall — before he got hurt.
Still, Caleb Christensen performed well when he did play, completing 53 of 91 passes for 628 yards, three touchdown passes against three interceptions.
▪ Kamiakin High School inducted five more former athletes into its Wall of Fame on Dec. 17.
They are: Tuna Altahir for football; Amaya Gales for gymnastics; Cameron Gutierrez for track and field; Messiah Jones for basketball; and Kyson Rose, also for basketball.
Signings
▪ Chiawana senior Royce Vandine is headed to Lower Columbia Community College to play baseball for the Red Devils in the spring of 2023.
▪ Chiawana senior Hilda Muniz-Cortes will play women’s soccer next year for Columbia Basin College.
▪ Two Kennewick High girls bowlers have signed letters of intent to bowl collegiately next year.
Kassandra Foss signed with Missouri Baptist University on Dec. 7.
In November, Paige Harns signed with Waldorf University.