These universities are wooing 2 Tri-City football players

Catching up with some more college signings and offers this week.

Among the offers is Washington State University football offering Pasco offensive lineman Davion Pruitt.

That’s a late offer, but a great one nonetheless for the Bulldogs senior. Pruitt hasn’t said yet on whether he’s taking it.

Meanwhile, Richland senior Aric Davison made it official by signing his letter of intent and faxing it to Utah State University.

The offensive lineman is doing something extra special, though.

He graduated from Richland High School this past week and is enrolling at USU now. Classes begin in a couple of weeks, and that gives Davison a head start with spring football in a few months, plus, of course, get into college classes and the lifestyle.

More signings Chiawana’s McKenna Kaelber, a setter for the Riverhawks who helped them get to the Class 4A state tournament for the first time, has signed to play collegiately at Montana Tech next year.

“McKenna is going to add a lot to our offensive options,” Montana Tech head volleyball coach Brian Solomon said. “She is a very strong setter and even hungrier to improve. We couldn’t be happier to have her a part of our program.”

▪ Hermiston’s Madi Wilson signed a letter of intent to compete for Eastern Washington University in track and field.

Prep basketball

Connor Woodward scored 31 points on Friday night to lead the Hanford boys basketball team over visiting Hermiston 73-62.

That handed Hermiston its first loss of the season, dropping the Bulldogs to 4-1 in Mid-Columbia Conference play and 7-1 overall. Hanford improves to 2-3, 4-5.

▪ The Hermiston girls won their second consecutive game Friday, beating Hanford 61-33 on the strength of Jordan Thomas’ 26 points.

▪ It’s not easy to score 100 points in a high school game, but we’ve seen it twice this week by two different teams.

First, Richland’s boys beat Walla Walla 112-70 on Tuesday. And Friday night, Chiawana’s boys rolled past Sunnyside 105-59.

The Riverhawks exploded for a 35-9 third quarter to put the game away, and senior Matthew Kroner had a monster game in the paint with 34 points and 12 rebounds.

The taller Riverhawks had 20 offensive rebounds, and outscored the Grizzlies 21-2 in second-chance points.

▪ Haden Hicks scored 20 points Friday night to lead Prosser’s boys past East Valley of Yakima. Can’t wait to see Hicks play in a couple of weeks on the SWX game of the week.

All-State cross country

With coaches sending out their all-state volleyball team, and sports writers doing the same with all-state football, you’d think that would be the end to the fall all-state sports teams.

However, the Washington state high school cross country coaches association also has an all-state team, and they’ve done it for a few years now.

It’s basically the fastest runners at the state meet, regardless of classification, that was held in early November at Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco.

That said, Kamiakin dominated the boys team.

The Braves, along with Camas, each had four runners on the squad. Seniors Ryan Child and Porter Grigg, and well as junior Stanford Smith and freshman Issac Teeples, were named to the team for Kamiakin.

Also on the boys team are Kennewick’s Johan Correa, Walla Walla’s Cooper Cortinas, Richland’s Riley Moore, and Hanford’s Caleb Olson.

On the girls’ side, Class 3A champion of North Central in Spokane dominated the all-state team with five runners. The Mid-Columbia had three all-staters: Kennewick’s Geraldin Correa, Walla Walla’s Ella Nelson, and Kamiakin’s McKinzi Teeples.

Notes

▪ Kamiakin added four more athletes to its Athletic Hall of Fame on Friday, with runner Jonah Franco, football and basketball player Champ Grayson, tennis standout Tan Nguyen, and basketball star Garrett Paxton.

▪ The Providence women’s basketball team routed San Diego Christian 67-38 on Thursday night on the road in Arizona. Emilee Maldonaldo (Sunnyside grad) scored 14 points for Providence, while Kenedy Cartwright (Chiawana) added 12.