Tri-Cities sophomore sees international basketball play + football coach nears win record
Malia Ruud, a sophomore this year at Chiawana High School, is getting some great international basketball experience this week.
Ruud was invited to try out — and then made the team — for Samoa’s U-18 women’s basketball squad, which is playing in the FIBA U-18 Women’s Asian Basketball Championships in India.
Ruud, a 6-for-2 forward, scored 16 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to help lead Samoa to an easy 108-36 victory over the Maldives in the first game of pool play.
Samoa also plays the Philippines and Thailand in pool play this week.
Men’s soccer
Keeper Michael Kot (Chiawana) stopped four shots, including a penalty kick, to help lead Northwest University out of Kirkland past Northwestern College of Iowa 1-0 in a game Aug. 27.
Kot is a true freshman for the Eagles.
“Michael Kot had a great game in goal,” said NU coach Gary McIntosh, “coming up huge to save a penalty kick to keep us in the game.”
▪ How good of a start to the season does McKenna Martinez have? Well, the Oregon State University sophomore — who graduated from Tri-Cities Prep and played girls soccer at Richland High School — already has 6 goals and 1 assist for the 3-1-2 Beavers.
Martinez has already compiled 25 shots, and 14 shots on goal.
Cross country
▪ Sophomore Kenneth Rooks (College Place) finished second for BYU in the men’s 5K race at the Utah Valley University Invite on Sept. 1.
Rooks covered the course in 15 minutes, 31.3 seconds. Only his teammate, sophomore Joey Nokes, finished ahead of Rooks with a time of 15:24.8.
▪ Madi Carr (Richland) was the highest area finisher at the Northwest Clash cross country meet on Friday in the Spokane area.
Carr, competing for Eastern Washington University, placed second overall, finishing the 4K race in 14 minutes, 49.2 seconds.
Carr’s teammate, Natalie Ruzauskas (Richland) finished fourth overall out the 47 runners who competed. She covered the course in 14:54.8.
Lewis-Clark State College’s Geraldin Correa (Kennewick) placed 12th overall, with a time of 15:16.1.
EWU’s Lilly Fetzer won the race with a time of 14:32.2.
Prep football
▪ This from Richland Bomber Football: With the Bombers rallying to defeat Southridge 17-16 on Saturday afternoon, Bombers head coach Mike Neidhold picked up his 107th career victory at the school.
That puts Neidhold — who has been head coach from 2008 to present — in a tie with J.D. Covington for the second-most head coaching victories at Richland High.
Ironically, Covington was Neidhold’s head coach in the late 1970’s.
No. 1 on the list is Lonnie Pearson (who was head coach from 1986 to 2004) with 126 victories.
Before Saturday’s win, Neidhold was tied for third at 106 wins with Fran Rish, the long-time Bombers coach from 1946 to 1966 — and for whom the stadium is named after.
▪ Kris Welch is excited about his crew this season at River View, which opened the season Friday night by beating Kiona-Benton 26-0 on the road.
“This is the best senior-led group that River View has seen since the 2012-13 season,” said the Panthers head coach.
That season, the Panthers advanced all the way to the state semifinals, falling 31-28 to Royal in 1A.
Perhaps no senior has Welch’s attention more than Miguel Farias, who rushed for 120 yards on 16 carries against the Bears on Friday. He also caught a pass for 18 yards, and on defense, he had 10 tackles (2 for loss).
Farias found the end zone twice for TDs — one rushing and one receiving.
▪ Some big receiving numbers out of that 35-28 Hermiston win over Hanford on Friday. The Falcons’ Preston Bryant caught 5 passes for 104 yards and a score. Meanwhile, Jamie Ramirez-Ortega had 5 catches for 97 yards and 2 TD’s for the victorious Bulldogs. … How good is Othello going to be this season? The Huskies visited Connell on Saturday night and beat the Eagles 55-0. Many of the state’s social media pundits who put together top 10 polls already have Othello ranked at No. 7 in Class 2A. I’m already eyeing that Oct. 7 game, when Prosser visits Othello in a big Central Washington Athletic Conference showdown.
Baseball
The final week of the Northwest League season runs Tuesday through Sunday for the Tri-City Dust Devils at Gesa Stadium in Pasco.
The team went 3-3 last week at Hillsboro, and got some outstanding pitching performances by Nick Mondak and Victor Mederos.
Mondak fanned 10 Hillsboro batters in 6 innings of work.
Meanwhile, Osmy Gregorio and Gabe Matthew’s had good weeks at the plate.
Gregorio played shortstop, batted .250 (6 for 24), scored three runs, drove in three more, had two doubles, a triple and stolen base.
Matthews, at first base, hit .273 (6 for 22), scored five runs, had two RBIs, four doubles and a home run.
All games this week, against the Spokane Indians, start at 6:30 p.m.
▪ Tri-City Dust Devils shortstop Kyren Paris got his call-up last Thursday to the Double-A Rocket City Trash Pandas.
Paris has played part of the 2021 and 2022 for the High-A Dust Devils, appearing in 102 games for the Angels farm club.
So far this year, Paris is batting .237, with 10 home runs, and 38 RBIs.