2 Mid-Columbia grads earn top athletic honors at Eastern Oregon University

Kiona-Benton High grad Alex Navarro was the big winner at Tuesday night’s Eastern Oregon University 13th annual Mountie Awards, designated to honor the best athletes of the year at the school.

The awards show was virtual this year because of the pandemic.

Navarro, a grad student at EOU, was named the Men’s Cross Country Runner of the Year and the Men’s Track and Field Athlete of the Year.

To top it off, Navarro was named Co-Male Athlete of the Year.

Paige Dodd, a grad student at EOU who competed at Columbia-Burbank, was named the Women’s Track and Field Athlete of the Year.

Amanda Smith, who transferred to EOU after playing at Walla Walla Community College, was named the school’s Softball Player of the Year.

• The NWAC held its annual awards show June 3 via its website to honor those athletes and coaches who were outstanding over the past school year.

Kennewick High graduate Johan Correa was honored as the Men’s Cross Country Athlete of the Year after he won the NWAC men’s championship race for Spokane Community College last fall.

• Chiawana announced its athletes of the year a few weeks ago: Riley Cissne for boys, and Kylie Thorne for girls.

Cissne’s accomplishments include 11 varsity letters, 10 All-Mid-Columbia Conference awards, including baseball Player of the Year in 2019; six trips to state tournaments; two times he was a state champion, and a 3.95 grade point average. He’s headed to Whitworth to play baseball.

Thorne had 10 varsity letters, earned four All-MCC awards, made five trips to state tournaments, carries a 4.0 GPA and was class valedictorian. Thorne is headed to Central Washington University to play volleyball.

• The WIAA has created something called Foundation Games that teams in certain sports can take advantage of this coming school year.

Those teams in the following sports — baseball, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls soccer, softball, and volleyball — can add one game to their regular-season schedule for a fee paid to the WIAA.

Foundation fees range from $50 to $225, depending on the sport.

The fee from those games are paid by the host team to the WIAA to help cover rising costs, or fund some of the WIAA’s important programs.

In turn, the gate stays with the home team.

Imagine a Southridge-O’Dea baseball game, or a Chiawana-Garfield girls basketball game, for example, to be played that counts on the schedule.

Interesting angle.

• Becky Wadekamper is returning to Hermiston High School as its volleyball head coach starting this fall.

Wadekamper was the head coach from 2011 to 2014 for the Bulldogs.

“The relationships she has with our athletes, parents, and community make her the best fit for this position,” said Hermiston athletic director Larry Usher. “We are looking forward to Becky building our program and becoming a competitive force in the MCC in the future.”

• Chloe Mitchell, a 2018 Richland High grad, is a sophomore at NCAA Division III Southern Virginia University, where she plays women’s lacrosse.

Mitchell was a team captain and starter for the team, which was 6-0 when the season was stopped because of COVID-19.

The midfielder has been a starter since her freshmen season, and this season she already had 19 goals, 11 assists, won 20 ground balls and 22 draws. She had a season-high 5 goals in a victory over Birmingham Southern University this season.

• Scouring the waiver wire of minor league baseball players this past week, I found a few of our area’s players were casualties of Major League Baseball tightening its belt.

Arturo Reyes, a pitcher from Warden and CBC, was released by the Texas Rangers. Reyes had pitched in Triple-A last season for the Tampa Bay Rays organization, and was picked up by Texas in the offseason.

Infielder David Garza, an Othello product, got cut by the Arizona Diamondbacks’ organization. He spent two years in the D-Backs’ organization, and started last season for the Northwest League’s Hillsboro Hops before being sent to the Midwest League’s Kane County Cougars.

Those still employed include Southridge High grad Mason Martin, who had a fantastic 2019 season for the Pittsburgh Pirates organization; Southridge grad Conner O’Neil, who is still pitching in the New York Mets organization; and Richland High grad Eric Yardley.

Yardley was released in the offseason by the San Diego Padres after making his major-league debut. But the relief pitcher was picked up by the Milwaukee Brewers and spent the entire spring training camp with the big club.

He was sent down to Triple-A just before COVID-19 shut down the season in March.

• The West Coast League, the 12-team college summer baseball league in the Northwest, made the announcement in a press release last week that it was canceling the 2020 season “due to pandemic-related safety guidelines and travel restrictions across Washington and Oregon.”

The league includes teams in Walla Walla and Yakima.

The WCL saw its 2020 season die a slow death, when in early May the Bellingham Bells franchise cancelled its season when the team wasn’t allowed to use the city-owned baseball stadium due to the pandemic.

On May 8, four more teams dropped out — Oregon’s Bend and Portland franchise, and British Columbia’s Victoria and Kelowna teams — as officials prohibited large gatherings.

That left seven teams still planning on making 2020 a go before WCL decided it just couldn’t happen.

The Portland Pickles and Wenatchee AppleSox franchise officials said they are still going to try to play an independent schedule this season.

The league also announced the 2021 season will begin June 4 next year, and the WCL will welcome a 13th franchise to the league, located in Nanaimo, British Columbia.

Signings

Hanford High held its signing day celebration a few weeks ago with at least 15 athletes celebrating.

Leading the way was Amanda Fraga, a track star for the Falcons who will compete this coming year for the Air Force Academy.

Others being celebrated were: Tyler Andersen (Columbia Basin CC men’s golf), Jayden Ault (CBC baseball), Avery Campbell (University of Montevallo-Alabama women’s soccer), Allison Coleman (CWU track and field), Kamari Durmas (Reedley, Calif., CC football), Cody Higgins (Treasure Valley CC baseball), Kyle Marboe (Walla Walla CC baseball), Gabe Martinez (Kansas Wesleyan University football), Dylan McElderry (Northwest Nazarene University men’s lacrosse), Casey Moddrell (Whitworth track and field), Grace Nelson (Corban University women’s wrestling), Annie Polster (College of Idaho softball), Emily Sondag (Carroll College-Montana women’s soccer), Chase Stewart (Southwestern Oregon CC baseball), and Jasmine Urban (Bushnell University women’s cross country).