Strong postseason performances by Oak Harbor and Coupeville graduates highlighted the collegiate spring season for former Whidbey athletes.
Track
Coupeville’s Hunter Hammer earned All-American honors for Trinity Lutheran College (Everett) by placing third in the shot put in the National Christian College Athletic Association track championships in May.
Hammer’s throw of 47-11 was a personal best and school record. Hammer also owns the Trinity discus (152-05) and hammer throw (155-06) school records.
In addition to placing third in the shot put, he finished fifth in the hammer (150-05) and 13th in the discus (132-07) at the NCCAA championships.
That performance helped Hammer win the Student-Athlete of the Year Award at Trinity Lutheran.
“He had a great finish to his last season of college competition,” coach Matt Koenigs said. “Hunter is a wonderful young man and was a joy to have on the track team.”
Koenigs noted Hammer still has one year of eligibility left (he red-shirted one of his seasons at Everett Community College) but chose to graduate this spring.
Allison Duvenez wrapped up an outstanding running career this spring at Northwest Christian University (Eugene, Ore.) by placing sixth in the 800 meters and 10th in the 1,500 at the Cascade Conference championships.
The senior from Oak Harbor holds the NCU record for the 400-meter hurdles (1:06.37) and was a member of the record-setting 4×800 relay team (9:32.56). At one time, she also held the school 400 (1:03.123) and 3,000 steeplechase (12:29.24) records.
In her four years on the school’s cross country and track teams, Duvenez was a two-time All-American, two-time all-Cascade Collegiate Conference member, three-time all-league academic winner and a conference champion in the 5,000 meters.
She also helped the Beacons place in the top 14 four times in the NAIA national cross country meet, with an individual best of 25th place in 2013.
Tyler King, a junior from Coupeville running Division I track for the University of Washington, placed 15th in the 10,000 meters (30:40.03) at the Pac-12 championship meet May 16 in Los Angeles. Two weeks later in Austin, Texas, he ran 30th in the 10,000 (31:39.57) at the NCAA West Preliminaries.
Earlier in the season, King ran a 28:59.37, the fastest 10,000 on the team this spring and the sixth fastest all time at the University of Washington.
He owns the team’s second fastest 3,000 time (8:20.09) and sixth fastest 1,500 (3:48.74) in 2015.
Christina Wicker, running for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, Mass.), placed 10th in the 1,500 meters (4:53.59) at the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference championship meet April 25 and then 18th (4:44.06) at the New England Division III championships April 30.
During the regular season, the sophomore from Oak Harbor earned a second-place finish in the 1,500 (4:50.32) at the Sean Collier Invitational April 18.
Alexandra Laiblin, a freshman from Oak Harbor, posted Western Washington University’s best time in the 10,000 meters this spring (38:56.54) while placing fifth in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference championship meet May 8 in Monmouth, Ore. She also posted the Vikings’ third-best 5,000 meter time (17:59.05) when she ran fifth at the 34th Annual Ralph Vernachia Open April 25 in Bellingham.
Oak Harbor’s Adrianna Royal, a red-shirt junior at Sacramento State University, posted the eighth-best time in school history (11:17.74) while finishing fourth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the Sacramento State Open May 9.
Hannah Bressler, a junior from Oak Harbor at Willamette University, clocked the school’s fifth-best time ever in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (10:59.31) while finishing fourth at the Northwest Conference championship meet April 24.
She placed 21st in the event in 11:40.82 at the NCAA Division III championships in Canton, N.Y., May 21.
Dominique Jackson, a junior at Pacific Lutheran University (Tacoma), started the track season by picking up two firsts (shot put, 38-11.75; hammer throw, 152-9) and a second (discus, 124-6) March 6.
The Oak Harbor graduate concluded her season by placing second in the shot put (39-7.75) and fifth in the hammer (147) and discus (124) at the Northwest Conference championship meet April 24 and 25.
Softball
Madeline Roberts, a freshman from Coupeville on the Shoreline Community College softball team, appeared in all 32 games for the 8-24 Dolphins, hitting .242.
Roberts, a utility player, led the team in being hit by a pitch (3), was fourth in runs (19) and stolen bases (8), and sixth in RBI (12). She also slugged a double and home run.
During the winter, she played on the Dolphin basketball team.
Oak Harbor’s Shawna Steele, playing softball for Edmonds Community College, hit .316 this season. The sophomore from Oak Harbor was second on the team in doubles (9), third in RBI (18) and fifth in runs (24) in 32 games. She also hit a home run.
Golf
Oak Harbor’s Joanna Leete golfed for Eastern Washington University this school year, competing in three tournaments and finishing 56th in two. The freshman recorded an average round score of 84.8 with a low of 79.
Baseball
Jay Stout closed out his college baseball career by hitting .302 for the AIB School of Business (Des Moines, Iowa), a NAIA school.
The Oak Harbor graduate led the team in runs (53); was second in triples (2), walks (21) and stolen bases (11); third in being hit by a pitch (3); and fourth in hits (51), doubles (6) and home runs (2).
Stout, a left fielder, started all 50 games for the 25-25 Eagles, who placed second in the Midwest Collegiate Conference tournament. He had a base hit in the 2-1 semi-final win that lifted the Eagles into the championship game. Earlier in the tournament, he rapped three hits when AIB set a school record with 20 hits during a 14-5 win.
Stout also received NAIA Scholar-Athlete honors for players with a 3.5 or greater GPA.
Anthony Stewart, a sophomore at Southeast Community College (Lincoln, Neb.) helped the Storm (42-21) win the Region XIII championship this spring.
Stewart, a center fielder, appeared in 26 games, hitting. 211. His .423 on-base percentage was fifth on the team. He was 12-for-12 in stealing bases and was perfect in the field as well, handling 39 chances without an error.
Coupeville’s Ben Etzell earned the save in the Minnesota Interscholastic Athletic Conference baseball tournament championship game to help St. John’s University (Collegeville, Minn.) take home the trophy.
Etzell, a freshman, pitched 10 innings during the season for the 26-16 Johnnies, 5.1 coming in the tournament, where he earned both his saves.
He threw scoreless ball in three appearances in the tournament, giving up only one hit and striking out five.
Etzell entered the championship game with two on and one out in the eighth inning as St. John’s held a 3-1 lead. After giving up a hit to load the bases, he induced an inning-ending double-play grounder. He put St. Thomas down in order in the ninth to wrap up the title.
Etzell limited opponents to a team-best .212 batting average this spring and finished with a 2.70 earned run average, third among St. John’s pitchers. He had seven strikeouts and three walks in his 10 innings.
In professional action, Oak Harbor’s Yale Rosen is in his second year in the San Diego Padre farm system. This season he is playing high-level “A” ball for Lake Elsinore in the California League.
Through June 25, Rosen was hitting .205 after playing in 52 of Storm’s 70 games.
Rosen, who has the team’s seventh most at bats, is ranked second in triples (3), fourth in home runs (5), fifth in RBI (24), seventh in slugging percentage (.375) and doubles (9) among the 20 players who have batted for Lake Elsinore this summer.
(Dominique Jackson tosses the discus for PLU. Photo by John Fisken.)
