No. 15 Cougars Capture Fifth at Pac-12 Rowing
Championships
WSU
matched or bettered its seed in all five events.
From WSU
Sports Info 5/13/2018
GOLD
RIVER, Calif. – No. 15 Washington State rowing finished fifth, just one point
behind No. 12 USC at the 2018 Pac-12 Rowing Championships, Sunday, at Lake
Natoma near Sacramento, Calif.
Washington
State finished ahead of its seed in the varsity four and novice eight races,
placing fourth and third respectively, while it matched its seeds in the
varsity eight (fifth), second varsity eight (fifth) and third varsity eight
(fourth) races. For the second-straight season, No. 1 Washington swept all four
scoring events to capture the Pac-12 title with 45.5 points, just its second
title since 2003. Second-ranked California placed second for the
second-straight year with 36 points, just edging out No. 5 Stanford with 35.5
points. No. 12 USC finished just one point ahead of No. 15 WSU with 22 for
fourth, as the Cougars placed fifth with 21 points, ahead of UCLA in sixth
(11.5 points) and Oregon State in seventh (10 points). Both UCLA and OSU are
receiving votes in the latest poll.
The
Cougars entered the final event of the day, the varsity eight race, with a
two-point lead over USC and seeded fifth in the race behind California,
Washington, Stanford and USC. The race showed promise for the Cougars as an
upset occurred at the top. Despite California being seeded No. 1 in the event
and having defeated both UW and Stanford earlier in the season, the Golden
Bears dropped to third with a time of 6:34.533, one second behind second-place
Stanford (6:33.453) and four seconds behind gold medalist Washington
(6:30.122). USC was able to hold of WSU to finish fourth and clinch fourth
overall with a time of 6:46.936, just four seconds ahead of the Cougars
((coxswain-Jenna Mangiagli, stroke- Emily Morrow, Jess Brougham, Lisa
Gutfleisch, Lucie Weissova, Kamila Ondrackova, Ivy Elling Quaintance, Kristel
Tohu, bow-Paige Danielson), in a time of 6:50. 679. Washington State was six
seconds ahead of sixth-place Oregon State, which was two seconds ahead of UCLA.
The WSU
second varsity eight crew (coxswain-Ellie Burg, stroke- Emily Thomson, Taija
Thompson, Emma Gribbon, Jessica Norris, Rosalina Torcivia, Kateryna Maistrenko,
Colombe de Rouvroy, bow-Jasmine Brake) entered the race seeded fifth. The
Cougars were less than three seconds behind the Trojans to finish fifth with a
time of 7:01.275. Washington won with a time of 6:36.733, as California
(6:42.675) and Stanford (6:52.558) rounded out the top three. UCLA finished 7
seconds behind WSU, followed by Oregon State in seventh at 7:21.613.
Despite
coming into the varsity four race seeded fifth behind Washington, California,
Stanford and UCLA, the Cougars (coxswain-Chloe White, Jenna Kennedy, Sue Yu,
Grace Arnis, bow-Sophia Rogers), finished eight seconds ahead of the Bruins in
a time of 7:52.925 to finish fourth. Washington won the race at 7:25.156, four
seconds ahead of California. Stanford was third, 10 seconds ahead of WSU in at
7:42.019.
WSU's
third varsity eight (coxswain-Hannah Welzbacker, stroke- Renee Kemp, Ella Cowan
de Wolf, Linnea Davison, Sara Brevick, Codi Swenson, Madeleine Bingham, Emma
Barrett, bow-Emily Weible) came in in seeded fourth in the six-boat race.
Stanford out-stroked the Cougars by eight seconds as WSU finished true to its
seed at fourth with a time of 7:10.471. Washington won at 6:44.975, followed by
California in second (6:50.821). UCLA was 13 seconds behind WSU for fifth,
ahead of USC in sixth (7:48.114).
The
Cougars were one of four teams to compete in the non-scored novice eight race.
The Cougars (coxswain-Juliet Perry, stroke-McKenna Menner, Soleil Lakin, Nora
Hefte, Isabella Cristelli, Katelyn Ware,
Ellie Higgins, Emily Austin, bow-Cassidy Thompson) got off to a good start in
the first event of the day, as they placed third with a time of 7:20.390, just
edging out UCLA in at 7:20.710. Washington won with a time of 6:53.069,
followed by California in second (7:12.480).
The
Cougars will await their fate, as the NCAA selection show will take place
Tuesday, May 15 at 2 p.m. PT on NCAA.com. The NCAA Championships will be held
May 25-27 at Nathan Benderson Park at Sarasota, Fla.
Pac-12
Championship
Sunday,
May 13, 2018
Final
Results
Women's
Team Scores
1. No. 1
Washington, 45.5
2. No. 2
California, 36
3. No. 5
Stanford, 35.5
4. No. 12
USC, 22
5. No. 15
Washington State, 21
6. UCLA,
11.5
7. Oregon
State, 10
Varsity
Eight
1.
Washington, 6:30.122
2.
Stanford, 6:33.453
3. Cal,
6:34.533
4. USC,
6:46.936
5. WSU,
6:50.679
6. Oregon
State, 6:56.633
7. UCLA,
6:58.625
Varsity
Eight Lineup
coxswain-Jenna
Mangiagli
stroke- Emily
Morrow
7-Jess
Brougham
6- Lisa
Gutfleisch
5-Lucie
Weissova
4- Kamila
Ondrackova
3- Ivy
Elling Quaintance
2- Kristel
Tohu
bow- Paige
Danielson
Second
Varsity Eight
1.
Washington, 6:36.733
2. Cal,
6:42.675
3.
Stanford, 6:52.558
4. USC,
6:58.764
5. WSU,
7:01.275
6. UCLA,
7:08.853
7. Oregon
State, 7:21.613
Second
Varsity Eight Lineup
coxswain-
Ellie Burg
stroke-
Emily Thomson
7-Taija
Thompson
6- Emma
Gribbon
5- Jessica
Norris
4-
Rosalina Torcivia
3-
Kateryna Maistrenko
2- Colombe
de Rouvroy
bow-Jasmine
Brake
Varsity
Four
1.
Washington, 7:25.156
2. Cal,
7:29.156
3.
Stanford, 7:42.019
4. WSU,
7:52.925
5. UCLA,
8:00.136
6. Oregon
State, 8:05.422
7. USC,
8:09.533
Varsity
Four Lineup
coxswain-Chloe
White
4- Jenna
Kennedy
3- Sue
Yu
2-Grace
Arnis
bow-Sophia
Rogers
Third
Varsity Eight
1.
Washington, 6:44.975
2. Cal,
6:50.821
3.
Stanford, 7:02.162
4. WSU,
7:10.471
5. UCLA,
7:23.664
6. USC,
7:48.114
Third
Varsity Eight
coxswain-Hannah
Welzbacker
stroke-
Renee Kemp
7-Ella
Cowan de Wolf
6-Linnea
Davison
5-Sara
Brevick
4-Codi
Swenson
3-Madeleine
Bingham
2-Emma
Barrett
bow-Emily
Weible
Women's
Novice Eight
1.
Washington, 6:53.069
2. Cal,
7:12.480
3. WSU,
7:20.390
4. UCLA,
7:20.710
Novice
Eight
coxswain-Juliet
Perry
stroke-McKenna
Menner
7- Soleil
Lakin
6-Nora
Hefte
5-
Isabella Cristelli
4-Katelyn
Ware
3- Ellie
Higgins
2-Emily
Austin
bow-Cassidy
Thompson
::::::::::::
Cougars at
the Pac-12 track & field Championships
From WSU
Sports Info 5/12/2018
STANFORD,
Calif. -- Washington State's Molly Scharmann was the top Cougars placer
Saturday at the Pac-12 Track & Field Championships at Cobb Track and Angell
Field in Stanford.
Scharmann
(sophomore, Santa Margarita, Calif.) pole vaulted a PR height of 13-feet 8 1/4
inches (4.17m) for fourth place in the event and claiming the third-best vault
in WSU all-time. Emily Coombs (freshman, Santa Ana, Calif.) placed ninth with a
PR vault clearance at 12-10 1/4 (3.92m), the 10th-best pole vault height in
school history.
Atina
Kamasi (sophomore, Novi Sad, Serbia) placed sixth in the women's javelin with a
throw of 151-11 (46.30m).
Kyler
Little (junior. Coeur d'Alene, Idaho) scored the first Cougars men's team
points with a sixth-place finish in the men's 3000m steeplechase, running a
time of 9 minutes 4.02 seconds. Michael Williams (senior, Richland, Wash.)
placed eighth in the men's 10,000m with a time of 30:03.44.
Cole Smith
(redshirt senior, Hoquiam, Wash.) claimed fifth place in the men's javelin with
a throw of 216-0 (65.83m).
In the
women's 400m hurdles prelims, Stephanie Cho (junior, Vancouver, B.C. Canada)
and Alissa Brooks-Johnson (redshirt senior, Doty, Wash.) finished one-two in
the second heat to be automatic qualifiers for the Sunday final. Cho ran a PR
time of 58.95 which is the eighth-best in WSU all-time records while
Brooks-Johnson who earlier had qualified for the 100m hurdles with a PR time of
13.60w, ran a time of 59.16.
Cougars
Qualifying for Sunday finals:
Men
200m Dash
- Zach Smith PR 21.14 (8th in prelims)
1500m -
Chandler Teigen 3:47.22 (5th in prelims)
400m
Hurdles - Christapherson Grant PR 51.94 (6th in prelims)
Women
1500m -
Kaili Keefe 4:25.28 (6th in prelims)
100m
Hurdles - Alissa Brooks-Johnson PR 13.60w (8th in prelims)
400m
Hurdles - Stephanie Cho PR 58.95 (2nd prelims), Alissa Brooks-Johnson 59.16
(5th prelims)
THEY SAID:
Wayne
Phipps, WSU Director of Cross Country/Track & Field said, "We were
hoping for a few more points today but we were able to get a number of people
through to the finals tomorrow, led by Alissa Brooks-Johnson and Chris Grant
who will compete in both hurdles finals tomorrow. Stephanie Cho and Zach Smith
ran huge personal bests to also advance to the finals. We had great scoring
finishes today, led by Molly in the vault and Cole in the javelin. Kyler Little
had a big finish in the steeple to finish an impressive sixth."
NOTEWORTHY:
· Team scoring is 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 for
places first through eighth
· Women's team scores after 7/21 events:
Stanford 71, USC 44, UCLA 39, Arizona State 38, Colorado 37, California 23,
Arizona 22, Oregon 22, Washington State 18, Oregon State 16, Washington 13,
Utah 8
· Men's team scores: Stanford 48, Oregon
43, Colorado 33, California 29, UCLA 22, Arizona 17, USC 16, Washington 16, WSU
7, Arizona State 3
· Pac-12 Networks Live coverage continues
from 3-6:30 p.m. Sunday, May 13, with the broadcast of the final day of the
T&F Championships
· The Pac-12 T&F Championships final
day starts Sunday, May 13 at 10:30 a.m. with the men's hammer and running
events begin at 3 p.m.
OTHER WSU
RESULTS FROM MAY 12 AT PAC-12 CHAMPIONSHIPS
MEN
100m Dash
Prelims - Zach Smith 10.69 (15th), Brandon Bains 10.72 (17th), Ethan Gardner
10.79w (19th)
200m Dash
Prelims - Ray Littles PR 22.01 (21st)
400m Dash
Prelims - Jake Ulrich 47.73 (11th)
800m
Prelims - Justin Janke 1:52.03 (14th), Reid Muller 1:53.00 (15th), Zach
Stallings 1:54.23 (19th)
1500m
Prelims - Paul Ryan 3:50.95 (17th)
10,000m
Final - John Whelan 30:40.55 (14th)
3000m
Steeplechase Final - Colton Johnsen 9:24.98 (19th)
WOMEN
100m Dash
Prelims - Regyn Gaffney 11.87 (12th), Jordyn Tucker PR 12.01 (15th)
200m Dash
Prelims - Jordyn Tucker PR 24.62w (21st), Tierney Silliman 24.91 (23rd)
800m
Prelims - Zorana Grujic 2:08.95 (10th), Marlow Schulz 2:10.21 (13th), Natalie
Ackerley 2:13.86 (22nd)
10,000m
Final - Vallery Korir 12th 34:28.85
400m
Hurdles Prelims - Jelena Grujic PR 1:01.18 (14th), Lindsey Schauble PR 1:02.12
(17th)
3000m
Steeplechase - Devon Bortfeld 10:39.66 (10th)
High Jump
Final - Alissa Brooks-Johnson t9th - 1.63m/5-4 1/4; Lindsey Schauble 15th -
1.63m/5-4 1/4
Long Jump
Final - Lauren Newman 19th - 5.67m/18-7 1/4
Shot Put
Final - Chrisshnay Brown 14th - 12.86m/42-2 1/4
Hammer
Final - Aoife Martin 11th - 54.16m/177-8
Javelin
Final - Madelyn Sirmon 9th - 43.93m/144-1, Kelsey Kehl 18th - 40.63m/133-3
:::::::::::::::
BASEBALL
In Pullman
on Sunday 5/13/2018, WSU lost 9-3 to USC in a Pac-12 baseball game.
::::
:::::::::::::
NBA: Golden
chances: Kerith Burke’s broadcasting career started at WSU and has taken her
from one basketball dynasty to another
UPDATED:
Sat., May 12, 2018, 8:33 p.m.
By Theo
Lawson Spokane S-R
OAKLAND,
Calif. – The oft-scrutinized back-to-back road games that have become such a
hellish part of the NBA schedule aren’t as much of a nuisance for Kerith Burke.
She’s a
rookie in NBA terms, but the Golden State Warriors’ sideline reporter has led a
nomadic life since her childhood, hopping from one military station to the next
as the U.S. Army moved her father – a member of the Ranger battalion – to
different outposts throughout the country. A stint in Fort Lewis, Washington,
then one in Fort Benning, Georgia, another in upstate New York, back down to
Georgia and then back over to Washington.
“So, the
longest I’ve lived anywhere has been five years,” Burke said.
Sure puts
those three-game, five-day NBA road trips into perspective.
Burke has
settled down for now, in the Bay Area, with the most popular basketball team on
the globe and a job that 90 percent of her peers in the industry might take if
handed the opportunity. Pretty good for someone who was shoveling watermelons
into plastic bags at Whole Foods Market a year earlier just to cover her living
expenses.
“I had to
scrap for awhile,” Burke said. “… There’s 30 of us that do this job … we all
know what we celebrate because this is a pretty cool life to have this kind of
job.”
You don’t
have to be a social butterfly to thrive in Burke’s role. But you have to be
personable. And approachable.
She’s
constantly digging for new stories, angles and human-interest pieces in order
to feed Golden State’s rampant fan base and fill airspace during multi-hour
broadcasts – not to mention pregame shows, postgame shows and other segments
that consume her days. One minute, she’s quizzing megastars like Stephen Curry
and Kevin Durant. The next she’s getting to know the story of a
middle-school-aged boy who posted a perfect 4.0 GPA to earn coveted NBA playoff
tickets.
At a young
age, Burke learned she needed to be outgoing to adapt to new environments and
assimilate into new friend groups with her family constantly on the move.
“Because
if you don’t learn how to talk to people, you don’t have friends,” she said.
“Army bases are an amazing place because it’s a melting pot of people. All
types of cultures, all walks of life and they were classmates and you don’t
think anything of it. And it’s so cool to grow up in that environment.”
Burke
looks back fondly on her Ranger-base hopping childhood. She has vivid
recollections of the steamy summer days in Fort Benning, where military
children are afforded a special privilege on their 10th birthday.
“What that
was for me, was going to the officers’ club pool,” she said. “Once you turn 10
years old, you can go by yourself, so me and a bunch of the neighborhood kids
would pedal our little bikes to the O-Club pool. We’d spend all day there, then
we’d go home and that was every day in the summer.”
Burke had
returned to western Washington when it came time to choose a college – a
decision that was influenced in part by a conversation with her parents about
the merits of in-state tuition and in part by her desire to become a reporter.
Washington
State and the Murrow School of Communication checked off both, making it an
easy choice.
Burke was
sure her future would be in storytelling, but it wasn’t clear which medium
she’d pursue. So she sampled everything.
Burke
began working at Cable 8 Productions – the official TV station at WSU – as a
freshman and stuck with it all four years. But she also found serenity in the
small, compact radio booth at KZUU 90.7 FM, where she was able to unplug every
Friday, hosting a music show in the wee hours of the morning.
“It was like the worst time, but it’s three
hours alone to shape your music knowledge and pretend people are listening. I
absolutely loved it,” she said. “… I’ve always known that reporting in whatever
shape would be my destiny.”
But it
took a process of trial-and-error for Burke to discover that destiny would be
sports-specific.
Burke, who
still credits Murrow College professors Elizabeth Hindman and Glenn Johnson as
influential mentors and loudly blurts “Go Cougs” whenever she sees Klay
Thompson’s WSU jersey at Oracle Arena, accepted her first job out of college at
a television station in Pasco. As a general assignment reporter, she didn’t
mind seeking out human-interest stories, but wasn’t as comfortable hunting for
hard news – house fires, corruption stories, etc.
“I was too
sensitive to chase the scanner, to do the ugly stories, which you have to do as
a reporter,” Burke said.
One thing
led to another and Burke eventually became the station’s interim sports
director. Call it the first quarter of a prosperous career in sports
broadcasting.
Either
Burke has a thing for dynastic basketball franchises, or they have a way of
finding her.
She worked
in Pasco and then Boise before moving to the other side of the country to take
a job in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she covered a pair of ACC basketball
juggernauts, Duke and North Carolina, along with their Hall of Fame coaches,
Mike Krzyzewski and Roy Williams.
As Burke’s
career moved on, the media markets got bigger and so did the basketball giants.
Her next job took her to Sportsnet New York (SNY), where she worked the sideline
for the UConn women and simultaneously hosted the “Geno Auriemma Show.”
Consider
Burke the fourth pickup of UConn’s 2012 recruiting class. She arrived at the
same time as Breanna Stewart, Moriah Jefferson and Morgan Tuck – a trio that
would capture four consecutive national championships for the Huskies from
2013-16. Burke saw each of those championship games.
“Best
recruiting class in not just women’s college basketball history, but when you
see their stats at the end, you could argue it was period,” she said. “So four
years, four national championships, hitched to their story. I’m glad I got to
be a part of that in the tiniest way, but it’s their story, history. It’s
incredible.”
She’s
often asked about her interactions with the Huskies’ coach, Auriemma, who’s as
polarizing a figure as you’ll find in college basketball – the women’s side and
probably the men’s, too. Burke spent four seasons with the UConn coach in
Storrs, then covered Auriemma’s U.S. gold-medal winning women’s team at the
2016 Rio Olympics.
“Is he a
jerk?” happens to be the inquiry Burke gets most often.
“And the
answer is no, he’s definitely not,” she said. “He’s really somebody that,
talking to him for the coaches show made me a smarter basketball consumer. He’s
a genius, but he’s also like talking to your grandfather about things. He’s a
very warm personality.”
Burke also
has some thoughts on the debate that seems to surround the UConn women every
year – typically around the month of the March. Has their dominance tarnished
the sport?
Burke’s
conclusion: “Don’t get angry at the victors, challenge them and meet their
standard.”
The next
move of Burke’s career was the first one that wasn’t made with her career in
mind. Her boyfriend – and now fiancé of four-plus months – had been living and
working in the Bay Area. Without a single job lead, she willingly moved across
the country to get closer.
Burke
reached out to the Pac-12 Networks, but there were no immediate openings. They
offered her scattered freelance work, and Burke took it, but knew she’d need
something more stable.
“I just
finished up five years in the nation’s No. 1 market, I covered the Olympics, I
didn’t have a job when I moved here and I wondered, is this end of sports for
me?” Burke said. “I didn’t want it to be and I really struggled with that, but
I thought if this is the end of my career, my sports career, I think I’m OK
with what I’ve accomplished. Then I had a tough eight-month span. Eight or nine
months, working on my plan B, my plan C.”
Whole
Foods wouldn’t have been Burke’s plan Y or Z, but she took a temporary job
bagging groceries while she etched out her career plan. She wrote in an online
diary about her first week at the “fancy-pants grocery store,” wryly describing
the type of people who shop at Whole Foods and detailing her days at the
organic market.
“I’ve been
settling into shifts and getting a sense for the job,” she wrote on May 19,
2017. “I’m stunned I can work here if I don’t know what kombucha is. The
organic overlords haven’t noticed yet.”
Another
passage: “My favorite shift is closing. I like glaring at the people who linger
in the eating area after the store is closed. In my mind, I’m letting them know
this isn’t a restaurant. In my actions, I’m stacking the chairs as close as I
can to where they’re sitting.”
Burke’s
wit and writing ability caught the eyes of a nearby public relations firm,
which gave a full-time job and better financial security while she continued to
ponder her career.
A moment
of clarification came for Burke that summer, on a sweltering day in the Bay
Area while she and her boyfriend were attending a San Francisco Giants baseball
game.
“He was
like, ‘Would you rather do PR or would you rather do what the jumbotron
reporter is doing on a hot day?’” she recalled. “And I was like, ‘I want the
reporter job.’”
Burke had
kept a steady eye on the Warriors’ sideline reporter job, which opened last
offseason when Rosalyn “Ros” Gold-Onwude took a job at Turner Sports to cover
the NBA on a national level. Burke had subbed for Gold-Onwude before, so her
credentials weren’t foreign to the executives who’d be hiring for the vacancy.
“For
somebody just kind of stepping in, there’s a bunch of eyeballs on our show now
and so that certainly changes the profile of everything,” said Phil Pollicino,
producer for NBCS Authentic in the Bay Area. “And she did great.
She was
incredibly composed and held herself great and did a really good job.”
Burke is
nearing the end of year one with the defending champions. She’ll travel with
the Warriors to Houston for Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals on Monday
and stick with them until they lose – or perhaps the more likely scenario,
capture a third NBA championship in four years.
You’d
think there’d be a frightening aspect of covering the sport’s biggest icons –
especially for someone still relatively new to the NBA waters. But Burke
considers herself lucky. The culture of the NBA’s most successful club allows
Golden State’s leading scorer to feel the same level of comfort as its
first-year sideline reporter.
“You talk
about Steph Curry, who’s the most mild-mannered global superstar in the world,”
Burke said. “He treats every single person the same and he has time for every
person. Who does that? How does he do that? I’m just so impressed with who he
is and who the people are here.”
“They really
are the blueprint for success and it wasn’t always that way.”
Burke, in
her own right, has created a blueprint for the model sideline reporter, though
she’s insisted she’s trying to put her own stamp on the job. Still, if the
model is hard work and professionalism, Burke has set a pretty good standard.
“To her
credit, she has stuck with what probably got her this job,” Pollicino said.
“She’s incredibly professional, she is very consistent, she digs for stories
and finds stuff on her own and she’s just kind of solid.”
She’s
entrenched in a dream job. It doesn’t mean she’ll stop scrapping.
#
