Sports Briefs

Legans names associate head coach

With seven years of NCAA Division I basketball experience, Nick Booker has been hired as the associate head coach on the staff of new Eastern Washington University men’s basketball head coach Shantay Legans.

Booker spent the 2016-17 season at his alma mater, Davidson College, as director of basketball operations. The previous six seasons he was at UC Irvine in California, including the last five as an assistant coach.

“I am extremely excited to welcome Nick and his family to Cheney,” Legans said. “Nick is a great basketball mind, and is well-respected among basketball coaches around the country and internationally. His desire to help student-athletes succeed both on and off the court is an extremely important quality for our program.”

As a player and coach,Booker has been a part of teams to advance to the NCAA Tournament twice, the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) once and the College Insider Tournament (CIT) on two occasions. He was also an assistant on Saddleback College teams that won the California Community College Athletic Association title one season and was runner-up the year prior.

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Eastern earns awards in Big Sky track

The Eastern Washington University outdoor track and field team completed the final day of the 2017 Big Sky Conference Outdoor Championships May 13, coming away with two all-conference athletes and one champion.

After four days of competition in Sacramento, the Eastern Washington women’s team finished eighth with 44 points. The men’s team was 12th with 14 points.

“This meet had the test first — lesson later feel to it,” men’s head coach Stan Kerr said. “There is no substitution for going through an entire Big Sky Conference Championship to develop a broader sense of what is truly required to score in this meet.”

Erin Clark and Samantha Baker were EWU’s All-Big Sky competitors (top-three finish), both earning their honors during Friday’s events. Eastern’s champion was women’s pole vaulter and Cheney High grad Erin Clark, also on Friday.

Freshman Keshun McGee earned a team-high six points in the championships after placing fifth in the triple jump with a leap of 48-feet, 8 3/4-inches.

The men’s 4x100-meter relay team consisting of freshman Dawson Lack from Medical Lake, sophomore Jonah Mathews, sophomore Chez Jackson, and junior Jeremy VanAssche raced to a time of 41.86 for seventh place.

Junior Dominique Butler had the women’s highest placement of final day, securing fourth in the triple jump with a mark of 38-10 1/2.