State Colleges Report: Montanans float SPU's boat in fours

Crew is foreign to natives of the Big Sky state, yet the sport by its very nature makes two young Montana women feel very much at home at Seattle Pacific.

Andi Martineau and Carly Bollen comprise the stern pair of the Falcons' varsity four that will seek its third straight national championship this weekend in Worcester, Mass.

Many college rowers have no prior experience, and such was the case with Martineau and Bollen. But coming from a landlocked state, they had rarely held a canoe paddle in their hands, much less seen a crew regatta.

"I had only seen crew racing in a movie, but it fascinated me," said Martineau, who hails from Superior, a town of about 800 halfway between Missoula (Bollen's hometown) and the Idaho border.

A back injury forced Martineau to miss her freshman season. It also enabled her to return this spring after completing her student teaching at Bellevue Christian High School.

Her late return was welcomed by SPU coach Keith Jefferson, who had lost stroke Sarah Zorn to a back injury. Martineau was on both title-winning crews, while Bollen joined the lineup in the bow last season and is now the stroke. They rowed as a pair at the conference championships and handily won the title by 45 seconds.

"The few kids we've gotten from Montana have all exhibited a great work ethic," noted Jefferson. "That's certainly true of Carly and Andi. They may not have big bodies, but they have big hearts."

Despite not rowing together until mid-February, the pieces are falling into place for the Falcons. They have won five of eight races, finished second to Division I St. Mary's in the region and are seeded No. 2 in the ECAC National Championships, the crowning regatta for non-scholarship programs.

Bollen said she, Martineau, Alicia Apple, Megan Sweeney and coxswain Megan Giske are ready to row in Saturday's qualifying heat on Lake Quinsigamond. Preparation is essential for success, she said.

"I like competing, pushing myself to the limit and doing that within a team environment," said Bollen. "That's why crew inspires me. We do things as a unit."

For Martineau, the fundamentals of rowing reflect life back home. "We're a small team, and especially in rural Montana there are small organizations where every person counts and everyone has to pull their own weight. That, and the quiet early mornings on the water, remind me of home."

Other SPU sports

Track and field: SPU seeks its fourth women's GNAC crown Saturday in Ellensburg. The Falcons, second to Western Oregon the past two years, are led by Danielle Ayers-Stamper (Lacrosse-Washtunca), who is the top seed in three events and is entered in six.

Washington

Men's golf: Fresh off its first-place finish at the Pac-10 Championships, the Huskies learn Monday whether they will travel to Stanford, Calif., South Bend, Ind., or Nashville, Tenn., for NCAA regional competition. Play at all three sites is May 19-21.

Women's golf: No. 8 UW is the No. 3 seed at the NCAA East Regional, tomorrow through Saturday in Gainesville, Fla. The top eight teams from the 21-squad field advance to the NCAA Championships May 17-20 in Sunriver, Ore.

Rowing: A special pairs race featuring rowers from the 2004 U.S. gold-medal Olympic team is scheduled at 11:11 a.m. Saturday as part of the Windermere Regatta. Huskies intern coaches Matt Deakin and Bryan Volpenhein will face Daniel Beery and Beau Hoopman in a 2,000-meter race.

Men's tennis: Senior All-American and 2004 Pac-10 runner-up Alex Vlaski (Belgrade, Yugoslavia) is ranked a season-high No. 6 in singles and has wins over seven current Top 25 singles players.

Women's tennis: Freshman Tara Simpson (Vancouver, B.C.) has won nine of her last 11 singles matches and is second on the team with 23 victories.

Track and field: Junior Shane Charles (St. Andrew's Secondary/Grenada) and 2000 UW alum Christian Belz each set national records last weekend. Charles' time of 50.76 seconds in the 400-meter hurdles at Saturday's UW-WSU dual meet broke his own Grenadan record. Belz, a native of Switzerland, ran the 10,000 meters in 27 minutes, 54.11 seconds Sunday at Stanford to break a 20-year-old Swiss record.

Seattle U.

Softball: Seattle (27-14, 14-6 GNAC) is still in the hunt for an NCAA II West Region playoff berth but likely will need four wins in doubleheaders this weekend against Central Washington and Western Oregon.

Track and field: Kelly Fullerton's (Roseburg, Ore.) time of 10:36.95 in the 3,000 steeplechase two weekends ago was the fifth-fastest women's steeplechase time in state history.

Washington St.

Track and field: The WSU women's team is No. 13 in the latest Trackwire 25 online national rankings. Junior Tamara Diles (Newport of Bellevue) won the pole vault at the WSU-UW dual meet last Saturday, clearing the bar at 13 feet, 7 ¼ inches. She improved her school outdoor record and NCAA regional qualifying mark as well and set meet and Husky Stadium records.

Western Washington

Rowing: The Vikings are competing in the Opening Day Regatta on Saturday at Seattle's Montlake Cut for the first time in three years. Their women's varsity eight is competing in the Women's Cascade Cup race with Washington and Washington State. The Vikings also entered the women's open eight, women's novice eight and men's novice eight.

Softball: First baseman Cortney Walton (Chesapeake, Va) has hits in nine straight games, the most by a Viking this season. Western (20-17, 14-6) ends its season with doubleheaders at GNAC-leading Humboldt State (59-3, 21-1) Saturday and Sunday.

Track and field: Western Washington tries to defend its men's team title at the GNAC Championships on Saturday in Ellensburg.

Other colleges

Central Washington: Junior catcher Chris Sepanski (Geneva, Ill.) had 10 hits last week, including four home runs. The Everett Community College transfer had three of his homers and 10 RBI in a nonleague doubleheader against Whitworth.

Eastern Washington: The Eagles lead the standings for the Big Sky Conference Women's All-Sports Trophy. Eastern was the regular-season conference champion in volleyball and soccer. The men are in third place.

Gonzaga: The baseball team, one game ahead of the University of San Diego in the WCC Coast Division standings, hosts the Toreros this weekend. The Bulldogs took two of three games in San Diego in April.

Pacific Lutheran: The men's tennis team faces Trinity University in the NCAA III Regional in San Antonio on Saturday. The winner advances to the NCAA III Championships, May 18-23 in Santa Cruz, Calif.

Saint Martin's: Saints right-hander Brady Halverson (Kennedy of Burien) was named GNAC pitcher of the week in baseball after limiting Western Oregon and Central Washington, the top two hitting teams in the conference, to a .149 batting average and seven hits in 14 innings. Halverson redshirted last season after undergoing Tommy John surgery.

Whitman: Sean Kinney (Bishop Blanchet) had three hits in his final college baseball game Sunday, a 10-8 victory at Puget Sound, and won his third consecutive team batting title with a .381 average. In four seasons as a starter, Kinney hit .360.

Whitworth: Brandon Howell (Clarkston) posted the third-fastest 800 time in Whitworth history on Saturday and provisionally qualified for the NCAA III championships with a time of 1:52.89.

Sports information directors

contributed to this notebook.