NW Briefs | UW's Israel leads Huskies at Stanford Invitational

Washington sophomore Mart Israel uncorked a 208-foot, 9-inch discuss throw at the Stanford Invitational.

Israel's throw was the fourth-best mark in the world this year.

Saturday's action at Stanford also included an historic mark for UW assistant coach Kelly Strong, and several outstanding performances for UW athletes in the distance events.

Strong, who has coached distance runners at UW since 2002, won the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 9 minutes, 47.68 seconds that was the seventh fastest by an American woman, and the second fastest in the world in 2007.

Sophomore Anita Campbell, meanwhile, shaved 28 seconds off her 5,000-meter personal best with a time of 16:00.03, good for seventh in the nation in 2007.

Saturday was also notable for the 1,500-meter debut of defending NCAA champion Amy Lia, who shot right back into the top five of the collegiate women's rankings in the 1,500 with a time of 4:17.49. Junior Amanda Miller also debuted strong at 1,500 meters with a time of 4:21.48.

WSU's Diana Pickler surpassed her own school record in the women's 100 meter. Pickler finished fifth in 13.31 seconds, surpassing her time of 13.42 set last weekend at the Trojan Invite.

Gymnastics

Sophomore Ashley Houghting won a share of the Pac-10 vault title Saturday and placed seventh in the all-around at the Pac-10 gymnastics championships in Tempe, Ariz.

The Huskies finished fifth overall with a score of 194.775, its highest at the Pac-10 championships since 2004. Eighth-ranked UCLA stunned defending champion Stanford for the team title.

Houghting scored a career-high-tying 9.950 on the vault, matching UCLA junior Tasha Schwikert. It was the first Pac-10 title for a Husky since Molly Seaman won the bars in 2004.

Houghting also scored career highs on bars (9.825) and beam (9.825).

Swimming

The Washington State 400-meter medley relay of Afton Pickett, Elyse Peterson, Michaela Ahlin and Erin McCleave took first place in their heat and second place overall on the final day of competition at the U.S. Spring National Championships in East Meadow, N.Y.

The group combined for a time of 4 minutes, 18.56 seconds. WSU finished the meet in fifth place overall with 116 points.

Baseball

Washington suffered its first Pac-10 loss, falling 11-5 to No. 16 Arizona State at Husky Ballpark.

Huskies starter Jorden Merry (5-2) took the loss, ending his five-game win streak. Merry allowed seven runs on 10 hits in 6-1/3 innings for the Huskies (15-10, 4-1 Pac-10), who have won 13 of their past 15 games.

UW senior first baseman Curt Rindal went 2 for 5 with three runs batted in.

The Sun Devils (22-10, 3-2) scored five runs in the fifth inning to take the lead for good.

• California scored three runs in the eighth inning and went on to beat visiting Washington State 6-2.

The Cougars (15-12, 0-5 Pac-10) trailed 3-2 in the eighth, but the Golden Bears loaded the bases, then Michael Brady squeezed home Brett Munster for the first run. Charlie Cutler hit a two-run single for the final margin.

• Gonzaga fell 4-1 to No. 20 San Diego in a West Coast Conference game in Spokane. The Bulldogs fell to 17-15 overall, 1-1 in WCC play.

Rowing

Washington crews won six of seven races at the season-opening Husky Open Regatta on the Montlake Cut.

The Huskies finished 1-2 in the women's varsity-four race. The top UW varsity four crossed the finish line in 7 minutes, 22.7 seconds, followed by the Huskies' novice four crew in 7:25.0. The Cougars were third.

The Green Lake Crew and Everett Rowing Association dominated the juniors' events. Green Lake won four events, Everett three.

The top UW crews didn't take part after competing in last weekend's Class Day races.

• The WSU women advanced three boats to the grand finals at the San Diego Crew Classic on Mission Bay. The Cougars varsity eight finished third in its heat, behind No. 2 California and No. 12 Stanford.

The WSU second varsity and novice eight boats also advanced.

Softball

Bianca Cruz hit a two-run home run in the sixth inning as No. 7 Arizona State rallied to beat No. 12 Washington 2-1 in Pac-10 action at Husky Softball Stadium.

The game was a pitcher's duel. ASU's Katie Burkhart (18-5) gave up one run on five hits and struck out 11, while Danielle Lawrie (13-5) allowed two runs on four hits with 10 strikeouts for UW (22-9, 0-2 Pac-10).

• Seattle University beat Notre Dame de Namur 4-3, then lost 2-0 in extra innings to Cal State Stanislaus on Day 2 of the Tournament of Champions Turlock, Calif.

In the first game, freshman Sandra Hernandez hit her first collegiate home run in the second inning to give Seattle (17-12) a 2-1 lead.

Golf

The Washington women fell two places to 15th at the ASU Invitational in Tempe, Ariz., shooting 25-over 313 in the second round. The Huskies are tied with California at 620 overall.

UW senior Amber Prange jumped from 50th to a four-way tie for 24th after shooting a 71, bringing her overall score to 148.

• The UPS women led the Northwest Conference Spring Classic in Lakewood after Round 1 with a score of 336. Linfield (354) was second.

Tennis

UW senior Daniel Chu beat UCLA's Haythem Abid — ranked 40th in the nation — as the Bruins men beat the Huskies 6-1 in Los Angeles.

Chu won at No. 2 singles for UW (12-5, 0-2), beating Abid 6-4, 7-5.

• Host California Lutheran handed the Pacific Lutheran men their fifth loss in a row, 5-4. PLU's David Miller beat Ben Staley 3-6, 7-5, 6-0 at the No. 1 singles.

• The Eastern Washington women completed a 3,137-mile trip with a 6-1 loss to UTEP.

Note

• Olympic speedskater Apolo Ohno will move to Utah later this year to train for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

"I'm excited to move. It's a bit of a change for me, but it'll be a good change," said Ohno, who is from Seattle.

Ohno has been training in Colorado Springs, Colo., with the rest of the short-track team. U.S. Speedskating recently moved its headquarters from northeastern Ohio to the Utah Olympic Oval, where many of the top American skaters already train. That is where Ohno will also train, probably beginning in June.

• The Seattle Sounders soccer team opened their season with a 4-0 exhibition win over Gonzaga.

Compiled from sports-information reports and other sources.

Information in this article, originally published April 1, was corrected April 1. A previous version of this story contained an error. University of Washington sophomore Mart Israel's 208-foot, 9-inch throw in the discus is the fourth-best mark in the world this year. This story originally listed it as a world-leading throw.