10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2018
CONTACT US
FOLLOW US
facebook.com/
DailyAstorianSports
Gary Henley | Sports Reporter
ghenley@dailyastorian.com
Kristina Reid Mitchell
Gary Henley/The Daily Astorian
Kristina Reid Mitchell and
daughter Kaylee at the
NCAA championship meet.
Kaylee Mitchell, in her track
and field days at Astoria High
School.
Seattle Pacific University
Former Astoria runner Kaylee Mitchell (588) runs in the NCAA Division II championships in Pittsburgh.
Mitchell earns all-America recognition
By GARY HENLEY
The Daily Astorian
T
he years she spent running in the rain
on the North Coast are finally paying
off for Kaylee Mitchell.
The former student-athlete at Astoria
middle school and high school (who later
graduated from Sprague High School) is
now a freshman on the cross-country team at
Seattle Pacific University.
And she came up big in her latest race,
held last Saturday on a muddy course at
Schenley Park in Pittsburgh for the NCAA
Division II cross-country championships.
Mitchell finished 35th out of 264 runners,
good enough for All-American honors. She
also helped the SPU women to a 15th-place
finish in the team standings.
Running in less than ideal conditions,
Mitchell completed the six-kilometer course
in 23 minutes, 24.9 seconds.
“The course — oh my goodness! It was
just one step at a time, running in ankle-deep
mud,” Mitchell said. “I was lucky enough
not to fall, but there were many slips. It was
just a matter of not letting the mud get to us
and just being fearless.”
She added, “My dad always tells me just
to smile. I went into it telling myself, ‘Just
run. You know how to run, and just smile.’”
By placing in the top 40, Mitchell became
the 17th cross-country All-American in SPU
history, and first in nine years. The last Fal-
con runner to earn that honor was Jessica
Pixler in 2009 when she won the third of her
three straight national titles.
“Getting All-American in cross-coun-
try is incredibly hard to do,” SPU assistant
coach/distance coach Chris Reed said.
“For her to do that in her first NCAA
meet and her first college season shows her
maturity and the belief she has in herself.”
Seattle Pacific checked in with 466
points, putting it into the upper half of the
34-team field. It was the second straight top-
15 finish for the team.
“There are already enough factors as it
is, with it being December, it’s the national
championships, and it’s a long season for a
lot of teams,” Reed said. “Then add in the
elements, which made it a really hard, tough,
slow course.
“To come through all of those variables
and still have a really good team finish is
awesome. We finished pretty close to where
we were ranked coming in (No. 13), so it
was unquestionably a successful season.”
The already-muddy course was made
even muddier after 261 men ran five loops
around it in their 10K race. And, while the
rain held off for most of the men’s race, it
was drizzling shortly before the women
started, and pouring by the time the gun went
off.
Mitchell was back in the mid-70s of the
264-runner field as they passed the first tim-
ing pad on the course, located at the 700-
meter mark. By the 1.8-kilometer mark, she
had moved all the way up to 31st, and stayed
within that cluster of runners for the rest of
the race.
Through the remaining four kilome-
ters, Mitchell moved up as high as 29th, and
dropped back to as far 39th before coming
through the wire in 35th.
“I didn’t want to go out too fast, with
it being so muddy and with all the hills,”
Mitchell said. “After I got through the first
loop, I thought, ‘OK, all of this is doable.’
There wasn’t a part of it where I thought ‘oh
my gosh, I’m going to fall.’ By the third loop,
I knew where to step and where not to step.”
Added Reed, “She wanted to run a con-
trolled early part of the race. Once she got
into her own rhythm, she could decide what
to do with it. She moved up to an All-Amer-
ican spot and never let go.”
NCAA penalizes
Oregon for hoops, track
and field violations
By ANNE M. PETERSON
Associated Press
The NCAA has imposed two years
of probation on Oregon after finding
the school violated rules related to the
men’s and women’s basketball teams
and the track and field program.
The decision issued Wednesday
said women’s basketball coach Kelly
Graves failed to “monitor and pro-
mote an atmosphere of compliance in
his program.” He must serve a two-
game suspension this season. The
team is 7-0 and ranked No. 3 in the
country.
That infraction stemmed from
an assistant strength coach’s partic-
ipation in on-court activities during
and after practices, which caused the
team to exceed the number of allow-
able coaches.
The NCAA found men’s coach
Dana Altman failed to properly mon-
itor his director of basketball opera-
tions, who took part in or observed at
least 64 individual voluntary work-
outs in violation of NCAA rules.
Also, the NCAA said an adjunct
instructor changed a grade for a track
and field athlete, allowing the com-
petitor to remain eligible.
The decision said the football pro-
gram improperly used an electronic
reader board in the team’s facilities
for recruiting purposes. The team
immediately stopped after being told
it may be out of compliance.
Oregon received notice of the alle-
gations last December. At that time,
the university said it self-reported the
infractions and acknowledged that
they occurred, but disagreed with
the level that the NCAA assigned to
some of them, including the charges
involving the head coaches. Ore-
gon said it had already taken steps to
address the issues.
“I regret that some members of
my staff made errors of judgment,
and I have taken actions to ensure
that it doesn’t happen again,” Graves
said in a statement when the univer-
sity received notice. “I am steadfastly
committed to building a winning pro-
gram at the UO that operates in full
compliance with NCAA bylaws and
is committed to the highest levels of
integrity.”
The director of basketball opera-
tions, Josh Jameison, was suspended
by Altman for one month. He must
also attend NCAA rules seminars for
the next two years.
The school said the faculty mem-
ber changed the grade of the track
athlete from failing to passing con-
tingent on the athlete completing
the work. The university removed
the athlete from competition and
reported the violation to the NCAA,
which determined it was an imper-
missible academic benefit.
The name of the athlete was not
made public by the NCAA. All
records in which the athlete partic-
ipated in while ineligible must be
vacated.
In addition to the probation and
Graves’ suspension, the NCAA said
the men’s team must reduce the num-
ber of coaches at a regular practice
by five hours this season, which the
women’s team much do the same
for 10 hours this season. The school
was also fined $5,000 plus 1 percent
of the men’s and women’s basketball
budgets.
SCOREBOARD
PREP SPORTS SCHEDULE
THURSDAY
Girls basketball — Jewell at Perrydale,
5:30 p.m.
Boys basketball — Semiahmoo, BC at
Astoria, 7 p.m.; Jewell at Perrydale, 7 p.m.;
Ilwaco at South Bend, 7 p.m.
FRIDAY
Girls basketball — Astoria at Scap-
poose, 7 p.m.; Seaside at Philomath
Tournament, TBA; Warrenton at Neah-
Kah-Nie, 6 p.m.; Jewell at SW Christian
Challenge, TBA
Boys basketball — Astoria at Scap-
poose, 5:30 p.m.; Seaside at Marshfield,
7 p.m.; Warrenton at Neah-Kah-Nie, 7:30
p.m.; Jewell at SW Christian Challenge,
TBA; Ilwaco at NW Christian, 5:45 p.m.
SATURDAY
Girls basketball — Seaside at Philo-
math Tournament, TBA; Santiam Chris-
tian vs. Warrenton (at Clatsop CC), 6 p.m.;
Knappa at Portland Adventist, 7:30 p.m.;
Jewell at SW Christian Challenge, TBA
Boys basketball — Seaside at Marist
Catholic, 5 p.m.; Warrenton at Vernonia,
6 p.m.; Jewell at SW Christian Challenge,
TBA
Swimming — Astoria Andrew Nygaard
Invite, 10:15 a.m.
Wrestling — Warrenton Invitational, 10
a.m.
AP Photo/Young Kwak
Gonzaga forward Rui Hachimura shoots the go-ahead basket while defended by Washington forward Sam
Timmins. Gonzaga won 81-79.
Hachimura’s shot lifts No. 1
Gonzaga over Washington
By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS
Associated Press
SPOKANE, Wash. — In the clos-
ing seconds of a tie game, Gonzaga
guard Josh Perkins dribbled out high
looking for somewhere to pass the
ball.
He spotted Rui Hachimura near
the free throw line.
“They left Rui open where he is
automatic,” Perkins said.
Hachimura sank a turnaround
jumper with 0.6 seconds left, lifting
the top-ranked Bulldogs to an 81-79
victory over in-state rival Washing-
ton on Wednesday night.
Hachimura had 26 points for
Gonzaga (9-0), which has won 12
of its past 13 games against the
Huskies.
“We wanted Rui to take that shot
in that situation,” teammate Zach
Norvell Jr. said. “He shoots that shot
a lot.”
Washington missed a halfcourt
try as the final buzzer sounded.
Norvell finished with 14 points,
Corey Kispert added 13 and Bran-
don Clarke had 10 points and 11
rebounds for Gonzaga, which strug-
gled against Washington’s zone
defense.
“It’s a handful,” Zags coach Mark
Few said. “They adjust really well.”
Jaylen Nowell scored 26 for
Washington (6-3), which was in
the preseason Top 25 before losing
at No. 8 Auburn. Matisse Thybulle
added 18 points.
“We did a good job in the second
half slowing the game down and
finding the open man on offense,”
Washington coach Mike Hopkins
said. “We showed a lot of heart and
a lot of toughness.”
The Bulldogs were held well
below their season average of 98
points per game, which ranked sec-
ond in the nation.
Hachimura, a junior from Japan
who leads the team in scoring, had
18 points as Gonzaga took a 40-30
halftime lead.
Washington shot just 39 percent
in the first period, while Gonzaga
shot 41 percent and sank all 10 of its
free throws.
Washington opened the second
half with a 12-2 run, and Nowell’s
3-pointer tied the score at 42. Nowell
followed with another 3 for a 45-42
lead, as Gonzaga made just one of
its first 11 shots in the second.
Gonzaga replied with a 7-0 run
for a 49-45 advantage.
The teams traded a flurry of bas-
kets, and a pair by Clarke gave Gon-
zaga a 65-58 lead.
Nowell’s basket cut it to 79-75
with a minute left, and Thybulle’s
bucket trimmed the deficit to two.
Nowell went to the free throw
line with 9.4 seconds left and sank
two to tie the score at 79, setting
the stage for Hachimura’s dramatic
shot.
Washington outscored the Zags
49-41 in the second half.
“We probably didn’t get enough
stops at the end,” Norvell said.