Sports Briefs

Eastern women are home Sunday

The Eastern Washington University women earned their first basketball victory of the young season, topping Furman, 68-56 in the Preseason WNIT Consolation Bracket on Saturday, Nov. 19 in Mt. Pleasant, Mich.

Senior Ashley Payne lit up the scoreboard from long range with a team-high 20 points on four 3-point shots to lead the Eagles. Junior Delaney Hodgins picked up the season’s first double-double on 15 points and 10 boards, while junior Tisha Phillips scored a season-best 14 points in the win.

In the opener of the bracket, Nov. 18, Hodgins scored 13 points, but Eastern fell to Elon University, 77-56.

Eastern concluded its road trip Nov. 22 at Utah Valley State with a game in Orem and now returns home for a Sunday, Nov. 27 game with Multnomah at 3 p.m.

The game is part of the Eastern Basketball Classic at Reese Court that includes the EWU men playing the University of San Francisco at 6 p.m.

Eastern women add three recruits

Eastern Washington women’s basketball announced Nov. 16 the first three signees of the 2016-17 class.

Cailyn Francis from Yuba City, Calif., Lily Perkins out of West Covina, Calif. and Australian import Brittany Klaman out of Melbourne each signed their national letter of intents to play at EWU next season.

“This year’s class is destined to be a special one,” head coach Wendy Schuller said. “These three young ladies are all outstanding young women and very talented.

Harrell’s career ends with injury

The Eastern Washington University men’s basketball career for Julian Harrell will end with upcoming surgery to repair a disabling shoulder injury, head coach Jim Hayford announced Nov. 21.

“This is terrible news, and very disappointing for Julian, his family and his teammates,” Hayford said of the 2012 graduate of Loyola High School in Los Angeles. “Julian has given everything he can to our program for two years, and will graduate next quarter as an honors student.”

With a 3.89 grade point average, Harrell will graduate with an interdisciplinary studies/liberal arts degree. He was a Big Sky Conference All-Academic selection last season, and entered this year as a preseason fourth team All-Big Sky selection by College Sports Madness.

Harrell saw action in two of Eastern’s three games this season, but played just 36 total minutes. In his 23-game career as an Eagle he averaged 7.7 points, 2.7 rebounds. He transferred to Eastern from City College of San Francisco after originally playing at Penn in the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons.

Reiter concludes EWU CC career

After four years of stellar performances, senior Sarah Reiter ended her career with the Eastern Washington University cross country team with a top-100 finish at the 2016 NCAA Division I Championships on Saturday, Nov. 19 in Terre Haute, Ind.

Reiter, a Renton, Wash., native, was the only individual from Eastern competing. She ran the 6,000-meter course in a time of 20 minutes, 46.6 seconds, placing 86th out of a 250-competitor field.

“What an amazing cross country career Sarah had,” head coach Chris Shane said. “Most women dream of this race, and Sarah was fortunate enough to make it here twice.”

Karissa Schweizer from Missouri took the championship’s individual title with a time of 19:41.6. Oregon won the women’s title while Big Sky team Northern Arizona won the men’s championship.

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