Sports Briefs

TRACK/CROSS COUNTRY

Cheney’s Spakousky signed by EWU

The Eastern Washington University track and field team has added 15 new high school athletes and three junior college transfers to their roster for the 2018-19 season.

Twelve female and nine male athletes make up the new faces for EWU’s track and field teams, with some of them currently competing on Eastern cross country teams. The 15 high school student-athletes all signed national letters of intent to attend EWU and compete for the Eagles.

Among the signees is Cheney High School 2018 graduate Hannah Spakousky. In four years of cross country she accumulated four top-30 finishes at the 2A WIAA State Cross Country meet. Her highest finish came in her senior year, with a 19th-place and a personal-best time of 19:35.5.

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FOOTBALL

Gubrud earns Big Sky’s offensive award

For the second-straight week, Eastern Washington University senior quarterback Gage Gubrud has been honored for a 300-yard passing performance as the Big Sky Conference selected him Sept. 10 as its Big Sky Conference Offensive Player of the Week. It was the seventh time in his career he’s been honored with that award. He also earned the same honor this week from College Sports Madness.

Gubrud had 402 yards of total offense – 322 passing and 80 rushing – in EWU’s nail-biting 31-26 victory over Northern Arizona on Sept. 8. He completed 18 of 33 passes and had four touchdowns and no interceptions.

Gubrud also went over the 10,000-yard mark in his career for total offense with a current total of 10,188. He is now just 754 yards from moving into third in EWU history and 12th all-time in the Big Sky. Gubrud also has 83 touchdown passes in his 29-game career to rank fourth in school history, just one from third.

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VOLLEYBALL

Eagles volleyball best since 2006

The final match of the Pirate Invitational ended on the right foot for the Eastern Washington volleyball team as they cruised to a three-set (26-24, 25-15, 25-20) victory over Gardner-Webb Sept. 7 at Greenville, N.C. The Eagles are now 7-3 to start the season for the first time since 2006.

Kamille Langford led the team with eight kills. Samantha Boever paced Eastern’s offense with 26 assists. Puaoolelagi Sao led Eastern with 14 digs while Kaitlin Sugai led EWU at the net with six0 blocks. Catelyn Linke led Eastern with five service aces, marking the first time since Sept. 9, 2017 that an Eagle has done so. Alexandra Espinosa led the team with a .200 hitting percentage.

Just two more nonconference matches remain for the Eagles before the start of Big Sky Conference play. EWU heads to its final tournament of the year at the Cardinal Classic in San Antonio, Texas, Sept. 14-15. Eastern takes on Alcorn State on Friday before meeting the hosts, Incarnate Word, on Saturday.

Eastern opens Big Sky play Tuesday, Sept. 18 against Idaho at Reese Court.