Sports - Local Colleges

POSTED: Monday, Jul. 06, 2009

WWU NOTEBOOK: Five Vikings make All-Academic team

For the third straight year, Western Washington hurdler Heidi Dimmitt and pole vaulter Christy Miller were each selected to the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association NCAA Division II All-Academic team, which was announced on Monday, July 6.

Dimmitt and Miller were just part of the five Vikings who made the team, joining distance runner Lauren Breihof, high jumper Clara Cook and middle distance runner Rachael Johnson.

Dimmitt, a senior chemistry major maintaining a 3.68 grade point average, was a first-team College Sports Information Directors of America/ESPN The Magazine College Division District 8 Academic All-Star. A three-time Great Northwest Athletic Conference academic all-star, Dimmitt placed fifth in the 400-meter hurdles at the NCAA II National Championships to earn USTFCCCA All-America honors. In a quarterfinal heat at nationals, she broke a school record that had stood since 1994 with a time of 1 minute, 0.31 seconds.

Miller, a senior biology/ecology major with a 3.51 GPA, placed 14th at nationals in the women's pole vault (1 feet, 91/4 inches). She set school records in that event, both outdoors (12-4) and indoors (12-51/2).

Breihof, a sophomore business administration marketing major with a 3.52 GPA, finished 14th in the 10,000 meters at nationals with a time of 37:32.45. Breihof also was a GNAC academic all-star.

Cook, a senior communication sciences and disorders major with a 3.40 GPA, cleared 5-6 in the outdoor high jump at nationals to tie for 11th. A three-time GNAC academic all-star, she holds the school indoor record of 5-51/2.

Johnson, a sophomore German major with a 3.67 GPA, set school records in the 800, both indoors (2:13.13) and outdoors (2:12.30), and was a member of Western's distance medley relay team that set a school mark of 11:57.11 in 2008.

VIKINGS HEADED TO DISNEYLAND

The WWU men's basketball team is one of four men's programs that will be participating in the 2009 Disney's Division II Tip-Off West Coast Classic this fall.

The three-day event will be held Oct. 30 through Nov. 1 at the Anaheim (Calif.) Convention Center.

The tournament format calls for four games - two men's and two women's - to be played each day over three days in the third year of the event.

Grand Canyon, Kentucky Wesleyan, San Francisco State and Western will make up the men's field, while the women's field will include Fort Lewis College, San Francisco State, Southern Indiana and Western Oregon.

Like the Vikings, Kentucky Wesleyan advanced to the NCAA Division II Tournament last spring.

Western will play Grand Canyon at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 30, Kentucky Wesleyan at noon Oct. 31 and San Francisco State at 4 p.m. Nov. 1.