Eastern WA track star finishes track season in 10th place at World Championships
College Place High School graduate Kenneth Rooks had a great year in the men’s 3000-meter steeplechase.
The current BYU student won the NCAA title in the event in June, then won the event again in the USA Track and Field Championships in July.
His win in July was all the more impressive because he fell down early in the final, only to rally and pass everyone for the victory.
This past week at the World Track and Field Championships this week in Hungary, Rooks won his heat race with a time of 8 minutes, 23.66 seconds. He did that on Saturday.
On Wednesday in the finals, Rooks placed 10th against the world’s best.
His finishing time of 8:20.02 was better than his heat-winning time a few days before, but that just illustrates how fast the world’s best steeplechasers are.
Morocco’s Soufiane El Bakkali, the defending Olympic and world champion, won the race with a time of 8:03.53.
Rooks, who won two Washington high school state cross country championships at Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco, will return to Provo to begin another season with the Cougars’ cross country and men’s track and field team this coming school year.
More NWAC signings
Here’s a look at other area athletes who have signed to begin playing this year at community colleges around the Northwest:
▪ Connell grads Rodolfo Avalos and Emmanuel Gomez have agreed to play for Wenatchee Valley’s men’s soccer team this fall.
▪ Royal City’s Madison Ortega-Sanchez will be playing softball next spring for Walla Walla’s softball team.
▪ Hermiston’s Estephany Diaz will be playing women’s soccer this fall at Lane Community College.
▪ Kennewick grad Jonah Gebers is headed to Spokane Community College this fall, where he’ll play for the men’s basketball team.
▪ DeSales grad Emmalyne Jimenez is headed to Spokane Community College, where she’ll be a member of the school’s women’s track and field team.
▪ Abigail Beaton, a Chiawana graduate, will be playing volleyball this fall at North Idaho College in Coeur d’Alene.
▪ Britnee Helton, a River View High graduate, has agreed to play volleyball this fall for Green River Community College.
▪ College Place grad Mya Adams has agreed to play softball for the Wenatchee Valley Knights beginning in spring of 2024.
▪ Kennewick High graduate Tayler Adams will be playing women’s basketball this fall for North Idaho College.
▪ Stanfield High grad Maggie Sharp will be playing women’s basketball for Treasure Valley Community College this fall.
▪ Virdiana Gonzales, a Connell High grad, will play this fall for the Wenatchee Valley women’s soccer team.
▪ Kennewick grad Alexes Stein is headed to Walla Walla this fall to play women’s basketball for the Warriors.
▪ Grandview’s Ethan Fajardo and Chiawana’s Por Htoo will be playing this fall for the Walla Walla Community College men’s soccer team.
▪ Kennewick High grad Simeon Howard is headed to Walla Walla Community College, where he’ll play for the baseball team.
▪ Liberty Christian graduate Makayla Patrick will be playing volleyball this fall for the Yakima Valley Yaks.
Basketball
Chiawana grad Donavin Young is headed to a prep school this fall in Illinois, to spend a year before college.
Already, Young has gotten two offers from Big Sky Conference schools — Montana, and Montana State.
College football
Area football fans might want to follow Whitworth’s squad this season.
The Pirates have nine players from our region on the team’s roster.
Senior Dylan Ashbeck is a senior wide receiver on the team, while freshman Joe Baffney — who was an outstanding quarterback at DeSales — is listed as a defensive back.
Tight end Kenyon Coleman, a sophomore, hails from Richland; while DeSales grad Seamus Doohan is a sophomore defensive back for the Pirates.
Isaya Galvez was a standout linebacker at Richland High. Now the incoming freshman will play the same position at Whitworth.
Junior defensive lineman JT Munoz, who starred at Chiawana, should see playing time; as will sophomore running back Luis Salgado, a Kamiakin grad.
Finally, junior Alex Smith is a defensive lineman from College Place, while grad student Atticus Templeton — a Kennewick High grad — returns for the Pirates in the defensive secondary.
Whitworth opens its season on Sept. 9 at Eastern Oregon University.
Jeff Morrow is former sports editor for the Tri-City Herald.
