Brothers Lain Pesek and Talan Hemans of Lake Stevens won their respective divisions in the 2013 Washington State BMX Championship Series that wrapped up Sept. 29 at the River Valley BMX track in Sumner.
Pesek, a student at North Lake Middle School, won the 12-year-old Expert Class. He placed third in the final race of the season to finish with 118 points, edging the runner-up by just two points.
Pesek started the season racing in the Intermediate Class at the BMX track at McCollum Park in Everett, but moved up to the Expert Class just before the championship series began.
Hemans, who attends Mount Pilchuck Elementary School, won the 7-year-old intermediate class. He began the season in the Novice Class, but after several victories, moved up to the Intermediate division. He came into the final race of the season ranked second in the points standings, then won the final main event, giving him a total of 115 points, five more than the runner-up.
Claps earns U.S. a spot
Fourteen-year-old Eliana Claps of Everett has earned a place for the United States to compete in the archery competition at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games, Aug. 16-28, in Nanjing, China.
Competing in cadet recurve, Claps was one of 17 girls, all from different countries, to earn what is called a quota place for the Youth Olympic Games while competing at the World Youth Archery Championships in Wuxi, China, earlier this month. For the countries that received quota places, each national archery federation will then nominate an archer to represent that country at the Youth Olympic Games, subject to approval from each respective national Olympic committee.
Claps, who was the only American to earn a quota place, placed third in the ranking rounds in Wuxi, and then lost her first elimination match to a Alexa Rivera from Mexico.
The Youth Olympic Games are for athletes with birthdays between Jan. 1, 1997 to Dec. 31, 1999.
Makela honored again
University of Texas-San Antonio goalkeeper Emma “Bubba” Makela was named the Conference USA Defensive Soccer Player of the Week for Oct. 14-20, It was the second player-of-the-week award for Makela, a graduate of Kamiak High School. She also won for the week of Sept. 23-29.
Makela, a freshman, earned her most recent honor by recording a pair of shutouts, raising her season total to four. She made six saves in the Roadrunners’ 3-0 win over Southern Mississippi and stopped nine shots in a 0-0 tie with conference-leading Colorado College.
She also was named to CollegeSoccer360.com’s weekly Primetime Performers Honor Roll.
For video of Makela making two saves in a span of just three seconds, click here.
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