Julia Sanders and Marissa Young won multiple races, helping the Columbia River Swim Team take fifth place at the Oregon Swimming Short Course Championships for ages 11-14.
Sanders won three races among 14-year-old girls at the meet, held Feb. 25-28 in Corvallis, Ore. She took the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2 minutes, 8.33 seconds, the 100 butterfly in 56.17 seconds, and the 200 fly in 2:08.21.
Young won the 12-year-old girls 50 backstroke in 29.17 seconds, and the 100 backstroke in 1:02.64.
Darya Samiee won the 12-year-old girls 50 breaststroke in 31.60.
Cassidy Brennan won the 11-year-old girls 200 IM in 2:20.16.
One week earlier at the Oregon Swimming Short Course 10-and-younger Championships in Springfield, Ore., Andrew Chang of the Columbia River Swim Team won the 10-year-old boys 100 fly in 1:16.49, and Meileen Yee won the 9-year-old girls 50 freestyle.
Results for CRST and Vancouver Swim Club swimmers who placed at these meets are in the Community Sports Scoreboard.
Hockinson riders win
The Hockinson High School equestrian team finished first in team points at its first 2010 meet, held Feb. 25-28 in Elma.
The Hawks 15 team members posted 45 top-10 finishes during the competition at the Grays Harbor Fairgrounds.
Hockinson riders who finished first in individual events were: Brynn Larson (in-hand trail and for huntseat), Nadine Miller (stock seat), Karen Wirth (driving), and Tasha Grinde (steer daubing).
For a complete list of Hockinson results, see the Community Sports Scoreboard.
Gym celebrates expansion
Vancouver Elite Gymnastics Academy will celebrate its expansion to a second gym with an open house on Saturday.
VEGA, which has operated its gym in Camas since 2004, is opening VEGA North at the location formerly used by Gold Star Gymnastics, 6707 NE 117th Ave. This season, that gym was operated as Big Air Gymnastics after Dave Hancock purchased the former Gold Star Gymnastics business.
VEGA owners Jaime and Lana Parra bought the business from Hancock, who will remain the head coach of the girls optional team at VEGA North.
The VEGA expansion is also a homecoming, of sorts, for the gym’s director of gymnastics. Zdravko Stoianov is a former Bulgarian national champion who won two bronze medals at the 1984 Olympics. He was involved with the building of the Gold Star program before joining VEGA.
Saturday’s event will be divided into 90-minute sessions and include gymnastics, dance and fencing demonstrations, along with the chance for kids to use the gymnastics facilities. Children 6 and younger and their parents can visit 2-3:30 p.m. For kids 7-18, the open house is 3:30-5 p.m.
To learn more, call 360-254-7958, or visit www.vegagym.com.
Bowlers raise $8,000 for Cure
Local bowlers raised more than $8,000 for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation with their annual Bowl for the Cure event.
The eighth edition of the Clark County Bowl for the Cure was held on Feb. 21 at Allen’s Crosley Lanes. A total of 123 bowlers took part in the event, which was organized by Roberta Green and Sue Anderson.
Ron Walker, the manager of the Clark County United States Bowling Association, said several large donations helped make the event the most successful Bowl for the Cure since Anderson and Green first organized the event in 2003.
• Women’s tourney starts — The 29th Clark County Women’s Bowling Championship Tournament opened with squads on Saturday and Sunday at Tiger Bowl in Battle Ground.
The tournament continues over the next two weekends with play on both Saturday and Sunday. To enter, or to learn more, contact Tiger Bowl at 360-687-2101 or the Clark County USBC office at 360-694-6348.
Special Olympics spring sports start
The Special Olympics are signing up athletes for the spring sports season in Clark County.
Spring season runs March 15 through June 6. Spring sports offered in Clark County are swimming, track and field, cycling, powerlifting and soccer.
All skill levels are encouraged to participate, and anyone 10 or older is welcome. There are no fees to participate. Athletes practice a couple of times a week, then compete with other Washington teams at a regional competition on April 24 in Tacoma. The individuals and teams who earn gold medals at the regional event are invited to compete at state, which takes place June 4-6 at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
To register, or to learn more about Special Olympics, contact Rick Cook by sending an e-mail to CCSOWA@live.com.
The winter sports season concluded over the weekend. Results from those events will be published in The Columbian as part of its Community Sports report on a Tuesday in the near future.
Community Sports news items may be submitted to Paul Danzer by e-mail at paul.danzer@columbian.com, or by calling 360-735-4521.
