Stillings leads rowers into Pan Am Games

Eight Washington state rowers, including 48-year-old coxswain John Stillings of Edmonds, will represent the United States at the 2003 Pan American Games beginning next week in the Dominican Republic. The games are Aug. 4-10 on Lake Rincon, near Santo Domingo.

Stillings, of Seattle's Pocock Rowing Center, will lead a U.S. men's eight that averages 23 years old — less than half his age. It is the fifth national-team appearance for Stillings, an Olympic silver medalist in 1984 who last coxed in international competition at the 1985 World Championships.

Others on the U.S. team include J. Sloan DuRoss and Conal Groom (both in men's double sculls and quadruple sculls), Pocock Rowing Center; Jennifer Edwards and Sarah Hirst (lightweight women's quadruple sculls), Pocock Rowing Center; Tyler Peterson and Evan Jacobs (men's lightweight double sculls), Lake Washington Rowing Club; and Dave Friedericks (men's eight and men's four), Port Townsend, former Western Washington University rower.

Notes

• Tickets for the Oct. 4 football game between Western Washington and Central Washington universities at Seahawks Stadium go on sale Saturday at 10 a.m. through TicketMaster and at the stadium box office. The 6 p.m. NCAA Division II game is being billed as the "Battle in Seattle: Which side of the mountains are you on?"

• A preseason poll of coaches made Gonzaga the favorite to win its fourth consecutive West Coast Conference men's basketball championship. The Bulldogs drew seven of eight first-place votes.

• The Kent Cannons beat Berwyn, Ill., 10-9 yesterday in a first-round, 15-year-old CABA World Series baseball game in Crystal Lake, Ill. The Cannons play Kansas City today. The 34-team tournament concludes Sunday.

• Three Seattle-area girls won national Junior Olympic weightlifting championships in Detroit, and Washington won the girls team title. Ballard's Madeline Ross won an under-15 title in clean and jerk for her weight class. Abby Freih of Federal Way won 16-year-old titles in the snatch, clean-and-jerk and total. Katie Rogge of Sea-Tac was first in snatch, clean-and-jerk and total for her 17-19 age group.