All-league basketball selections announced for the EWAC East

The Eastern Washington Athletic Conference, which is at the 2B classification level, announced its all-league selections for its East Division.

The Dayton-Waitsburg girls received three selections. Junior forward Sadie Seney was named to the first team, while junior guard Mackena Culley and freshman forward Claudia Benavides were named to the second team.

The EWAC named Columbia-Burbank's Jadyn Johnson as player of the year. They also named DeSales coach Tim Duncan as coach of the year. Duncan is stepping down this year after 25 years of coaching Irish athletic teams. Liberty Christian earned the Team Sportsmanship Award.

Also named to the first team along with Johnson and Seney were Burbank's Jen Jacobo and Taelyn Dyer; Liberty Christian's Emma Reed and Kenna Buratto of DeSales.

Named to the second team along with Culley and Benavides were Morgan Thomas and Lesley Arceo of DeSales; Liberty Christian's Hannah Bush and Burbank's Talayjha Talley.

For the boys' team, Mason Finney was named to the EWAC second team.

Dayton-Waitsburg's Head Coach Roy Ramirez said by the end of the season things were clicking and showing what the team is capable and what it will be capable of next year.

"The last few weeks of the season we finally started playing like the team I thought we were," Ramirez said. "I thought going into the season that we would compete and challenge all the time. That just didn't materialize, mostly because we struggled in the second halves of games. We made some changes to our halftime routine and that really seemed to help.

"We had some very exciting games at the end and the boys did a great job competing and staying in those games all the way to the end and giving themselves a chance to win those games," he said. "We think next year will be a really good one. We have some very committed players and they are willing to put in the work."

More awards will be announced for all Dayton-Waitsburg athletes at the Winter Sports banquet on Thursday March 12th at 6 p.m. The meeting will be held in the Waitsburg's Elementary multi-purpose room. Dinner will be served first.