Kootenai County athletes earn top honors in college sports
Kristine Schmidt, Avery Waddington and Annastasia Peters turned Kootenai County roots into college hardware, from all-region softball to All-Big Sky basketball and NCAA track.
Kootenai County’s athlete pipeline keeps producing names that show up far beyond local scoreboards. Kristine Schmidt, a Coeur d’Alene High and North Idaho College product now pitching for Oregon Tech, earned a spot on the National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-Region IV team after a season that already brought her Cascade Conference Newcomer of the Year honors.
Schmidt went 19-4 with a 1.66 earned-run average, along with six shutouts, three saves and 159 strikeouts. The recognition carried added weight because the NFCA’s All-Region and All-America honors are voted on by member coaches, a peer-driven nod to the kind of season Schmidt put together in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Oregon Tech listed her first season with the Lady Owls after two years at North Idaho College, where she had already built a strong résumé by winning NWAC East Region Pitcher of the Year and NFCA NWAC All-America honors in 2024, then adding all-Scenic West Athletic Conference honors in 2025. Across those two NIC seasons, she stacked up 32 victories.
Lake City High graduate Avery Waddington gave Missoula another reason to know the name Coeur d’Alene. The Montana sophomore became the first player in program history to lead the Lady Griz in points, rebounds, assists, blocks and steals in the same season, and she was rewarded with second-team All-Big Sky honors. She finished the 2025-26 season with 389 points, 195 rebounds, 83 assists, 30 blocks and 38 steals, while starting all 30 games she played.
Waddington’s rise did not start there. In her freshman season, she played in all 32 games, made 14 starts and scored 319 points, ranking second on Montana in scoring, rebounding and blocks. For a program trying to find consistency in the Big Sky, her all-around numbers made her one of the conference’s most complete players and a clear point of pride for Lake City basketball.
Annastasia Peters, a Post Falls High graduate at Utah, pushed Kootenai County’s reach into NCAA track and field. She was set to run the women’s 10,000 meters at the NCAA West Regional in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where the top 12 advanced to nationals in Eugene, Oregon. The NCAA West first-round start list showed Peters seeded 17th in the field, and her personal bests of 32:45.80 in the 10,000 and 16:03.35 in the 5,000 show the level she has reached.
Peters had already finished 16th in her first NCAA West Regional 10,000-meter race in 34:40.36 in a previous season. Taken together with Schmidt’s all-region softball honors and Waddington’s historic season at Montana, the county’s latest college results show three different sports, three different campuses and the same result: Kootenai County athletes keep arriving prepared to win at the next level.
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