Washougal High grad inducted into WWU’s ‘Athletics Hall of Fame’

A Washougal High School graduate who led the Western Washington University (WWU) softball team to a 1998 NAIA national championship has been inducted into the WWU Hall of Fame.

Alison Haukaas, a pitcher at Western Washington, set 16 records during her college career. She is a member of WWU’s All-Century Softball Team (1900-99), and she finished with 44 wins and 58 complete games.

The induction ceremony, which is part of the WWU Alumni Association’s Back to Bellingham weekend, will take place at 1 p.m., Saturday, May 19, on WECU Court at Carver Gym. There is no admission charge, and parking will be free for that event.

The inductees will be honored during a luncheon on Friday, May 18, and introduced at 5:30 p.m., at the WWU Alumni Association Awards Celebration.

As a freshman, Haukaas helped Western to the Pacific Northwest Athletic Conference (PNWAC) regular-season and tournament titles, and second place at the NAIA Pacific Northwest Regional. She was the PNWAC Pitcher of the Year, Pacific Northwest all-Sectional and NAIA National Pitcher of the Week, having a 13-11 record, 1.47 ERA, eight shutouts, two no-hitters and 127 strikeouts in 162-1/3 innings.

Three years after Haukaas joined the WWU softball team as a walk-on freshman in 1995, she pitched a complete-game victory for the Vikings in the title contest of the NAIA National Tournament. It was the first national championship for any team in school history.

Western, which posted a 33-13 record, had received the seventh and final at-large berth in the tourney.

“That was a fairy-tale, Cinderella year,” WWU coach Art Phinney, said of the 1998 national championship season. “And while it is a team sport, the heart and soul, the first person to play at Western with the mental strength to win a national title was Alison Haukaas.”

As a junior on that squad, Haukaas had a 9-2 record with a 1.39 earned run average. She was a NAIA Pacific Northwest Sectional and Pacific West Athletic Conference all-star, and she was named College Sports Information Directors of America District VIII All-Academic.

Haukaas received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from WWU in 1999, and a master’s degree in 2001. She obtained a master’s of science in systems engineering degree from the naval post-graduate school in 2005.

Haukaas now lives in Poulsbo, Washington, where she is in her 16th year as a technical project manager at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Keyport, Washington.

Information provided by Western Washington University