The UAA men's basketball team has a new assistant coach, a former assistant coach at Montana State who left Bozeman a year ago, a few months after an arrest on charges he assaulted his former girlfriend.

Ryan Orton, 35, replaces Shane Rinner, an ace recruiter who was named head coach at Texas A&M International earlier this month after spending six seasons with the Seawolves.

In his second season with Montana State, Orton was placed temporarily on administrative leave after being arrested in January 2008. He was reinstated after two weeks and resigned at the end of the school year.

UAA athletic director Steve Cobb said he spoke at length with Montana State athletic director Peter Fields and feels comfortable with Orton's hiring.

"I had a very long conversation with Peter Fields, I knew how detailed their investigation was, and I also had a long talk with Ryan," Cobb said. "It's unfortunate, it wasn't anything I'm necessarily pleased by, but I don't think it trumped his ability to coach."

According to accounts in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Orton was arrested and charged with partner assault, criminal tampering with a communication device and surreptitious visual observation for his actions following a breakup with his girlfriend.

Orton pleaded not guilty to the charges. Cobb said Orton was found guilty of one or two misdemeanors, but didn't have further details Tuesday.

"That was not enough, in my mind, for it to be an obstacle in his hiring," Cobb said. "... I'm not concerned about it at all, or I wouldn't have hired him."

Orton is from Creswell, Ore., and played at Eastern Oregon University, an NAIA school.

He got his start in coaching Eastern Washington, where he worked in a variety of capacities from 1998-2003. He spent one season as the head coach at Lane Community College in Oregon, guiding a team that ranked third among 36 South Region teams in the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges (NWAACC) and was the highest scoring team in the region.

From there he was hired as an assistant at Northwest Nazarene, one of UAA's rivals in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. He spent two seasons there and counted among his recruits Justin Parnell, the GNAC Freshman of the Year in 2007.

After his two seasons with Montana State, Orton did not coach collegiately last season.

Women add guard, runners ranked third

The announcement of Orton's hiring came on a busy news-making day Tuesday at UAA:

-- The women's basketball team, a two-time qualifier for the NCAA Division II Final Four, shored up its backcourt by adding a point guard from Yakima Valley Community College;

-- And the men's and women's cross country teams both earned No. 3 rankings in the NCAA Division II West Region preseason coaches poll;

Kaitlin McBride, a 5-foot-9 guard, played her freshman year at GNAC rival Western Washington and her sophomore year at Yakima.

She helped Yakima to a 14-0 league record last season and boasted averages of 9.6 points, 3.5 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.8 rebounds a game. In the NWAACC all-star game, she led her team to an 82-63 win with a team-high 14 points and six assists.

Plus, she plays defense.

"Kaitlin is a terrific defender and really understands the intricacies of the game as a point guard," Moser said in a press release.

McBride is the sixth addition to the UAA roster, which lost seven players from last year's 31-4 team.

The UAA cross country team, meanwhile, will open its season Sept. 5 at Kincaid Park with squads that each are ranked third in preseason regional rankings.

The women, who placed ninth at the national championships last season, trail Seattle Pacific and Chico State in the poll. The men, who placed 11th at nationals, trail Chico State and Western Washington.

The Seawolves, who return five all-conference runners from last season, host the UAA Invitational on Sept. 5 at Kincaid Park.

Find Beth Bragg online at adn.com/contact/bbragg or call 257-4309.

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