ISLE FILE
Academic honors for 36 UH athletes
Advertiser Staff
Thirty-six University of Hawai'i athletes have been named to the 2008 Western Athletic Conference All-Academic Team.
The UH football team placed 14 players, the soccer and women's volleyball teams each had nine and the cross country team saw four players honored.
Overall, the WAC honored 283 student-athletes for the fall season. To be eligible, a student-athlete must have completed at least one academic year, have at least a 3.0 cumulative grade point average and have participated in at least 50 percent of the team's contests.
The UH honorees:
Cross country — Shannon Dresser, Briana Goodnight, Samantha Lotnick, Mariana Monasi. Football — Gregory Alexander, Solomon Elimimian, David Farmer, Austin Hansen, Aaron Kia, Antwan Mahaley, Vaughn Meatoga, Kealoha Pilares, Royce Pollard, Keanemana Silva, Spencer Smith, Richard Torres, David Veikune, Aaron Watson. Soccer — Ambree Ako, Vanessa Bailey, Kellie Anne Chang, Taryn Fukuroku, Tehane Higa, Kelsie Look, Kristen Oshiro, Mari Punzal, Kristyn Shapka. Women's volleyball — Stephanie Brandt, Aneli Cubi-Otineru, Catherine Fowler, Tara Hittle, Elizabeth Ka'aihue, Amber Kaufman, Jessica Keefe, Jayme Lee, Nickie Thomas.
TENNIS
WAC HONORS LAJOLA
Hawai'i sophomore Dennis Lajola was named Western Athletic Conference Player of the Week.
Lajola, from 'Aiea, helped the 55th-ranked Rainbows defeat No. 57 San Diego State last week for their first win of this year. UH won six of the seven available points, including a sweep of the three doubles matches (worth one point).
Lajola, ranked 55th individually, won his singles match in straight sets at No. 1 against SDSU, then teamed with junior Andreas Weber to win at No. 2 doubles. The sophomore also beat 49th-ranked Kallim Stewart, 7-5, 7-5, in a loss to 25th-ranked California. Lajola is 9-4 in singles this year. Hawai'i is 1-1.
HIT-A-THON A HIT
Kapalua's Maui Hit-A-Thon concluded with more than 8,000 hits and $1,500-plus for Kapalua Maui Charities.
Kapalua PBI pros Katie Dellich and Justin Work teamed to hit one tennis ball consecutively back and forth approximately 8,600 times for more than 4 hours and 36 minutes.
Charitable donations were received from guests who made guesses on how long the pair could hit one ball back and forth with no breaks or mistakes. Maui's Chris Oyama, who estimated 4:26, won a random drawing.