UH sails its way into national finals

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HONOLULU – The University of Hawaii women’s sailing team advanced to the final round of the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association national championships after maintaining its sixth-place standing at the conclusion of Wednesday’s Western semifinals at Annapolis, Md.

HONOLULU – The University of Hawaii women’s sailing team advanced to the final round of the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association national championships after maintaining its sixth-place standing at the conclusion of Wednesday’s Western semifinals at Annapolis, Md.

The top nine teams each in the Eastern and Western semifinals have qualified for the Finals, which are set for Thursday and Friday. Ten teams were eliminated from the semifinals.

The Western bracket completed five races in both the A and B-Divisions for a total of 11 races, and UH finished with 152 points – seven points ahead of seventh-place Bowdoin and 17 points ahead of 10th-place Cornell. Madeline Kennedy and Katrina Berry sailed for the Rainbow Wahine in the A Division, and Cecelia Jansson, Annie Kelly and Louise Currie sailed in the B Division.

The 18 teams in the finals start anew in Thursday’s first day of competition.

COOPER NAMED SECOND-TEAM ALL-BIG WEST: UH senior pitcher Matt Cooper was named to the All-Big West baseball second team.

Cooper finished 6-5 with an earned run average of 1.60 and 106 strikeouts and only 28 walks in 106 and two-thirds innings. He became just the 14th pitcher in the program’s rich history to record 100 strikeouts in one season, and his ERA is the third-lowest single-season mark of any UH starting pitcher.

Cooper earned NCAA Player of the Week honors after a three-hit, 10-strikeout, no walk shutout of Pepperdine on Feb. 26.

Senior first baseman Marc Flores and junior center fielder Kaeo Aliviado received All-Big West honorable mention. Flores batted .305 and led the team with 12 doubles, five home runs and 44 runs batted in. Aliviado, a Saint Louis School graduate from Ewa Beach, Oahu, led all starters with a .310 average, two triples and 35 runs scored. He also had another strong defensive year with only two errors in 126 chances (.984 fielding percentage).

PORLIER LANGLOIS AT NCAA PRELIMS: UH junior Alex Porlier Langlois will be the only Rainbow Wahine representative at the NCAA Track & Field West Preliminary Round starting Thursday at Fayetteville, Ark.

Porlier Langlois will compete in the shot put on Thursday and the discus on Friday. Only the top 12 from 48 qualifiers will advance to the NCAA outdoor championships from June 11 to June 14 at Eugene, Ore.

Porlier Langlois is ranked No. 35 in the nation in the shot put and No. 40 in the discus. She is coming off a silver medal finish in the shot put at the Big West Championships last week.

FIVE RAINBOW WARRIORS NAMED MPSF ALL-ACADEMIC: Five UH men’s volleyball players have been named to the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation’s All-Academic Team.

Middle blocker Taylor Averill and opposite Johann Timmer each earned their third MPSF All-Academic honor while outside hitter Sinisa Zarkovic, setter Joby Ramos and libero Kolby Kanetake each made the team for the first time.

Averill was named to the American Volleyball Coaches Association All-America team and led the nation in hitting percentage (.477) and ranked eighth in blocking (1.22 per set).

Only Stanford (with nine), UC San Diego (eight) and Brigham Young (six) had more All-Academic selections than Hawaii.

The criteria included a minimum 3.0 grade point average, at least a sophomore standing academically, at least one full academic year completed and participation in at least 50 percent of the team’s matches.