Sports briefs for May 9

UHH distributes athletic awards

UH-Hilo held its awards banquet last week, naming soccer player Jodie Lillie and baseball player Casey Yamauchi its female and male Athletes of the Year.

Luca Matheiowetz (men’s tennis) and Bree Olson (women’s basketball) both maintained a 3.91 cumulative grade point average to earn this year’s Joe and Harriet Estrella Male and Sakai and Harue Wakakuwa Female Scholar-Athlete honors, respectively.

The Ramon Goya Academic Teams of the Year for highest combined GPA went to Women’s Soccer (3.48 GPA) and Women’s Tennis (3.47 GPA) — both consecutive repeat winners.

In addition to student-athletes from each team also receiving scholar-athlete and Most Pono Vulcan honors, women’s soccer also took home the Community Engagement / Service Award for more than 700 combined hours volunteering in the local area.

Departing seniors from each team were recognized with special recognition for women’s volleyball’s Kendall Kott, women’s basketball’s Mandi Kawaha and baseball’s Yamauchi for setting new all-time program records.

Students compete in esports championship

Patrick Riehle of Ka‘u High School’s Esports Club and Juan Allen of Kea‘au High School’s Esports Club competed in the Hawai‘i Esports League Championship two weeks ago in Honolulu.

Ka‘u’s team defeated Kea‘au in Valorant, before falling against Castle High School’s esports team for the Championship title.

Hawaiian Telcom hosted the tournament in partnership with Vanta, a youth esports and coaching platform, and the Hawai‘i Esports League.

Hole-in-one

Golfing with Bankoh Golf Club’s Toni Suenishi made a hole-in-one at the Hilo Muni Golf Course par 3 2nd hole on April 28 using a nine wood.

Witnessed by Lei Oishi, this was Toni’s second hole-in-one.