Hawaii Preparatory Academy’s Jackson Evans recently earned a spot on the USA Swimming Scholastic All-America team. The junior achieved the honor by finishing the 100-yard butterfly in a time of 58.59 seconds, while also maintaining a grade point average of
Hawaii Preparatory Academy’s Jackson Evans recently earned a spot on the USA Swimming Scholastic All-America team. The junior achieved the honor by finishing the 100-yard butterfly in a time of 58.59 seconds, while also maintaining a grade point average of 4.0 during the 2014-15 school year.
“This achievement means a lot to me,” Evans said. “It is a national-level recognition that encapsulates both my life as an athlete and a student. Achieving a goal goals like this makes all the work enjoyable and makes the future work exciting.”
Evans is one of 905 student-athletes from across the United States on the Men’s Scholastic All-America Team, and one of only two to qualify from Hawaii.
Qualifications included maintaining a GPA over 3.5 and swimming a pool time equal to a 2011 Junior Bonus qualifying time in any event.
Hawaii Preparatory Academy veteran coach Lupe Diaz was recently named a state winner in the second annual High School Coach of the Year awards program for cross country. The announcement was made by U.S. Track & Field and the Cross Country Coaches Association.
One boys coach and one girls coach from each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia were honored for their successes during the 2015 fall season.
State-by-state winners were selected based on their teamʻs performances throughout the season. Among the factors taken into consideration were team score, placement at the state championships, margin of victory, performance against rankings, individual championships, and how the teamʻs performances stacked up to previous years.
Diaz, a math teacher at Hawaii Prep since 1981, has coached boys cross country for Ka Makani since 2001. His teams won three consecutive BIIF championships. The first came in the 2013-2014 season as co-head coach with Kimo Higgins. That team still played in Division I. As the solo head coach, Diaz has one the previous two BIIF and State Division II championships.
“I share this award with all of my dedicated runners—past and present—whom I have had the privilege of working with over the years. I owe it all to them,” Diaz said. “There are too many of them to name, but I share this honor with all of my ʻmuchachos.’”
The Keaukaha Warriors can clinch the island’s AJA Memorial Baseball title against B.I.B. Hawaiians at 10 a.m. Sunday at Wong Stadium.
The Warriors lead the best of five series, 2-0. The state AJA tournament will be held April 9-10 at Wong.
Last Sunday, Alton Penrose and Kele Coloma had three hits each to lead Keaukaha over the Hawaiians 12-2. Shannon Camero, Kiley Kawazoe, and Troy Fujii each added two hits. Coloma and Fujii had two RBIs each.
Penrose pitched five innings of one-run ball for the win. Mike Inaba pitched two innings of one-run relief.
Justyce Ishii went three innings in the loss. Donald Saltiban pitched three innings and Jai Cabatbat threw the final inning.
