Hawai'i duo helps bury Canyon foes
By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer
Two players from Hawai'i will be in the starting lineup for College of the Canyons when it plays Reedley for the California Community Colleges — and possibly national junior college — football championship on Saturday in Bakersfield.
Bruce Battle • College of the Canyons
Sophomore Michael Stewart (Kailua '01) will start at offensive right tackle and sophomore Shalom "Tui" Tuimalealiifano (Waipahu '00) will start at defensive tackle for Canyons.
Waipahu High alum Shalom "Tui" Tuimalealiifano makes a tackle for College of the Canyons in last Saturday's Verizon Southern California Bowl against Chaffey. Canyons won, 52-27.
Stewart was selected first-team All-Pacific Division in the Western State Conference as Canyons (Santa Clarita) has logged its second straight 10-1 season going into Saturday's game.
Tuimalealiifano played the game of his life in last Saturday's
52-27 victory over Chaffey in the Verizon Southern California Bowl. "He must have had 17 tackles and 2 1/2 sacks," Stewart said. Unfortunately, official defensive statistics were not kept.
Reedley is 11-0 and ranked No. 1 in the nation by J.C. Grid-Wire so Stewart and his teammates figure that if they win on Saturday, they should be No. 1 in the final rankings.
Linebacker Falaniko Noga (Farrington '02) is redshirting this season at Canyons. "I wish we had him this week," defensive coordinator Leon Criner said.
SWIMMING
• U. of San Diego
Freshman Ashley Swart (Kaiser '02) took the biggest test of her college career so far last weekend and passed with high marks.
STEWART
ANDERSON
In the 23-college Speedo Cup at Irvine, Calif., Swart turned in times in four events that meet the standard to be considered for the NCAA Championships in February and improved her career best marks in six events.
She won the 200-yard individual medley in 2 minutes, 2.84 seconds, breaking her own University of San Diego record and becoming the first Torero ever to win an event in the Speedo Cup.
She also swam career bests of 4:20.21 in the 400 individual medley and 4:53.69 in the 500 freestyle, both good for NCAA consideration, and contributed a career-best 1:52.45 opening 200-meter leg to an 800 freestyle relay team that finished second in 7:37.43, another NCAA consideration time.
Her 500 time improved her career best by more than 3 seconds. She also swam 1:05.20 in the 100 breaststroke and 2:17.99 in the 200 breaststroke, both also career bests.
BASKETBALL
• Santa Clara (Calif.)
Senior Cord Anderson (Iolani '99) had his second double-double of the season, with a career-high 21 points and 10 rebounds on Saturday in a 72-55 loss to Washington. Anderson made 8-of-11 field-goal attempts (72.7 percent) and all four free-throw attempts. Unfortunately for the Broncos, the rest of the team shot 20 percent (10-for-50).
