ISLE FILE
Hawai'i softball players earn academic honor

Advertiser Staff

Hawai'i outfielder Stacie Hirano and shortstop Kate Judd were named to the Verizon Academic All-America District VIII first team, the school announced yesterday.

Hirano, a senior with a cumulative 3.65 grade point average in business administration (finance), is a graduate of Waiakea High. She is batting .282 with 15 RBIs and 30 runs.

Judd, a junior from Australia, has a cumulative GPA of 3.22 in health education. She leads the team in batting average at .357. She also has 13 doubles, 11 home runs and 33 RBI.

District VIII consists of Hawai'i, Alaska, Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and British Columbia. The first-team regional selections are eligible for Verizon's Academic All-America (overall) team, which will be announced June 6.

SURFING

• Slater, Robb advance: Six-time world champion Kelly Slater advanced at the Billabong Pro yesterday at Teahupoo, Tahiti.

Slater, the Floridian who won this tournament in 2000 as a wildcard, eliminated Jake Paterson of Australia.

Hawai'i's Kalani Robb, ranked No. 6 in the world, dominated the day's opening match to eliminate Rodrigo Dornelles of Brazil.

Robb had a near-perfect 9.75, and then an 8.0 for the highest two-wave total so far (17.75).

AIR RIFLE

• Tanoue to worlds: Ryan Tanoue of Honolulu finished first among juniors in qualifying Tuesday for the U.S. Men's World Championship air rifle team.

Tanoue was fifth overall among 41 shooters in the three-day match in Atlanta to determine the U.S. team for the World Championships in Lahti, Finland, in July.

His score was 690.5, 2.9 points better than the next junior.