Punahou grad Miyahira a softball standout

By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer

Freshman Erika Miyahira (Punahou '01, of Nu'uanu) was chosen Most Valuable Player for the softball team at Notre Dame de Namur University near San Francisco.

Notre Dame, on a wooded hillside in Belmont, was formerly known as College of Notre Dame.

Miyahira was the starting third baseman and leadoff hitter, coach Steve Rianda said. She led the team most of the season in average, hits and runs scored, finishing with a .323 batting average (50-for-155) in 47 games.

"I was always trying to turn over the lineup so we could get Erika back up," Rianda said. "She beat out a returning senior for second-team All-California Pacific Conference."

Also starting for Notre Dame was freshman center fielder Skylar Tokumine (University '01). "She was a treat on the bases," Rianda said. "In 110 plays in the outfield she only made one error, which was a tough play going away." Her fielding percentage was .991.

Tokumine batted .209 (29-for-139) in 48 games and also pitched (4-10, 4.49 ERA). "She deserved much better," Rianda said. "Team errors and hitting slumps always seemed to follow her when she took the circle."

Utility fielder Misty Malczon (St. Andrew's, of Kane'ohe) was the only senior on the team. She batted .134 (9-for-67) in 37 games.

"The Hawai'i connection has been great this year for Notre Dame," Rianda said. "I wish I had five more of them on the team."

TRACK & FIELD

• West Florida

Shawn Gallup, the state 3,200-meter champion for Mililani in 1996, has graduated after a six-year odyssey and he's ready to come home. "Anybody got a job for a guy with an exercise science/athletic training degree?" he asked.

Gallup worked one summer in a fish cannery in Alaska and interrupted his college education to live with his mother in Italy for 1 1/2 years.

"I missed the running, and figured I should get my degree," he said. "Getting back into shape was horrible."

Gallup was runner-up in the Gulf Coast Conference cross country championship last fall and finished 20th in the NCAA Division II South Regional, where his 10k time of 34 minutes, 9 seconds was third fastest in West Florida history.

This spring he ran 8:50 for 3,000 meters and 15:50 for 5,000. "Decent, but not astronomical," he said.

"He's Mr. Consistency. You can always count on him," West Florida coach Matthew Dobson said. "He's probably the smartest runner I have ever coached."

In 12 years of Homegrown Reports, Gallup is the first student-athlete from Hawai'i discovered at U. of West Florida (in Pensacola). "I found it looking on the internet," Gallup said. "It was the only school that didn't require you to write an essay."