Posted on: Friday, April 2, 2004

ISLE FILE
Maui teenager stands out at NSSA surf meet

Advertiser Staff

Ola Eleogram of Hana, Maui, was the standout performer at the National Scholastic Surfing Association (NSSA) Hawai'i Region Championships last week at Turtle Bay.

The weeklong contest was held in waves that ranged from 2 to 4 feet, and featured all of Hawai'i's top student surfers, as well as amateur adult surfers.

Eleogram won the top two divisions of the contest: open men and explorer men. Those two divisions feature the state's top teenage amateur surfers.

As the winner of the open men's division, his photograph will be featured on T-shirts promoting the NSSA Hawai'i Region.

Four other surfers won two divisions — Hizson Lin-Kee (open boys, explorer menehune), Hank Gaskell (explorer juniors and air show), Ned Snow (open longboard and explorer longboard) and Eric Bennett (explorer masters and explorer seniors).

Lipoa Kahaleuahi of Hana won the explorer women's division. Prior to last week, she had not placed higher than sixth in any other contest this year.

Zach Arreola of Kaua'i won the Sportsmanship Award; Coco Ho of Sunset Beach won the Most Improved Surfer.

Shark-attack survivor Bethany Hamilton won the Most Inspirational Surfer award. She competed in the contest, but did not qualify for the finals.

The top performers qualified to represent Hawai'i in the NSSA National Championships, June 18 to 26, at San Clemente, Calif.

Hamilton did not qualify for the nationals, but received a special invitation from NSSA officials to compete at San Clemente.

Baseball

• HPU loses on road: Michael Rossano Jr. batted 4 for 5, including his first homer of the season, and drove in two runs as host Cal State-San Bernardino beat Hawai'i Pacific, 7-5, yesterday.

In the ninth, relief pitcher Darren Koshko struck out two HPU batters with the bases loaded to preserve the win.

HPU's Kai Austin went seven innings, giving up 11 hits and six earned runs.

The Sea Warriors' Greg Benoit went 3 for 3 and Geoffrey Say had two hits.

San Bernardino is 22-13; HPU is 18-18.

The teams will play a single game today and a doubleheader tomorrow.