Posted on: Sunday, July 4, 2004
Punahou grad Metzger earns Olympic berth
Advertiser Staff
Punahou School alum Stein Metzger and partner Dax Holdren can start enjoying their Fourth of July weekend after their seventh-place yesterday in the Conoco Phillips Open at Stavanger, Norway, was enough to secure them the second spot on the United States' men's Olympic beach volleyball team. Entering the next-to-last qualifying for the beach volleyball competition at the 2004 Athens Games, Holdren and Metzger led Todd Rogers and Sean Scott — also a Punahou graduate — by 200 points on the U.S. Olympic qualifying list (1,824 to 1,624).
Metzger and Holdren lost to 12th seeds Christoph Dieckmann and Andreas Scheuerpflug of Germany, 18-21, 21-15 and 15-10, but their seventh-place finish boosted their point total to 1,944.
Rogers and Scott were able to improve their point total to 1,696, but their 24-22 and 21-14 loss to third-seeded Franco Neto and Tande Ramos of Brazil ended their hopes as the pair needed at least a four-place finish this week to stay in contention entering next week's final qualifying event in Mallorca.
Meanwhile, another Punahou alum, Kevin Wong, and partner Eric Fonoimoana were eliminated by sixth-seeded Andrew Schacht and Joshua Slack of Australia.
Dain Blanton and Jeff Nygaard had already secured the top spot with 2,296 points for their best eight finishes on the SWATCH-FIVB World Tour since January 2003.
METZGER
