COURTESY UC IRVINE Randall Tom of Wailuku went from breaking records for Seabury Hall to putting his name in the record books at UC Irvine, but wants to become fast enough to qualify for the NCAA Championships.

Irvine’s Tom
breaks records

UC Irvine's Randall Tom of Wailuku yesterday was named Big West Conference Swimmer of the Week for the second time in his freshman season.

Tom, a four-event All-American and Hawaii high school champion for Seabury Hall in 2004, was cited for breaking a 15-year-old Irvine school record in the 100-yard butterfly in his lifetime best time of 48.87 seconds.

He also set an Irvine pool record with a personal best of 1 minute, 48.97 seconds in the 200 butterfly and helped break a 13-year-old Irvine pool record in the 200 medley relay with a 22.02 butterfly leg in a meet against UC San Diego.

Tom's early success, as well as the training demands of Division I college swimming, "definitely has taken me by surprise," he told Hawaii Grown yesterday. "I'm pretty happy with the way I'm performing."

"Conditioning is a lot harder," than in high school, he said. "The yardage we swim is almost double."

In high school, Tom says, there was one workout per day, no weight training and he swam 3,000 to 4,000 yards a week.

At Irvine, "we are doing around 5,000 to 7,000 yards a week, with morning and afternoon workouts, plus weight training."

He wants to qualify for the NCAA championships, but says "I will have to go a little bit faster -- the low 48s or 47s in the 100 fly and 1:45 or 1:46 in the 200."

Tom might try to make it in the 200 individual medley, too. He made All-America last year with a 1:54.81 and says he will need to go 1:48 or 1:49 to get to postseason this year.

"It's kind of hard right now with the increased yardage and the intensity" of training, he says. "We are pushing through all our dual meets, not tapering."

Tom has had to overcome injuries as well.

"I tore my quad (muscle) at the Speedo Cup in November and developed tendinitis in my shoulders," he said.

"The treatment is to take ibuprofen and endure the pain. I go to the Training Room for an hour or two after practice and they do weird things to me."

Tom's 100 butterfly time would have ranked 30th on the most recent (Jan. 19) Taper & Shave national top 50 list and his 200 would have been 38th.

Chelsea Nagata, an All-American at Maui High last year, is swimming the 100 butterfly and 50 freestyle for Irvine's women's team. In the Jan. 19 Taper & Shave report, Nagata ranked 43rd in the 100 butterfly in 55.69 seconds.

Tom previously won the Big West Swimmer of the Week award Nov. 10.

Sanerivi comes from
out of nowhere

Sanerivi, a 6-foot-5 post player for University of the Pacific in California, scored 20 points Saturday against seven-time defending conference champion UC Santa Barbara.

Pacific lost the game, but Sanerivi won a fan -- Big West 2004 Defensive Player of the Year Brandy Richardson.

Richardson graduated from Kalaheo as the most-honored high school girls basketball player in Hawaii history (three-time state Player of the Year) in 2001, the same year Sanerivi graduated from Farrington in anonymity.

"I really didn't remember her from high school," Richardson admitted yesterday, "but she is a good player, a tough girl and so aggressive."

Sanerivi polished her game for two years at Umpqua Community College in Southern Oregon before she redshirted last season at Pacific and carefully studied the moves of the Tigers' six seniors.

"She is getting pretty refined offensively," says Pacific coach Craig Jackson. "She has a nice little touch on her face-up jumper and she is difficult to stop when she executes her drop step."

COURTESY GEORGE STECKLER Tina Sanerivi leads her team in scoring with 14.8 ppg.

Scoring mostly around the basket on plays off the low post or sneaking free when UCSB's help-side defense didn't show up in time, Sanerivi made eight of 10 field-goal attempts on Saturday. "I had open looks at the bottom," she said.

Sanerivi said she had been looking forward to playing against Richardson, but they did not match up against each other. Richardson plays power forward.

"She was Pacific's go-to player," Richardson told Hawaii Grown yesterday. "She demanded the ball and did everything out there. The team went as she went."

That is a lot different from high school, when Farrington coach Jenic Tumaneng could not convince Sanerivi to play on the varsity until her junior year. "She wanted to stay on the JVs," he said. "Her confidence wasn't there."

Now, Sanerivi is Pacific's leading scorer in Big West games with 14.8 points per game, and also leads the Tigers in field-goal percentage, and minutes played. She is the second-leading rebounder with 6.5 per game.

Sanerivi scored a career-high 23 points in a 61-55 victory over Cal State Fullerton on Dec. 30 and she has had five other double-digit scoring games.

Jackson said that Saturday was her best game, and before that, it was a 10-point, seven-rebound effort against then-No. 9 Duke last month. Pacific, 4-11 with a "super young team," is learning by playing -- and losing -- to teams like then-No. 7 Stanford, Colorado, Illinois, Duke and UCSB.

"It's good to see another player out there making a name for herself in California," Richardson said, "and she is definitely making a name for herself in the Big West."