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HAWAII GROWN REPORT


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OLIVIA WADE / BARTON SPORTS INFORMATION
Her passing ability from the post is one of Farrington product Sunshine Misa-Uli's best assets, said her coach at Barton County Community College.


A ray of ‘Sunshine’
in Kansas

Sunshine is her name and her disposition ... until she gets underneath the basket.

Laosamoa means "sunshine" in Samoan and it fits freshman Laosamoa "Sunshine" Misa-Uli, according to Mike Marzolf, sports information director at Barton County Community College in Great Bend, Kan.

"Sunshine is definitely a good name for her," Marzolf says. "She brightens up any place she goes."

"When she goes onto the court during games ... in the training room ... any place she goes, she is wearing a smile."

Until the whistle blows.

Misa-Uli, a 2004 Farrington High graduate, has already earned a reputation as one of the toughest players in what her coach calls "the toughest JC league in the country for women's basketball, bar none."

"She's just a bull inside," says coach Lane Lord. "Sunshine will have the chance after her sophomore year to go Division I."

In two of Barton County's last three games (before last night), Misa-Uli was team-high scorer with 20 and 19 points. In one of those, she also led in rebounds with eight.

"She has been the key to our team down the stretch," Lord says. "She is so physically dominant.

"They've got 6-foot-5, 6-6 Brazilian kids in this league, and they can't stop her 1-on-1," Lord says. Misa-Uli is listed as 6-feet, but says she is really 5-11.

Misa-Uli's season statistics are modest -- 8.4 points and 5.8 rebounds per game. "That's because she only plays about 17 minutes a game because she gets into foul trouble, Lord says.

"She plays in-your-face, man-to-man defense," he says.

Barton County has a 19-9 record and is tied for third place in the Kansas Jayhawk Conference's Western Division.

Misa-Uli has made 52.4 percent of her field-goal attempts (87 of 166). Her numbers are a little better since she took a break to come home at Christmas.

"Ten to 15 Division I schools are looking at her," Lord says. New Mexico State, UTEP and Fresno State have shown the most interest.

At Farrington, Misa-Uli was first-team all-state in volleyball, the state's 175-pound wrestling champion, and first-team Eastern Division OIA in basketball in her senior year.

She chose two-year Barton County over four-year Missouri Valley College because she would not have to wrestle at Barton. "I had enough of that -- it's too hard," she said.

Last fall, she was selected first team Kansas Jayhawk Conference and first-team NJCAA Region V in volleyball.

"I was the only American on the conference and regional first teams," she said. "Everybody else was from Brazil or Poland or Yugoslavia."

Misa-Uli says she has had no difficulty adjusting to Kansas, except that, "It's just cold here! And I miss the island food -- there is no L&L."

She also noted there are no Pacific Islanders at Barton. She travels 65 miles to talk story with Karla Tailele, who was a rival at Kahuku in high school and is now a rival at Hutchinson, Kansas, in community college basketball.

"It's hard without my family at all my games -- they are my motivation," Misa-Uli says. She has four siblings at home in Kalihi, two in the military (including one in Afghanistan) and one in Samoa. Her parents are security guards.

"I'm getting by, learning to manage my time," she said.

Although she has dropped wrestling, Misa-Uli will still be a three-sport, three-season athlete.

"I'm going to throw the shot or discus this spring," she said.


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Hawaii swimmers
rank high

Three former Hawaii high school stars are in the top 10 of the national college swimming rankings announced yesterday.

» Stanford sophomore Hongzhe Sun (Iolani '03 of Ewa Beach) is No. 6 in the men's 200-yard backstroke at 1 minute, 43.44 seconds and No. 10 in the 100 backstroke at 47.43 seconds.

He has qualified for the NCAA Division I men's championships March 24-26 at Minneapolis in both events.

» UC Irvine freshman Chelsea Nagata (Maui '04) is No. 9 in the women's 100-yard butterfly at 53.54 seconds, which qualifies for the NCAA Division I women's championships March 17-19 at West Lafayette, Indiana.

» UC Berkeley senior Caleb Rowe (Baldwin '01) is No. 9 in the men's 200-yard breaststroke at 1:57.54.

Rowe, who placed in the nationals last year, is not guaranteed an NCAA berth. He is a conditional qualifier, meaning that if the available slots are not filled with automatic qualifiers, he gets in. It's likely that he will.

Florida junior Nick Borreca (Punahou '01 of Manoa) made Taper & Shave's Quick 50 list four times with conditional-qualifier times in the 50 freestyle, 100 and 200 butterfly and automatically as the lead-off man on Florida's fifth-ranked 200-yard freestyle relay team.


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SPECIAL TO THE STAR-BULLETIN
Former Maui swimmer Chelsea Nagata is No. 9 in the nation in the 100-yard butterfly.


Sun also is 15th in the 200 butterfly and 25th in the 200 individual medley, both conditional times, and University of San Diego's Ashley Swart is 50th in the women's 200 individual medley, also a conditional time but not likely to get her an invitation.

Nagata set her eighth Irvine school record at last weekend's Big West Conference championships in Long Beach with her leadoff leg of 51.36 seconds in the 400 freestyle relay.

She has set four individual school records and has been a member of four relay teams that set records in her freshman season.

UC Irvine freshman Randall Tom (Seabury Hall '04) was part of a 200-yard medley relay team that set school and Big West championship meet records in the same meet with a time of 1:29.36.

Swart took second in the 400 individual medley, third in the 200 medley and fifth in the 200 breaststroke at the Western Athletic Conference championships.

Swart missed a month early in the season with bronchitis.

Northern Arizona's Cassie Lyons (Waiakea) placed in the 100 and 200 breaststroke at the WAC meet.

At the Liberal Arts Invitational at Coe College, Iowa, freshman John Lau (Iolani '04) won the 200 butterfly and he, Chris Ricketts (Mid-Pacific '04) and Erin Nakamoto (Kalani '04) -- all students at NAIA Lindenwood University in Missouri -- each scored three medals.

Other achievements by swimmers from Hawaii at mainland colleges will be reported this weekend in the HAWAII GROWN reports at www.hhsaa.org and www.sportshigh.com


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Lee is conference
frosh of year

Kepua Lee (Moanalua '04) has been named women's basketball Freshman of the Year in the NAIA California-Pacific Conference.

A few hours after the announcement last Thursday, Lee scored 21 points for Menlo (California) against Bethany in the first round of the CalPac tournament.

Further validating her award, Lee scored 12 points, controlled a team-high seven rebounds, made six of eight free throws and had a game-high five steals in a 55-49 upset of 12th-ranked (NAIA-II) Holy Names.

Junior guard Shannon Riley (Maryknoll '02 of Makiki) also scored 12 for Menlo in that game.

Menlo's roll stopped there, but after having 1998 Hawaii Player of the Year Ki'i Spencer-Vasconcellos (Punahou) in 2003 and 2004, plus Riley and then Lee, Menlo coach Caitlin Collier wants to continue to mine Hawaii for talent.

"We need a great shooter, and another all-around athlete and scorer like Kepua," she said.

Lee averaged 12.8 points and 5.0 rebounds per game for the season.


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DONALD JEDLOVEC / JEDLOVEC@PACBELL.NET
Kepua Lee torched Bethany for 21 points last week.


FULLERTON (California) CC

Sophomore Becky Hogue (Punahou '03 of Kailua) was chosen first-team All-Orange Empire Conference.

Hogue finished in the top 15 in five statistical categories in the conference: second in blocked shots and free-throw percentage, fifth in field-goal percentage, 10th in rebounding and 14th in scoring.

Fullerton was runner-up at 13-3, earning a berth in the Southern California regional.

Hogue is headed for the Ivy League's Columbia in New York City next season.

PACIFIC (California)

Junior post Tina Sanerivi (Farrington '01) got her first career double-double in the Tigers' 71-52 loss to Cal Poly on Feb. 19 with a team-high 14 points and a career-high 11 rebounds. It was the 14th time this season that Sanerivi has reached double figures in points.



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