Hawaii’s Smith becomes
NCAA All-American

Hawaii's Cheryl Smith finished 15th in the 2001 NCAA Division I Women's Cross Country Championships yesterday.

The senior finished in a time of 21 minutes, six seconds over the six-kilometer course.

The time earned Smith a spot on the women's cross country All-American team.

"She ran bravely from the start," said UH associate coach Andy McInnis. "It was her fastest effort yet up to the 4K mark.

Smith is the first Wahine to qualify for the NCAA Championships since the UH program went under the NCAA umbrella in 1982.

"I was really nervous before the race," Smith said. "But once I got started, the eight girls in the pack I was in really pulled me with them.

"I started off really fast with a 5:15 first mile," she added, "and kept pace until the 4K mark.

"I am very excited and happy with my effort ."

Iolani swimmers to compete in U.S. Open

Iolani will send Kim Ono, Hong Zhe Sun and Mark Eckert to the FINA World Cup and U.S. Open swimming meet Nov. 27 to Dec. 1 at the Nassau County Aquatics Center in East Meadow, N.Y.

Eckert, a sophomore, is No. 1 in the nation among 13-14 year-olds in the 100 backstroke, 200 backstroke and 200 individual medley. Sun is the top-ranked swimmer in the 100 backstroke for 15-16 year-olds.

Kaiser senior Ashley Schwartz also qualified.

Ono, Sun and Iolani senior Kimo Yamashiro were recently named to the U.S. Swimming Academic All-American team.

Notre Dame headlines HPU basketball classic

Hawaii Pacific will host its fourth Thanksgiving Classic on Nov. 23-25 at the Neal Blaisdell Center.

Notre Dame heads the eight-team field, playing HPU in the final game on the first day.

Vanderbilt vs. Hampton precedes that game at noon, with Monmouth vs. Akron at 2 p.m and Tennessee-Chattanooga vs. Liberty at 4:30.

Notre Dame, Hampton and Monmouth all appeared in the NCAA tournament last year.

It will be Hawaii's first opportunity to see Notre Dame freshman guard Chris Thomas, who was Indiana's Mr. Basketball last year and racked up the Irish's first ever triple-double in his first collegiate game last Friday against New Hampshire.

Monmouth guard Rashan Johnson will also be on display. He averaged 19.2 points per game last year while being named the Northeast Conference's player of the year.

Wahine move up in USA Today/AVCA poll

Hawaii passed Colorado State and Ohio State into ninth place in the latest USA Today/AVCA volleyball poll. They moved up two spots from their No. 11 ranking last week.

The Wahine are 26-4 this season, ranked just behind 21-3 Pepperdine. Long Beach State took 64 of the 65 first-place votes to remain in the top spot. Defending champion Nebraska got the other first-place vote and is in second.

The undefeated 49ers are also on top of the Volleyball Magazine poll, where Hawaii remained in ninth.