Island athletes
in the spotlightKi'i Spencer-Vasconcellos,
Tina Gonsalves and Keoni Ruth
continue to succeed in their
respective sports in college
SENIOR point guard Ki'i Spencer-Vasconcellos (Punahou '97) from Menlo College was named a third-team NAIA All-American on Wednesday, the first women's basketball player from the 500-student college near San Francisco to receive All-American recognition.
Spencer-Vasconcellos, the 1997 Hawaii high school Player of the Year, played two years at Hawaii but gave up the sport -- and college -- because of painful leg injuries. She returned to the game last year, playing with rods in both tibia.
"My left leg is still swollen when I play and I still play in pain, but I'm having fun again playing basketball," Spencer-Vasconcellos said.
"There is a huge difference (in skills) between Division I and this, but when you have players who love basketball and are passionate about the sport, the games are always competitive," she said.
Spencer-Vasconcellos averaged 16.3 points per game -- a season record at Menlo -- and scored in double-digits in 21 of 25 games.
She led the California-Pacific Conference in scoring and was in the top five in 3-point goals and assists. Coaches chose her Cal-Pac Player of the Year.
COURTESY OF MENLO COLLEGE
Punahou alumna Ki'i Spencer-Vasconcellos became Menlo College's first NAIA third-team All-American.
SOFTBALL
St. Andrew's Presbyterian (North Carolina) senior Tina Gonsalves (Sacred Hearts '00 of Kailua) was named Carolinas-Virginia Conference Pitcher of the Week for the second time this month.In 19 innings pitched last week, Gonsalves allowed one (unearned) run, five hits, walked no one and struck out 25. She nearly pitched a perfect game against Bluefield State (Va.).
She retired the first 19 Bluefield batters on March 15 before a two-strike bunt single in the seventh inning -- the only baserunner against her in a 7-0 victory.
The key to Gonsalves' success, says St. Andrew's coach Steve Hernandez, "is her presence when she steps on the mound.
"She oozes confidence and energy and gives off winning vibes, and the other girls rally around her."
Gonsalves' statistics are impressive (1.37 earned run average, 90 strikeouts in 97 innings), but Hernandez says her greatest contributions "are the intangibles, things that don't go in box scores.
"Her positive personality is her biggest attribute."
Gonsalves made a good start toward a third Pitcher of the Week award on Thursday when she shut out conference leader Coker (S.C.) 3-0. Coker is the No. 3-ranked NCAA Division II team in the South Atlantic Region.
Gonsalves plays first base or DH when she is not pitching and also is St. Andrew's leading batter (.387 average and the team leader in hits, runs, RBIs and slugging percentage).
No. 2 behind Gonsalves in most offensive statistics for St. Andrew's is junior shortstop Mari Finn (Lahainaluna '01). Finn is batting .343. "She's killing the ball," Hernandez said.
A third player from Hawaii, Kim Makahilahila (Kamehameha '00) of Kailua, is starting at second base for the fourth year. "She's slumping in softball right now, but she is academically awesome," Hernandez said.
Kim's older sister, Stacy Makahilahila (Kamehameha '98 of Kailua) graduated from St. Andrew's in 2002 after two all-star seasons. She previously played for Hawaii.
COURTESY OF ST. ANDREW'S PRESBYTERIAN
Sacred Hearts alumna Tina Gonsalves has been named conference pitcher of the week twice this month.
BASEBALL
The leading early-season candidate for Immediate Impact Freshman is Keoni Ruth (Kamehameha '03 Aiea), who was last season's state high school Player of the Year.In five games for the University of San Diego through last Sunday, Ruth hit .476 (10-for-21), including two doubles and two home runs, to raise his season batting average to .340 (34-for-100).
He leads the team in stolen bases with six in six attempts and is third in RBIs for the Toreros with 18.
Ruth moved from his high school position of shortstop to second base, starting 26 of San Diego's 27 games and fielding .975, with three errors in 120 chances.
"Keoni is one heck of a ballplayer for a freshman and we are thrilled to have him," San Diego spokesman Nick Mirkovich said.
Ruth was picked by the Kansas City Royals in the 17th round of the major league draft last June but opted to accept the scholarship from San Diego rather than sign.
Junior Gavin Ng (Mililani '00) has played in 22 games for San Diego, mostly as a defensive replacement in the outfield. He is batting .217.
COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGO
Kamehameha's Keoni Ruth was hitting .476 through five games this season for the University of San Diego.
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Freshman Anthony Holyfield of Ewa Beach traveled beyond the West Coast for the first time in his life to play college basketball.Coach Randy Lee of University of Maine at Machias -- 5,218 miles northeast of Honolulu -- is delighted that Holyfield accepted the scholarship, which was arranged by Doris Sullivan, then of the Hawaii Sports Network.
"We're excited to have him," Lee said. "He brings energy and defensive tenacity to the table" for a team that improved from 11 wins the previous season to 23-10 and made it to the NAIA Division II nationals, Lee said.
Holyfield, listed at 6-feet-2, made the transition from high school power forward to guard and small forward and provided spark off the bench, Lee said.
Holyfield, who grew up in Pauoa, was an OIA East All-Star in football and basketball for Roosevelt High in 2002-03. He was born in San Francisco but moved to Hawaii at age 5 and had not been back to the mainland until last summer, when he went to Washington and Oregon with an all-star basketball team.
The only similarity between Honolulu and Machias is that both are near an ocean. "It's real cold at the beaches," Holyfield said. "In fact, they aren't beaches, they're just rocks."
"It's supposed to be spring," Holyfield said Wednesday, "but it feels like winter -- it's still snowing."
TRACK AND FIELD
Lauran Dignam, whose five gold medals led Iolani to the 2002 state girls championship, is closing in on the Washington Huskies' all-time lists.Dignam's career-best 12.09 seconds (wind-aided) in the 100-meter dash last weekend at San Luis Obispo, Calif., is 9/100ths of a second over Washington's top 10. She also did a 55.5 anchor-leg for Washington's first-place 4x400 relay team.
The week before Dignam improved her career best in the 200 by more than half a second with a time of 24.70 in an outdoor meet.
That was even better than her quarter-second indoor 200 improvement to 25.13 in the Mountain-Pacific Championships, good for third place, and her career-best indoor 60 of 7.84 the week before that.
Oregon's Eri Macdonald (Punahou '99 of Lanikai) qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships with a career-best indoor 800-meter time of 2 minutes, 6.75 seconds, but finished last in her trial heat at the nationals in Fayetteville, Ark., in the final race of her collegiate career.
Macdonald's career-best outdoor 800 was 2:06.37. She finished her outdoor eligibility last year.
Sister Pippa Macdonald (Punahou '03), a freshman at California, took seventh place -- third among freshmen -- in the "B" division of the 800 Friday at the Stanford Invitational. Her time of 2:14.21 was a nearly seven-second improvement over her first outdoor collegiate 800 the previous week.
Pippa's best indoor 800 in her first season was 2:14.56.
