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Pflueger wins Baja 500

Honolulu's Alan Pflueger, a relative newcomer to desert racing, bested 20 other challengers last weekend to become the overall four-wheel vehicle champion at the 36th annual Tecate SCORE Baja 500 in Ensenada, Mexico.

Racing for just the fourth time in the featured SCORE Trophy-Truck division, the 37-year-old Pflueger drove solo in his Racing Chevy Silverado, finishing in 9 hours, 4 minutes and 5 seconds. He averaged 47.25 mph over the grueling 428.52-mile course in the rugged terrain of the northern part of Mexico's Baja California peninsula.

Mark Post was second in 9:16:03.

Pflueger won last year's SCORE Pro Truck season point championship in just his second season of SCORE racing.

"This is an absolutely surreal experience for me, and words can't express everything I'm feeling," Pflueger said. "We weren't that fast today. It was just a thinking race and we ran smart. Winning this race is humbling. It was very challenging, but it happened to be my day today."

Scott's team advances in Puerto Rico

Former Hawaii player Sean Scott and partner Todd Rogers won two matches to advance in the $180,000 Carolina Open SWATCH-FIVB beach volleyball tournament in Carolina, Puerto Rico.

Seeded third in the 32-team double-elimination main draw, Rogers and Scott defeated teams from Mexico and the Netherlands to advance to today's match against 11th-seeded Andrew Schacht and Joshua Slack of Australia.

Former Punahou standout Stein Metzger and partner Dax Holdren went 2-1 yesterday to advance, beating teams from Japan and Mexico but losing to the Canadian team of John Child and Mark Heese.

The teams of Rogers/Scott (1,624 points) and Holdren/Metzger (1,512 points) are competing for the second American berth in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.

Simms eliminated at NCAA track championships

Michigan senior Vera Simms, a 2000 graduate of Mililani High, finished last in her preliminary heat of the 400-meter hurdles yesterday and did not advance in the NCAA Division I track and field championships at Austin, Texas.

Simms' time was 59.38 seconds, which ranked 22nd out of 28 starters.

Simms, recovering from mononucleosis, was a two-time Big Ten Conference champion and Michigan school record-holder in the event with a time of 58.19. She was stricken with mononucleosis last month and is still recovering.

Simms was the only athlete from Hawaii who qualified for the NCAA championships. She holds HHSAA state meet records in both the 100- and 300-meter hurdles.

Boxers to Junior Olympics

Ten Hawaii boxers will compete in the U.S. Junior Olympic National Championships, Thursday through June 27, at Brownsville, Texas.

Competing will be Wailuku's Keola Mckee (95 pounds) and Joel Bissen (154); Waimanalo's Jefferson Bolibol (101) and Bruno Escalante Jr. (106); and Kihei's Thomas Ordonez (110). Also, Honolulu's Cedric Benigno (114) and Vincent Delgado-Wells (138); Kapolei's Corey Dennison (125); Chazz Moleta (119) of Kahului; and Aaron Manuel Jr. (132) of Waipahu.

The team manager and coach is Bruce Kawano. Other coaches are Jeff Mckee and Robert Benigno.

The finalist from each division and two at-large competitors will advance to a box-off at the Elite Training Camp from June 28 to July 3. The box-off winners advance to the Pan-American Junior Olympics in September.

Ordonez has already been selected for an at-large spot. Kawano will attend the elite camp as a coach.

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in the [ Scoreboard ] section.