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Sun ties for fourth at
NCAA championships

A tie for fourth place in the 100-yard backstroke by Hongzhe Sun was the best finish by Hawaii entrants in the first two days of the NCAA Division I swimming championships in Minneapolis.

Sun, a Stanford sophomore, is a 2003 graduate of Iolani School from Ewa Beach.

UH swimmers miss out on finals Hawaii swimmers Chad Thomsen and Thomas Winkler just missed out on making their respective finals on the second day of the NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championship at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Thomsen finished in 22nd place in the 100-yard breaststroke in 54.67 seconds, failing to advance by 26/100th of a second. Winkler placed 18th in the 100 backstroke in 48.15, missing a spot in the finals by 18/100th of a second.

He was third in the afternoon preliminaries in personal-record time of 46.44 seconds and rallied from sixth place in the evening final to tie Stanford teammate Jayme Cramer for fourth in 46.55

Northwestern's Matt Grevers, also a sophomore, won in 45.62.

Sun also had a strong effort in the 200 medley relay preliminary. He swam the third fastest 50-yard backstroke leg -- 21.62 seconds -- of the 19 teams entered.

But Stanford held Sun out of the final to keep him rested for the 100 backstroke final.

With Sun, Stanford was first in the prelims; without him, the Cardinal finished second to California in the final.

The next best Hawaii finish yesterday was ninth place in the 100 breaststroke in 53.79 seconds by Cal senior Caleb Rowe of Maui (Baldwin '01). He will be accorded honorable mention All-America for that.

Rowe did not swim on Cal's winning 200 medley relay team.

Florida junior Nick Borreca (Punahou '02) finished 40th of 42 entrants in the 100 butterfly in 48.88 seconds, 0.7 seconds off his best time this season.

Kometani gets complete-game 'W'

Pepperdine senior right-hander Kea Kometani (Punahou '01 of Kahala) pitched a complete-game, 5-2 West Coast Conference victory over Portland yesterday in Malibu, Calif.

Kometani (5-2) has won his last four starts and completed two of them.

Pepperdine broke a 2-2 tie with three runs in the bottom of the sixth and Kometani took charge, retiring Portland's last nine batters.

He allowed nine hits, walked one and struck out six.

Eldredge's 3-run homer boosts Cal

All-America center fielder Kaleo Eldredge (Baldwin '01) hit a three-run home run -- her second in two games -- to help third-ranked California defeat Coastal Carolina 8-1 yesterday in the Carolina Classic in Chapel Hill, N.C.

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