Wahine blank Mountaineers

Hawaii shut out Mount St. Mary's, 2-0, in the opening game of the Bank of Hawaii Invitational Tournament at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium last night.

Courtney Baughman fired a one-hit shutout with a season-high seven strikeouts, facing just 22 Mountaineer batters and retiring the last 18 in a row.

The Wahine, who improved to 4-11, scored both of their runs in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Claire Warwick doubled to the left-center field gap to drive in Tanisha Milca and Audrey Andrade's opposite-field single to right drove in Warwick for the insurance run.

In the first game of the day, Tokyo Women's College of Physical Education defeated Western Carolina, 8-1.

Wahine sweep WAC high jump

Led by Amber Kaufman's winning effort, Hawaii swept the top three high jump places for the second consecutive year at the Western Athletic Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships in Nampa, Idaho.

The 27 points from the high jump helped lift the Rainbow Wahine into second place with 49.5 points. Idaho leads with 59.5 points.

Kaufman, who won the WAC outdoor title last spring, took the gold yesterday with a jump of 5 feet, 9.25 inches. UH freshman Sarah Saddleton also cleared that height but earned the silver on the tiebreaker (fewer misses).

Wahine senior Emily Sheppard, the defending indoor champion, placed third at 5-8.

Senior Annett Wichman followed up her pentathlon victory from Thursday with a sixth-place finish in the high jump and seventh in the long jump. The Wahine also picked up points with a fifth in the distance medley and Jessica Custance's tie for seventh in the pole vault.

The meet concludes today. Last year, Hawaii placed second to Louisiana Tech by a point.

Ibera, Swanson up for Pan Am team

Honolulu's Taylor Ibera and Melinda Swanson are among the 17 judokas nominated to represent Team USA at the Pan American Judo Championships next month in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Both women represent Hawaii Tenri and are ranked No. 1 in their respective weight classes. This is the first qualifying tournament for the 2012 Olympics.

Ibera is the defending Pan Am champion at 44kg. Swanson, who competed at last year's Pan Ams but didn't place, is top-ranked at both plus-78kg and women's open.

2 golds for UH men's swim team

Seniors Greg Wilson and Nicola Xella turned in gold-medal performances yesterday as Hawaii remained in second place at the Conference USA men's swimming and diving championships in Houston.

Wilson finished in 47.85 seconds in the 100-yard butterfly, just shy of setting the meet record. Xella won the 100 breaststroke in 54.86.

SMU leads the meet with 619 points followed by Hawaii's 506.5.

UH also had two silvers and a bronze. Douglas Cohen placed second in the 3-meter diving (345.50) with teammate Thomas Rugg third (289.05). The 200 freestyle relay team of Davis Kane, Horativ Anastasescu, Mark Higley and Sean Reilly finished second.

Wahine earn 2 golds at WAC swims

Elliko Heimbach won her second event and Emma Friesen her fourth title in as many years as the Western Athletic Conference women's swimming and diving championships continued in San Antonio.

Heimbach, the 50 freestyle winner Thursday, doubled up with a win in the 100 butterfly (53.29 seconds). Defending 200 freestyle champion Emma Berry placed third in the event yesterday.

Friesen, the 1-meter diving winner the past three years, earned her first in the 3-meter competition (361.20 points). Hawaii had three of the top eight divers with Raquel Bartlow finishing fourth and Daniella Nero fifth.

Nevada leads going into today's final competition with 442 points. Northern Arizona is second at 426, followed by New Mexico State (361), San Jose State (341) and Hawaii (340).

Eddie Aikau holding period ends

The 3-month holding period for the Quicksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau big-wave contest ends today.

Since the contest's inception in the winter of 1984-1985, the contest has been held only seven times due to the event's wave requirement of minimum 20-foot surf (40-foot faces based on the Hawaii-style scale).

Held in honor of the late waterman Eddie Aikau, the event is the longest-standing big-wave surf contest in the world and only such event sanctioned by the Association of Surfing Professionals.

The contest's invitee list is limited to 28 of the world's most skilled big-wave surfers.

Seasiders outscore Silverswords

Lucas Alves scored 28 points and Nathan Sims and Marques Whippy each added 17 to lead Brigham Young-Hawaii over Chaminade, 109-104, in a PacWest men's basketball last night in Laie.

The Seasiders improved to 22-1 and 11-0 in conference play.

Chaminade, led by Jamar Berry's 21 points, fell to 14-10 (7-4 PacWest).

» In the early game, Latoya Wily had another dominating performance, scoring 24 points with 11 rebounds, leading Brigham Young-Hawaii over Chaminade 96-58.

The Seasiders (13-11, 6-5 PWC) had four others in double figures: Madison Kite (12), Dara Tompkison (11), Amanda Watts (11) and Richelle Fenenbock (10).

Samantha Saito had 16 points and Jasmine Dulan 13 for the Silverswords (0-24, 0-11).

Sea Warriors and Vulcans split

Aaron Asher's RBI-double highlight a three-run third and Hawaii Pacific held on for a 5-2 win over Hawaii-Hilo in the first game of a baseball doubleheader yesterday at Wong Stadium.

Chad Wagner (3-0) scattered six hits, walking none and striking out two, in the complete-game victory.

Hawaii-Hilo improved to 5-4 for the season (1-1 PacWest) and dealt Hawaii Pacific (9-1, 1-1) its first loss.

Seasiders blank Vulcans

Top-ranked Brigham Young-Hawaii team swept Hawaii-Hilo in Pac-West women's tennis, 8-0, at the UH-Hilo tennis courts yesterday.