Takahara-Dias completes staff

Hawaii women's basketball coach Dana Takahara-Dias announced Patrick Knapp as her third and final assistant coach yesterday.

Knapp spent the last five years as the head coach at Penn in the Ivy League and has 26 years of head coaching experience, with 341 career victories.

Takahara-Dias said Knapp will bring an increased recruiting base from the East Coast. Prior to Penn, he spent 18 years as coach at Georgetown.

The Penn Quakers went 9-19 in his final year.

Da Houl and Serenda Valdez are Takahara-Dias' other two assistants.

Barca advances to third round

Hawaii surfer Dustin Barca won his three-man, first-round heat yesterday to advance all the way to the third round of the Quiksilver Pro France surf contest.

Three other Hawaii surfers failed to win their heats yesterday, but advanced to the second round of the Association of Surfing Professionals World Tour event—Roy Powers, Kekoa Bacalso and Fred Patacchia.

UH to check bags, backpacks

The University of Hawaii will conduct bag checks at all events held at the Stan Sheriff Center, starting with Thursday's Rainbow Wahine volleyball match against Boise State.

SSC personnel will search all large bags and backpacks. Purses and small bags will not be searched.

The searches are being done in light of news reports encouraging raised security awareness at stadiums, according to a UH release.

Zippy's to help SOS campaign

Zippy's Restaurants and its patrons will help the Hawaii High School Athletic Association's Save Our Sports campaign.

From now until Nov. 30, Zippy's customers can make a donation of any amount and Zippy's will match all donations up to $10,000. Proceeds will go to SOS, which was set up to counter losses to sports programs due to budget cuts.

Chun ninth in world wrestling

Hawaii's Clarissa Chun placed ninth at the World Wrestling Championships at Herning, Denmark, yesterday.

Chun, a 2008 world champ and a fifth-place finisher at the Beijing Olympics, was eliminated from medal contention after dropping a three-period decision to Sim Hyang So of North Korea at 105 1/2 pounds.

Chun wrestled with an injured shoulder.

“;I thought I was ready to go, regardless of what injury I had,”; Chun said. “;I kept fighting. I didn't want to lose.”;

BYUH men, women at No. 10

The Brigham-Young Hawaii men's and women's cross country teams are both ranked 10th in this week's U.S. Coaches Association West Regional rankings.

The women's team dropped three spots, while the men's squad broke into the rankings for the first time this season.