University of Hawaii women’s swimmer Franziska Weidner and baseball player Johnny Weeks were the recipients of the annual Jack Bonham Awards at Monday’s “H Awards,” a night recognizing UH’s 21 athletic teams during the 2017-18 academic year.
This year’s edition of the H Awards was the seventh annual installment of the event, but the Bonham Award has been awarded each year since 1974, given to the male and female senior student-athlete who “best exemplifies the ideals for which Jack Bonham stood for in the areas of athletic excellence, academic achievement, public service, leadership and character.”
Weidner, a native of Nurenberg, Germany, has led the Rainbow Wahine to two NCAA Championships appearances and earned All-America honors in 2018. She is also a three-time Mountain Pacific Sports Federation swimmer of the year. Weidner also has a 3.94 grade-point average and a double major in psychology and health and exercise science.
Weeks, who joined the Rainbow Warriors as a walk-on, has been a four-year starter. This year, he’s hitting .293 and he recently broke a school record with 43 sacrifice bunts. His 19 this year lead the nation. Weeks, an economics major with a business minor, has a 3.48 GPA.
Gonzalez earns Big West’s top honor
Hawaii junior Irene Gonzalez was named the Big West water polo player of the year and six Rainbow Wahine teammates received recognition from the league on Tuesday.
Gonzalez, who led the Wahine with 53 goals and 36 assists, was joined on the All-Big West first team by senior Chloe Barr (47 goals, 30 assists). Gonzalez is the second UH player to be named the conference’s player of the year. Barr won the honor in 2015.
Freshman Elyse Lemay-Lavoie and senior Claire Nixon made the second team. Junior Femke Aan and sophomore Maartje Keuning were honorable mention picks. Carmen Baringo was named to the all-freshman team.
UC Irvine’s Dan Klatt was named the BWC coach of the year. The Anteaters went 3-2 in the Big West regular season and pulled out an 8-7 triple-overtime win over UH in the conference tournament final on Sunday.
UH, ranked fifth in the nation for most of the season, did not receive one of the three at-large berths into the NCAA tournament on Monday and ended its season at 21-5.
Wahine draw Michigan in NCAA tourney
The University of Hawaii women’s tennis team will face Michigan in the first round of the NCAA tournament on May 11 in Stanford, Calif.
The Rainbow Wahine earned a berth into the 64-team field by winning the Big West tournament title on Sunday and learned of their next stop when the bracket was announced on Tuesday.
UH (13-6) will make its first appearance in the tournament since 2012, when the Wahine won the Western Athletic Conference championship. No. 23 Michigan (17-9) won the Big Ten tournament title. No. 13 seed and Pac-12 champion Stanford (18-3) will host St. John’s (17-5) in the other match at the Taube Family Tennis Center.
