UH’s Keenan qualifies for NCAA track

University of Hawaii senior TeRina Keenan qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships on Friday, placing eighth in the discus in the West Preliminary Round at Mike A. Myers Stadium on the campus of the University of Texas.

Keenan is New Zealand’s top-ranked discus thrower. With a throw of 176 feet, 6 inches, she was among the top 12 finishers who will advance to the national championships in Des Moines, Iowa, in two weeks. Arizona State’s Anna Jelmini took top honors with a throw of 188-7.

Keenan is a three-time Western Athletic Conference discus champion. This will be her first NCAA Championship. She is the school’s third discus thrower to compete at nationals, following Novelle Murray, who took ninth in 2007, and Joan Gago, who placed 19th in 1983.

A Rainbow Wahine has now qualified for outdoor nationals six times in the past seven years.

Also Friday, UH high jumper Samantha Balentine tied for 23rd by clearing 5-71⁄4.

The meet concludes today with UH triple jumpers Madara Apine and Amanda Alvarez and hammer thrower Emma MacCorquodale in action.

UH coaches to speak at Kaiser

University of Hawaii head coaches Norm Chow, Mike Trapasso and Laura Beeman and athletic director Jim Donovan will speak and sign autographs at a Hawaii Kai town meeting Wednesday night.

It will run from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Kaiser High cafeteria. Area lawmakers — State Sens. Pohai Ryan and Sam Slom, Rep. Gene Ward, and council member Stanley Chang — will also speak.

Fujikawa shoots 75, falls into tie for 68th

A third-round 75 dropped Honolulu’s Tadd Fujikawa into a tie for 68th place at the eGolf Tour’s River Hills Classic, at River Hills Country Club in Lake Wylie, S.C.

Fujikawa is at 2-over-par 216 heading into today’s final round. The leader is Chris Kamin of Arizona, who shot 67 Friday and is at 14-under 200.

BYUH’s Hwang tops in PacWest tennis

After posting a 17-0 record in first singles and a 21-0 mark in doubles, BYU-Hawaii junior I-Hsuan Hwang of Taiwan was selected the Pacific West Conference Women’s Tennis Player of the Year and BYUH’s Dave Porter was named the coach of the year, the league announced Thursday.

Besides Hwang, two other BYUH players and two Hawaii Pacific players were selected to the first team in singles.

Yuan Jia and Shoazhuo Liu, both from China, were named to the first team for BYUH. Celina Goetti of Australia and Zora Vlckova of the Czech Republic were first-team selections from HPU.

Jia and Marietta Tuionetoa (San Francisco), Hwang and Liu, and Magdalena Smejova (Czech Republic) and Vivian Hansen (Germany) were named first team in doubles.

Liu also was named freshman of the year, while Hawaii-Hilo’s Melanie Viriyapunt was picked Newcomer of the Year.

Martinez returns to Moanalua football

After last fall, Moanalua football coach Arnold Martinez announced that he was taking an indefinite break for personal reasons. Now, he’s officially back.

"The past six months I’ve coached my son’s flag football team. I’d never seen any of his practices or my daughter’s soccer games until this year," Martinez said.

Martinez said rest, prayer and meeting with outgoing seniors led to the turnaround.

"I got to talk with some of our seniors and some of them had me in tears," Martinez said. "You don’t know until you’re gone how much of an impact our program has on these young men. The group we’ve got coming back, I’m excited about. We’ve got big Scott (defensive lineman Pagano), but the group works so hard."

Martinez made it a point to thank his staff.

"Coach (Brannon) Jackson and Coach (Kelvin) Kusano — I’m so thankful and appreciative of them and our whole staff. They’ve been working every day with our guys," he said. "I’m thankful for our boosters working hard on fundraisers, and I’m thankful for our administration."