Umeda wins CrossFit regional

Elyse Umeda of Honolulu won the women’s division of the CrossFit Northern California Region Sunday in San Jose, Calif.

The former Punahou School basketball player finished with 17 points in the three-day, six-workout fitness competition at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds. Jenny Labaw of California was second with 27 points.

Umeda, owner of CrossFit 808, advances to the CrossFit Games, July 29-31, at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif.

UH’s Iwata, Ricketts honored

Hawaii softball players Jessica Iwata and Stephanie Ricketts were named to the 2011 Easton All-America second and third teams, respectively, Tuesday.

Iwata, a sophomore shortstop and two-time WAC Player of the Year, led the Rainbow Wahine with a .355 batting average, a 663 slugging percentage, and .447 on-base percentage. The Kauai High graduate also had team highs of runs scored (43), hits (60), home runs (15), and RBIs (44,) and finished the season on a nine-game hitting streak.

Ricketts, a junior who has earned back-to-back WAC Pitcher of the Year awards, was 22-11 this past year with career-bests in ERA (1.58), complete games (30), shutouts (9), and strikeouts (250), and held opponents to a .193 batting average. She also broke former Wahine All-American Brooke Wilkins’ 16-year-old career strikeout record with 589.

Another award for UH’s Umlauft

Hawaii sophomore opposite hitter Jonas Umlauft was named to the CapitalOne CoSIDA Academic All-America team yesterday, becoming just the third player in Warriors’ volleyball program history to be selected.

The engineering major, who has a 3.93 cumulative grade point average, was named to the second team in the Men’s At-Large category (fencing, golf, gymnastics, hockey, lacrosse, rifle, skiing, swimming, tennis, volleyball, water polo, and wrestling).

Umlauft led the nation in kills for the second consecutive year (5.57 per set) en route to being chosen a first-team AVCA All-America and first-team all-Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. In addition, he was selected to the MPSF all-academic team and CoSIDA Academic All-District VIII first team.

Umlauft joins Dejan Miladinovic (2002, first team) and Costas Theocharidis (2002, second team and 2003, first team) as Warriors earning academic All-America honors.

Rita to rodeo finals

Shelby Marie Rita of Sunset Beach will be competing at the College National Finals Rodeo later this month in Casper, Wyo.

Rita, a freshman at Mesalands (N.M.) Community College, qualified in barrel racing. The 63rd annual competition is June 13-19 at the Casper Events Center.

2 sign with HPU basketball team

Oregon prep players Max Livingston and Kyle Milligan have signed to play basketball for Hawaii Pacific.

Livingston is a 6-foot 4 wing who averaged 16 points at Lake Oswego High. Milligan, a 6-7 foward, was a McDonald’s All-American nominee at 6A state champ Jesuit High.

Vulcans sign 4 for women’s hoops

Junior college guards Jameia McDuffie, Shannon Rousseau and Kirsten Shimizu, and Konawaena graduate Thea Hanato-Smith have signed to play basketball for the Hawaii-Hilo women’s team.

The 5-foot-5 Hanato-Smith, a four-time all-Big Island Interscholastic Federation pick, was part of two state and three BIIF title teams under Bobbie Awa.

The 5-foot- Shimizu was a first-team all-Big 8 and CCCAA all-state pick at American River (Calif.) College, averaging 17 points. McDuffie is a 5-2 transfer from Umpqua (Ore.) Community College (Roseburg, Ore.), where she averaged 13 points, and the 5-7 Rousseau averaged nine points at Otero (Colo.).

HHSAA aids Japan effort

The Hawaii High School Athletic Association and its member schools raised $9,531 for Japan tsunami relief efforts through T-shirt sales the past two months.

The fundraising drive was spearheaded by McKinley High School athletic trainer Tomoki Kanaoka, who is from Japan and designed the T-shirt.

Also, athletic trainers from the Oahu Interscholastic Association, Kamehameha-Hawaii and Maryknoll donated their spring state tournament pay to the relief effort. All funds will be sent to the American Red Cross.