Anae named to Olympic water polo team

Hawaii’s Tumua Anae was officially named to the U.S. Olympic women’s water polo team last week. Anae was born in Hawaii and moved to Southern California in elementary school. She was the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Player of the Year in 2010, when she played goalie for USC.

Anae is the backup goalie for Team USA, which has had Betsey Armstrong in the net for the last five years.

Chris Duplanty was a U.S. men’s goalie at the 1988, ’92 and ’96 Games. Brandon Brooks was in the net at the past two Olympics. Both are Punahou graduates.

The 13-woman roster features seven players from the 2008 team that won a silver medal. The U.S. women open the Games against Hungary on July 30. They also play Spain (Aug. 1) and China (Aug. 3) in pool play.

7 Wahine qualify for track regional

Seven University of Hawaii athletes qualified for track and field’s NCAA West Preliminary Round, which starts Thursday in Austin, Texas.

Amanda Alvarez and Madara Apine qualified in the triple jump, Samantha Balentine in the high jump, Karen Guravska and Kellsey Trimble in the javelin, TeRina Keenan in the shot put and the discus, and Emma MacCorquodale in the hammer throw.

Keenan qualified for the fourth time in the discus. The senior from New Zealand is ranked 11th in the West, with a throw of 179 feet, 2 inches this year. She set that while winning her third straight Western Athletic Conference championship.

Apine is making her third regional appearance as a Rainbow Wahine, and fourth overall in the triple jump. The senior from Latvia transferred to Hawaii from Florida. She is 32nd in the West with a mark of 41-1.5, which she set while winning the WAC.

MacCorquodale will make her third consecutive trip to regionals. She earned her third bronze at the WAC championships and ranks 41st in the West with a mark of 188-11. Balentine will also make her third trip.

Those who advance from this round go to the NCAA championships in Des Moines, Iowa, June 6-9.

HPU’s Bode is West Region coach of year

Hawaii Pacific’s Hendrik Bode is West Region coach of the year for NCAA Division II men’s tennis in his first season as head coach.

Bode helped the Sea Warriors to their sixth straight national tournament. HPU finished 15-5, was ranked No. 1 in the region and as high as sixth nationally.

Ji Hoon Heo of the Sea Warriors earned the Elite 89 Award, given to the student-athlete with the highest GPA of all those on the rosters of the 16 teams that qualified for the nationals. Heo has a GPA of 3.91 over the last year.

The Interscholastic Tennis Association named HPU’s Petr Michnev and Ielyzaveta Rybakova as West Region players to watch.

In addition, Brigham Young-Hawaii’s Yevhen Zakharov was picked as West Region rookie of the year.