Kiana Yamat and Joshua Gaastra were honored as the school year’s Most Distinguished Athletes. photo by glen pascual. 

LAHAINA – Lahainaluna High School honored its student athletes at the 2011-12 Athletic Awards Banquet held on May 17 on campus.

The Luna sports year featured five Maui Interscholastic League championships – in girls basketball, football, softball, girls tennis and wrestling.

The Lady Luna hoops team also advanced to the state final four for the fourth straight year, while the boys and girls wrestling teams continued their impressive runs at the state level with top-five finishes.

The year-ending event was coordinated by Athletic Director Scott Soldwisch and Assistant A.D. Jon Conrad, and presented by the ever-faithful “Lunas For Life” group of Tanya Arakawa, Kathy Kekahuna, Irene Kosaka, Sharon Nohara and Coreen Serrano.

After program emcee Rob Shelton welcomed the attendees, the Most Valuable Player awards were presented to the individual winners by the coaches of each sport.

They included, for baseball, J.R. Kenolio Dusenberry presented by coach Blaine Bernades; boys basketball to John Mishima by John Dudley; girls basketball to Ana Lauese by Todd Rickard; girls bowling to Sabrina Armijo by Erik Jennings; boys bowling to Michael Hogsett Jr. by Jennings; cheerleading to Kelsey Schultz by Stacy Shibao; girls cross country to Kailey Sager by George Watson; boys cross country to Corban Kaikkonen by Dan Skousen; football offense to Titus Lucas by Garret Tihada; football defense to Feleti Taufa by Bobby Watson; girls golf to Michiko Smith by Laura Jones; boys golf to Malu Rosenthal by Sutee Nitakorn; girls paddling to Kanoe Dodd by Joey Tihada; boys paddling to Bronson Kaina by Tihada; girls soccer to Amanda Murphy by David Rockett; boys soccer to Julian Bel-Robert; softball to Brenna Nakamura by Lei Nakamura; girls swimming to Jesselee Chapman by Tom Popdan; boys swimming to Joshua Gaastra by Popdan; girls tennis to Melissa Taketa by Macario Pascual; boys tennis to McNeil Magdaong; girls track and field to Breea Yamat (Wallace Ishikawa Track Award) by Randy Casco; boys track and field to Corban Kaikkonen by Lance Nanod; girls volleyball to Jessica Wallace by Hano Ganer; boys volleyball to Jonah Reyes by Tommy Akima; water polo to Maile Altier by Bradley Mason; and wrestling to Christian Carbajal and Nathan Inovejas by Todd Hayase.

The LHS Outstanding Athletic Awards were presented at the end of the evening to Amanda Arakawa for the Athletic Trainers’ Award presented by Jonathan Conrad and Mikala Pino; Scholar Athletes of the Year to Paige Casil and Joshua Gaastra by Principal Emily DeCosta; Outstanding Athletes of the Year to Ana Lauese and Feleti Taufa by Lindsay Ball; and Most Distinguished Senior Athletes to Kiana Yamat and Joshua Gaastra.

In closing, Soldwisch extended his appreciation to the coaches, family and staff of the Luna student athletes.

“Your support and encouragement make Lahainaluna athletics no ka ‘oi,” he said.