Johnstons win national titles
Islanders Sean and Tess Johnston recently competed in the 2008 USA Taekwondo Junior Olympic Championships, held in Detroit, Mich. Sean Johnston won gold in the 12- and 13-year-old boys blue belt forms competition and silver in the sparring event. Tess Johnston won the 8- and 9-year-old girls blue belt sparring competition. The siblings train with Coach Lionel Lee at Yi Sport Taekwondo in Seattle.
Divers earn All-American Status
Two divers from Mercer Island, Holly Frost of Seattle Prep and Beau Riebe of Mercer Island High School, were awarded All-American Status for the 2007-2008 NISCA/Speedo Boys and Girls One-Meter Diving. The award signifies that they are in the top 130 of high school divers who applied.
This is the third time that junior Beau Riebe has received an All-American certificate and the first time for senior Holly Frost, who plans to dive for Northern Arizona University in the fall. They were judged by a panel of independent judges on the degree of difficulty, meet scores and visual representation.
Chow helps Puget Sound Volleyball to fifth in Nation
Playing the position of libero, Islander Janelle Chow helped her club team place fifth during a recent national tournament.
As a member of the Kent Junior Volleyball Club (KJVBC) 17 team since January, Chow has participated in several local and national tournaments. The team has traveled to Spokane, Houston, Las Vegas and Reno, participating in regional “qualifiers” in an attempt to win a “bid” or a ticket to the Junior Olympics of volleyball held this year in Dallas.
Chow’s team won that right at the Reno tournament in the “open” category, the highest in which teams can participate. This year, the best 28 teams from across the nation won the right to compete in the “open” division in Dallas.
After three days of pool play against teams from Texas and California, the KJVBC 17 team earned a respectable third place in its pool. This set up a crossover match against second-place Team Vision from Los Gatos, Calif., which proved to be a tough team. KJVBC 17 came away victorious, beating the California team in five games and earning one of the eight spots in the top “gold” category for the finals. Eventually, KJVBC 17 was defeated by another California team and placed in a four-way tie for fifth in the nation.
MI team wins 3-on-3 lacrosse tourney
The Mighty Chihuahuas, a team of five Islander Middle School girls, won the middle school division of the third annual Sammamish Shoot-out, a 3-on-3 “Chumash” lacrosse tournament held on July 5. Teams from the Puget Sound area, Portland metro area, Spokane and Vancouver, British Columbia, competed in the one-day event.
