H Awards: Raisa Strom-Okimoto, Stijn van Tilburg take top honors

The Hawaii athletics department held its “H Awards” banquet on Monday night, honoring its top athletic and academic achievers spanning the school’s 21 sports.

Men’s volleyball senior hitter Stijn van Tilburg and women’s soccer senior striker Raisa Strom-Okimoto took home the signature awards of the night, the Jack Bonham Award, handed out annually to one male and one female athlete at UH.

Van Tilburg recently moved into eighth all-time in UH career kills with over 1,300 and plays an integral role for the top-ranked Rainbow Warriors, as he and opposite Rado Parapunov are the team’s prime finishers on a 25-0 team. Strom-Okimoto, an Aiea native, was the Big West offensive player of the year in 2018 after willing the Rainbow Wahine to the cusp of their first Big West tournament appearance. She finished with a league-high 12 goals in the regular season.

UH defines the Bonham Award as going to those who “best exemplify the ideals for which Jack Bonham stood for in the areas of athletic excellence, academic achievement, public service, leadership and character.”

Here’s the award presentations for Van Tilburg and Strom-Okimoto (the latter was away in Utah as she’s begun her professional soccer career).

🎥 Jack Bonham Award winner: @HawaiiMensVB's Stijn van Tilburg – his coach Charlie Wade introduces him#GoBows pic.twitter.com/KhEO8StSGs

— Hawaii Athletics (@HawaiiAthletics) April 9, 2019

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🎥 Jack Bonham Award winner: @HawaiiWSoccer's Raisa Strom-Okimoto – Assistant Coach Marc Fournier accepted the award on her behalf#GoBows pic.twitter.com/rFz5N7c6OJ

— Hawaii Athletics (@HawaiiAthletics) April 9, 2019

Per UH, here were the night’s other awards:

The Jenny Matsuda (highest GPA): Brittany Hitchcock (SB), Genta Ito (FB)
Top Academic Team: Women’s Tennis (team cumulative GPA – 3.6), Men’s Tennis (team cumulative GPA – 3.45)
Perseverance Award: De’jah Robinson (WTF)
Female Rookie of the Year: Karolina Hajkova (WSWIM)
Male Rookie of the Year: Max Burman (MDIVE)
Female Athlete of the Year: Phoebe Hines (WSWIM)
Male Athlete of the Year: Men’s Volleyball Team
Top Scholars for Each Team: Cade Smith (BSB), Zigmars Raimo (MBB), Courtney Middap (WBB), Ashley Stevens (BVB), Christian Feliciano (CHEER), Olivia Hill (XC), Genta Ito (FB), Trevor Hirata (MG), Malia Ebersberger (WG), Michael Pacholski (SAIL), Mikaelah Johnson-Griggs (WSOC), Brittany Hitchcock (SB), Michael Mabry (MS&D), Katrina Sudweeks (WS&D), Michelle Pits (WTEN), Nina Bean (T&F), Dalton Solbrig (MVB), Blaz Seric (MTEN), Rika Okino (WVB), Mhairi Nurthen (WWP)