WAIKOLOA, Hawai`i--UH Hilo and Holy Names went nose-to-nose over the first two rounds of the Pacific West Men's Golf Championships, tied for the lead each day at the Waikoloa Beach Course.

On the final day, it was Academy of Art that snuck past them both for the team title, leaving the Vulcans in second place by just two shots. During Wednesday's final round, the Urban Knights turned in a card with 285 on it and UHH was at 288. Academy of Art finished at +21 for the tournament, the Vulcans were +23, Hawaii Pacific was +27 and Holy Names came in fourth at +29.

"It's the closest tournament that I can remember in quite awhile," said Vulcan head coach Earl Tamiya afterwards. "We came close. We had some bad holes in the middle of the round but finished very strong. That's all you can ask for."

The men started on hole 11, so the back end finishing holes were 7-10. Willis Lee and Noah Lau eagled hole seven to make it closer and Dustin Franko birdied 10, but ART finished strong to keep the lead that they had taken earlier in the day.

"We had the two eagles and two birdies on seven," Tamiya said. "We went one-under on the final hole, but we just had to sit back and wait to see how Academy finished, and they beat us."

It was Academy of Art's first team title. It was also the first medalist plaque for Hawaii Pacific's Keita Okada, who shot an even-par 70 on the final day to list at -3 for the tournament (69-68-70). He finished one shot better than ART's Julius Kreutzer (-2), HPU's Ryan Torres and ART's Matthew Watkins tied for third at even par.

Franko tied for sixth at +5 (69-74-72) and Nicholas Gomez tied for eighth (75-70-71) one stroke back (+6). Lee also made the All-PacWest team (top 10) with a ninth place finish (74-71-72) at +7. Andrew Otani tied for 12th (70-74-76) and Lau was 16th (73-80-73) in the Vulcan's final scheduled match of the season.

But the year may not be over yet. The NCAA Golf Selection Committee will meet this week, with an announcement forthcoming on Friday morning regarding the field for the NCAA West-South Central Region tournament, to be held in DuPont, Wash., May 6-8.

"We will just have to wait and see what the committee says," Tamiya concluded. "We are playing good golf right now and I hope that we get to continue."

2021 FINAL RESULTS PACWEST MEN'S GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPS