KOHALA COAST, Hawai'i – At home on the Big Island, the Vulcans repeated to claim the 2024 Pacific West Conference Men's Golf Championship trophy by a comfortable 14 strokes. They also boasted individual title winner Nicholas Gomez making it two crowns in a row for head coach Earl Tamiya's team, and the third overall in the history of the tournament.
Wednesday at the Mauna Lani Golf Course, the Vulcans held serve and then some after carrying a nine-shot lead into the final day. Hilo had rounds of 309–286–303 (+34) to win over islands rival HPU (+48).
Academy of Art (+51) was next after recording the lowest round of the day (289), moving past Chaminade (+58). Dominican (+61) and Westmont (+80) rounded out the field.
In a tournament that featured a very windy first day, Gomez was the most consistent through the three rounds. He carded rounds of 73–73–74, holding on to beat HPU's Kyle Krupp, who shot a 70 on the final day but came up just one shot short (72–79–70) at +5. There were plenty of others chasing Gomez, as four players ended up tying for third place at +6 — Carter Bell of Dominican (81–70–71), the Academy of Art duo of Giulio Zanichelli (80–70–72) and Jack Benedetti (77–72–73) and Hilo's Dylan Bercan (77–70–75).
Also contributing to Hilo's low team score was Dysen Park (+13) and Jacob Torres (+19).
Hawai'i Hilo won the 2023 PacWest Championship in Arizona by 10 strokes and had co-medalists to make it a clean sweep of awards.
UP NEXT
The Vulcans grabbed the PacWest's automatic qualifier into the NCAA West-South Regional Championships scheduled for May 9-11 in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
PACWEST HAWAI'I CHALLENGE
In an effort to elevate Hawai'i-based rivalries, the PacWest Hawai'i Challenge has awarded the top school in athletics competition among the state's Division II institutions going back to the late 1970s.
Comprising 10 sports that all three schools participate in, points are awarded from head-to-head Pacific West Conference matchups as well as final placements at conference-ending championship events. The team with the highest total gets three points while the second highest gets two and the third-place finisher receives one.
2024 PacWest Conference Championships Individual Leaderboard
| NAME |
PLACE |
SCORE |
RD TOTALS |
NOTES |
| N. Gomez |
No. 1 |
+4 |
73–73–74 (220) |
11 Birdies |
| D. Bercan |
No. T3 |
+6 |
77–70–75 (222) |
9 Birdies |
| D. Park |
No. T11 |
+13 |
80–70–79 (229) |
1 Eagle
12 Birdies |
| J. Torres |
No. T15 |
+19 |
87–73–75 (235) |
9 Birdies |
| B. Crinella |
No. 25 |
+28 |
79–84–81 (244) |
8 Birdies |
2024 PacWest Conference Championships
| TEAM |
TO PAR |
RD SCORES |
TOP SCORER |
| 1. Hawai'i Hilo |
+34 |
309–286–303 (898) |
1 – N. Gomez |
| 2. HPU |
+48 |
310–295–307 (912) |
2 – K. Krupp |
| 3. Academy of Art |
+51 |
324–302–289 (915) |
3 – G. Zanichelli
3 – J. DeBenedetti |
| 4. Chaminade |
+58 |
320–295–307 (922) |
7 – K. Stopp |
| 5. Dominican |
+61 |
333–291–301 (925) |
3 – C. Bell |
| 6. Westmont |
+80 |
327–306–311 (944) |
8 – P. Hendricks |
