HAWAI’I – For the first time since its inception, the PacWest Hawai’i Challenge has co-champions.
The University of Hawai’i at Hilo and HPU both earned 23 points to tie for the local athletic bragging rights between the three NCAA Division II institutions in Hawai’i. It is the first time since the Challenge was incorporated in 2015-16 when HPU and BYU-Hawai’i earned co-champion status.
It is HPU’s seventh PacWest Hawai’i title while UH Hilo earned its second straight and third in the past four years. The perpetual trophy will be shared by both schools during the upcoming year.
The Sharks and Vulcans each posted 23 points during the 2024-25 academic term while Chaminade had 18.
“HPU is proud and excited to finish the 2024-25 PacWest Hawai’i Challenge tied for first place,” said Executive Director of Athletics, Dr. Debbie Snell. “Our friends at Hilo and Chaminade always bring fierce competition and we love it. Congratulations to everyone and thank you to the pro SID, Kevin Hashiro, for tracking this throughout the year for all of us!”
“On behalf of Vulcans Athletics, we are honored to share the PacWest Hawai’i Challenge with our interisland friends from HPU,” said UH Hilo Director of Athletics Patrick Guillen. “This challenge has created an even more competitive rivalry as our schools battle each other throughout the year. Congratulations to all of our student-athletes, coaches and staff for winning this challenge once again. We are already looking forward to competing against our interisland rivals again next year! Imua Vulcans!”
HPU had first-place finishes in five sports: men’s soccer, both men’s and women’s basketball, women’s tennis and baseball while UH Hilo had four in women’s soccer, women’s basketball, men’s golf and softball. First place finishes awards three points, runner-ups with two and third-place with one.
The Sharks earned runner-up points in women’s soccer, men’s golf and softball while the Vulcans got theirs in women’s cross country, men’s soccer, women’s volleyball, women’s tennis and baseball.
Chaminade captured first-place points in women’s volleyball, women’s cross country and women’s basketball with second-place points in women’s soccer and men’s basketball.
Two first- and two second-place finishes in the spring sports allowed HPU and UH Hilo to overtake winter leader Chaminade and share the Challenge title.
In an interesting anomaly, all three schools earned first place points in women’s basketball, as all three teams had two wins over each other. It is just the second time in Challenge history that each participant shared first-place points in a sport since 2016-17 when all three institutions and BYU-Hawai’i earned top points in women’s volleyball.
Established in 2015, the PacWest Hawai’i Challenge is an annual competition between the three Hawai’i NCAA Division II institutions to determine the state’s top athletic program each year.
The PacWest Hawai’i Challenge Champions are as follows:
• 2024-25: Hawai’i Hilo + HPU
• 2023-24: Hawai’i Hilo
• 2022-23: HPU
• 2021-22: Hawai’i Hilo
• 2020-21: COVID-19 pandemic
• 2019-20: HPU
• 2018-19: HPU
• 2017-18: HPU
• 2016-17: HPU
• 2015-16: BYU-Hawai’i + HPU
The challenge is comprised of 10 sports that all three of the state’s Division II schools participate: women’s cross country, men’s and women’s soccer, women’s volleyball, men’s and women’s basketball, women’s tennis, men’s golf, baseball and softball.
Points are awarded in head-to-head matchups in baseball, basketball, soccer, softball and volleyball. A win is two points and a tie worth one point while a loss nets none. At the conclusion of each sport’s season, the points are added and the team with the highest total gets three points while the second-highest gets two and the third-place finisher one. If two or more teams have the same amount of points, each teams will earn an equal number of points according to where they finish. Postseason competitions do not factor into the tallies.
Since there are no consistent regular-season matchups in women’s cross country, men’s golf and women’s tennis, points are awarded in the order of finish at the PacWest Championships. (In tennis, only the top 12 teams advance to the championships; if in the event of an institution or multiple institutions not advancing, each team will have an equal number of points after the last qualifying team.)
At the end of the academic term, the scores from all 10 sports are tabulated to determine the overall champion. There are no head-to-head tiebreakers so teams that finish with the same number of points within an individual season all earn the appropriate point totals towards the season-long standings. The maximum number of points a school can receive during the year is 30.
Sports information directors from the three schools assisted by confirming and updating scores and promoting the Challenge. Chaminade is managing the master calendar and scoring chart with any discrepancies addressed and resolved by the athletic directors.
The PacWest Hawai’i Challenge’s lineage can be traced back to the early 1980s when BYU-Hawai’i, Chaminade University, the University of Hawai’i Hilo, Hawai’i Loa College and HPU College formed NAIA District 2, followed later by District 29. The district saw fierce rivalries between all five schools in numerous sports especially men’s basketball while boasting the NAIA’s top volleyball league.
Following Chaminade’s departure from the NAIA in 1989, the Hawai’i Intercollegiate Athletics Conference (HIAC) was formed three years later to keep the local rivalries between HPU (which merged with Hawai’i Loa in ‘92), UH Hilo (which left the NAIA in ‘93) and BYUH intact. The HIAC dissolved in 1998 when BYUH and HPU joined the Pacific West Conference.
Sign up for
2025 Yagi camp
The 2025 Coach Jimmy Yagi Vulcan Basketball Camp is open to keiki (boys and girls) grades 3-12 and is set for July 21-24. Grades 3-8 will be at Pana’ewa Park Gym and grades 9-12 will be in the on-campus Vulcan Gymnasium at the University of Hawai’i at Hilo.
Sign-ups are now being accepted at $130 per participant and a maximum registration number of 220. The four-day camp — instructed by former and current Vulcans players and basketball coaches Kaniela Aiona (Men’s Head Coach), David Kaneshiro (Women’s Head Coach) and Steve Kinder (Men’s Assistant Coach) among others — includes fun, drills, games, contests and guest speakers along with lunch, T-shirt, basketball and a camp photo.
“Each summer we have the privilege of carrying on the Vulcan Camp tradition started by Coach Yagi many decades ago,” sixth-year Vulcans Men’s Basketball coach Aiona said. “As coaches, this is one of our favorite weeks of the year. We get to have a blast teaching fundamentals and values of basketball to our keiki. This is such a unique camp for many reasons — especially since we are so fortunate to have great support from community members who dedicate their time and energy to the camp each year.”
Advanced registration is required and must be mailed or hand-delivered accompanied with full payment. Checks only; payable to: University of Hawai’i. Walk-up registrations will not be accepted if camp enrollment is already at capacity.
Contact uhhmbkb@hawaii.edu or 932-7168 for any questions or concerns.
