HONOLULU – In a race that went down to the final week, Hawai'i Pacific University held off BYU-Hawai'i to capture the Second Annual PacWest Hawai'i Challenge title.
The Sharks accumulated 30 points to the Seasiders' 28 during the year-long competition. Hawai'i Hilo had 23 to finish in third place while Chaminade University tallied 19. Last year in the inaugural season of the Challenge, HPU and BYUH were tied for the championship with 30 points each.
Both HPU and BYUH captured first-place points in five different sports with UH Hilo getting two and Chaminade one.
In the fall sports, BYUH won both men's and women's soccer titles while HPU was the highest finisher among Hawai'i schools at the PacWest Women's Cross Country Championships.
But in volleyball, all four schools took three victories over each other, resulting in first-place points for each team. The four-way tie was not completely without precedent as last year, the same situation happened in men's basketball.
HPU took both men's and women's basketball in the winter sports, completing a rare double-sweep with the Sharks winning all 12 contests on the hardwood.
After the first seven sports, the Sharks had 22 points to the Seasiders' 18, followed by the Vulcans (14) and the Silverswords (13).
BYUH made a charge in the spring sports, capturing first-place points in both women's tennis and men's golf, and as a result, both the Sharks and Seasiders were knotted with 26 points heading into the Challenge's final sport.
HPU would end up winning the Challenge in softball, completing four doubleheader sweeps including two in the final week of the season to secure the Challenge championship. HPU and UHH were tied for first place in softball, both taking home four points while BYUH had two and CUH one.
HPU will be presented with the perpetual PacWest Hawai'i Challenge Trophy by the other schools' athletic directors on its campus and will hold it until the conclusion of the 2017-18 academic calendar year.
The PacWest Hawai'i Challenge is comprised of nine sports that all four 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 and softball.
The scoring system of the PacWest Hawai'i Challenge is based on the following criteria:
-- Points are awarded for head-to-head conference matchups in women's volleyball, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's basketball and softball. Two points are awarded for every win while one point is earned with a tie and losses net zero points. At the conclusion of each sport's season, schools are ranked in order of points earned. The institution with the highest point total receives four points towards the cumulative standings while second-, third- and fourth-place finishers receive three, two and one points, respectively. Postseason competitions do not factor in point tallies.
-- For women's cross country, women's tennis and men's golf, points are awarded based on how the teams finish at the PacWest Championships. Regular season matchups will not play a role in scoring since these teams do not have consistent matchups with each other. The highest ranked team in each sport after the championship tournament receives four points while three points go to the runner-up, two to the third-place finisher and one point for fourth place. In the case of women's tennis, since only the top 12 teams qualify for the PacWest Championships, each institution that does not participate will get the equal number of points after the last qualifying team.
-- Scores from the nine sports will be tabulated to determine the overall champion. Head-to-head tiebreakers do not exist, so teams that finish with the same number of points within an individual season all earn the appropriate point totals toward the season-long standings. The maximum number of points is 36.
Sports information directors from the four schools assisted by confirming and updating scores and promoting the Challenge. Chaminade is managing the master calendar and scoring chart with any discrepancies being addressed and resolved by the athletic directors.
