The University of Hawai'i Hilo has won the PacWest Hawai'i Challenge for the 2025-26 academic term.
The Vulcans amassed 27 points, the most since 2016-17 when Hawai'i Pacific University had 30 points when the Challenge also included BYU-Hawai'i.
"We are honored to capture the PacWest Hawai'i Challenge once again," said UH Hilo Director of Athletics Patrick Guillen. "This tremendous accomplishment is a reflection of the dedication and commitment of our entire athletics department, coaches, staff and, of course, our amazing student-athletes who work tirelessly each and every day to be and give their best.
"Congratulations also to our friends and colleagues at two outstanding institutions are Hawai'i Pacific University and Chaminade University of Honolulu for such a competitive year that challenged all of us to be our very best."
HPU had 21 points while Chaminade University picked up 18.
UH Hilo, which captured its third straight title, and fourth in the past five years, enjoyed first-place points in seven of the 10 sports. The Vulcans won all four fall sports (men's and women's soccer, women's cross country, volleyball) to help jump-start their successful campaign. They also had second-place points in their remaining three sports.
The Sharks earned first-place points in men's and women's basketball, women's tennis and baseball. They co-shared first-place points with UH Hilo in women's basketball and earned second-place points in men's soccer, men's golf and softball.
The Silverswords got first-place points in men's basketball, co-sharing with HPU, while earning second-place points in women's cross country, women's soccer, volleyball, women's basketball, women's tennis and softball (CUH co-shared second-place points with HPU in softball).
First place finishes awards three points, runner-ups with two and third-place with one.
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.
Past PacWest Hawai'i Challenge Champions:
2015-16: BYU-Hawai'i, Hawai'i Pacific (co-champs)
2016-17: Hawai'i Pacific
2017-18: Hawai'i Pacific
2018-19: Hawai'i Pacific
2019-20: Hawai'i Pacific
2020-21: No competition due to COVID-19 pandemic
2021-22: Hawai'i Hilo
2022-23: Hawai'i Pacific
2023-24: Hawai'i Hilo
2024-25: Hawai'i Hilo, Hawai'i Pacific (co-champs)
About the PacWest Hawai'i Challenge
The PacWest Hawai'i 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 Hawai'i Pacific 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.
