For the fourth consecutive year, Hawai'i Pacific University has claimed the local bragging rights among the three Hawai'i NCAA Division II schools by winning the 2018-19 PacWest Hawai'i Challenge.
 
The Sharks received 21 points to outpace runner-up University of Hawai'i Hilo, which had 18 points, and third-place finisher Chaminade University's 17.
 
Capturing first-place points in four sports (women's cross country, women's soccer, women's basketball and women's tennis) helped pace HPU, which has shared or won the Challenge outright since the competition's inception in 2015-16.
 
Despite Chaminade getting first-place points in three sports to two for UH Hilo, the Vulcans showed consistency throughout the competition with five second-place points for their runner-up finish for the second straight year. The Silverswords' first-place tallies came in men's soccer, women's volleyball and men's basketball while UH Hilo got its points in men's golf and softball.
 
Following the winter sports, HPU and Chaminade were deadlocked with 14 points each while UH Hilo had 10. But the Sharks pulled away in the spring sports by winning the PacWest Women's Tennis Championships in Surprise, Ariz., then clinched the Challenge by finishing ahead of the 'Swords at the PacWest Men's Golf Championships in Litchfield Park, Ariz. The Vulcans rallied past Chaminade in the spring, taking second-place points by qualifying for the conference women's tennis championships then winning first-place points in both men's golf and softball.
 
 
Past PacWest Hawai'i Challenge Champions:
2015-16: Hawai'i Pacific and BYU-Hawai'i (co-champs)
2016-17: Hawai'i Pacific
2017-18: Hawai'i Pacific
2018-19: Hawai'i Pacific
 
 
About the PacWest Hawai'i Challenge
The PacWest Hawai'i Challenge is comprised of nine 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 and softball.
 
Points are awarded in head-to-head matchups in 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. Postseason competitions do not factor into the tallies.
 
Since there is no consistent regular-season matchups in women's cross country, men's golf and women's tennis, points are award 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 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 nine 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 27.
 
Sports information directors from the three schools assisted by confirming and updating scores and promoting the Challenge. Chaminade manages the master calendar and scoring chart with any discrepancies being addressed and resolved by the athletic directors.
 
The PacWest Hawai'i Challenge is reminiscent of the Hawai'i Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (HIAC) in which NCAA members Chaminade and UH Hilo faced NAIA members HPU and BYUH in regular-season matchups for all sports. The conference formed in 1993 to keep the local rivalries between the four schools intact. The HIAC dissolved in 1998 when HPU and BYUH moved to the NCAA, joining the Silverswords and Vulcans in the Pacific West Conference.