By BILL O’REAR
By BILL O’REAR
Tribune-Herald sports editor
The University of Hawaii at Hilo struggled on the front nine and finished strong to place third in the 41st Western Washington Golf Invitational on Tuesday in Bellingham, Wash.
The Vulcans, under veteran coach Earl Tamiya, entered the day in second place of the NCAA Division II golf tournament behind host Western Washington. But the red-hot hosts continued to shoot well and pulled away from UHH and British Columbia, carding a 16-under-par 848 total to claim top team honors.
“We struggled some on the front nine,” Tamiya said. “But we picked it up on the back nine. We played much better, but you’ve got to give credit to British Columbia, they shot really well today.”
British Columbia (865) captured second place, edging UHH (867) by two strokes.
“We made some mistakes during the tournament that we can correct,” Tamiya said. “If we can do that, we should be OK. We also need Jaime (Hall) to shoot better. He struggled with his putting and maybe put too much pressure on himself. We need him to shoot well because we follow his lead.
“But I know Jaime will be OK and this young team will get a lot better.”
Junior Corey Kozuma, the tournament’s individual leader by two shots heading into Tuesday’s final round, carded a 2-over 74 and finished sixth. He fired rounds of 70 and 68 on Monday, including a hole-in-one, to lead the Vulcans.
Hall, a talented sophomore, had a 75 Tuesday while teammates Dalen Yamauchi (71), Chris Shimomura (72) and Kyeton Littel (72) rounded out the UHH scoring.
“Dalen shot well, especially on the back nine where he was three under,” Tamiya said of the promising sophomore out of Waiakea High School.
Western Washington’s Mark Strickland pocketed individual medalist honors. He fired a 69 on Tuesday to finish at 7-under 209. British Columbia’s Josh Zhang (68) and Grand Canyon’s Mark Geddes (69) tied for second at 211.
The host Vikings are ranked 9th in the Golf World/NCAA D-II College Coaches Association of America Top 25 preseason poll.
Grand Canyon (878) finished fourth in the 12-team standings, followed by Sonoma State (879), St. Martin’s (880), Simon Fraser (885), Dixie State (887), Concordia University (892), Cal Baptist (921), Academy of Art (926) and Northwest Nazarene (927).
The Vulcans will remain in the Pacific Northwest and play in the GolfWeek Division II Fall invitational, which runs Saturday through Tuesday in Sunriver, Ore.