One is left to wonder how low Jared Kinoshita could have gone if he had another 18 holes to work with.
Alas, the junior’s 2-under 70 leaves him and UH-Hilo wanting more, though he did put a punctuation mark on the season for the Vulcans, who finished fifth Wednesday at the Pacific West Conference golf championships in Litchfield Park, Ariz.
Improving on his score by two shots for the second consecutive day, Kinoshita finished at even-par 216 and in a tie for fifth to earn to earn All-Tournament honors.
He made up for a double-bogey on the par-3 No. 3 at Wigwam Golf Resort with three consecutive birdies on Nos. 8-10. Kinoshita had two bogeys on the back nine, but an eagle on the 14th hole helped him fire the second-lowest round of the day.
Dixie State’s Nicklaus Britt carded a 68 to get to 5-under and edge teammate Spencer Wallace by a stroke for the championship as the Trailblazers made the tournament a successful swan song as they get set to join the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
After a 7-over 295 that matched its first round score, UHH finished just nine points behind champion Dixie (9-over 873), which slumped in the final round.
The Vuls’ Warren Miller (73) and Taylor Patrick (76) each were at 6-over in a tie for 14th, Preston-Lee Ching (77) was 11-over and Evan Merrier (76) another five shots back.
• In the women’s competition, California Baptist also said goodbye to the PacWest in style, running away to a 32-point victory for its fourth consecutive title before heading to Division I next season.
UHH went into the quadruple digits, 1,061, in placing last. Kiri Oshiro carded her second-lowest round of the season, 85, while Dillyn Sakai shot 87 and led the way at 261. Oshiro was at 263, Keely Kitamura (90) finished at 268 and Kimberly Katayama (91) 269.
Academy of Art’s Anahi Servin (70) closed a wire-to-wire win. At 10-under, she was nine shots clear of the runner-up.