UHH men’s golf collects conference awards

IRVINE, California – Pacific West Conference champion UH-Hilo placed a half-dozen players on the All-Conference Team, while island schools claimed 12 of the 15 spots on the 2024 Men’s Golf All-Pacific West Conference Team.

UH-Hilo head coach Earl Tamiya earned the Coach of the Year honor for the second consecutive year, Academy of Art’s Giulio Zanichelli is the Golfer of the Year and HPU’s Kyle Krupp was selected as the Freshman of the Year.

Those three awards were chosen by the conference’s coaches, while the three All-PacWest teams are based off Clippd.com rankings.

Earl Tamiya led his Vulcans team to its second consecutive PacWest title in 2024, this time on their own Big Island. They won the title by a remarkable 14 strokes, and also for the second year in a row they could claim the individual medalist (Nicholas Gomez). Also like 2023, Tamiya’s team peaked late into the season, as prior to the conference title their best finish was a fifth place showing at the Battle in the Desert.

Zanichelli and Gomez are also on the First Team. Zanichelli, a junior from Italy, has the highest Clippd average by a large margin (20.49). Gomez, a senior, was the PacWest Champ and is joined on the First Team by teammate Dylan Bercan, who finished 10th at the NCAA South Central/West Regional tournament. Bercan shot a 67 on the final day and had the top score overall for the Vulcans.

UHH freshmen Dysen Park and Kevin Yamashita were named to the second team, and sophomore Jacob Torres and freshmanBen Crinella were placed on the third team.